Ruin hangs hovering o'er the fated place:
And dumb Oblivion comes with mended pace.
Sad Learning's genius, with a father's fear,
Beheld the total defolation near:

Beheld the Muses stretch the wing to fly;

And fix'd on heaven his forrow-ftreaming eye!
From heaven, in that dark hour, commiffion'd came
Mild Charity, ev'n there the foremost name.
Swift Pity flew before her, foftly bright;
At whose felt influence, Nature fmil'd with light.
"Hear, and rejoice!-the gracious Power begun
Already, fir'd by me thy favourite fon,

"This ruin'd fcene remarks with filial eyes;

And, from its fall, bids fairer fabrics rife. "Ev'n now, behold! where crumbling fragments grey, In duft deep-bury'd, loft to memory lay, "The column fwells, the well-knit arches bend, "The round dome widens, and the roofs ascend! "Nor ends the bounty thus: by him bestow'd, "Here, Science shall her richeft ftores unload. "Whate'er, long-hid, Philofophy has found; "Or the Mufe fung, with living lawrel crown'd; "Or History defcry'd, far-looking fage, "In the dark doubtfulness of diftant age;

"These, thy best wealth, with curious choice combin'd, "Now treafur'd here, fhall form the ftudious mind: "To wits unborn the wanted fuccours give, "And fire the Bard, whom Genius means to live. "But, teach thy fons the gentle laws of peace; "Let low Self-love and pedant-Difcord ceafe:

"Their object Truth, Utility their aim,
"One focial spirit reign, in all the fame.
"Thus aided arts shall with fresh vigour shoot;
"Their cultur'd bloffoms ripen into fruit;
"Thy faded ftar difpenfe a brighter ray,
"And each glad Muse renew her noblest lay,”

PROLOGUE

TO THE

SIEGE O F

DAMASCUS.

SPOKEN BY LORD SANDWICH.

WHEN arts and arms, beneath Eliza's fmile,

W spread wide their influence o'er this happy ifle;

A golden reign, uncurft with party rage,
That foe to tafte, and tyrant of our age;
Ere all our learning in a libel lay,

And all our talk, in politics, or play:

The statesman oft would foothe his toils with wit,
What Spenfer fung, and Nature's Shakespeare writ ;
Or to the laurel'd grove, at times, retire,

There, woo the Muse, and wake the moving lyre.
As fair examples, like afcending morn,

The world at once enlighten and adorns;
From them diffus'd, the gentle arts of peace

Shot brightening o'er the land, with fwift encrease:

Rough nature soften'd into grace and ease;
Senfe grew polite, and science sought to please.
Reliev'd from yon rude scene of party-din,
Where open Bafenefs vies with fecret Sin,
And fafe embower'd in * Woburn's airy groves,
Let us recall the times our taste approves ;
Awaken to our aid the mourning Mufe;
Through every bosom tender thought infuse;
Melt angry Faction into moral sense,
And to his guests a Bedford's foul difpenfe.

And now, while Spring extends her smiling reign,
Green on the mountain, flowery in the plain;
While genial Nature breathes, from hill and dale,
Health, fragrance, gladness, in the living gale;
The various foftnefs, ftealing through the heart,
Impreffions fweetly focial, will impart.
When fad Eudocia pours her hopeless woe,
The tear of pity will unbidden flow!

When erring Phocyas, whom wild paffions blind,
Holds up himself, a mirror for mankind;
An equal eye on our own hearts we turn,
Where frailties lurk, where fond affections burn:
And, confcious, Nature is in all the fame,
We mourn the guilty, while the guilt we blame!

*The Siege of Damafcus was acted at Woburn, by the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Sandwich, and fome other perfons of diftinction, in the month of May, 1743.

EPILOGUE

то

THE

BROTHER S,

A TRAGEDY, BY DR. YOUNG.

O woman, fure, the most severe affliction Is, from these fellows, point-blank contradiction. Our Bard, without-I wish he would appearUd! I would give it him-but you shall hear

Good Sir! quoth I-and curtfey'd as I fpoke-
Our pit, you know, expects and loves a joke-
"Twere fit to humour them: for, right or wrong,
True Britons never like the fame thing long.
To-day is fair-they ftrut, huff, fwear, harangue :-
To-morrow's foul-they fneak afide, and hang.
Is there a war-peace! peace! is all their cry :
The peace is made-then, blood! they'll fight and die.
Gallants, in talking thus, I meant no treason :
I would have brought, you fee, the man to reason.
But with fome folks, 'tis labour lost to strive:

A reasoning mule will neither lead nor drive,
He hum'd, and haw'd; then, waking from his dream,
Cry'd, I must preach to you his, moral scheme.

C 4

A scheme,

A fcheme, forfooth! to benefit the nation!

*

Some queer, odd whim of pious propagation!
Lord! talk fo, here-the man must be a widgeon:-
Drury may propagate-but not Religion.

Yet, after all, to give the Devil his due,

Our Author's scheme, though ftrange, is wholly new : Well, fhall the novelty then recommend it?

If not from liking, from caprice befriend it.

For drums and routs, make him a while your paffion,
A little while let Virtue be the fashion:
And, fpite of real or imagin'd blunders,

Ev'n let him live, nine days, like other wonders.

PROLOGUE

то

MR. THOMSON's AGAMEMNON. +

WHEN this decifive night, at length, appears,

The night of every author's hopes and fears,

What shifts to bribe applause, poor poets try!
In all the forms of wit they court and lye:
These meanly beg it, as an alms; and those,
By boaftful blufter dazzle and impose.

*The profits arifing from this play were intended to be given, by the Author, to the Society for propagating Chriftian Knowledge.

+ See the Prologue to Sophoniíba, a joint production of Pope and Mallet's, in the forty-fixth Volume of this Collection.

Nor