manely whispered in his ear some of the plot, and the Counterfeit was ordered to take off his mask.

Here ended the frolick; but Heidegger fwore he would never attend any public amusement if that witch, the wax-work woman, did not break the mould, and melt down the mask before his face.

To this occurrence, the following imperfect ftanzas, transcribed from the hand-writing of Pope, are supposed to relate. They were found on the back of a page, containing fome part of his translation, either of the Iliad or Odyffey, in the British Museum.

Then he went to the fide-board, and call'd for much liquor,

And glafs after glafs he drank quicker and quicker ;

So that Heidegger quoth,

Nay, faith on his oath,

Of two hogfheads of Burgundy, Satan drank both.

Then all like a

the Devil appear'd,

And ftrait the whole table of dishes he clear'd:

Then a friar, then a nun,

And then he put on

A face all the company took for his own.

SPRING.

SPRIN G.

AN ODE.

TERN Winter now, by Spring repress'd,

STER

Forbears the long continued ftrife ;

And nature, on her naked breast,
Delights to catch the gales of life.

Now o'er the rural kingdom roves
Soft pleasure, with her laughing train;
Love warbles in the vocal groves,
And vegetation plants the plain.

Unhappy! whom to beds of pain,
Arthritic tyranny * configns;
Whom fmiling nature courts in vain,
Tho' rapture fings, and beauty fhines.

Yet tho' my limbs decease invades,
Her wings imagination tries,
And bears me to the peaceful fhades
Where's humble turrets rife.

* The author being ill of the gout.

R

Here

Here ftop, my foul, thy rapid flight,
Nor from the pleafing groves depart,
Where first great nature charm'd my fight,
Where wisdom firft inform'd my heart.

Here let me thro' the vales pursue,
A guide a father-and a friend:

Once more great nature's works renew,
Once more on wifdom's voice attend.

From falfe careffes, causeless strife,
Wild hope, vain fear, alike remov'd;
Here let me learn the use of life,

When best enjoy'd-when most improv'd.

Teach me, thou venerable bow'r,
Cool meditation's quiet feat;
The gen'rous fcorn of venal pow'r,
The filent grandeur of retreat.

When pride by guilt to greatness climbs,
Or raging faction rush to war,

Here let me learn to fhun the crimes
I can't prevent, and will not fhare.

But left I fall by fubtler foes,

Bright wisdom teach me Curio's art,
The fwelling paffions to compose,
And quell the rebels of the heart.

A VIRTUOUS OLD AGE

ALWAYS REVERENCED.

HAVE always thought it the business of those who turn their fpeculations upon the living world, to commend the virtues as well as to expofe the faults of their contemporaries, and to confute a falfe as well as to fupport a just accufation; not only because it is peculiarly the business of a monitor to keep his own reputation untainted, left those who can once charge him with partiality, should indulge themselves afterwards in disbelieving him at pleasure; but because he may find real crimes fufficient to give full employment to caution or repentance, without distracting the mind by needlefs fcruples and vain solicitudes,

There are certain fixed and ftated reproaches that one part of mankind has in all ages thrown upon another, which are regularly transmitted through continued fucceffions, and which he that has once fuffered them is certain to ufe with the fame undistinguished vehemence, when he has changed his station, and gained the prefcriptive right of inflicting on others, what he had formerly endured himself,

To these hereditary imputations, of which no man fees the juftice, till it becomes his interest to fee it, very little regard is to be fhewn; fince it does not appear that they are produced by ratiocination or enquiry, but received implicitly, or caught by a kind of instantaneous contagion, and supported rather by willingness to credit than ability to prove them.

It has been always the practice of those who are defirous to believe themselves made venerable by length of time, to cenfure the new comers into life, for want of refpect to grey hairs and fage experience; for heady confidence in their own understandings, for hafty conclufions upon partial views, for difregard of counfels, which their fathers and grandfires are ready to afford them, and a rebellious impatience of that fubordination to which youth is condemned by nature, as necefsary to its fecurity from evils into which it would be otherwise precipitated, by the rashness of paffion, and the blindness of ignorance.

Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and infolence of the rifing generation. He recounts the decency and regularity of former times, and celebrates the difcipline and fobriety of the age in