Partial to talents, then, shall Heav'n withdraw
Th' afflicting rod, or break the general law?
Shall he who soars, inspir'd by loftier views,
Life's little cares and little pains refuse?

Shall he not rather feel a double share

Of mortal woe, when doubly arm'd to bear?
"Hard is his fate who builds his peace of mind
On the precarious mercy of mankind;

Who hopes for wild and visionary things,

And mounts o'er unknown seas with vent'rous wings:

But as, of various evils that befal

The human race, some portion goes to all;
To him perhaps the milder lot's assign'd,
Who feels his consolation in his mind;
And, lock'd within his bosom, bears about
A mental charm for every care without.
E'en in the pangs of each domestic grief,
Or health or vigorous hope affords relief;
And every wound the tortur'd bosom feels,
Or virtue bears, or some preserver heals;
Some generous friend, of ample power possess'd;
Some feeling heart, that bleeds for the distress'd;
Some breast that glows with virtues all divine;
Some noble RUTLAND, Misery's friend and thine.
"Nor say, the Muse's song, the Poet's pen,
Merit the scorn they meet from little men.

With cautious freedom if the numbers flow,
Not wildly high, not pitifully low;

If vice alone their honest aims oppose,

Why so asham'd their friends, so loud their foes?
Happy for men in every age and clime,

If all the sons of vision dealt in rhyme.

Go on then, Son of Vision! still pursue

The airy dreams; the world is dreaming too.
Ambition's lofty views, the pomp of state,

The pride of wealth, the splendour of the great,
Stript of their mask, their cares and troubles known,
Are visions far less happy than thy own:

Go on! and, while the sons of care complain,
Be wisely gay and innocently vain ;

While serious souls are by their fears undone,
Blow sportive bladders in the beamy sun,
And call them worlds! and bid the greatest show
More radiant colours in their worlds below:
Then, as they break, the slaves of care reprove,
And tell them, Such are all the toys they love.”

THE

NEWSPAPER:

A Poem.

THE NEWSPAPER.

This not a Time favourable to Poetical Composition: and why.-Newspapers enemies to Literature, and their general Influence:-their Numbers.-The Sunday Monitor.-Their general Character.-Their effect upon Individuals ;—upon Society,—in the Country.—The Village-Freeholder.-What kind of Composition a Newspaper is; and the Amusement it affords.-Of what Parts it is chiefly composed.-Articles of Intelligence: -Advertisements: -The Stage:—Quacks: Puffing.—The Correspondents to a Newspaper, Political and Poetical:-Advice to the latter.-Conclusion.

È quibus, hi vacuas implent sermonibus aures,
Hi narrata ferunt aliò; mensuráque ficti
Crescit, et auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor:
Illic credulitas, illic temerarius error,
Vanáque lætitia est, consternatique timores,
Seditióque repens, dubióque auctore susurri,

Ovid. Metamorph. lib. xii.

A TIME like this, a busy, bustling time,
Suits ill with writers, very ill with rhyme :
Unheard we sing, when party-rage runs strong,
And mightier madness checks the flowing song:
Or, should we force the peaceful Muse to wield
Her feeble arms amid the furious field,