SECTION IV.
Care of Birds for their Young.
As thus the patient dam affiduous fits,
Not to be tempted from her tender task,
Or by fharp hunger, or by fmooth delight,
Tho' the whole loofened fpring around her blows,
Her fympathifing partner takes his ftand
High on th' opponent bank, and ceafelefs
The tedious time away; or else fupplies
Her place a moment, while the fudden flits
To pick the fcanty meal Th' appointed time
With pious toil fulfill'd, the callow young,
Warm'd and expanded into perfect life,
Their brittle bondage break, and come to light,
A helplefs family, demanding food
With conftant clamour. O what paffions then,
What melting fentiments of kindly care,
On the new parents feize Away they fly
Affectionate, and undeffing "bear"
The most delicious morfel to their young
Which equally diftributed, again
The fearch begins. Even fo a gentle pair,
By fortune funk, but form'd of gen'rous mould,
And charm'd with cares beyond the vulgar breast,
In fome lone cot amid the diftant woods,
Suftain'd alone by providential Heaven,
Oft as they, weeping, eye their infant train,
Check their own appetites, and give them all.
Liberty and Slavery contrafled. Part of a Letter written from
How is kit. d Heav'n adorn'd the happy land,
And fatter'd bleffings with a liberal hand!
But what avail her unexhausted stores,
Her blooming mountains, and her funny fhores,
With all the gifts that heav'n and earth impart,
The fmiles of nature, and the charms of art,
While roud oppreffion in her vallies reigns,
And tyranny ufurps her happy plains?
The poor inhabitant beholds in va
The redd'ning orange, and the fwelling grain ;
Joylefs he fees the growing oils and wines,
And in the myrtle's fragrant fhade repiness
Oh, Liberty, thou pow'r fupremely bright,
Profufe of blifs, and pregnant with delight!
Perpetual pleasures in thy prefence reign;
And fmiling plenty leads thy wanton train.
Eas'd of her load, fubjection grows more light;
And poverty looks cheerful in thy fight.
Thou mak'it the gloomy face of nature gay;
Giv't beauty to the fun, and pleasure to the day.
On foreign mountains, may the fun refine
The grape's foft juice, and mellow it to wine ;
With citron groves adorn a distant soil,
And the fat olive fwell with floods of oil;
We envy not the warmer clime, that lies.
In ten degrees of more indulgent skies ;
Nor at the coarseness of our heav'n repine,
Tho' o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads fhine :
'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's ifle,
And makes her barren rocks, and her bleak mountains smile.
Charity. `A Paraphrafe on the thirteenth Chapter of the first
Epistle to the Corinthians.
DID fweeter founds adorn my flowing tongue,
Than ever man pronounc'd, or angels fung;
Had I all knowledge, human and divine,
That thought can reach, or fcience can define;
And had I power to give that knowledge birth,
In all the speeches of the babbling earth;
Did Shadrach's zeal my glowing breaft infpire,
To weary tortures, and rejoice in fire;
Or had Í faith like that which Ifrael faw,
When Mofes gave them miracles, and law
Yet, gracious charity, indulgent guelt,
Were not thy power exerted in my breast,
Thofe fpeeches would fend up unheeded prayer?
That fcorn of life would be but wild defpair ;
A cymbal's found were better than my voice;
My faith were form; my eloquence were noife.
Charity, decent, modeft, eafy, kind,
Softens the high, and rears the abject mind;
Knows with juft reins, and gentle hand, to guide
Betwixt vile fhame, and arbitrary prido
Not foon provok'd, the eafily forgives!
And much the fuffers, as fhe much believes
Soft peace fhe brings wherever fhe arrives ;
She builds our quiet as the forms our lives;
Lays the rough paths of peevith nature even;
And opens in each heart a little heaven.
Each other gift which God on man beflows,
Its proper bounds, and due restriction knows ;
To one fix'd purpose dedicates its power;
And finishing its act, exilts no more.
Thus, in obedience to what Heaven decrees,
Knowledge fhall fail, and prophecy fhall ceafe:
Bat lafting charity's more ample sway,
Nor bound by time, nor fubject to decay,
I happy triumph fhall forever live;
And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive.
As through the artist's intervening glafs,
On: eye obferves the diftant planets pafs;
A little we difcover; but allow,
That more remains unfeen, than art can show ;
So whilft our mind its knowledge would improve,
Its feeble eye intent on things above,)
ch as we may, we lift our reafon up, By ith directed, and confirm'd by hope; Yet are we able only to furvey
Davings of beams, and promises of day;
Heaven's fuller effluence mocks our dazzl'd fight;
reat its fwiftnefs, and too frong its tight
Toon the mediate clouds fhall be difpell'd;
The fin fhall foon be face to face beheld,
la alt his robes, with all his glory cn,
Foted fublime on his meridian throne.
en conftant faith, and holy hope thall die,
One loft in certainty, and one in joy:
Withou, more happy power, fair charity,
Trier phant fifter, greatest of the three,
fice, and thy nature ftill the fame, Lang thy lamp, and unconfum'd thy flame, shalt fill furvive
Shalt stand before the host of heaven confest,
Forever bleffing, and forever bleit.
SECTION VII.
Pigure of a good Man.
So angel guide my pencil, while I draw,
What nothing less than angel can exceed,
A man on earth devoted to the skies;
Like ships at fea, while in, above the world.
With afpect mild, and elevated eye,
Behold him feated on a mount ferene,
Above the fogs of fenfe, and paffion's ftorm;
All the black cares and tumults of this life,
Like harmless thunders, breaking at his feet,
Excite his pity, not impair his peace.
Earth's genuine fons, the fceptred, and the flave,
A mingled mob! a wand'ring herd! he fees,
Bewilder'd in the vale in all unlike !
His full reverfe in all! What higher praife?
What stronger demonftration of the right?
The prefent all their care: the future his.
When public welfare calls, or private want,
They give to fame; his bounty he conceals.
Their virtues varnifh nature; his exalt.
Mankind's esteem they court; and he his own.
Theirs the wild chafe of falfe felicities;
His, the compos'd poffeffion of the true.
Alike throughout is his confiftent piece,
All of one colour, and an even thread;
While party-colour'd shreds of happiness,
With hideous gaps between, patch up for them
A madman's robe; each puff of fortune blows
The tatters by, and fhows their nakedness.
He fees with other eyes than theirs: where they Behold a fun, he fpies a Deity;
What makes them only fmile, makes him adore.
Where they Re mountains, he but atoms fees ;
An empire in his balance weighs a grain.
They things terreftrial worship, as divine;
His hopes immortal blow them by, as duft,
That dims his fight, and fhorgens his furvey,
Which longs, in infinite, to lose all bound.
Titles and honours (if they prove his fate)
He lays aide to find his dignity;
No dignity, they find in aught befides.
They triumph in externals, (which conceal
Man's real glory,) proud of an eclipfe :
Himself too much he prizes to be proud;
And nothing thinks fo great in man, as man.
Too dear he holds his int'reft, to neglect
Another's welfare, or his right invade;
Their intereft, like a lion, lives on prey.
They kindle at the fhadow of a wrong
Wrong he fuftains with temper, looks on heav'n,
Nor ftoops to think his injurer his foe
Nought, but what wounds his virtue, wounds his peace.
A cover' heart their character defends;
A cover'd heart denies him half his praife.
With nakednefs his innocence agrees;
While their broad foliage teftifies their fall!
Their no joys end, where his full feaft begins:
His joys treate, theirs murder, future blifs.
To triumph in existence, his alone;
And his alone triumphantly to think
His true existence is not yet begun.
His glorious courfe was, yesterday, complete :
Death, then, was welcome; yet life fill is fweet.
SECTION VIII.
The Pleafures of Retirement.
KNEW he but his happiness, of ment
The happieft he who far from public rage,
Deep in the vale, with a choice few retir'd
Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life
What the the dome be wanting, whofe proud gate,
Each morning, vomits out the fneaking crowd
Of flatterers falfe, and in their turn abusid
Vile intercourfe What tho the glitt ring robe,
Of every hue reflected light can give
Or floated loofe or ftiff with mazy gold
epor
The pride and gaze of fools oppress him not
What tho from utmost land and fea purvey'd
For him each rarer tributary life
Bleeds hot and his infatiate table heaps
With luxury and death What tho his bowl
Flames not with coftly juice nor funk in beds
Oft of gay care he toffes out the night,
Or melts the thoughtless hours in idle ftate
What tho he knows not those fantastic joys
That ftill amule the wanton, ftill deceive,
A face of pleature, but a heart of pain!
Their hollow moments undelighted all
Sure peace is his a folid life eftrang'd
To disappointment and fallacious hope
Rich in content, in nature's bounty rich,
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