The tree of deepest root is found
Leaft willing ftill to quit the ground:
'Twas therefore faid, by ancient fages,
That love of life increas'd' with years,
So much, that in our later stages,
When pains grow fharp, and fickness rages
The greatest love of life appears.
Virtue's Addrefs to Plenfure.*
Vaft happiness, enjoy thy gay allies!
A youth of follies, an old age of cares;
Young, yet enervate, old, yet never wife,
Vice waftes their vigour, and their minds impairs. Vain, idle, delicate, in thoughtless ease,
Referving woes for age, their prime they spend ;
All wretched, hopeless in the evil days,
With forrow to the verge of life they tend,
Griev'd with the prefent, of the past asham'd.
They live and are despis'd; they die, no more are nam’d.
VERSES IN WHICH SOUND CORRESPONDS WITH SIG.
NIFICATION.
Smooth and rough Verfe.
SOFT is the train when zephyr gently blows,
And the fmooth ftream in fmoother numbers flows.
Eat when loud furges lafh the founding fhore,
The hoarfe rough verfe fhould like the torrent roar.
Slow Motion imitated.
When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move flow.
Swift and eafy Motion.
Not fo when swift Camilla fcours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and fkims along the main.
Felling Trees in a Wood
Loud founds the axe, redoubling frokes on ftrokes ;
On all fides round the foreft hurls her oaks
Headlong. Deep echoing groan the thickets brown ;
Then, rustling, crackling, crafhing, thunder down.
Sound of a Bow String.
-The ftring let fly Twang'd short and sharp, like the fhrill fwallow's cry. * Sensual pleasure.
See from the brake the whirring pheafant fprings,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings."
Scylla and Charybdis.
Dire Scylla there a fcene of horror forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with ftorms.
When the tide rufhes from her rumbling caves,
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves.
Boiferous and gentle Sounds.
Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring winds' tempeftuous rage restrain :
Within the waves in fofter murmurs glide;
And ships fecure without their haulfers ride.
Laborious and impetuous Motion.
With many a weary step and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone :
The huge round ftone refulting, with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and fmokes along the ground.
Regular and flow Movement.
First march the heavy mules fecurely flow;
O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go.
Motions flow and difficult.
A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong,
That, like a wounded fnake, drags its flow length along.
A Rock torn from the Brow of a Mountain..
Still gath'ring force, it smokes, and urg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain.
Extent and Violence of the Wav
The waves behind impel the waves before,
Wide rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore.
Penfive Numbers.
In thefe deep folitudes, and awful cells,
Where heav'nly penfive contemplation dwells,
And ever mufing melancholy reigns.
Arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible difcord; and the madding wheels
Sound imitating Reluctance.
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleafing anxious being e'er refign'd;
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor caft one longing, ling'ring look behind.
PARAGRAPHS OF GREATER LENGTI
Connubial Affection.
THE love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against fickness and old age,
Preferv'd by virtue from declenfion,
Becomes not weary of attention :
But lives, when that exterior grace,
Which first infpir'd the flame, decays.
'Tis gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compaffionate, or blind;
And will with fympathy endure
Those evils it would gladly cure.
But angry, coarfe, and harsh expreffion,
Shows love to be a mere profeffion;
Proves that the heart is none of his,
Or foon expels him if it is.
Swarms of flying Infells.
Thick in yon ftream of light, a thousand ways,
Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd,
The quiv'ring nations fport; till, tempeft wing'd,
Fierce winter fweeps them from the face of day.
Ev'n fo, luxurious men, unheeding, pafs
An idle fummer life, in fortune's fhine,
A feafon's glitter! Thus they flutter on,
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice;
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes
Behind, and ftrikes them from the book of life
Beneficence its own Reward.
My fortune (for I'll mention all,
And more than you dare tell) is fmall;
Yet every friend partakes my ftore,
And want goes fmiling from my door.
Will forty fhillings warm the breast
Of worth or industry distress'd ?
This fum I cheerfully impart :
'Tis four fcore pleasures to my heart:
And you may make, by means like thefe,
Five talents ten, whene'er you please.
'Tis true, my little purfe grows light;
But then I fleep fo fweet at night!
This grand fpecific, will prevail,
When all the doctor's opiates fail.
Virtue the best Treasure.
Virtue, the ftrength and beauty of the foul,
Is the best gift of Heav'n: a happiness,
That, even above the fmiles and frowns of fate,
Exalts great nature's favourites: a wealth
That ne'er encumbers; nor to baser hands
Can be transferr'd. It is the only good
Man justly boafts of, or can call his own.
Riches are oft by guilt and baseness earn'd.
But for one end, one much neglected use,
Are riches worth our care; (for nature's wants
Are few, and without opulence fupply'd ;)
This noble end is, to produce the foul;
To fhow the virtues in their faireft light;
And make humanity the minister
Of bounteous Providence.
As yet 'tis midnight deep. The weary clouds,
Slow meeting, mingle into folid gloom.
Now, while the drowsy world lies loft in fleep,
Let me affociate with the serious night,
And contemplation her fedate compeer;
Let me shake off th' intrufive cares of day,
And lay the meddling fenfes all aside.
Where now, ye lying vanities of life!
Ye ever tempting, ever cheating train!
Where are you now? and what is your amount?
Vexation, difappointment, and remorse.
Sa, fickening thought! And yet deluded man,
A fcene of crude disjointed vifions past,
And broken flumbers, rises still refolv'd,
With new flush'd hopes, to run the giddy round.
Pleafures of Piety.
A Deity believ'd, is joy begun ;
A Deity ador'd, is joy advanc'd;
A. Deity belov'd, is joy matur'd.
Each branch of piety delight infpires :
Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next,
O'er death's dark gulf, and all its horror hides
Praife, the fweet exhalation of our joy,
That joy exalts, and makes it sweeter fill;
Pray'r ardent opens heaven, lets down a stream
Of glory, on the confecrated hour
Of man in audience with the Deity.
SECTION I.
The Bears and the Bees.
AS two young bears, in wanton mood,
Forth iffuing from a neighbouring wood,
Came where th' induftrious bees had ftor'd
In artful cells, their lufcious hoard;
O'erjoy'd they feiz'd, with eager hafte,
Luxurious on the rich repaft.
Alarm'd at this, the little crew
About their ears vindictive flew.
The beafts, unable to fuftain
Th' unequal combat, quit the plain;
Half blind with rage and mad with pain,
Their native fhelter they regain;
There fit, and now, difcreeter grown,
Too late their rafhnefs they bemoan;
And this by dear experience gain,
That pleafure's ever bought with pain.
So when the gilded baits of vice
Are plac'd before our longing eyes,
With greedy hafte we fnatch our fill,
And fwallow down the latent ill;
But when experience opes our eyes,
Away the fancy'd pleasure flies.
It flies, but oh! too late we find,
It leaves a real fting behind.
The Nightingale and the Glow-worm.
A NIGHTINGALE, that all day long
Had cheer'd the village with his fong,
Nor yet at eve his note fufpended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well he might,
The keen demands of appetite;
When, looking eagerly around,
He fpied far off, upon the ground,
A fomething fhining in the dark,
And knew the glow worm by his fpa: k.
So, ftooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop.
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