By holiness on earth-that, made hereafter
Immortal like thyself, they may partake
Thy purchased kingdom,-purchased by the pains
Of suffering Godhead; and around thy seat,
Clad with ethereal radiance, resound
Thy triumphs-Sin abolish'd, Death destroy'd,
The just made perfect, and thy faithful ones
Throned in beatitude for evermore!
As lamps burn silent, with unconscious light,
So modest ease in beauty shines most bright:
Unaiming charms with edge resistless fall,
And she who means no mischief does it all.
HON. AND REV. F. CORNWALLIS.
IN Frolic's hour, ere serious thoughts had birth,
There was a time, my dear Cornwallis, when
The Muse would take me on her airy wing,
And waft to views romantic, there present
Some motley vision, shade and sun, the cliff
O'erhanging, sparkling brooks, and ruins gray:
Meanders traced, and bid me catch the form
Of shifting clouds, and rainbows learn to paint.
Sometimes Ambition, brushing by, would twitch
My spirits, and with winning look, sublime,
Allure to follow. What if steep her track,
The mountain's top would overpay, when climb'd,
The scaler's toil. Her temple there was high,
And lovely thence her prospect. She could tell
Where laurels grew-whence many a wreath
antique.'
But more advised to shun the barren twig
(What is immortal verdure without fruit?)
And woo some thriving art; her numerous mines
Were open to the searcher's toil and skill.'
Caught by her speech, heart beat, and fluttering
Sounded irregular marches to be gone; [pulse
What! pause a moment, when Ambition calls!
No: the blood gallops to the distant goal,
And throbs to reach it. Let the lame sit still!
When Fortune at the mountain's verge extreme,
Array'd in decent garb, though somewhat thin,
Smiling approach'd, and what occasion,' ask'd,
Of climbing?'-She, already provident,
Had cater'd well, if stomachs can digest
Her viands, and a palate not too nice;
'Unfit,' she said, ' for perilous attempt,
That manly nerve required and sinews tough.'
She took and laid me in a vale remote
Amid the scenes of gloomy fir and yew,
On poppy earth where Morpheus laid the bed,
Obscurity her curtains round me drew,
And siren Sloth a dull quietus play'd.
Sithence, no fairy sights, no quickening ray,
No stir of pulse, or objects to entice
Abroad the spirits, but the cloister'd heart
Sits squat at home, like pagod, in a niche
Demure, or mutes, with a nod-watching eye
And folded arms, in presence of their king,
Turk or Indostan cities, forums, courts,
And prating Sanhedrims, and drumming wars
Affect no more than stories told the bed
Lethargic, which at intervals the sick
Hears and forgets, and wakes to doze again.
Instead of converse and variety,
The same dull round, the same unchecker'd scene,
Such are thy comforts, blessed Solitude!
But Innocence is there, but peace of mind, And simple Quiet, with her lap of down; Meads lowing, tune of birds, and lapse of streams, And saunter with a book, and warbling muse In praise of hawthorns.-Life's whole business Is it to bask in the sun! if so, a snail Were happy loitering on a southern wall. Why sits Content upon a cottage sill At eventide, and blesses the coarse meal In sooty corner? why sweet Slumber loves Hard pallets?-not because, from crowds remote, Sequester'd in a dingle's bushy lap:
'Tis labour makes the peasant's cheering face, And works out his repose-for Ease must ask The leave of Diligence to be enjoy'd.
O, turn in time from that enchantress Ease!
Her smiles are feign'd; her palatable cup
By standing grows insipid-and beware
The bottom, for there's poison in the lees.-
What health impair'd, what spirits crush'd and
maim'd,
What martyrs to her chain of sluggish lead!
No such observance Russ or Persian claim
Despotic-and as vassals long inured
To servile homage grow supine and tame,
So fares it with our sovereign and her train.
What though with lure ensnaring she pretend
From worldly bondage to set free? what gain
Her votaries? what avails from iron chains
Exempt, if rosy fetters bind us fast?
Bestir! and answer your creation's end!
Think we that man, with vigorous power endow'd,
And room to stretch, was destined to sit still?
Sluggards are Nature's rebels, not her sons,
Nor live up to the terms on which they hold
Their lease of life-laborious terms and hard,
But such the tenure of our earthly state.
Riches and Fame are Industry's reward;
The nimble runner courses Fortune down,
And then he banquets, for she feeds the bold.
Think what you owe your country, what your-
self!
If splendour charm not, yet avoid the scorn
That treads on lowly station! Think of some
Assiduous booby, mounting o'er your head,
And thence with saucy grandeur looking down!
Think of, Reflection's stab! the pitying friend
With shoulder shrugg'd, and sorry! Think that
Has golden minutes, if discreetly seized: [Time
And if an exemplary indolence
To warn and scare be wanting-look on me!
OF ACTIVE AND RETIRED LIFE.
YES, you condemn those sages too refined
That gravely lecture ere they know mankind;
Who, whilst ambition's fiercer fires they blame,
Would damp each useful spark that kindles fame.
"Tis in false estimates the folly lies,
The passion's blameless, when the judgment's wise.
In vain philosophers with warmth contest,
Life's secret shade or open walk is best :
Each has its separate joys, and each its use;
This calls the patriot forth, and that the Muse.
Hence not alike to all the species Heaven
An equal thirst of public fame has given:
Patrius it forms to shine in action great;
While Decio's talents best adorn retreat.
If where Pierian maids delight to dwell,
The haunts of silence and the peaceful cell,
Had, fair Astræa! been thy Talbot's choice,
Could listening crowds now hang upon his voice?
And thou, bless'd maid, mightst long have wept in
The distant glories of a second reign,
In exile doom'd yet ages to complain.
Were high ambition still the power confess'd That ruled with equal sway in every breast, Say where the glories of the sacred Nine? Where Homer's verse sublime, or, Milton, thine? Nor thou, sweet bard! who 'turn'd the tuneful art From sound to sense, from fancy to the heart,' Thy lays instructive to the world hadst given, Nor greatly justified the laws of Heaven.
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