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TO LADY ROCHFORD.

So, when thy charms celeftial views create,
My fmiling fong furmounts my gloomy fate.
Thy angel-embryo prompts my towering lays,
Claims my fond with, and fires my future praise :
May it, if male, its grandfire's image wear;
Or in its mother's charms confefs the fair;
At the kind birth may each mild planet wait;
Soft be the pain, but prove the bleffing great.

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Hai!, Rivers! hallow'd shade! defcend from reft! Descend and smile, to see thy Rochford blest :

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ΤΟ

Weep not the scenes through which my life muft run, 15
Though fate, fleet-footed, fcents thy languid fon.
The bar that, darkening, cross'd my crested claim,
Yields at her charms, and brightens in their flame:
That blood which, honour'd, in thy Rochford reigns,
In cold, unwilling wanderings trac'd my veins.
Want's wintery realm froze hard around my view;
And fcorn's keen blafts a cutting anguish blew..
To fuch fad weight my gathering griefs were wrought,
Life feem'd not life, but when convuls'd with thought!
Decreed beneath a mother's frown to pine,
Madness were eafe, to mifery form'd like mine!

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Yet my Mufe waits thee through the realms of day, Where lambent lightnings round thy temples play. Sure my fierce woes will, like thofe fires, refine, Thus lose their torture, and thus glorious shine! And now the Mufe heaven s milky path furveys, With thee, 'twixt pendent worlds, it wondering ftrays, Worlds which, unnumber'd as thy virtues, roll Round funs-fix'd, radiant emblems of thy foul!

Hence

Hence lights refracted run through distant skies,
Changeful on azure plains in quivering dyes!
So thy mind darted through its earthy frame,
A wide, a varicus, and a glittering flame.

Now a new scene enormous luftre brings,
Now feraphs fhade thee round with filver wings;
In angel-forms thou feeft thy Rochford shine;
In each fweet form is trac'd her beauteous line!
Such was her foul, ere this felected mould
Sprung at thy with, the fparkling life t' inföld!
So amidst cherubs fhone her fon refin'd,
Are infant-flesh the new-form'd foul enfhrin'd!
So fhall a fequent race from Rochford rife,
The world's fair pride-Defcendants of the fkies.

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TO THE EXCELLENT

MIR

E

AND_A,

CONSORT OF AARON HILL, ESQ.

ON READING HER POEMS.

ACH foftening charm of Clio's fmiling song, Montague's foul, which fhines divinely ftrong, Thefe blend, with graceful eafe, to form thy rhyme, Tender, yet chafte; fweet-founding, yet fublime; Wisdom and wit have made thy works their care, Each paffion glows, refin'd by precept, there: To fair Miranda's form each grace is kind; The Mules and the Virtues tune thy mind.

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VERSE S

то A

YOUNG

LADY.

POLLY, from me, though now a love-fick youth,

Nay, though a poet, hear the voice of truth!

Polly, you're not a beauty, yet you 're pretty ;
So grave, yet gay; fo filly, yet fo witty;
A heart of foftnefs, yet a tongue of fatire;
You've cruelty, yet, ev'n with that, good-nature :
Now you are free, and now referv'd awhile;
Now a forc'd frown betrays a willing smile.
Reproach'd for abfence, yet your fight deny'd;
My tongue you filence, yet my filence chide.
How would you praise me, fhould your fex defame!
Yet, fhould they praise, grow jealous, and exclaim.
If I defpair, with fome kind look you bless;
But if I hope, at once all hope fupprefs.

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You fcorn; yet fhould my paffion change, or fail, 15
Too late you'd whimper out a softer tale.
You love; yet from your lover's wish retire;
Doubt, yet difcern; deny, and yet defire.

Such, Polly, are your fex-part truth, part fiction,
Some thought, much whim, and all a contradiction. 20

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THE

GENTLE M

A

ADDRESSED то

A N.

JOHN JOLIFFE,

JOLIFFE, ESQ.

Decent mein, an elegance of dress,

Words, which, at eafe, each winning grace ex

prefs;

A life, where love, by wisdom polish'd, shines,
Where wifdom's felf again, by love, refines ;
Where we to chance for friendship never truft,
Nor ever dread from fudden whim disgust;
The focial manners, and the heart humane;
A nature ever great, and never vain;
A wit, that no licentious pertness knows;
The fenfe, that unaffuming candour shows;
Reafon, by narrow principles uncheck'd,
Slave to no party, bigot to no fect;

Knowledge of various life, of learning too;

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Thence tafte; thence truth, which will from tafte enfue: Unwilling cenfure, though a judgment clear;

A fmile indulgent, and that fmile fincere ;

An humble, though an elevated mind;
A pride, its pleasure but to ferve mankind :
If these esteem and admiration raife;

Give true delight, and gain unflattering praise,
In one wish'd view, th' accomplish'd man we fee;
These graces all are thine, and thou art He.

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CHARA С

CHARACTER

O F THE

REV. JAMES

FOSTE R.

FROM Codex hear, ye ecclefiaftic men,
This paftoral charge to Webster, Stebbing, Ven;
Attend, ye emblems of your P's mind!
Mark Faith, mark Hope, mark Charity, defin'd;
On terms, whence no ideas ye can draw,

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Pin well your faith, and then pronounce it law;
First wealth, a crofier next, your hope enflame;
And next church - power-a power o'er confcience,

claim;

In modes of worship right of choice deny ;

Say, to convert, all means are fair;—add, why? 'Tis charitable-let your power decree,

That Perfecution then is Charity;

Call reafon error; forms, not things, difplay;
Let moral doctrine to abftrufe give way;
Sink demonstration; mystery preach alone;
Be thus Religion's friend, and thus your own.
But Fofter well this honeft truth extends
Where Mystery begins, Religion ends.

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