The Mufe, which should instruct, now entertains, On trifling fubjects, in enervate strains ;
Be it thy task to fet the wanderer right,
Point out her way in her aërial flight;
Her noble mien, her honours loft restore,
And bid her deeply think, and proudly foar.
Thy theme fublime, and easy verfe, will prove
Her high defcent, and miffion from above.
Let others now tranflate; thy abler pen
Shall vindicate the ways of God to men;
In Virtue's cause shall gloriously prevail,
When the bench frowns in vain, and pulpits fail.
Made wife by thee, whose happy style conveys
The pureft morals in the softest lays,
As angels once, fo now we mortals bold
Shall climb the ladder Jacob view'd of old;
Thy kind reforming Muse shall lead the way
To the bright regions of eternal day.
On the firft Edition of his SEASONS.
O bright, fo dark, upon an April day,
The fun darts forth, or hides his various ray;
So high, fo low, the lark aspiring fings,
Or drops to earth again with folded wings;
So fmooth, fo rough, the sea that laves our shores,
Smiles in a calm, or in a tempest roars.
Believe me, Thomson, 'tis not thus I write,
Severely kind, by envy four'd or fpite :
Nor would I rob thy brows to grace my own;
Such arts are to my honeft foul unknown.
I read thee over as a friend should read,
Griev'd when you fail, o'erjoy'd when you fucceed.
Why should thy Muse, born fo divinely fair,
Want the reforming toilet's daily care?
Drefs the gay maid, improve each native grace,
And call forth all the glories of her face :
Studiously plain, and elegantly clean,
With unaffected speech, and easy mien,
Th' accomplish'd nymph, in all her best attire,
Courts fhall applaud, and prostrate crowds admire.
Discreetly daring, with a stiffen'd rein,
Firm in thy feat the flying steed restrain.
Though few thy faults, who can perfection boast?
Spots in the fun are in his luftre loft:
Yet ev❜n thofe fpots expunge with patient care,
Nor fondly the minutest error spare.
For kind and wife the parent, who reproves
The flightest blemish in the child he loves.
Read Philips much, confider Milton more;
But from their drofs extract the purer ore.
To coin new words, or to reftore the old,
In fouthern bards is dangerous and bold;
But rarely, very rarely, will fucceed,
When minted on the other fide of Tweed.
Let perfpicuity o'er all prefide
Soon fhalt thou be the nation's joy and pride.
The rhyming, jingling tribe, with bells and fong,*
Who drive their limping Pegafus along,
Shall learn from thee in bolder flights to rife,
To fcorn the beaten road, and range the skies.
A genius fo refin❜d, so just, fo great,
In Britain's ifle shall fix the Mufes' feat,
And new Parnaffus fhall at home create:
Rules from thy works each future bard shall draw,
Thy works, above the critic's nicer law,
And rich in brilliant gems without a flaw.
To the Right Hon. Lady ANNE COVENTRY.
Upon viewing her fine Chimney-piece of Shell-work.
HE greedy merchant ploughs the sea for gain,
And rides exulting o'er the watery plain;
While howling tempefts, from their rocky bed,
Indignant break around his careful head.
The royal fleet the liquid waste explores,
And speaks in thunder to the trembling fhores;
The voice of wrath awak'd the nations hear,
The vanquish'd hope, and the proud victors fear;
Thofe quit their chain, and these resign their palm,
While Britain's awful flag commands a calm.
The curious fage, nor gain nor fame pursues,
With other eyes the boiling deep he views;
Hangs o'er the cliff inquifitive to know
The fecret causes of its ebb and flow:
Whence breathe the winds that ruffle its fmooth face,
Or ranks in claffes all the fishy race,
From those enormous monsters of the main,
Who in their world, like other tyrants, reign,
To the poor cockle-tribe, that humble band
Who cleave to rocks, or loiter on the strand.
Yet ev❜n their fhells the forming hand divine
Has, with diftinguifh'd luftre, taught to thine,
What bright enamel! and what various dyes!
What lively tints delight our wondering eyes!
The Almighty Painter glows in every line:
How mean, alas! is Raphael's bold design,
And Timan's colouring, if compar'd to thine !
Jufly fopreme let us thy power revere,
Thur 2 (pace all-beauteous every where !
Thy ring a with blushes paints the morn,
Try funung ps the face of night adorn;
Thy hover the meads, thy nodding trees the hills
The vas to matures green, and bubbling rills;
Thy word games, thy rocks, that amber weep,
Inese all the grooms marions of the deep;
Tus gelar sauts difné wii goiden ore,
Sud tote the rapoast hele te fare.
To al torte les grandeur nat chon lent,
Di storitieni.
Aon, hie samo aut fov :
AYA BAY WHY we
Best know to use each bleffing he bestows,
Best know to praise the power from whence it flows. Shells in your hand the Parian rock defy,
Or agat, or Ægyptian porphyry
More gloffy they, their veins of brighter dye.
See! where your rifing pyramids aspire,
Your guests furpriz'd the fhining pile admire !
In future times, if fome great Phidias rife,
Whofe chiffel with his mistress Nature vies,
Who, with fuperior skill, can lightly trace
In the hard marble block the fofteft face:
To crown this piece, fo elegantly neat,
Your well-wrought busto shall the whole compleat ;
O'er your own work from age to age prefide,
Its author once, and then its greatest pride.
ADDRESS to his ELBOW-CHAIR, new cloathed.
My dear companion, and my faithful friend!
If Orpheus taught the listening oaks to bend ;
If ftones and rubbish, at Amphion's call,
Danc'd into form, and built the Theban wall;
Why shouldt not thou attend my humble lays,
And hear my grateful harp refound thy praife?"
True, thou art spruce and fine, a very beau;
But what are trappings and external show?
To real worth alone I make my court;
Knaves are my fcorn, and coxcombs are my sport.
Once I beheld thee far lefs trim and gay;
Ragged, disjointed, and to worms a prey;
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