WRITTEN BY MRS. ELIZABETH HIGGONS.

WHY,

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Give ear, ambitious Princes, and be wise ;

Tremble, ye people, who your Kings ditress,
Listen, and learn wherein true greatness lies; Tremble, ye Kings, for people you oppress;
Place not your pride in roofs that shine with gems, Th’ Eternal fees, arm'd with his forky rods,
In purple robes, nor sparkling diadems;

The rise and fall of empires from the Gods.
Nor in dominion, nor extent of land :
He's only great, who can himself command,
Whose guard is peacerul innocence, whose guide

VERSES,
Is faithful reason ; who is yoid of pride.
Checking ambition ; nor is idly vain

Sent to the Author in his Retirement.
Of the falle incense of a popular train ;
Who without strife, or envy, can behold

THY, Granville, is thy life to shades confin'd, His neighbour's plenty, and his heaps of gold;

Thou whom the Gods design'd Nor covets other wealth, but what we find

In públic to do credit to mankind ? In the possessions of a virtuous mind.

Why Neeps the noble ardour of thy blood, Fearless he sees, who is with virtue crown'd, Which from thy ancestors so many ages past, The tempest rage, and hears the thunder sound; From Rollo down to Bevil Aow'd, Ever the same, let Fortune smile or frown,

And then appear'd again at laft? On the red scaffold, or the blazing throne ;

In thee, when thy victorious lance Serenely, as he lived, resigns his breath,

Bore the disputed prize from all the youth of France. Meets destiny half way, nor shrinks at death.

II.
Ye sovereign Lords, who sit like Gods in state,
Awing the world, and bustling to be great ;

In the first trials which are niade for fame,
Lords but in title, vassals in effect,

Those to whom Fate success denies, Whom lust controuls, and wild desires direct :

If taking counsel from their shame, The reins of empire but such hands disgrace,

They modestly retreat, are wife. Where Passion, a blind driver, guides the race.

But why should you who ftill succeed,

Whether with graceful art you lead What is this Fame, thus crowded round with Naves? The fiery barb, or with as graceful motion tread, The breath of fools, the bait of flattering knaves :

In shining balls, where all agree An honest heart, a conscience free from blame,

To give the highest praise to thee?
Not of great acts, but good, give me the name :

Such harmony in every mo ion's found,
In vain we plant, we build, our stores increase,
If conscience roots up all our inward peace.

As art could ne'er express by any found.
What need of arms, or instruments of war,

III. Or battering engines that destroy from far?

So lov'd and prais'd, whom all admire, The greatest king, and conqueror is he,

Why, why should you from courts and camps retire ? Who Lord of his own appetites can be ;

If Myra is unkind, if it can be, Bleft with a pow'r that nothing can destroy,

That any nymph can be unkind to thee ; And all have equal freedom to enjoy.

If pensive made by love, you thus retire, Whom worldly luxury, and pomps allure,

Awake your Muse, and string your lyre; They tread on ice, and find no footing sure ;

Your tender song, and your melodious strain, Place me, ye Powers ! in some obscure retreat,

Can never be addreft in vain ; O! keep me innocent, make others great :

She needs must love, and we shall have you

back again. In quiet shade, content with rural sports, Give me

life remote from guilty courts, Where free from hopes or fears, in humble ease,

OCCASIONED BY THE FOREGOING VERSES. Unheard of, I may live and die in peace.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1690.
Happy the man who thus retir'd from light,
Studies himself, and seeks no other light :

NEASE, tempting Siren, cease thy flattering strain, But most unhappy he, who sits on high,

Sweet is thy charming long, but sung in vain : Expos’d to every tongue and every eye ;

When the winds blow, and loud the tempests roar, Whore follies blaz'd about, to all are known,

What fool would trust the waves, and quit the shore ? But are a secret to himself alone :

Early, and vain, into the world I came,
Worse is an evil Fame, inuch worse than none,

Big with false hopes, and eager after fame ;
Till looking round me, ere the race began,
Madmen, and giddy fools, were all that ran;
Reclaim'd betimes, I from the lifts retire,

And thank the Gods, who my retreat inspire,
A LOYAL EXHORTATION. In happier times our ancestors were bred,

When virtue was the only path to tread :
YEAR 1688.

Give me, ye Gods ! but the same road to fame,
Whate'er my fathers dar'd, I dare the fame.

Chang'd is the scene, some baneful planet rules
In vain, O Britain ! you'd avert the guilt ; An impious world, contriv'd for knaves and fools.
It crimes which your forefathers blush'd to own, Look now around, and with impartial eyes
Repeated, call for heavier vengeance down.

Consider, and examine all wbo rise ;

WRITTEN IN THE

L From hobe fear, from joy to doubt ;

Weigh well their actions, and their treacherous ends, | In thought, or act, accountable to none,
How greatnets grows, and by what steps ascends ; But to himself, and to the Gods alone :
What murders, treasons, perjuries, deceit ;

O sweetness of content ! seraphic joy !
How many crush'd, to make one monster great. Which nothing wants, and nothing can destroy.
Would you command ? Have fortune in your pow'r ?

Where dwells this peace, this freedom of the mind ! Hug when you stab, and smile when you devour?

Where, but in shades remote from human kind; Be bloody, false, fatter, forswear, and lie,

In flowery vales, where nymphs and shepherds meet, Turn pander, pathick, parasite, or spy;

But never comes within the palace gate.
Such thriving arts may your with'd purpose bring, Farewel then cities, courts, and camps, farewell,
A Minister at least, perhaps a King.

Welcome, ye groves, here let me ever dwell,
Fortune, we moft unjustly partial call,

From cares, from business, and mankind remove, A mistress free, who bids alike to all ;

All but the muses, and inspiring Love : But on such terms as only suit the base,

How sweet the morn! How gentle is the night! Honour denies and shuns the foul embrace.

How calm the evening! And the day how bright! The honest man, who starves and is undone,

From hence, as from a hill, I view below
Not fortune, but his virtue keeps him down. The crowded world, a mighty wood in show,
Had Cato bent beneath the conquering cause,

Where several wanderers travel day and night,
He might have liv'd to give new Senates laws ; By different paths, and none are in the righi.
But on vile terms disdaining to be great,
He perich'd by his choice, and not his fate.
Honours and life, th' ufurper bids, and all
That vain mistaken men good-fortune call,

SONG.
Virtue forbids, and sets before his eyes

OVE is by Fancy led about
An honest death, which he accepts, and dies :
O glorious resolution ! Noble pride!

Whom we now an angel call,
More honour'd, than the tyrant liv’d, he dy'd ;

Divinely grac'd in every feature, More lov’d, more prais'd, more envy'd in his doom,

Straight 's a deformid, a perjur'd creature ; Than Cæsar trampling on the rights of Rome.

Love and hate are Fancy all. The virtuous nothing fear, but life with shame,

'Tis but as Fancy shall present And death's a pleasant road that leads to fame.

Objects of grief, or of content,
On bones, and scraps of dogs let me be fed,

That the lover's blest, or dies :
My limbs uncover'd, and expos'd my head

Visions of mighty pain, or pleasure, To bleakest colds, a kennel be my bed.

Imagin'd want, imagin'd treasure,
This, and all other martyrdom for thee,

All in powerful Fancy lies.
Seems glorious, all, thrice beauteous Honesty!
judge me, ye powers ! let Fortune tempt or frown,
Í ftand prepar'd, my honour is my own.

BEAUTY AND L AW.
Ye great Disturbers, who in endless noise,
In blood and rapine seek unnatural joys ;
For what is all this bustle but to fhun

King Charles II. having made a grant of be reversion Those thoughts with which you dare not be alone?

of an office in the court of King's-bencb, to bis Son As men in misery, opprest with care,

ihe Duke of Grafron; the Lord Chief Juifice laying Seek in the rage of wine to drown despair.

claim to it, as a perquisite legally belonging to bis Let others fight, and eat their bread in blood,

office, the cause came to be beard before ibe Houje Regardless if the cause be bad or good;

of Lords, between the Duchess, Reliet of the said Or cringe in courts, depending on the nods

Duke, and the Chief Justice, Of frutting pigmies who would pass for Gods.

HE Princes sat; Beauty and Law contend ; For me, unpractis'd in the courtiers school, Who loathe a knive, and tremble at a fool ;

The Queen of Love will her own cause defend;

Secure she looks, as certain none can see
Who honour generous Wycherly oppreft,
Posest of little, worthy of the best,

Such Beauty plead, and not her captive be.

What need of words with such commanding eyes? Rich in himself, in virtue that outshines All but the fime of his immortal lines,

Must I then speak? 0 Heavens! the charmer cries More than the weal: hiest lord, who helps to drain

O barbarous clime! where Beauty borrows aid

From eloquence, to charm, or to persuade ! The famith'd land, and rolls in impious gain :

Will discord never leave with envious care
What can I hope in courts? Or how succeed?

To raife debate? But discord governs here.
Tygers and wolves shall in the ocean breed,
The whale and dolphin fatten on the mead;

To Juno, Pallas, wisdom, fame, and power,

Long lince preferr'd, what trial needs there more ? And every element exchange its kind,

Confess’d to light, three Goddesses descend
Ere thriving honesty in courts we find.

On Ida’s hill, and for a prize contend;
Happy the man, of mortals happieft he,

Nobly they bid, and lavishly pursue
Whose quiet mind from vain desires is free; A gift, that only could be Beauty's due :
Whom neither hopes deceive, nor fears torment, Honours and wealth the generous judge denies,
But lives at peace, within himself content, And gives the triumph to the brightest eyes.

Such

A POLTICAL PLEADING.

T

Such precedents are numberless, we draw

What need I more? 'Tis treason to dispute : Our right from cuitom; cuítom is a law

The grant was royal; that decides the fuit. As high as heaven, as wide as feas or land;

“ Shall vulgar laws imperial power constrain ? As ancient as the world is our command.

“ Kings and the Gods, can never act in vain." Mars and Alcides would this plea allow :

She finish'd here, the Queen of every grace, Beauty was ever absolute till now.

Disdain vermilioning her heavenly face : It is enough that I pronounce it mine,

Our hearts take fire, and all in tumult rife, And, right or wrong, he should his claim resign:

And one with sparkles in a thousand eyes. Not bears nor tygers sure so savage are,

O! might some champion finish these debates!
As these ill-manner'd monsters of the bar.

My sword shall end, what now my pen relates.
Loud * rumour has proclaim'd a nymph divine, Up rose the Judge, on each side bending low,
Whote matchless form, to counterbalance mine, A crafty smile, accompanies his bow;
By dint of Beauty th:ll extort your grace :

Ulysses like, a gentle pruse he makes,
Let her appear, this rival, face to face ;

Then, raising by degrees his oice, he speaks. Let eyes to eyes oppos'd this strife decide;

In you, my Lords, who judge; and all who hear, Now, when I lighten, let her beams be try'd.

Methinks I read your wishes for the fair;
Was 't a vain promise, and a gownsman's lie? Nor can I wonder, even I contend
Or stands ibe here unmark'd, when I am by? With inward pain, unwilling to offend ;
So heav'n was mock'd, and once all Elys round,

Unhappy! thus oblig'd to a defence,
Amher Jupiter was said to found;

That may dilplease such heavenly excellence. On brazen Aoor the royal actor tries

Might we the laws on any terms abuse, To ape the thunder rattling in the skies ;

So bright an influence were the beft excule ; A brandish'd torch, with emulating blaze,

Let * Niobe's just fate, the vile disgrace Affects the forky lightning's pointed rays :

Of the + Propetides' polluted race ; Thus borne aloft, triumphantly he rode

Let death, or Thame, or lunacy surprize, Through crowds of worshippers, and acts the God.

Who dare to match the luftre of those eyes ! The fire omnipotent prepares the brand,

Aloud the fairest of the Sex complain By Vulcan wrought,' an: arms his potent hand;

Of captives loft, and loves invok'd in vain ;
Then Aaming huris it hissing from above,

At her appearance all their glory ends,
And in the vast abyss confounds the mimic Jove. And not a ftar, but sets, when the ascends.
Presumptuous wretch! with mortal art to dare
Imnortal power, and brave the thunderer!

Where Love prefides, ftill may the bear the prize ;

But rigid Law has neither ears nor eyes : Caliope, preferring with disdain,

Charms, to which Mars and Hercules would bow, Her daughter to the Nereids, they complain ;

Minos and I Rhadamanthus disavow. The daughter, for the mother's guilty scorn,

Justice, by nothing bias'd, or inclind, Is doomed to be devoured; the mother 's borne

Deaf to persuasion, to temptation blind, Above the clouds, where, by immortal light,

Determines without favour, and the laws Revers'd the ihines, exposed to human fight,

O’erlook the parties, to decide the cause. And to a shameful posture is confin'd,

What then avails it, that a beardless boy
As an eternal terror to mankind.

Took a rash fancy for a female toy?
Did thus the Gods such private nymphs respect ? Th'insulted Argives, with a numerous hoft,
What vengeance might the Queen of Love expect ?

Pursue revenge, and seek the Dardan coast;
But grant such arbitrary pleas are vain,

Though the Gods built, and though the Gods defend W svd let them be ; mere juftice thall obtain. Those lotty towers, the hoitile Greeks ascend; Who to a husband juftlier can succeed,

Nor leave they, till the town in afhes lies, Than the soft partner of his nuptial bed;

And all the rice of royal Priam dies : Or to a frher's right lay stronger claim,

The Queen of | Paphos, mixing in the fray, Thin the dear youth in whom survives his name? Rallies the troops, and urges on the day; Behold that youth, consider whence he springs, In person, in the foremost ranks the stands, Ard in his royal veins respect your kings :

Provokes the charge, directs, affits, commands ; Imortal Jove, upon a mortal the,

Stern Diomed, advancing high in air, Ecza his fire : Second from Jove is he.

His lofty javelin strikes the heavenly Fair ; Well did the father blindly fight your cause,

The vaulted skies with her loud shrieks resound, Following the cry-of Liberty and Laws,

And high Olympus trembles at the wound.
If by those laws, for which he loft his life to
You spoil, ungratefully, the son and wife.

Niobe turned into a stone for presuming to com

pare herself with Diana. * A report spread of a beautiful young lady, niece † Propæ:ides, certain virgins, who, for affronting to the Lord Chief justice, who would appear at the Venus, were condemned to opea prostitution, and bar of the House of Lords, and eclipse the charms of afterwards turned into stone. the Duchess of Grafton ; No such lady was seen there, I Minos and Rhadamanthus, famous leginators, nor perhaps ever in any part of the world.

who for their strict administration of justice, were after † The Duke of Grafton, Nain at the fiere of Cork their deaths made chief judges in the infernal regions. in Ireland, about the beginning of the Revolution. || Venus.

W

IN HIS SICKNESS.

M

TO THE SAME.

LADY HYDE, Her Gardens having escaped a Flood obat had laid all Sitting at Sir Godfrey Kneller's for her Pikture. the Country round under Water.

HILE Kneller, with inimitable art,
THAT hands divine have planted and protect,

Attempts that face whose print's on every
The torrent spares, and deluges respect;

heart, So when the waters o'er the world were spread,

The Poet, with a pencil less confind, Covering each oak, and every mountain's head,

Shall paint her virtues, and describe her mind, The chosen Patriarch sail'd within his ark,

Unlock the shrine, and to the fight unfold Nor might the waves o'erwhelm the sacred bark.

The secret gems, and all the inward gold. The charming Flavia is no less, we find,

Two only patterns do the Muses name, The favourite of Heav'n, than of mankind;

Of perpect beauty, but of guilty fame ;
The Gods, like rivals, imitate our care,

A Venus and an Helen have been seen,
And vie with mortals to oblige the Fair ;
These favours thus bestow'd on her alone,

Both perjur'd wives, the Goddess and the Queen :

In this the third, are reconcil'd at last
Are but the homage which they sent her down.

Thore jarring attributes of Fair and Chaste,
O Flavia! may thy virtue from above
Be crown'd with blefings, endless as my love.

With graces that attract, but not ensnare,
Divinely good, as she's divinely fair ;
With beauty, not affected, vain, nor proud ;

With greatness, easy, affible, and good :
TO MY FRIEND DR. GARTH. Others by guil'y artifice, and arts

Of promis d kindness, practice on our hearts,

With expectation blow the paffion up; CACHAON sick, in every face we find, She fans the fire, without one gale of hope,

His danger is the danger of mankind; Like the chalte moon, the shines to all mankind, Whole art protecting, Nature could expire

But to Endymion is her love confin'd. But by a Deluge, or the general Fire.

What cruel destiny on Beauty waits, More lives he faves, than perish in our wars,

When on one face depend so many fates ! And faster than a plague destroys, repairs.

Oblig'd by honour to relieve but one,
The bold carouser, and advent 'rous dame,

Unhappy men by thousands are undone.
Nor fear the fever, nor refuse the flame;
Safe in his skill, from all restraints set free,
But conscious shame, remorse, or piety.

TO MRS. GRANVILLE,
Sire * of all arts, defend thy darling lon;
O! save the man whose life's so much our own!

OF WOTTON IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE ; On whom, like Atlas, the whole world's reclin'd,

AFTERWARDS LADY CONWAY. And by restoring Garth, preserve mankind.

Now for some ages kept the world in pain ;

Beauty, by valt destructions got renown,
TO MY DEAR KINSMAN,

And i overs only by their rage were known :
CHARLES LORD LANSDOWNE.

But Granville, more auspicious to mankind, Ufon the Bombardment of the Town of Granville in Conqu’ring the heart, as much instructs the mind; Normandy, by the English Fleet.

Bleft in the fate of her victorious eyes,

Seeing, we love ; and hearing, we grow wise : HO' built by Gods, confum'd by hofile fame, So Rome for wisdom, as for conqueft famd,

Improv'd with arts, whom she by arms had tam do Ard so thall thine, though with these walls were lost Above the clouds is plac'd this glorious light, All the records our anceitors could boast.

Nothing lies hid from her enquiring right; For Latium conquer'd, and for Turnus ain,

Athens and Rome for arts restor'd rejoice, Æneas lives, though not one ftone remain

Their language takes new music from her voice ; Where he arose: Nor art thou less renown'd

Learning and Love, in the same seat we find, For thy loud triumphs on Hungarian ground.

So bright her eyes, and so adorn’d her mind. Thore † arms which for nine centuries had bravod Long had Minerva govern'd in the skies, The wrath of Time, on antique stone engravid, But now descends, confeft to human eyes ; Now torn by mortars, ftand yet undefaced

Behold in Granville, that inspiring Queen,
On nobler taphies, by thy valour rais'd:

Whom learned Athens so ador'd anseen.
Safe on thy I Eagle's wings they foar above
The rage of war, or thunder to remove,
Borne by the Bird of Cæsar, and of Jove.

SONG.
Apollo, God of Poetry and Physic.

'LL tell her the next time, said I, + The Granville Arms still remaining at that time In vain' in vain! for when I try, on one of the gates of the town.

Upon my timorous tongue the trembling accents die. [ He was created a Count of the Empire, the Fa

Alas! a thousand thousand fears moy Arins to be borne for ever upon the breast of the My breath is spent in fighs, my eyes are drown'din texte,

Still overawe when the appears ! traperial spread Eagle.

TO

Troy biurka esmenives the stojan name;

I'L