'Tis true, the passion in my mind Is mixed with soft distress: But while the Fair I love is kind, I cannot wish it less.
CONTENTMENT.
(ALTERED FROM THE SAME.)
LOVELY, lasting Peace of Mind, Genuine wealth of human-kind, Whither, O! whither art thou fled, To lay thy meek, contented head? Ambition searches all his sphere
Of pomp and state to claim thee there: Insatiate Avarice would find
Thee in his golden heaps enshrined: The bold Adventurer ploughs his way, Through rocks, and mid' the foaming sea, To gain thy love, and then perceives, Thou wert not in the rocks and waves. The silent heart, that grief assails, Treads lonesomely the verdant vales; Sees daisies open, rivers run, And seeks (as I have vainly done) Amusing thought,-but learns to know That Solitude's the nurse of woe. Nor real happiness is found, In trailing purple o'er the ground; Nor e'en in Science, ranging high The circuit of the awful sky, The course of every star to know, Or nature's varied forms below: The rest it seeks, in seeking dies, And doubts at last for knowledge rise. -Yet, lovely, lasting Peace, appear! For e'en this thorny world so drear,
Were once again with Eden blest, Did man but hold thee in his breast.
Thus, as beneath the shades I stood, I sang my wishes to the wood; And, lost in musing, not perceived The branches whisper as they waved. It seemed as Nature, still at peace, Confessed the Genius of the place. I heard his voice:-" Go, rule thy will; "Bid thy wild passions all be still; "Know GOD-and bring thy heart to know "The joys that from religion flow: "Then gentle Peace shall prove its guest, "And crown thee with unfading rest.
Oh! by yonder mossy seat, In my hours of sweet retreat, Might I thus my soul employ With sense of gratitude and joy; Raised, as ancient prophets were, In heavenly vision, praise, and prayer; Pleasing all men, hurting none,
Pleased and blest with GOD alone; -Then, while my garden takes my sight With all the colours of delight;
While silver waters glide along,
To please my ear, aud court my song; I'd lift my voice, and tune my string,
And THEE, great SOURCE OF NATURE, sing!
The sun, that walks his airy way,
To light the world, and give the day; The moon, that shines with placid light; The stars, that gild the gloomy night; The seas, that roll their countless waves; The woods, that spread unnumbered leaves;
The fields, whose ears conceal the grain,
The yellow treasure of the plain; All, all my ardent eyes could see, Should be sung, and sung by me: They speak their Maker as they can, But want and ask the tongue of man.
Go, mortals! search your idle dreams, Your busy or your vain extremes, And find a life of equal bliss:
-It is the next begun in this.
GENTLE air, thou breath of lovers, Vapour from a secret fire, Which by thee itself discovers, Ere yet daring to aspire.
Softest note of whispered anguish,
Harmony's refined part; Striking, while thou seem'st to languish, Full upon the listener's heart.
Softest messenger of passion,
Stealing through a crowd of spies, Who constrain the outward fashion, Close the lips, and watch the eyes.
Shapeless Sigh! we ne'er can shew thee, Framed but to assault the ear; Yet ere to their cost they knew thee, Every nymph may read thee-here.
A THOUGHT ON ETERNITY.
ERE the foundations of the world were laid, Ere kindling light th' Almighty word obeyed, Thou wert; and when the subterraneous flame Shall burst its prison, and devour this frame;
From angry heaven when fire avenging flies, And fervent heat dissolves the melting skies; Thou still shalt be-still as thou wert before- And know not change though Time shall be no more. Yea, as a drop in the wide ocean tossed,
So Time shall in Eternity be lost.
THE HORSE AND THE SERPENT. A Fable.
IN those vast, verdant, southern plains, Where Spring in green perpetual reigns; Those plains from Andes that descend, And lengths interminable extend; A Horse had left the grazing herd, To wander wildly o'er the sward, Unconscious that each joy must flee From solitary liberty.
His fellows roam by hundreds still, O'er grassy slope, and heathy hill; While vainly he would pleasure find In vagrant foot, and steps unkind. Sudden the sky's with clouds o'ercast, In threatening gusts arrives the blast. He snuffs the gale, and starts, and stands: Just then, unwreathing all its bands Of hideous coil, a Serpent grew From out its nest of leaves to view; And, raising all its horrors, stood, With tongue of fire, and eyes of blood.
Terror the Horse at once subdues; Flight and escape he cannot choose; The foe's too near:-a moment gone, The dreadful snake has fastened on His jutting chest:-the poison reigns That instant in his throbbing veins :
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