How foon each hovering tempeft fly,
Whose stores for mischief arm the sky,
Prompt on our heads to burst amain,
To rend the foreft from the steep,
Or, thundering o'er the Baltic deep,
To 'whelm the merchant's hopes of gain !
But let not man's unequal views
Prefume o'er nature and her laws :
"Tis his with grateful joy to use
The indulgence of the fovran caufe;
Secure that health and beauty springs
Through this majestic frame of things,.
Beyond what he can reach to know;
And that heaven's all-fubduing will,
With good the progeny of ill,
Attempereth every ftate below..
How pleafing wears the wintery night,
Spent with the old illuftrious dead!
While, by the taper's trembling light,
I feem thofe awful fcenes to tread
Where chiefs or legiflators lie,
Whofe triumphs move before my eye
In arms and antique pomp array'd;
While now I taste the Ionian song,
Now bend to Plato's god-like tongue
Refounding through the olive shade.
But should some chearful, equal friend
Bid leave the ftudious page a while,
Let mirth on wisdom then attend,
And focial ease on learned toil.
Then while, at love's uncareful shrine,
Each dictates to the god of wine
Her name whom all his hopes obey,
What flattering dreams each bofom warm,
While abfence, heightening every charm,
Invokes the flow returning May!
May, thou delight of heaven and earth,
When will thy genial star arise?
The aufpicious morn, which gives thee birth,,
Shall bring Eudora to my eyes.
Within her fylvan haunt behold,
As in the happy garden old,
She moves like that primeval fair :
Thither, ye filver-founding lyres,
Ye tender fmiles, ye chafte defires,
Fond hope and mutual faith, repair.
And if believing love can read
His better omens in her eye,
Then shall my fears, O charming maid,
And every pain of abfence die:
Then shall my jocund harp, attun'd
To thy true ear, with fweeter found
Purfue the free Horatian fong:
Old Tyne fhall liften to my tale,
And Echo down the bordering vale
The liquid melody prolong.
INDEED, my Phædria, if to find
That wealth can female wishes gain,
Had e'er difturb'd your thoughtful mind,
Or cost one serious moment's pain,
I should have faid that all the rules,
You learn'd of moralists and schools,
Were very useless, very vain.
Yet I perhaps mistake the cafe
Say, though with this heroic air,
Like one that holds a nobler chace,
You try the tender lofs to bear,
Does not your heart renounce your tongue ?
Seems not my cenfure ftrangely wrong
To count it such a flight affair?
When Hefper gilds the fhaded sky,
Oft as you seek the well-known grove,
Methinks I fee you caft your eye
Back to the morning scenes of love:
Each pleafing word you heard her fay,
Her gentle look, her graceful way,
Again your struggling fancy move.
Then tell me, is your foul intire?
Does Wisdom calmly hold her throne?
Then can you question each defire,
Bid this remain, and that begone?
No tear half-starting from your eye?
No kindling blush you know not why?
No stealing figh, nor ftifled groan?
Away with this unmanly mood!
See where the hoary churl appears,
Whofe hand hath feiz'd the favourite good
Which you referv'd for happier years :
While, fide by fide, the blushing maid
Shrinks from his visage, half afraid,
Spite of the fickly joy she wears.
Ye guardian powers of love and fame,
This chafte, harmonious pair behold;
Of all who barter vows for gold.
O bloom of youth, O tender charms
Well buried in a dotard's arms!
O equal price of beauty fold!
Ceafe then to gaze with looks of love:
Bid her adieu, the venal fair:
Unworthy fhe your blifs to prove;
Then wherefore should fhe prove your care?
No: lay your myrtle garland down;
And let a while the willow's crown
With luckier omens bind your hair.
O juft efcap'd the faithlefs main,
Though driven unwilling on the land;
To guide your favour'd steps again,
Behold your better genius ftand:
Where Truth revolves her page divine,
Where Virtue leads to Honour's fhrine,
Behold, he lifts his awful hand.
Fix but on these your ruling aim,
And Time, the fire of manly care,
Will Fancy's dazzling colours tame
A foberer drefs will Beauty wear :
Then shall efteem by Knowledge led
Inthrone within your heart and head
Some happier love, fome truer fair.
|