THE MESSIAH. BY POPE. To heavenly themes sublimes Irains belong Rapt into future times, the bard begun: A virgiq shall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son! From Jeffe's foot behold a branch arife, Whose sacred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies: Thetherial spirit o'er its leaves thall move, And on its top, descends, the mystic Dove. , Ye hcay'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour, A And in soft filence shed the kindly thow'r! The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid, From storm's a shelter, and from heat a lade : All crimes Thall cease and ancient fraud fhall fail, Returning Justice lift aloft her scale ; Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend, And white-rob'd innocence from heav'n descend Swift fly the years, and rise th' expected n:orn !Oh spring to light auspicious Babe, be born! See Nature haste her earliest wreaths to bring, With all the incenfe of the brcathing spring; Séc lofty Lebanon his head advance, The tender lambs he raises in his arms, The smiling infánt in his hand shall take The crested basilisk and speckled snake, Pleas’d the green luftre of their scales. survey, And with their forky tongue shall innocently play. Rise crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise! Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes ! See a long race thy spacious courts adorn,. See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,, In crouding ranks on every fide arise, Demanding life, impatient for the skies ! See barbarous nations at thy gates attend, Walk in the light, and in thy gates attend, See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings, And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs. For thee Idume's spicy forests blow, And seeds of gold in Ophirs mountains glow. See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display. And break upon thee in a flood of day. No more the rising sun shall gild the morn, Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn ; But loft, diffolv'd in thy superior rays, One tide of glory, one unbounded blaze, O'erflow thy courts ; the light himself shall shine Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine ! The Reas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away ; But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains : Thy realon for ever lafts, thy own Messiah reigns ! ON HAPPINESS. BY THE SAME. 0" H happiness ! our being's end and aim ! Good,pleasure, ease content! whate'er thy name : That something ftill which prompts the eternal figh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die : Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies; O’erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wife ; Plant of celestial seed! if dropt below Say in what mortal foil thou deign'it to grow ? Fair op’ning to some court's propitious shinė, Or dcep with diamonds in the flaming niine? Twind with the wreaths Parnasfiam laurels yield. Or reap'd in iron harvefts of the field? Where grows where grows it not ? if vain our toil We ought to blame the culture, not the soil, Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere, Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where ; 'Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John, dwells with thee. Ask of the learn'd the way; the learn’d are blind : This bids to serve, and that to fhun, mankind. Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment, these; |