Elegy XI. Against Lovers going to War, in which
he philofophically prefers Love and Delia to the
more ferious Vanities of the World.
Elegy XII. To Delia.

Elegy XIII. He imagines himself married to Delia,

and that content with each other, they are retired into the Country.

Elegy XIV. To Delia.

Elegy XV. To Mr. George Grenville.

Prologue to Lillo's Elmerick.

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END OF HAMMOND'S POEMS.

THE

POE M S

OF

Mr. COLLINS.

ORIENTAL ECLOGUE S.

ECLOGUE I.

Selim; or the Shepherd's Moral. Scene, a Valley near Bagdat. Time, the Morning.

Y

E Perfian maids, attend your poet's lays,

And hear how fhepherds pafs their golden days.
Not all are bleft, whom fortune's hand sustains
With wealth in courts, nor all that haunt the plains:
Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell!
'Tis virtue makes the blifs, wheree'er we dwell.
Thus Selim fung, by facred truth inspir'd;
Nor praise, but such as truth bestow'd, defir'd:
Wife in himself, his meaning fongs convey'd
Informing morals to the fhepherd maid;
Or taught the fwains that surest bliss to find,
What groves nor ftreams bestow, a virtuous mind.
When fweet and blushing, like a virgin bride
The radiant morn refum'd her orient pride,
When wanton gales along the vallies play,

Breathe on each flower, and bear their sweets away:
By Tigris' wandering waves he fat, and fung
This useful leffon for the fair and young.

Ye

Ye Perfian dames, he faid, to you belong,
Well may they please, the morals of my song :
No fairer maids, I truft, than you are found,
'Grac'd with soft arts, the peopled world around!
The morn that lights you, to your loves fupplies
Each gentler ray delicious to your eyes:
For you those flowers her fragant hands bestow,
And yours the love that kings delight to know.
Yet think not thefe, all beauteous as they are,
The best kind bleffings heaven can grant the fair!
Who truft alone in beauty's feeble ray,

Boaft but the worth Baffora's pearls difplay;
Drawn from the deep we own their surface bright,
But, dark within, they drink no luftrous light:
Such are the maids, and fuch the charms they boast,
By fenfe unaided, or to virtue loft.

Self-flattering fex! your hearts believe in vain
That love fhall blind, when once he fires the fwain;
Or hope a lover by your faults to win,
As fpots on ermin beautify the skin :

Who feeks fecure to rule, be firft her care
Each fofter virtue that adorns the fair;
Each tender paffion man delights to find,
The lov'd perfections of a female mind!

Bleft were the days, when wisdom held her reign,
And shepherds fought her on the filent plain;
With Truth fhe wedded in the fecret grove,
Immortal Truth, and daughters blefs'd their love.

O hafte, fair maids! ye Virtues come away, Sweet Peace and Plenty lead you on your way!

The