So, when thy charms celestial views create,
5 My iniling song surmounts my gloomy fate. Thy angel-embryo prompts my towering lays, Claims my fond wish, and fires
my
future praise :
May it, if male, its grandfire's image wear;
Or in its mother's charms confess the fair ;
At the kind birth may each mild planet wait;
Soft be the pain, but prove the blesling great.
Hail, Rivers ! hallow'd thade! defcend from rest!
Descend and smile, to see thy Rochford blelt:
Weep not the scenes through which my life must run, 15
Though fate, fleet-footed, scents thy languid for.
The bar that, darkening, cross’d my crested ciaim ,
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 scorn's keen blasts a cutting anguish blew.
To such sad weight my gathering griefs were wrought,
Life seem'd not life, but when convuls'd with thought !
Decreed beneath a mother's frown to pine, 25
Madness were ease, to misery form'd like mine!
Yet my Muse waits thee through the realms of day, Where lambent lightnings round thy temples play. Sure my fierce woes will, like those fires, refine, Thus lose their torture, and thus glorious shine ! 30 And now the Muse heaven s milky path surveys, With thee, 'twixt pendent worlds, it wondering strays, Worlds which, unnumber'd as thy virtues, roll Round suns-fix'd, radiant emblems of thy soul !
Hence
Hence lights refracted run through distant skies, 35
Changeful on azure plains in quivering dyes !
So thy mind darted through its earthy franie,
A wide, a various, and a glittering flame.
Now a new scene enormous lustre brings,
Now seraphs fhade thee round with filver wings ; 40
In angel-fornis thou leeft thy Rochford Chine;
In each sweet forin is trac'd her beauteous line!
Such was her foul, ere this selected mould
Sprung at thy win, the sparkling life t’inföld !
So amidit cherubs Thonje her fon refin's,
45 Are infant-fiemn the new-form'd foul enthrin'd ! So shall a sequent race from Rochford rile, The world's fair pride-Delcendants of the skies.
M IR A N D A,
CONSORT OF AARON HILL, ESQ.
E
ACH softening charm of Clio's smiling long,
Montague's soul, which shines divinely strong, Thefe blend, with graceful ease, to form thy rhyme, Tender, yet chaste ; sweet-founding, yet sublime ; Wisdom and wit have made thy works their care, 5 Each passion glows, refind by precept, there : To fair Miranda's form each grace is kind; The Muses and the Virtues tune thy mind.
VERSES
POLLY;
OLLY, from me, though now a love-lick youth,
Nay, though a poet, hear the voice of truth!
Polly, you're not a beauty, yet you 're pretty ;
So grave, yet gay; so filly, yet so witty;
A heart of foftness, yet a tongue of satire ; 5
You've cruelty, yet, ev’n with that, good-nature :
Now you are free, and now reserv'd awhile ;
Now a forc'd frown betrays a willing smile.
Reproach'd for absence, yet your sight deny’d;
My tongue you filence, yet my filence chide.
How would you praise me,
fhould
your
sex defame!
Yet, should they praise, grow jealous, and exclaim.
If I despair, with some kind look you bless;
But if I hope, at once all hope suppress.
You scorn; yet Mhould my passion change, or fail, 15
Too late you 'd whimper out a softer tale.
You love; yet from your lover's wish retire ;
Doubt, yet discern; deny, and
yet
desire. Such, Polly, are your fex-part truth, part fiction, Some thought, inuch whim, and all a contradiction. 20
A
Decent mein, an elegance of dress,
Words, which, at ease, cach winning grace ex-
press;
A life, where love, by wisdom polith’d, shines,
Where wisdom's self again, by love, refines;
Where we to chance for friendship never trust, 5
Nor ever dread from sudden whim disgust;
The social manners, and the heart humane;
A nature ever great, and never vain
A wit, that no licentious pertness knows;
The sense, that unassuming candour hows;
Reason, by narrow principles uncheck’d,
Slave to no party, bigot to no sect;
Knowledge of varicus life, of learning too ;
Thence taste; thence truth, which will from taste ensue:
Unwilling censure, though a judgment clear ; 15
A smile indulgent, and that fmile sincere ;
An humble, though an elevated mind;
A pride, its pleasure but to serve mankind :
If these esteem and admiration raise ;
Give true delight, and gain unflattering praise,
In one with’d view, th' accomplish'd man we see ;
These graces all are thine, and thou art He.
CHARAC
FROM Codex hear, ye ecclefiaftic men,
This paitoral 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,
5
Pin well your faith, and then pronounce it law;
First wealth, a crofier next, your hope enflame;
And next church - powerma poiver o’er conscience,
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 reason error; forms, not things, display ;
Let moral do&trine to abstruse give way;
Sink demonstration; mystery preach alone ;
Be thus Religion's friend, and thus your own.
But Foster well this honest truth extends
Where Mystery begins, Religion ends.
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