Oh facred art, to which alone life owes Its happiest seasons, and a peaceful clofe, Scorn'd in a world, indebted to that fcorn Not knowing thee, we reap, with bleeding hands, And, while experience cautions us in vain, Loft by abandoning her own relief, Those humours tart as wines upon the fret, Which idleness and weariness beget; These, and a thousand plagues that haunt the breast, Fond of the phantom of an earthly rest, Divine communion chases, as the day Drives to their dens th' obedient beafts of prey, See Judah's promis'd king, bereft of all, Driv'n out an exile from the face of Saul, To distant caves the lonely wand'rer flies, The foes of man, or make a desert sweet, To meliorate and tame the stubborn foil; To give diffimilar yet fruitful lands The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands; To cherish virtue in an humble ftate, In colour these, and those delight the smell, Or lay the landscape on the fnowy fheet- Employs, fhut out from more important views, THE DOVE S... I. REAS'NING at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom inftinct leads, Are rarely known to stray. II. One filent eve I wander'd late, And heard the voice of love; The turtle thus addrefs'd her mate, And footh'd the lift'ning dove III. Our mutual bond of faith and truth, No time fhall difengage; Those bleffings of our early youth, Shall cheer our latest age: IV. While innocence without disguise, And conftancy fincere, Shall fill the circles of those eyes, And mine can read them there; V. Thofe ills that wait on all below Shall ne'er be felt by me, Or, gently felt, and only fo, As being shar'd with thee. VI. When lightnings flash among the trees, Or kites are hov'ring near, I fear left thee alone they seize, And know no other fear, VII. 'Tis then I feel myself a wife, And prefs thy wedded fide, Refolv'd an union form'd for life Death never fhall divide. |