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O fay, my Hill, in what propitious sphere,

Gain we the friend, pure, knowing, and fincere? 10 'Tis where the worthy and the wife retire;

There wealth may learn its use, may love inspire ;
There may young worth, the nobleft end obtain,
In want may friends, in friends may knowledge gain;
In knowledge blifs; for wisdom virtue finds,
And brightens mortal to immortal minds.
Kind then my wrongs, if love, like yours, fucceed!
For you, like virtue, are a friend indeed.

Oft when you faw my youth wild error know,
Reproof, foft-hinted, taught the blush to glow.
Young and unform'd, you first my genius rais'd,
Juft fmil'd when faulty, and when moderate prais'd.
Me fhun'd, me ruin'd, fuch a mother's rage!
You fung, till pity wept o'er every page.

You call'd my lays and wrongs to early fame;
Yet, yet, th' obudrate mother felt no shame.
Pierc'd as I was! your counfel foften'd care,
To eafe turn'd anguish, and to hope despair.
The man who never wound afflictive feels,
He never felt the balmy worth that heals.

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Welcome the wound, when bleft with fuch relief!
For deep is felt the friend, when felt in grief.
From you shall never, but with life, remove

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Afpiring genius, condefcending love.
When fome, with cold, fuperior looks, redress,
Relief feems infult, and confirms distress;
You, when you view the man with wrongs befieg'd,
While warm you act th' obliger, seem th' oblig'd.

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All

All-winning mild to each of lowly state; To equals free, unfervile to the great;

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Greatness you honour, when by worth acquir'd;
Worth is by worth in every rank admir'd.
Greatness you fcorn, when titles infult speak;
Proud to vain pride, to honour'd meekness meek.
That worthless blifs, which others court, you fly; 45
That worthy woe, they fhun, attracts your eye.
But fhall the Muse refound alone your praise?
No-let the public friend exalt her lays!

O trace that friend with me!-he's yours!-he's mine!

The world's-beneficent behold him shine!

Is wealth his sphere? If riches, like a tide,
From either India pour their golden pride;
Rich in good works, him others wants employ ;
He gives the widow's heart to fing for joy.
To orphans, prifoners, fhall his bounty flow;
The weeping family of want and woe.

Is knowledge his? Benevolently great,
In leisure active, and in care fedate ;
What aid, his little wealth perchance denies,
In each hard inftance his advice fupplies.
With modeft truth he fets the wandering right,
And gives religion pure, primæval light;

In love diffusive, as in light refin'd,

The liberal emblem of his Maker's mind.

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Is power his orb? He then, like power divine, 65 On all, though with a varied ray, will shine.

Ere

Ere power was his, the man, he once carefs'd,
Meets the fame faithful fmile, and mutual breaft:
But asks his friend fume dignity of state;

His friend, unequal to th'incumbent weight?
Asks it a stranger, one whom parts inspire
With all a people's welfare would require ?
His choice admits no paufe; his gift will prove
All private, well abforb'd in public love.
He fhields his country, when for aid fhe calls;
Or, should she fail, with her he greatly falls :
But, as proud Rome, with guilty conqueft crown'd,
Spread flavery, death and defolation round,
Should e'er his country, for dominion's prize,
Against the fons of men a faction rife,
Glory in hers, is in his eye difgrace;

The friend of truth; the friend of human race.
Thus to no one, no fect, no clime confin'd,
His boundless love embraces all mankind;
And all their virtues in his life are known ;
And all their joys and forrows are his own.
Thefe are the lights, where ftands that friend com

fest;

This, this the fpirit, which informs thy breaft. Through fortune's cloud thy genuine worth can fhire What would't thou not, were wealth and greatne thine?

AN

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In Answer to his from the Country †.

NOW various birds in melting concert fing, And hail the beauty of the opening spring: Now to thy dreams the nightingale complains, Till the lark wakes thee with her cheerful trains; Wakes, in thy verfe and friendship ever kind, Melodious comfort to my jarring mind.

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Oh could my foul through cepths of knowledge fee, Could I read nature and mankind like thee, I fhould o'ercome, or bear the fhocks of fate, And e'en draw envy to the humblest state. Thou canst raise honour from each it event, From fhocks gain vigour, and from want content. Think not light poetry my life's chief care! The Mufe's manfion is, at best, but air; But, if more folid works my meaning forms, Th'unfinish'd structures fall by fortune's storms. Oft have I faid we falfely thofe accuse, Whofe god-like fouls life's middle state refuse. Self-love, 1 cry'd, there feeks ignoble reft;

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Care fleeps not calm, when millions wake unbleft; 20

M

t See Dyer's Prems.

Mean

Mean let me fhrink, or spread sweet shade o'er all, Low as the fhrub, or as the cedar tall!

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'Twas vain! 'twas wild-I fought the middle ftate, And found the good, and found the truly great.

Though verfe can never give my soul her aim; 25 Though action only claims fubftantial fame; Though fate denies what my proud wants require, Yet grant me, heaven, by knowledge to aspire: Thus to enquiry let me prompt the mind; Thus clear dimm'd truth, and bid her blefs mankind; 50 From the pierc'd orphan thus draw shafts of grief, Arm want with patience, and teach wealth relief! To ferve lov'd liberty infpire my breath! Or, if my life be ufelefs, grant me death; For he, who ufeless is in life furvey'd, Burthens that world, his duty bids him aid.

Say, what have honours to allure the mind,
Which he gains most, who least has ferv'd mankind?
Titles, when worn by fools, I dare despise;
Yet they claim homage, when they crown the wife. 4
When high diftinction marks deferving heirs,
Desert still dignifies the mark it wears.

But, who to birth alone would honours owe?
Honours, if true, from feeds of merit grow.
Thofe trees, with fweeteft charms, invite our eyes, 4:
Which, from our own engraftment, fruitful rife.
Still we love beft what we with labour gain,

As the child's dearer for the mother's pain.

The Great I would not envy nor deride;

Nor ftoop to fwell a vain Superior's pride;

N

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