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Guiltless I gaz'd; heav'n liften'd while you fung;
And truths divine came mended from that tongue.
From lips like thofe what precept fail'd to move?
Too foon they taught me 'twas no fin to love:
Back thro' the paths of pleafing fenfe I ran,
Nor wish'd an Angel whom I lov'd a man.
Dim and remote the joys of faints I fee;
Nor envy them that heav'n I lofe for thee.

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How oft', when preft to marriage, have I faid,
Curfe on all laws but those which love has made?
Love, free as air, at fight of human ties,
Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.

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Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame,
Auguft her deed, and facred be her fame;
Before true paffion all thofe views remove,

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Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to love? 80
The jealous God, when we profane his fires,
Thofe reftlefs paffions in revenge infpires,
And bids them make mistaken mortals groan,
Who feek in love for ought but love alone.
Should at my feet the world's great master fall,
Himself, his throne, his world, I'd fcorn em all:
Not Cæfar's empress wou'd I deign to prove;
No, make me mistress to the man I love;
If there be yet another name, more free,
More fond than Mistress, make me that to thee!

Oh happy, ftate! when fouls each other draw,
When love is liberty, and nature, law:
All then is full, poffeffing, and poffefs'd,
No craving void left aking in the breaft:

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Ev'n thought meets thought, e'er from the lips it part, 95-
And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart.
This fure is blifs (if bliss on earth there be)

And once the lot of Abelard and me.

Alas how chang'd! what fudden horrors rife?
A naked lover bound and bleeding lies!
Where, where was Eloife? her voice, her hand,
Her poniard, had oppos'd the dire command,

He was her Preceptor in Philofophy and Divinity.

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Barbarian

Barbarian ftay! that bloody ftroke restrain :
The crime was common, common be the pain.
I can no more; by fhame, by rage fupprefs'd,
Let tears, and burning blushes speak the rest.

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Canft thou forget that fad, that folemn day,
When victims at yon' altar's foot we lay?
Canft thou forget what tears that moment fell,
When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell? 110
As with cold lips I kifs❜d the sacred veil,

The fhrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:
Heav'n fcarce believ'd the conqueft it furvey'd,
And faints with wonder heard the vows I made.
Yet then, to thofe dread altars as I drew,

Not on the crofs my eyes were fix'd, but you:
Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call,
And if I lofe thy love, I lofe my all.

Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;
Thofe ftill at leaft are left thee to beftow.
Still on that breaft enamour'd let me lie,

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Still drink delicious poifon from thy eye,

Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be prefs'd;

Give all thou canft-and let me dream the reft.
Ah no! inftru&t me other joys to prize,
With other beauties charm my partial eyes,
Full in my view fet all the bright abode,
And make my foul quit Abelard for God.

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Ah think at leaft thy flock deferves thy care, Plants of thy hand, and children of thy pray'r From the falfe world in early youth they fled,

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By thee to mountains, wilds, and deferts led,

You rais'd thefe hallow'd walls; the defert fmil'd,

And Paradife was open'd in the wild.

No weeping orphan faw his father's ftores

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Our fhrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors;
No filver faints, by dying mifers given,
Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n
But fuch plain roofs as piety could raife,
And only vocal with the maker's praife.
He founded the Monastery.

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In

Ah, Wretch believed the Spouse of God in vain. Confefsd within the Slave of Love and Man

El to Ab

In thefe lone walls (their day's eternal bound)
These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crown'd,
Where awful arches make a noon-day night,

And the dim windows fhed a folemn light;
Thy eyes diffus'd a reconciling ray,

And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day.
But now no face divine contentment wears,
'Tis all blank fadnefs, or continual tears.
See how the force of others pray'rs I try,
(Oh pious fraud of am'rous charity!)

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But why should I on others pray'rs depend?

Come thou, my father, brother, hufband, friend!

Ah let thy handmaid, fifter, daughter move,
And all those tender names in one, thy love!

The darksome pines that o'er yon' rocks reclin'd,

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Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind,
The wand'ring ftreams that shine between the hills,
The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,
The dying gales that pant upon the trees,
The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze;
No more these fcenes my meditation aid,
Or lull to reft the vifionary maid.

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But o'er the twilight groves, and dusky caves,
Long-founding ifles, and intermingled graves,
Black melancholy fits, and round her throws
A death-like filence, and a dread repofe :
Her gloomy presence faddens all the scene,
Shades ev'ry flow'r, and darkens ev'ry green,
Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,
And breathes a browner horror on the woods.
"Yet here for ever, ever muft I ftay;
Sad proof how well a lover can obey!
Death, only death, can break the lafting chain;
And here ev'n then, fhall my cold duft remain,
Here all its frailties, all its flames refign,
And wait, 'till 'tis no fin to mix with thine.

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VOL. I.

Ah wretch! believ'd the fpoufe of God in vain,
Confefs'd within the flave of love and man.
T

Affift

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