SECTION II.

VERSES IN WHICH THE LINES ARE OF DIFFERENT

LENGTH.

Blifs of celeftial Origin.

RESTLESS mortals toil for nought;
Blifs in vain from earth is fought;

Bliss, a native of the sky,

Never wanders. Mortals, try;
There you cannot feek in vain
For to feek her is to gain.

The Paffions.

;

The paffions are a numerous crowd,
Imperious, pofitive, and loud.
Curb thefe licentious fons of ftrife
Hence chiefly rife the storms of life :
If they grow mutinous, and rave,
They are thy mafters, thou their flave.

Truft in Providence recommended.

'Tis Providence alone fecures,

In ev'ry change, both mine and yours.
Safety confifts not in escape

From dangers of a frightful fhape:
An earthquake may be bid to spare
The man that's strangled by a hair.
Fate fteals along with filent tread,
Found oft'neft in what least we dread
Frowns in the ftorm with angry brow,
But in the funshine strikes the blow.

Epitaph.

;

How lov'd, how valu'd once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot ;

A heap of dult alone remains of thee;
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.
Fame.

All fame is foreign, but of true defert ;

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One felf-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid itarers, and of loud huzzas :
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.

Hope fwells his fails, and paffion fteers his course.
Safe glides his little bark along the fhore,
Where virtue takes her ftand; but if too far
He launches forth beyond difcretion's mark,
Sudden the tempeft fcowls, the furges roar,
Blot his fair day, and plunge him in the deep.
Sunrife.

But yonder comes the pow'rful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The lefs'ning cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo, now, apparent all

Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;

And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and tow'rs, and wand'ring ftreams,
High gleaming from afar.

Self-Government.

May I govern my paffions with abfolute fway;
And grow wifer and better as life wears away.
Shepherd.

On a mountain, ftretch'd beneath a hoary willow,
Lay a fhepherd fwain, and view'd the rolling billow.

SECTION III.

VERSES CONTAINING EXCLAMATIONS, INTERROGATIONS, AND PARENTHESES.

Competence.

A COMPETENCE is all we can enjoy :

Oh! be content, where Heav'n can give no more!
Reflection effential to Happiness.

Much joy not only fpeaks fmall happiness,
But happiness that fhortly must expire.
Can joy, unbottom'd in reflection, stand?
And, in a tempeft, can reflection live?

Friendship.

Can gold gain friendship? Impudence of hope!
As well mere man an angel might beget.
Love, and love only, is the loan for love.
Lorenzo! pride reprefs; nor hope to find
A friend, but what has found a friend in thee.
All like the purchase; few the price will pay :
And this makes friends fuch miracles below.

Patience.

Beware of defp'rate fteps. The darkest day
(Live till to-mori ow) will have pafs'd away:
Luxury.

-O luxury!

Bane of elated life, of affluent states,
What dreary change, what ruin is not thine!
How doth thy bowl intoxicate the mind!
To the foft entrance of thy rofy cave,

How doft thou lure the fortunate and great!
Dreadful attraction!

Virtuous Activity.

Seize, mortals! feize the tranfient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies:
Life's a fhort fummer-man a flow'r ;
He dies-Alas! how foon he dies!

The Source of Happiness.

Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of fenfe,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence:
But health confifts with temperance alone;
And peace, O virtue ! peace is all thy own.
Placid Emotion.

Who can forbear to smile with nature? Can
The ftormy paffions in the bofom roll,
While ev'ry gale is peace, and ev'ry grove
Is melody?

Solitude.*

O facred folitude! divine retreat!

Choice of the prudent! envy of the great!
By thy pure ftream, or in thy waving fhade,
We court fair wisdom, that celeftial maid :
The genuine offspring of her lov'd embrace,
(Strangers on earth,) are innocence and peace.
There, from the ways of men laid safe afhore,
We fmile to hear the diftant tempeft roar ;
There, blefs'd with health, with bus'ness unperplex'd,
This life we relifh, and enfure the next.

Prefume not on To-morrow.

In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rife,
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn?

By solitude here is meant, a temporary seclusion from the world.

Where is to-morrow? In another world.
For numbers this is certain; the reverse

Is fure to none.

Dum vivimus vivamus.

Whil we live, let us live.

"Live, while you live," the epicure would fay,
And feize the pleafures of the prefent day.'
"Live while you live, the facred preacher cries;
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
Lord in my views, let both united be;
I live in pleasure, when I live to thee!

SECTION IV.

VERSES IN VARIOUS FORMS.

The Security of Virtue.

Let coward guilt, with pallid fear,
To thelt'ring caverns fly,

And justly dread the vengeful fate,
That thunders through the sky.
Protected by that hand, whose law
The threat'ning ftorms obey,
Intrepid virtue fimiles fecure,
As in the blaze of day.

Refignation.

And O! by error's force fubdu’d,
Since oft my ftubborn will
Prepolt'rous fhuns the latent good,
And grafps the fpecious ill.
Not to my wifh, but to my want,
Do thou thy gifts apply;

Unafk'd, what good thou knowest grant;
What ill, though afk'd, deny.

Compaffion.

I have found out a gift for my

fair ;

DODDRIDGE.

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed:

But let me that plunder forbear !

She will fay, 'tis a barbarous deed.

For he ne'er can be true, she averr'd,
Who can rob a poor bird of its young:
And I lov'd her the more when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.

Epitaph.

Here refts his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune, and to fame unknown;

Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his foul fincere ;
Heav'n did a recompenfe as largely fend:
He gave to misʼry all he had—a tear;

He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wifh'd) a friend.. No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repofe,) The bofom of his Father and his God.

Joy and Sorrow connected.

Still, where rofy pleasure leads,

See a kindred grief pursue ;

Behind the steps that mis'ry treads,
Approaching comforts view.

The hues of blifs more brightly glow,
Chaftis'd by fable tints of wo:

And blended form, with artful strife,
The strength and harmony of life.

He that holds faft the golden mean,

And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,

Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,.
Imbitt'ring all his ftate.

The tallest pines feel moft the pow'r
Of wintry blaft; the loftieft tow'r
Comes heaviest to the ground..

The bolts that spare the mountain's fide,
His cloud-capt eminence divide ;

And spread the ruin round.

Moderate Views and Aims recommended.
With paffions unruffled, untainted with pride,
By reafon my life let me fquare;

The wants of my nature are cheaply supply'd ;
And the rest are but folly and care.

How vainly, through infinite trouble and ftrife,
The many their labours employ !
Since all that is truly delightful in life,
Is what all, if they please, may enjoy.