Joys fly with every hour away, And leave th' unguarded heart a prey And fee, with visionary hafte Defpair has feiz'd my captive foul, Ten thousand beauties round me throng, What beauties, fay, ye nymphs belong To the distemper'd foul? I fee the lawn of hideous dye, The towering elm nods mifery; groans the waters roll. With Ye gilded roofs, Palladian domes, I 3 NUMBER XXVII. To paint gay Hope's Elyfium bower LOVE AND JOY, A Tale. In the happy period of the golden age, when all the celeftial inhabitants defcended to the earth, and converfed familiarly, with mortals, among the most cherished of the heavenly powers were twins, the offspring of Jupiter, Love and Joy. Where they appeared the flowers fprung up beneath their feet, the fun fhone with a brighter radiance, and all nature feemed embellished by their presence. They were infeparable companions, and their growing attachment was favoured by Jupiter, who had decreed that a lasting union fhould be folemnized between them, fo foon as they were arrived at muturer years: but in the mean time the fons of men deviated from their native innocence; vice and ruin over-ran the earth. with giant ftrides; and Aftrea, with her train of celeftial vifitants, forfook their polluted abodes: Love alone remained, having been ftolen away by Hope, who was his nurse, and conveyed by her to the forefts of Arcadia, where he was brought up among the shepherds. But Jupiter affigned him a different partner, and commanded him to espouse Sorrow, the daughter of Até: he complied with reluc tance; for her features were harsh and disagreeable; her eyes funk, her forehead contracted into perpetual wrinkles, and her temples were covered with a wreath of cypress and wormwood. From this union fprung a virgin, in whom might be traced a ftrong resemblance to both her parents; but the fullen and unamiable features of her mother were so mixed and blended with the sweetness of her father, that her countenance, though mournful, was highly pleafing. The maids and fhepherds of the neighbouring plains gathered. round, and called her Pity. A red-breast was observed to build in the cabin where fhe was born; and while fhe was yet an infant, a dove pursued by a hawk flew into her bofom. This nymph had a dejected appearance, but fo foft and gentle a mien, that he was beloved to a degree of enthusiasm. Her voice was low and plaintive, but inexpreffibly fweet; and fhe loved to lie for hoursitogether on the banks of fome wild and melancholy ftream, finging to her lute. She taught men to weep, for the took a ftrange delight in tears; and often, when the virgins of the hamlet were affembled at their evening fports, fhe would steal in amongst them, and captivate their hearts by her tales, full of a charming fadnefs. She wore on her head a garland compofed of her father's myrtles twifted with her mother's cyprefs. One day, as the fat mufing by the waters of Helicon, her tears by chance fell into the fountain; and ever since the Muse's spring has retained a strong taste of the infufion. Pity was commanded by Jupiter to follow the steps. of her mother through the world, dropping. balm into the wounds fhe made, and binding up the hearts she had broken. She follows with her hair loofe, her bofom bare and throbbing, her garments torn by the briars, and her feet bleeding with the roughness of the path. The nymph is mortal, for her mother is fo; and when he has fulfilled her destined course upon the earth, they shall both expire together, and Love be again united to Joy, his immortal and long-betrothed bride.. NUMBER XXVIII. O how fhall I fufta in This vaft unutterable weight of woe? ABIRAN; OR, THE VICTIM OF FANCIED WOE. 'WHENCE this oppreffive load of woe, • Th' involuntary sigh? And th' oozing tear, about to flow O! Melancholy, how thy power O why is my defponding mind • And may I not-alas! not find The grave will give fecure repose For there alone, from heavy woes, |