"She shall be courted, favour'd, and caress'd.
"For what are names? and where agree mankind
"In those to persons or to acts assign'd?

"Brave, learn'd, or wise, if some their favourites call,
"Have they the titles or the praise from all?
"Not so, but others will the brave disdain
"As rash, and deem the sons of wisdom vain ;
"The self-same mind shall scorn or kindness move,
"And the same deed attract contempt and love.

"So all the powers who move the human soul,
"With all the passions who the will control,
"Have various names-[one] giv'n by Truth Divine,
"(As Simulation thus was fix'd for mine,)

"The rest by man, who now, as wisdom's, prize
"My secret counsels, now as art despise ;
"One hour, as just, those counsels they embrace,
"And spurn, the next, as pitiful and base.

"Thee, too, my child, those fools as Cunning fly, "Who on thy counsel and thy craft rely; "That worthy craft in others they condemn, "But 'tis their prudence, while conducting them. "Be FLATTERY, then, thy happy infant's name, "Let Honour scorn her and let Wit defame: e; "Let all be true that Envy dooms, yet all, "Not on herself, but on her name, shall fall; "While she thy fortune and her own shall raise, "And decent Truth be call'd, and loved as modest Praise. "O happy child! the glorious day shall shine,

"When every ear shall to thy speech incline,
"Thy words alluring and thy voice divine.
"The sullen pedant and the sprightly wit,

"To hear thy soothing eloquence, shall sit;
"And both, abjuring Flattery, will agree

"That truth inspires, and they must honour thee.
"Envy himself shall to thy accents bend,
"Force a faint smile and sullenly attend,
"When thou shalt call him Virtue's jealous friend,
"Whose bosom glows with generous rage to find
"How fools and knaves are flatter'd by mankind.
"The sage retired, who spends alone his days,

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"And flies th' obstreperous voice of public praise;
"The vain, the vulgar cry shall gladly meet,
"And bid thee welcome to his still retreat;
"Much will he wonder, how thou cam'st to find
"A man to glory dead, to peace consign'd.

"O Fame! he'll cry, (for he will call thee Fame,)
"From thee I fly, from thee conceal my name.'
"But thou shalt say, 'Though Genius takes his flight,
"He leaves behind a glorious train of light,
"And hides in vain ;-yet prudent he that flies
"The flatterer's art, and for himself is wise.'

"Yes, happy child! I mark th' approaching day,
"When warring natures will confess thy sway;
"When thou shalt Saturn's golden reign restore,
"And vice and folly shall be known no more.

"Pride shall not then in human-kind have place, "Changed, by thy skill, to Dignity and Grace; "While Shame, who now betrays the inward sense "Of secret ill, shall be thy Diffidence; "Avarice shall thenceforth prudent Forecast be, And bloody Vengeance, Magnanimity; "The lavish tongue shall honest truths impart, "The lavish hand shall show the generous heart, "And Indiscretion be contempt of art: "Folly and Vice shall then, no longer known, "Be, this as Virtue, that as Wisdom, shown. "Then shall the Robber, as the Hero, rise "To seize the good that churlish law denies ; "Throughout the world shall rove the generous band, "And deal the gifts of Heaven from hand to hand. "In thy blest days no tyrant shall be seen, "Thy gracious king shall rule contented men; "In thy blest days shall not a rebel be, "But patriots all and well approved of thee.

;

"Such powers are thine, that man, by thee, shall wrest "The gainful secret from the cautious breast "Nor then, with all his care, the good retain, "But yield to thee the secret and the gain. “In vain shall much experience guard the heart Against the charm of thy prevailing art;

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"Admitted once, so soothing is thy strain,
"It comes the sweeter, when it comes again;
"And when confess'd as thine, what mind so strong
"Forbears the pleasure it indulged so long?
"Soft'ner of every ill! of all our woes
"The balmy solace! friend of fiercest foes!
Begin thy reign, and like the morning rise!
"Bring joy, bring beauty, to our eager eyes;
"Break on the drowsy world like opening day,
"While grace and gladness join thy flow'ry way;
"While every voice is praise, while every heart is gay.
"From thee all prospects shall new beauties take,
"'Tis thine to seek them and 'tis thine to make;
"On the cold fen I see thee turn thine eyes,
"Its mists recede, its chilling vapour flies;
"Th' enraptured lord th' improving ground surveys,
"And for his Eden asks the traveller's praise,
"Which yet, unview'd of thee, a bog had been,
"Where spungy rushes hide the plashy green.

"I see thee breathing on the barren moor,
"That seems to bloom although so bleak before;
"There, if beneath the gorse the primrose spring,
"Or the pied daisy smile below the ling,

"They shall new charms, at thy command, disclose,
"And none shall miss the myrtle or the rose.
"The wiry moss, that whitens all the hill,
"Shall live a beauty by thy matchless skill;
"Gale1 from the bog shall yield Arabian balm,
"And the grey willow wave a golden palm.

"I see thee smiling in the pictured room,
"Now breathing beauty, now reviving bloom;
"There, each immortal name 'tis thine to give
"To graceless forms, and bid the lumber live.
"Should'st thou coarse boors or gloomy martyrs see,
"These shall thy Guidos, those thy Teniers' be;
"There shalt thou Raphael's saints and angels trace,
"There make for Rubens and for Reynolds place,
"And all the pride of art [shalt] find in her disgrace.

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1 "Myrica gale," a shrub growing in boggy and fenny grounds.

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"Delight of either sex! thy reign commence;
"With balmy sweetness soothe the weary sense,
"And to the sickening soul thy cheering aid dispense.
"Queen of the mind! thy golden age begin;
"In mortal bosoms varnish shame and sin;
"Let all be fair without, let all be calm within."

The Vision fled; the happy mother rose,
Kiss'd the fair infant, smiled at all her foes,
And FLATTERY made her name:-her reign began,
Her own dear sex she ruled, then vanquish'd man;
A smiling friend, to every class, she spoke,
Assumed their manners, and their habits took;
Her, for her humble mien, the modest loved;
Her cheerful looks the light and gay approved;
The just beheld her, firm; the valiant, brave;
Her mirth the free, her silence pleased the grave;
Zeal heard her voice, and, as he preach'd aloud,
Well-pleased he caught her whispers from the crowd-
(Those whispers, soothing-sweet to every ear,
Which some refuse to pay, but none to hear);
Shame fled her presence; at her gentle strain,
Care softly smiled, and guilt forgot its pain;
The wretched thought, the happy found her true;
The learn'd confess'd that she their merits knew;
The rich-could they a constant friend condemn?
The poor believed-for who should flatter them?

Thus on her name though all disgrace attend,
In every creature she beholds a friend.

REFLECTIONS

UPON THE SUBJECT

Quid juvat errores, mersâ jam puppe, fateri?
Quid lacrymæ delicta juvant commissa secute?
Claudian. in Eutrop. lib. ii. lin. 7

What avails it, when shipwreck'd, that error appears?
Are the crimes we commit wash'd away by our tears?

7HEN all the fiercer passions cease
(The glory and disgrace of youth);

When the deluded soul, in peace,
Can listen to the voice of truth;
When we are taught in whom to trust,
And how to spare, to spend, to give,
(Our prudence kind, our pity just)—
'Tis then we rightly learn to live.

Its weakness when the body feels,
Nor danger in contempt defies;
To reason when desire appeals,

When on experience hope relies;
When every passing hour we prize,
Nor rashly on our follies spend;
But use it, as it quickly flies,

With sober aim to serious end;
When prudence bounds our utmost views,
And bids us wrath and wrong forgive;
When we can calmly gain or lose-
'Tis then we rightly learn to live.

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