YES, you contemn the perjur'd maid
Who all your favourite hopes betray'd:
Nor, though her heart should home return,
Her tuneful tongue its falsehood mourn,
Her winning eyes your faith implore,
Would you her hand receive again,
At once diffemble your disdain,
Or liften to the fyren's theme,
Or ftoop to love: fince now esteem,
And confidence, and friendship, is no more.
Yet tell me, Phædria, tell me why,
When fummoning your pride you try
To meet her looks with cool neglect,
Or cross her walk with flight refpect,
(For fo is falfehood best repaid)
Whence do your cheeks indignant glow?
Why is your ftruggling tongue fo flow?
What means that darkness on your brow?
As if with all her broken vow
You meant the fair apoftate to upbraid?
H fly! 'tis dire Sufpicion's mien ;
And, meditating plagues unfeen,
The forcerefs hither bends:
Behold her torch in gall imbrued:
Behold her garment drops with blood
Of lovers and of friends.
Fly far! Already in your eyes
I fee a pale fuffufion rife;
And foon through every vein,
Soon will her fecret venom spread,
And all your heart and all your head,
Imbibe the potent stain.
Then many a demon will she raise
To vex your fleep, to haunt your ways;
While gleams of loft delight
Raise 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 reason would applaud,
Now, fmiling o'er her dark distress,
Fancy malignant strives to dress
Like injury and fraud.
Farewel to Virtue's peaceful times :
Soon will you ftoop to act the crimes
Which thus you stoop to fear:
Guilt follows guilt
and where the train
Begins with wrongs of such a stain,
What horrors form the rear !
'Tis thus to work her baleful power,
Sufpicion waits the fullen hour
Of fretfulness and ftrife,
When care the infirmer bofom wrings,
Or Eurus waves his murky wings
To damp the feats of life.
But come, forfake the fcene unblefs'd
Which firft beheld' your faithful breaft
To groundless fears a prey :
Come, where with my prevailing lyre
The fkies, the ftreams, the groves confpire
To charm your doubts away.
Thron'd in the fun's defcending car,
What power unfeen diffuseth far
This tenderness of mind?
What genius fmiles on yonder flood?
What god, in whispers from the wood,
Bids every thought be kind?
O thou, whate'er thy awful name,
Whose wisdom our untoward frame
With focial love restrains;
Thou, who by fair affection's ties
Giv'ft us to double all our joys
And half difarm our pains:
Let univerfal candor ftill,
Clear as yon heaven-reflecting rill,
Preferve my open mind;
Nor this nor that man's crooked ways
One fordid doubt within me raise
To injure human kind.
HYMN TO CHEERFULNESS.
HOW thick the fhades of evening clofe!
How pale the sky with weight of fnows!
Hafte, light the tapers, urge the fire,
And bid the joyless day retire.
-Alas, in vain I try within
To brighten the dejected fcene,
While rouz'd by grief these fiery pains
Tear the frail texture of my veins;
While winter's voice, that ftorms around,
And yon deep death-bell's groaning found
Renew my mind's oppreffive gloom,
Till ftarting horror shakes the room.
Is there in nature no kind power
To footh affliction's lonely hour?
To blunt the edge of dire disease,
And teach thefe wintery fhades to pleafe?
Come, Chearfulness, triumphant fair,
Shine through the hovering cloud of care:
O fweet of language, mild of mien,
O Virtue's friend and Pleafure's queen,
Affwage the flames that burn my breaft,
Compose my jarring thoughts to rest ;
And while thy gracious gifts I feel,
My fong shall all thy praise 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 spheres above,
And downward hither cast his eye
The year's returning pomp to spy.
He faw the radiant god of day,
Waft in his car the rofy May
The fragrant Airs and genial Hours
Were fhedding round him dews and flowers;
Before his wheels Aurora pafs'd,
And Hefper's golden lamp was last,
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