PART II.

PIECES IN POETRY.

CHAPTER I.

SELECT SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS,

SECTION 1.

Short and easy Sentences.

Education.

'Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd.

Candour.

With pleasure let us own our errors past;
And make each day a critic on the last.

Reflection.

A foul without reflection, like a pile
Without inhabitant, to ruin runs.

NOTE.

In the first chapter, the Compiler has exhibited a confiderable variety of poetical construction, for the young reader's preparatory exercise.

Secret virtue.

The private path, the secret acts of men,
If noble, far the nobleft of their lives.

Necessary knowledge easily attained.

Our needful knowledge, like our needful food,
Unhedg'd, lies open in life's common field;

And bids all welcome to the vital feaft.

Disappointment.

Disappointment lurks in many a prize,

As bees in flow'rs; and stings us with fuccefs.

Virtuous elevation.

The mind that would be happy, must be great;
Great in its wishes; great in its furveys.

Extended views a narrow mind extend.

Natural and fanciful life.

Who lives to nature, rarely can be poor:
Who lives to fancy, never can be rich.

Charity.

In faith and hope the world will disagree;
But all mankind's concern is charity.

The prize of virtue.

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm funshine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is virtue's prize,

Sense and modesty connected.

Distrustful sense with modeft caution speaks;
It ftill looks home, and short excurfions makes;
But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks.

Moral difcipline Salutary.

Heav'n gives us friends to bless the present scene;
Refumes them to prepare us for the next.

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All evils natural are moral goods;

All discipline, indulgence, on the whole.

Present blessings undervalued.

Like birds, whose beauties languish, half-conceal'd,
Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes
Expanded shine with azure, green, and gold,
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!

Hope.

Hope, of all passions most befriends us here:
Passions of prouder name befriend us less.
Joy has her tears, and Transport has her death;
Hope, like a cordial, innocent, though strong,
Man's heart, at once, infpirits and ferenes.

Happiness modest and tranquil.
-Never man was truly blest,

But it compos'd, and gave him fuch a caft,
As folly might mistake for want of joy:
A cast unlike the triumph of the proud;
A modest afpect, and a smile at heart.

True greatness.

Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, fmiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.

The tear of sympathy.

No radiant pearl, which crefted Fortune wears,
No gem, that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,,
Nor the bright stars, which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rifing funs that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with fuch luftre, as the tear that breaks,
For others' woe, down Virtue's manly cheeks.

SECTION II.

Verfes in which the Lines are of different Length.

Bliss of celestial origin.

RESTLESS mortals toil for nought;

Bliss in vain from earth is fought;
Blifs, a native of the sky,

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

The passions.

The passions are a num'rous crowd,
Imperious, positive, and loud.
Curb these licentious fons of strife;
Hence chiefly rise the storms of life:
If they grow mutinous, and rave,
They are thy masters, thou their slave.

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 shape:
An earthquake may be bid to spare
The man that's strangled by a hair.
Fate steals along with filent tread,
Found oft'nest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm 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 duft alone remains of thee;
'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.