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To fome clear river's verdant fide, Do thou my happy footfeps guide: In concert with the purling stream We'll fing, and love fhall be the theme. E'er night affumes her gloomy reign, When shadows lengthen o'er the plain; We'll to yon myrtle grove repair, For peace and pleafure waits us there.

The laughing god there keeps his court,
And little loves inceffant fport,
Around the winning graces wait,
And calm contentment guards the feat:
There loft in extafies of joy,

While tenderest scenes our thoughts employ,
We'll bless the hour our loves begun,
The happy moment made us one.

325

To Mr. GURNEY,

On bis Book of SHORT-WRITING, Culpantur fruftrà calami.

HOR.

Y intuition is the Seraph taught
To read the mind, and interchange
the thought?

Does on his breaft the living language lie,
And quick ideas circle at the eye ? —
-Nor has mankind an art unequal found,
And taught the eye to catch the letter'd
found:
[care,
While thus the dumb exulting tell their
And deafnefs fees the founds he cannot
hear.
[fprung,
-But flow the speaking hand till GURNEY
And form'd the finger rival to the tongue.
Tale-licens'd travellers are wont to boast
Amazing converfe in the realms of froft:
Lips move unheard, each found in ice en-
tomb'd,
[numb'd,

Stagnate his current, and his wing beSlumbers inactive, till a warmer fky [flyUnbinds the glebe, and bids the accents Thus Gurney's arts the fleeting word congeal,

And stay the wanderer to repeat his tale, When the quick eye ball thaws the letter'd plain, [ftrain. Calls out the found, and wakes the dormant Taught by thy rules, while panting hearts indite,

Obedient hands with equal ardour write; And diftant friends rejoicing know to speak, Wrapt in a sheet, the converfe of a week: Go further, Gurney, and thy wonderous toil

Shall print the figh, and imitate the fmile, Whate'er the tongue or trembling ftring

commands,

Shall live obedient to the echoing hands, Each air and grace the faithful letter bring, If Silvia lifp, or soft Amelia fing,

cross the

To captivate the foul, to mend the hearts Proceed to brand.sh the vindictive rod, And teach bold fcepticks to believe a God. Teach them, thou champion of the Chriftian caufe,

To rev'rence and obey Jehovah's laws. Teach them the ftri& analogy to trace, Betwixt the works of nature and of grace: That as foft vernal show'rs from heav'n defcend, [friend; T'impregnate plants, and friendly foils beSo the good feed of God's eternal word Sent down from heav'n to godlike fouls transferr'd,

grown,

There ripens, till to full perfection
[of stone,
Melts down, and mollifies a heart
And fits the foul for a celeftial throne.

The POSEY; or, The LOVER'S GIFT.
A NEW SONG.
By G. Rollos.

AT the clofe of the day, on the banks

of the Tweed, [gay mead; Where fweet-smelling odours perfume the Fair Flota! I cry'd, attend my request, And bring me a pofey for dear Chloe's breaft. The goddefs, attentive, my fummons obey'd, [he faid, And brought me a nofegay,-O`take it! Hafte, hafte, and prefent it to Chloe the fair, [er repair. With wings fwift as thought to the charm

WHA fad,

Or, fure, 'tis not the fame I had.
Yes, 'tis the fame, I feel it plain,
Who gave most pleasure, gives most pain;
Now ev'ry thought difturbs my mind,
And tells me Flora's now unkind.

The treacherous figh fteals unawares,
And tells too true my inward cares ;
The night inflames my lab'ring breast,
And fleep denies her balmy rest:
Then ev'ry thought distracts my mind,
And tells me Flora's now unkind.

One maid has taught my heart to know
The joy fincere, and real woe.
Grief, baffled long, with all her cares,
Now threat'ning claims her whole arrears:
Each trifle now-infults my mind,

And tells me Flora's now unkind.

But peace, my heart, and calmly bear

Thy wrongs, nor once reproach the fair.
Ye kindest fates, long let her live,
To taste the sweetest joys you give :
To me reftore a chearful mind,
Tho' Flora's false; or make her kind.

MUTUAL LOVE.

H.

A NEW SONG, Sung at Vaux-hall, by Mr. Lows.

WHE

"HENE'ER I meet my Celia's eyes,
Sweet raptures in my bofom rife,
My feet forget to move;
She too declines her lovely head,
Soft blushes o'er her cheeks are spread,
Sure this is mutual love!

My beating heart is wrapt in blifs
Whene'er I fteal a tender kifs

Beneath the filent grove :
She strives to frown, and puts me by,
Yet anger dwells not in her eye,

Sure this is mutual love!

And once, O once, the deareft maid,
As on her breast my head was laid

Some fureft impulse drove;
Me, me, her gentle arms careft,
And to her befom closely preft,

Sure this was mutual love!
Tranfported with her blooming charms,
A foft defire my bofom warms

Forbidden joys to prove : Trembling for fear the should comply, She from my arms prepares to fly,

Tho' warm'd with mutual love, Oftay, I cry'd-let Hymen's bands This moment tie our willing hands, And all thy fears remove : She blush'd confent; her fears fuppreft; And now we live, fupreamly bleft, A life of mutual love,

On the Inconvenience of RHYME.

327

Diftinguith'd genius, whose prolifick

brain

[pain; Makes thee a stranger to the fcribbler's For whom Apollo opens all his stores, On whom each Muse her kindest influence

In fhort, whatever fubject I commence,
Jingle is always fure to combat fenfe,
Till, after various fchemes in vain I've
try'd,

Vex'd and confus'd, I caft my pen aside, And curfe my fate, that forc'd me ftill to write,

Tho' both in nature's and my stars defpite.
But when I've long blafphem'd the facred
Nine,
[line.

Behold the lucky word appear to fill the Big with the thought of my productive brain,

more;

I reaffume the paper and the pen,
Spite of the oaths I rafhly made before
To burn my works, and ne'er touch paper
(delight,
Pleas'd with myself, and fill'd with new
Just as the numbers gently flow, I write.
But if furcharg'd with strong poetick heat,
Fancy's retarded by a flow dull epithet,
Patient I bear the ill I can't redrefs,
And fill the vacant blank with common
place.

As thus, if Phyllis' beauties I difclofe,
Chafte as the lily, blushing as the rofe,

328

B

ENEATH the furface of the turfed earth,

Enwrapt in filence, and the arms of death, Expos'd to worms, lies the once charming boy,

The father's comfort, and the mother's joy,
The brothers fav'rite, and the fifters boast,
A pleasant plant but now, for ever loft!
In thee, bright youth, thy friends re-
joie'd to find

The dawning beauties of a noble mind,
In converse pleafing, and in temper mild,
A man in conduct, tho' in years a child.
When death attack'd thee with acuteft
[vain,
No word was utter'd indifcreet, or
Bravely that conflict did thy foul fuf-

pain

tain.

No more fhall grief thy rifing joys controul,

Nor fevers break thy harmony of foul;

No more fhall Satan fpread alluring baits, Nor the world tempt thee with its gay deceits :

lows roar.

But call'd to glory on a blissful shore, Thou hearft, unmov'd, the madding bil[brow, Fresh bloom adorns thy cheek, a crown thy Angels and feraphs, thy companions now! Thofe teach thy fingers, how to strike the lyre,

Thy voice to foften, or to raise it higher, As beft befits the worship of the sky, Where all is rapture, light, and harmony. Thrice happy youth! by death made truly great,

Had life been lengthen'd to its utmost date, What hadst thou known, but forrow, pain,

and woe,

The curfe entail'd on Adam's race below? Days multiply our cares,temptations throng, And Syrens ufe their arts t'enfnare the young:

Betray'd by beauty, or by fortune crois'd, How many thoufands have been wreck'd and loft ? [pafs'd,

He's only fafe, who thro' death's gate has And reach'd thofe joys, that evermore will laft.

Thus calm philofophy may hail the faint? But who the mother's agonies can paint ? What keen reflections perfecute her mind, Rife in her foul, and no ceffation find ? See how the pale empaffion'd hands are wrung, [tongue :

And hear the wild enthus'alm of her "I felt a ftroke, which made my fabrick "nod, ["God! "I heard a voice, and 'twas the voice of "Lo! I confign thee o'er to Satan's 86 power, [" hour; "Thou haft withstood thy "vifitation "No more fhall grace reftrain, or mercy

<< call,

["fall." "And for thy fin, thy race fhall victims Stung with these thoughts, all virtue the denies,

[fies Tho' none had more, each neighbour testi Blackens herself with crimes, her foul abhor'd, [Word. And fhews her feal'd destruction, from the Indulgent God! relieve her anxious heart, Once more thy gifts of faith, and hope, impart ;

Renew her frame, remove the latent caufe,
And mixt with mercy, let her view thy laws.
Wrexham, May 17.
E. M.

To LAVINIA.
HILE other bards thy pers'nal
merits trace,

WHIL

And recognize the beauties of thy face;
Let me the virtues of thy mind difplay,
Where reafon rules, and paffions all obey ;
Where sweet humility, fair innocence,
Join'd with good nature, and exalted fenfe,
Refplendent fhine, as in the heav'n-made
Eve,

Before the was deceiv'd, and did deceive,
O! may fome equal lover meet thy eye,
Enjoy thy fmiles, and in thy bofom lie,
A happier fcene, than ever poet feign'd!
There he may know, loft paradife regain'd.
Parent, nor friends, thy firm refolve
cou'd move,

Never to give thy hand, devoid of love;
Some merit must be feen, fome impulfe felt!
E'er hearts can in a blissful union melt;
In vain they urge the chariot, puff the gold!
O blindness! is affection to be fold?
Can wealth, defpotic as it is, create
Thole joys, perfective of the nuptial state?
Ah, no; 'tis death, th' experiment to
try,
[the tye,
Good fenfe, and virtue, muft endear
Thefe are effentials in Lavinia's eye :
These charm, when pomp, parade, and
grandeur's dull;

The heart a vacuum, tho' the bags are full! To these the nymph her yet free hand refigns,

And leaves the reft to folly and the winds. VICINA.

THE