Know, all the good that individuals find,

Or God and nature meant to mere mankind,
Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, health, peace and competence.

SWEET NE S S.

AN OD E.

BY MR. ROBERTSON.

Or damafk cheeks, and radiant eyes,

Let other poets tell;

Within the bofom of the fair,

Superior beauties dwell.

There all the fprightly powers of wit

In blithe affemblage play; There every focial virtue fheds

Its intellectual ray.

But as the fun's refulgent light

Heav'n's wide expanfe refines;

With fov'reign luftre through the foul,-
Celestial sweetness fhines.

This mental beam dilates the heart,

And sparkles in the face;

It harmonizes every thought,.

And heightens every grace.

One glimpfe can footh the troubled breast,
The heaving figh restrain!

Can make the bed of fickness please,
And ftop the fense of pain.

Its power can charm the favage heart,
The tyrant's pity move:
To fmiles convert the wildeft rage,

And melt the foul to love.

When sweetness beams upon the throne.

In majesty benign,

The awful fplendors of a crown.
With milder luftre fhine.

In fcenes of poverty and woe,
Where melancholy dwells,
The influence of this living ray

The dreary gloom difpels.

Thus, when the blooming spring returns

To cheer the mournful plains,

Through earth and air, with genial warmth,

Etherial mildness reigns.

Beneat its bright, aufpicious beams

No boisterous paffions rife;

Morofenefs quits the peaceful fcene,
And baleful Difcord flies.

A thousand namclefs beauties spring,
A thousand virtues glow;

A fmiling train of joys appear,
And endless bleffings flow.

Unbounded Charity difplays

Her fympathizing charms:

And Friendship's pure feraphic flame
The generous bofom warms.

Almighty Love exerts his power,
And fpreads with fecret art,
A foft fenfation through the frame,
A tranfport through the heart.

Nor fhall the ftorms of age, which cloud
Each gleam of fenfual joy,

And blast the gaudy flowers pride,
These bleft effects destroy.

The beauty of thy heavenly mind

Shall length of days defy.

CONJUGAL FELICITY.

FROM THOMSON'S SEASONS.

HAPPY they! the happiest of their kind !

Whom gentler ftars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. 'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

Attuning all their paffions into love;

Where Friendship full exerts her foftest power,

Perfect esteem, enlivened by defire

Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, With boundlefs confidence: for nought but love Can anfwer love, and render blifs fecure.

-What is the world to them, Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonfenfe all! Who in each other clafp, whatever fair High fancy forms, and lavith hearts can wish; Something than beauty dearer, fhould they look Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face; Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love, The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven? Meantime a fmiling offspring rifes round, And mingles both their graces. By degrees

The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,'
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh inftruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
Oh fpeak the joy! ye whom the fudden tear
Surprifes often, while you look around,
And nothing ftrikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various nature preffing on the heart:
An elegant fufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving Heaven.
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The feafons thus,
As ceafelefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own roty garland on their heads:
'Till evening comes at lait, ferene and mild,
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in focial fleep;