Jam reparat rifus, jam furgit gratiâ visûs,
Jam promit cultu, mirac'la latentia vultu.
Pigmina jam mifcet, quo plus fua purpura glifcet,
Et geminans bellis fplendet magè fulgor ocellis.
Stant Lemures muti, Nymphæ intentique faluti,
Hic figit zonam, capiti, locat ille coronam,
Hec manicis formam, plicis dat et altera normam ;
Et tibi vel Betty, tibi vel nitidiffima Letty!
Gloria factorum temerè conceditur horum.

HEALTH. AN ECLOGUE.

OW early fhepherds o'er the meadow pafs,

Now

And print long footsteps in the glittering grafs;

The cows neglectful of their pasture stand,

By turns obfequious to the milker's hand.
When Damon foftly trod the thaven lawn,
Damon a youth from city cares withdrawn ;
Long was the pleafing walk he wander'd through,
A cover'd arbour clos'd the distant view;

There rests the youth, and, while the feather'd throng
Raise their wild mufic, thus contrives a fong.

Here, wafted o'er by mild Etefian air,

Thou country Goddess, beauteous Health! repair;
Here let my breast through quivering trees inhale
Thy rofy bleffings with the morning gale.
What are the fields, or flowers, or all I fee?
Ah! tasteless all, if not enjoy'd with thee.
Joy to my foul! I feel the Goddess nigh,
The face of nature cheers as well as I ;

O'er

O'er the flat green refreshing breezes run,
The fmiling daizies blow beneath the fun,
The brooks run purling down with filver waves,
The planted lanes rejoice with dancing leaves,
The chirping birds from all the compass rove
To tempt the tuneful echoes of the grove:
High funny fummits, deeply-fhaded dales,
Thick mofly banks, and flowery winding vales.
With various profpect gratify the fight,

And scatter fix'd attention in delight.

Come, country goddefs, come; nor thou fuffice,
But bring thy mountain-fifter, Exercife.
Call'd by thy lovely voice, the turns her pace,
Her winding horn proclaims the finish'd chace;
She mounts the rocks, the fkims the level plain,
Dogs, hawks, and horfes, croud her early train,
Her hardy face repels the tanning wind,
And lines and meshes loosely float behind.
All these as means of toil the feeble fee,
But thefe are helps to pleasure join'd-with thee.
Let Sloth lie foftening till high noon in down,
Or lolling fan her in the fultry town,
Unnerv'd with reft; and turn her own difeafe,
Or fofter others in luxurious ease.:

I mount the courfer, call the deep-mouth'd hounds, ›
The fox unkennel'd flies to covert grounds;

I lead where ftags through tangled thickets tread,
And shake the faplings with their branching head;
I make the faulcons wing their airy way,
And foar to feize, or stooping Atrike their prey;

To

To fnare the fish, I fix the luring bait;

To wound the fowl, I load the gun with fate.
'Tis thus through change of exercise I range,
And ftrength and pleasure rise from every change.
Here, beauteous Health, for all the year remain;
When the next comes, I'll charm thee thus again.
Oh come, thou Goddess of my rural fong,
And bring thy daughter, calm Content, along,
Dame of the ruddy cheek and laughing eye,
From whofe bright prefence clouds of forrow fly:-
For her I mow my walks, I plat my bowers,
Clip my low hedges, and fupport my flowers;
To welcome her, this fummer-feat I dreft,
And here I court her when she comes to reft;
When the from exercife to learned ease
Shall change again, and teach the change to please.
Now friends converfing my soft hours refine,
And Tully's Tufculum revives in mine:
Now to grave books I bid the mind retreat,
And fuch as make me rather good than great.
Or o'er the works of eafy fancy rove,
Where flutes and innocence amufe the grove:
The native Bard, that on Sicilian plains
First fung the lowly manners of the swains;
Or Maro's Muse, that in the fàirest light
Paints rural profpects and the charms of fight;
These soft amufements bring Content along,
And fancy, void of forrow, turns to fong.

Here, beauteous Health, for all the year remain
When the next comes, I'll charm thee thus again.

THE FLIES. AN ECLOGUE.

WHEN in the river cows for coolnefs ftand,

And sheep for breezes feek the lofty land,

A youth, whom Æsop taught that every tree,
Each bird and infect, spoke as well as he;
Walk'd calmly mufing in a fhady way,
Where flowering hawthorns broke the funny ray,
And thus instructs his moral pen to draw
A fcene that obvious in the field he faw.

Near a low ditch, where fhallow waters meet,
Which never learn'd to glide with liquid feet;
Whofe Naiads never prattle as they play,
But fcreen'd with hedges flumber out the day,
There ftands a flender fern's afpiring fhade,

Whofe anfwering branches regularly laid

Put forth their answering boughs, and proudly rife
Three stories upward, in the nether skies.

For fhelter here, to fhun the noon-day heat,
An airy nation of the Flies retreat;
Some in foft airs their filken pinions.ply,
And some from bough to bough delighted fly,
Some rife, and circling light to perch again;
A pleafing murmur hums along the plain.
So, when a ftage invites to pageant shows,
(If great and fmall are like) appear the beaux;
In boxes fome with fpruce pretenfion fit,
Some change from feat to feat within the pit,

-Some

Some roam the fcenes, or turning cease to roam;
Preluding mufic fills the lofty dome.

When thus a Fly (if what a Fly can fay
Deferves attention) rais'd the rural lay.

Where late Amintor made a nymph a bride,
Joyful I flew by young Favonia's fide,
Who, mindless of the feafting, went to fip
The balmy pleafure of the fhepherd's lip,
I saw the Wanton, where I ftoop'd to sup,'
And half refolv'd to drown me in a cup;
Till, brush'd by careless hands, fhe foar'd above::
Ceafe, Beauty, ceafe to vex a tender love.

Thus ends the youth, the buzzing meadow rung, And thus the rival of his music fung.

When funs by thousands fhone on orbs of dew,
I wafted foft with Zephyretta flew ;

Saw the clean pail, and fought the milky chear,
While little Daphne feiz'd my roving Dear.
Wretch that I was! I might have warn'd the dame, ›
Yet fate indulging as the danger came.

But the kind huntress left her free to foar :
Ah! guard, ye lovers, guard a mistrefs more.
Thus from the fern, whose high projecting arms
The fleeting nation bent with 'dusky swarms,
The swains their love in easy mufi: breathe,
When tongues and tumult ftun the field beneath.
Black ants in teams come darkening all the road,
Some call to march, and fome to lift the load;
They strain, they labour with inceffant pains,
Prefs'd by the cumbrous weight of single grains.

The