But fhould fome chearful, equal friend
Eid leave the ftudious page a while,
Let mirth on wildom then attend,
And focial eafe on learned toil.
Then while, at love's uncaretul fhrine,
Each dictates to the god of wine
Her name whom all his hopes obey,
What flattering dreams each bolom warm,
While ab ence, heightening every charm,
Invokes the flow returning May!
IX.

May, thou delight of heaven and earth,
When will thy genial star arite?

The aufpicious morn, which gives thee birth,
Shall bring Eudora to my eyes.
Within her fylvan haunt behold,
As in the happy garden old,
She moves like that primeval fair :
Thither, ye inver-tounding Ivres,
Ye tender imiles, ye chafte defires,
Fund hope and mutual aith, repair.

VI.

Ye guardian powers of love and fame, This chafte, harmoni us pair behold; And thus reward the generous flame Of all who barter vows for gold.

bloom of youth, O tender charms Well buried in a dotard's arms! O equal price of beauty fold!

VII.

Ceafe then to gaze with looks of love:
Bid her adieu, the venal fair:
Unworthy the your blits to prove;

Then wherefore fhould the prove your care?
No: lay your myrtle garland down;
And let a while the willow's crown
With luckier omens bind your hair.
VII.

O iuft efcap'd the faithless main,
Though driven unwilling on the land;
To guide your favour'd steps again,
Behold your better genius ftand:
Where Truth revolves her page divine,
Where Virtue leads to Honour's fhrine,
Behold, he lifts his awful hand.
IX.

Fix but on thefe your ruling aim,
And Time, the fire of man'y care,
Will Fancy's dazzling colours tame
A foberer drefs will Beauty wear:
Then fhall efteem by Knowledge led
Inthrone within your heart and head
Some happier love, fome truer fail.

Then many a demon will she raise
To vex your fleep, to haunt your ways:
While gleams of loft delight
Raife the dark tempeft of the brain,
As lightning fhines across the main

Through whirlwinds and through night.
IV.

No more can faith or candour move;
But each ingenuous deed of love,

Which reafon would applaud,
Now, fmiling o'er her dark distress,
Fancy malignant ftrives to drels
Like injury and fraud.

HYMN TO CHEERFULNESS.

HOW thick the fhades of evening clofe!
How pale the fky with weight of hows!
Hafte, light the tapers, urge the fire,
And bid the joyless day retire.

-Alas, in vain I try within
To brighten the dejected scene,
While rouz'd by grief thele fiery pains
Tear the frail texture of my veins;
While winter's voice, that forms around,
And

yon deep death-bell's groaning fouud
Renew my minds oppreffive gloom,
Till starting horror fhakes the room.
Is there in nature no kind power
To footh affliction's lonely hour?
To blunt the edge of dire difeafe,
And teach these wintery fhades to plea'e?
Come, Chearfulne's, triumphant fair,
Shine through the hovering cloud of care:
O fweet of language, mild of mien,

O Virtue's friend and Pleafure's queen,
Allwage the flames that burn my breaft,
Compofe my jarring thoughts to reft;
And while thy gracious gifts 1 feel,
My long fhall all thy praits reveal.

As once ('twas in Aftræa's reign)
The vernal powers renew'd their train,
It happen'd that immortal Love
Was ranging through the fpheres above,
And downward hither caft his eye
The year's returning pomp to spy.
He faw the radiant god of day,
Waft in his care the rofy May
The fragrant Airs and genial Hours

Were fhedding round him dews and flowers;
Before his wheels Aurora pafs'd,
And Herper's golden lamp was laft.
Put, fairest of the blooming throng,
When Health majeftic mov'd alɔng,
Delighted to furvey below

The joys which from her prefence flow,
While earth euliven'd hears her voice,
And fwains, and flocks, and fields rejoice;

Then mighty love her charms confefs'd, And foon his vows inclin'd her breast, And, known from that aufpicious morn, Thee pleafing Cheerfulpefs was born.

Thou Cheerfulness by heaven defign' To fway the movements of the mind, Whtever fretful paffion fprings, Whatever wayward fortune brings, To difarrange the power within, And train the mufical machine; Thou, Goddefs, thy attempering hand Doth each difcordant ftring command, Refines the foft, aud fwells the strong: And, joining nature's general fong, Through many a varying tone unfolds The harmony of human fouls.

Fair guardian of domeftic life, Kind banifher of homebred ftrife, Nor fullen lip, nor taunting eye, Deforms the scene where thou art by No fickening hufband damns the hour Which bound his joys to fema'e power; No pining-mother weeps the cares Which parents waste on thankless heirs: The officious daughters p'eas'd attend; The brother adds the name of friend: By thee with flowers their board is crown'd With fongs from thee their walks refound And morn with welcome luftre fhines, And evening unperceiv'd declines.

Is there a youth, whofe anxious heart
Labours with love's unpitied fmart?
Though now he ftray by rills and bowers,
And weeping wafte the lonely hours,
Or if the nymph her audience deign,
Debale the ftory of his pain
With flavish looks, difcolor'd eyes,
And accents faltering into fighs;
Yet thousau'picious power, with eafe
Canft yield him harpier arts to pleafe,
Inform his mien with manlier charms,
Intruct his tongue with noble arms,
With more commanding paflion move,
And teach the dignity of love.

Friend to the Mure and all her train,
For thee 1 court the Mufe again :
The Mule for thee may well exert
Her pomp, her charms, her fondest art
Who owes to thee that pleafing fway
Which earth and peopled heaven obey.
Let Melancholy's plaintive tongue
Repeat what later bards have lung;
But thine was Homer's ancient might,
And thine victorious Pindar's flight:
Thy hand each Lefoian wreathe attir'd ;
Thy lip Sicilian reeds inipir'd:
Thy fpirit lent the glad perfume
Where yet the flowers of Teos bloom;
Whence yet from Tibur's Sabine vale
Delicious blows the enlivering gale,
While Horace calls thy fportive choir,
Heroes and nymphs, around his lyre.

But lee where yonder peufive fage
(A prey perhaps to fortune's rage,
Perhaps by tender griefs oppreis'd,
Or blooms congenial to his breait】

Retires in defart fcenes to dwell,
And bids the joyless world farewel.
Alone he treads the autumnal shade,
Alone beneath the mountain laid
He fees the nightly damps afcend,
Lud gathering ftorms aloft impend;
He hears the neighbouring furges roll,
And raging thunders thake the pole:
Then, ftruck by every object round,
And ftunn'd by every horrid found,
He afks a clue for Nature's ways; •
But evit haunts him through the maze:
He fees ten thousand demons rife
To wield the empire of the fkies,
And chance and fate affume the rod,
And malice blot the throne of God.

O thou, whofe pleafing power I fing,
Thy lenient influence hither bring;
Compose the storm, difpel the gloom,
Till Nature wear her wonted bloom,
Till fields and fhades their fweets exhale,
And mufic fwell each opening gale:
Then o'er his breaft thy foftnels pour,
And let him learn the timely hour
To trace the world's benignant laws,
And judge of that prefiding caufe,
Who founds on difcord beauty's reign,
Converts to pleasure every pain,
Subdues each hoftile form to reft,
And bids the univerfe, be blefs'd.

O thou whole pleafing power I fing, If right I touch the votive ftring, If equal praife I yield thy name, Still govern thou thy poet's flame; Still with the Mufe my bofom fhare, And footh to peace intruding care. But most exert thy pleafing power On friendship's confecrated hour; And while my Sophron points the road To godlike wifdom's calm abode, Or warm in freedom's ancient cau'e Traceth the fource of Albion's laws, Add thou o'er all the generous toll The light of thy unclouded fmile, But, if by fortune's ftubborn fway, From him and Friendship torn away, I court the Mufe's healing spell For griefs that ftill with abfence dwell, Do thou conduct my fancy's dreams To fuch indulgent placid themes, As juft the ftruggling breaft may cheer And just fufpend the starting tear, Yet leave that facred fenfe of woe Which none but friends and lovers know.

I. 2:

Farewell the grave, pacific air,..
Where never mountain zephyr blew;
The marshy levels lank and bare,
Which Pan, which Ceres never knew;
The Naiads, with obfcene attire,
Urging in vain their urns to flow;
While round them chaunt the croking choir,
And
d haply footh fome lover's prudent, woe,
Or prompt one reftive Bard, and modulate his lyre.
1. 3.

Farewell, ye nymphs, whom fober care of gain
Satch'd in your cradles from the god of love:
She render'd all his boafted arrows vain;
And all his gifts did he in fpite remove.
Ye too, the flow-ey'd fathers of the land,
With whom dominion fteals from hand to
hand,

Unown'd undigrify'd by public choice,

i

SP. where liberty to all is known,

And tells a monarch on his throne,

He reigns not but by her preferving voice.

II. 2.

Ye nymphs who guard the pathlef's grove,
Ye blue-ey 'd' fifters of the ftreams,
With whom I wont at mort to rove,
With whom at noon I talk'd in dreams:
O take me to your haunts again,

The rocky fpring, the greenwood glade;
To guide my lonely footsteps deign,
To prompt my flumbers in the murmuring
fhade,

And footh iny vacant ear with many an airy ftrain. 11. 3.

And thon, my faithiul harp, no longer mourn
Thy drooping mafter's inaulpicious hand:
Now brighter fies and frefher gales return,
Now fairer maids thy melody demand.
"Daughters of Albion, liften to my lyre!
O'Phoebus, guardian of the Aonian choir,
Why founds not mine harmonious as thy own,
When all the virgin deities above
With Venus and with Juno move

In concert round the Olympian father's throne?
III.

J.

Thee too, prote&trefs of my lays,
Elate with whofe maleftic call
Above degenerate Latium's praife,
Above the flavifh boaft of Gaul,
I dare from impious thrones reclaim,
And wanton floth's ignoble charms,
The honors of a poet's name

To Somer's counfels, or to Hampden's arms, Thee, freedom, I rejoin, and ble thy genuine flame VOL, VII.

Their public zeal fhall all reproof disclaim.

fame

Since I exulting grafp'd the tuneful shell: Eager through endless years to found thy name, Proud that my memory with thine fhould dwell. How haft thou ftain'd the fplendor of my choice! Thofe godlike forms which hover'd round thy voice,

Laws, freedom, glory, whither are they flown? What can I now of thee to time report, Save thy nd country made thy impious fport, Her fortune and her hope the victims of thy own? 11.

There are with eyes unmov'd and reckless heart Who faw thee from thy fummit fall thus low, Who deem'd thy arm extended but to dart The public vengeance on thy private foe. But, fpite of every glofs of envious minds, The owl-ey'd race whom virtue's luftre blinds, Who fagely prove that each man hath his price, I ftill believ'd thy aim from blemish free, I yet, even yet, believe it, fpite of thee And all thy painted pleas to greatnefs and to vice. IH.

"Thou didst not dream of liberty decay'd, "Nor wish to make her guardian laws more "strong:

"But the rafh many, firft by thee mifled, "Bore thee at length unwillingly along." Rite from your fad abodes, ye curft of old For faith deferted or for cities fold, Own here one untry'd, unexampled, deed; One mystery of fhame from Curio, learn, To beg the infamy he did not earn, And scape in guilt's disguife from virtue's offer'd

meed.

[* See the "Epifle to Curio," in this volume.]