Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

LETTER XII

To AMASI A.

July 8, 1744.

F good manners will not justify my long filence, policy at leaft will: for you muft confefs there is fome prudence in not owning a debt one is incapable of paying. I have the mortification indeed to find myfelf engaged in a commerce, which I have not a fufficient fund to fupport; tho' I must add at the fame time, if you expect an equal return of entertainment for that which your letters afford, I know not where you will find a correfpondent. You will fcarcely, at leaft, look for him in the defart, or hope for any thing very lively from a man who is obliged to feek his companions among the dead. You who dwell in a land flowing with mirth and good humor, meet with many a gallant occurrence worthy of record: but what can a village produce, which is more famous for repofe than for action, and is fo much behind the manners of the present age, as scarce to have got out of the fimplicity of the firft? The utmost of our

humor

1

humor rifes no higher than punch; and all that we know of Affemblies, is once a year round our May-pole. Thus unqualified, as I am, to contribute to your amusement, I am as much at a lofs to fupply my own; and am obliged to have recoufe to a thoufand ftratagems to help me off with those. lingering hours, which run fo fwiftly, it feems, by you. As one cannot always, you know, be playing at pufh-pin, I fometimes employ myself with a lefs philofophical diverfion; and either purfue butterflies, or hunt rhymes, as the weather, and the feafon permit. This morning not proving very favorable to my fports of the field, I contented myself with thofe under covert; and as I am not at prefent fupplied with any :thing better for your entertainment, will you fuffer me to fet before you fome of game?

E

}

A TALE,

my

RE Saturn's fons were yet difgrac'd, And heathen gods were all the taste, Full oft (we read) 'twas Jove's high will To take the air on Ida's hill.

It chanc'd, as once with ferious ken,
He view'd from thence the ways
E 3

of men,

He

He faw (and pity touch'd his breast)
The world by three foul fiends poffeft.
Pale Difcord there, and Folly vain,
With haggard Vice, upheld their reign.
Then forth he sent his fummons high,"
And call'd a fenate of the fky.
Round as the winged orders preft,
Jove thus his facred mind expreft:

cr

;

Say, which of all this fhining train "Will Virtue's conflict hard sustain "For fee! fhe drooping takes her flight, "While not a god fupports her right." He paus'd-when from amidst the sky, Wit, Innocence, and Harmony, With one united zeal arofe,

The triple tyrants to oppose.

That inftant from the realms of day,
With gen'rous speed, they took their way:
To Britain's ifle direct their car,

And enter'd with the ev'ning ftar.

BESIDE the road a manfion ftood,
Defended by a circling wood.

Hither, difguis'd, their fteps they bend,
In hopes, perchance, to find a friend.
Nor vain their hopé; for records fay
Worth ne'er from thence was turn'd away.
They urge the trav'ller's common chance,
And ev'ry piteous plea advance.

The

The artful tale that Wit had feign'd,
Admittance eafy foon obtain'd.

THE dame who own'd, adorn'd the place:
Three blooming daughters added
grace.
The firft, with gentleft manners bleft,
And temper sweet, each heart poffeft;
Who view'd her catch'd the tender flame:
And foft Amafia was her name.
In fprightly fenfe, and polish'd air,
What maid with Mira might compare?
While Lucia's eyes, and Lucia's lyre,
Did unrefifted love inspire,

IMAGINE now the table clear,
And mirth in ev'ry face appear:
The fong, the tale, the jeft went round,
The riddle dark, the trick profound.
Thus each admiring and admir'd,
The hofts and guests at length retir'd;
When Wit thus fpake her fifter-train:
Faith, friends, our errand is but vain -

[ocr errors]

Quick let us measure back the sky; "These nymphs alone may well fupply "Wit, Innocence, and Harmony.

}

You fee to what expedient folitude has reduced me, when I am thus forced to ftring rhymes, as boys do birds eggs, in orE 4

der

1

der to while away my idle hours. But a gayer scene is, I truft, approaching, and the day will fhortly, I hope, arrive, when I fhall only complain that it fteals away too faft. It is not from any improvement in the objects which furround me that I expect this wondrous change; nor yet that a longer familiarity will render them more agreable. It is from a promife I received, that Amafia will vifit the Hermit in his cell, and difperfe the gloom of a folitaire by the chearfulness of her converfation. What inducements fhall I mention to prevail with you to haften that day? fhall I tell you, that I have a bower over-arched with woodbine? that I have an oak which is the favorite haunt of a dryad? that I have a plantation, which flourishes with all the verdure of May, in the midft of all the cold of December? Or, may I not hope that I have. fomething ftill more prevailing with you than all thefe, as I can with truth affure you, that I have a heart which is faithfully yours, &c.

LETTER

« PreviousContinue »