And blended form, with artful strife,
The ftrength and harmony of life.

The golden mean.

He that holds fast the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,

Imbitt'ring all his state.

The tallest pines feel most the pow'r
Of wintry blast; the loftieft tow'r

Comes heaviest to the ground.

The bolts that spare the mountain's fide,
His cloud-capt eminen e divide;

And fpread the ruin round.

Moderate views and aims recommended.

With passions unruffled, untainted with pride, By reason my life let me square :

The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied;
And the rest are but folly and care.

How vainly, through infinite trouble and strife,
The many their labours employ !
Since all that is truly delightful in life,

Is what all, if they please, may enjoy.

Attachment to life.

The tree of deepest root is found

Leaft willing still to quit the ground:

'Twas therefore faid, by ancient sages,
That love of life increas'd with years,
So much, that in our later stages,
When pains grow sharp, and fickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.

Virtue's address to Pleasure *.

Vast happiness enjoy thy gay allies!

A youth of follies, an old age of cares; Young yet enervate, old yet never wife,

Vice wastes their vigour, and their mind 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 present, of the past asham'd, They live and are defpis'd; they die, nor more are nam'd.

SECTION V.

Verfes in which found corresponds to fignification.

Smooth and rough verse.

Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the fmooth stream in smoother numbers flows.
But when loud furges lash the founding shore,

The hoarfe rough verse should like the torrent roar.

Slow motion imitated.

When Ajax ftrives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move flow.

Swift and easy motion.

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Felling trees in a wood.

Loud founds the axe, redoubling strokes on strokes; On all fides round the foreft hurls her oaks

* Senfual pleafure.

Headlong. Deep echoing groan the thickets brown; Then rustling, crackling, crashing, thunder down.

Sound of a Bow-ftring.

The string let fly

Twang'd short and sharp, like the shrill swallow's cry.

The Pheasant.

See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs, And mounts exulting on triumphant wings.

Scylla and Charybdis.

Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.

When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves,
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves.

Boisterous and gentle founds.

Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring winds tempestuous rage restrain:

Within, the waves in softer murmurs glide;
And ships fecure without their haulsers 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 stone resulting, with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the

ground.

Regular and flow movement.

First march the heavy mules securely flow;

O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go.

Motion flow and difficult.

A needless Alexandrine ends the fong;

That, like a wounded snake, 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 waves.

The waves behind impel the waves before,

Wide-rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore.

Penfive numbers.

In those deep folitudes, and awful cells,

Where heav'nly-pensive Contemplation dwells,

And ever-mufing Melancholy reigns.

Battle.

- Arms on armour clashing bray'd Horrible difcord; and the madding wheels Of brazen fury rag'd.

Sound imitating reluctance.

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,

This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd; Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind?

SECTION VI.

Paragraphs of greater length.

Connubial affection.

The love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against fickness and old age,
Preferv'd by virtue from declension,
Becomes not weary of attention:
But lives, when that exterior grace,
Which first inspir'd the flame, decays.

'Tiş gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compassionate, or blind;
And will with sympathy endure
Those evils it would gladly cure.
But angry, coarfe, and harsh expression,
Shows love to be a mere profefsion;
Proves that the heart is none of his,
Or foon expels him if it is.

Swarms of flying infits.

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 sweeps them from the face of day.
Ev'n fo, luxurious men, unheeding, pafs
An idle fummer life, in Fortune's shine,
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 strikes 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 ev'ry friend partakes my store,
And Want goes fmiling from my door.
Will forty fhillings warm the breaft
Of worth or industry distress'd ?
This fum I cheerfully impart;
'Tis fourfcore pleasures to my heart:
And you may make, by means like these,
Five talents ten, whene'er you please.
'Tis true, my little purse grows light;
But then I fleep so sweet at night!