85

99

The painful family of Death,
More hideous than their

queen :
This racks the joints, this fires the veins,
That ev'ry labʼring finew strains,
Those in the deeper vitals rage;
Lo! Poverty, to fill the band,
That numbs the soul with icy hand,
And flow-consuming Age.
To each his suff'rings; all are men
Condemn'd alike to groan,
The tender for another's pain,
Th' unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since forrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss
?Tis folly to be wise.

95

IO

ODE IV.

TO ADVERSITY.
DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless pow'r,

Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Bound in thy adamantine chain,
The proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan
With pangs unfelt before, unpity'd and alone,

20

When first thy fire to send on earth
Virtue, his darling child, design’d,
To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
And bade to form her infant mind;
Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore
With patience many a year she bore ;
What forrow was thou bad'st her know,

15
And from her own the learn'd to melt at others' wo.
Scar'd at thy frown terrific fly
Self-pleafing Folly's idle brood,
Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy,
And leave us leisure to be good.
Light they disperse; and with them go
The summer friend, the flatt'ring foe;
By vain Prosperity receiv'd,
To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.
Wisdom, in fable garb array'd,

25 Immers d in rapt'rous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid, With leaden eye, that loves the ground, Still on thy folemn steps attend; Warm Charity, the gen'ral friend,

30 With Justice, to herself severe, And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. Oh! gently on thy suppliant's head, Dread goddess! lay thy chastning hand, Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad,

35. Nor circled with the vengeful band: (As by the impious thou art feen,) With thund'ring voice and threat'ning mien,

D

With screaming Horror's fun'ral cry,
Despair, and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty. 40
Thy form benign, O Goddess! wear,
Thy milder influence impart,
Thy philofophic train be there,
To foften, not to wound, my heart :
The gen'rous fpark extinct revive ;

43
Teach me to love and to forgive ;
Exact my own defects to scan,
What others are to feel, and know myself a man. 48

ODE V.

THE PROGRESS OF POESY.

PINDARICK.

ADVERTISEMENT.

When the Author first published this and the follow

ing Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to fubjoin some few explanatory Notes, but had too much respect for the Understanding of his Readers to take that Liberty.

I. I.

AWAKE, Æolian lyre! awake,"

And give to rapture all thy trembling strings ; From Helicon's harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take ;

* Awake, my glory! awake, lute and harp.

David's Psalms, Pindar styles his own poetry, with it's musical ac. companiments, Æolian fong, Æolian strings, the breath of the Eolian Aute. The subject and fimile,

The laughing flow'rs, that round them blow, 5
Drink life and fragrance as they flow.
Now the rich stream of music winds along
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,
Thro' verdant vales and Ceres' golden reign ;
Now rolling down the steep amain,
Headlong, impetuous, see it pour ;
The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar.

IS

Oh! Sov’reignt of the willing soul,
Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs,
Enchanting shell ! the fullen Cares
And frantic Paffions hear thy soft controul.
On Thracia's hills the Lord of War
Has curb’d the fury of his car,
And dropp'd his thirfly lance at thy command:
Perching on the sceptred hand
Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king
With ruffled plumes and flagging wing;

20

as usual with Pindar, are here united. The various fources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches, are here described, as well in it's quiet majeftic progress, enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with all the pomp of diction, and luxuriant harmony of numbers, as in it's more rapid and irresistible course, when swollen and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous paffions

+ Power of harmony to calm the turbulent passions of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar.

# This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode.

Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie
The terror of his beak and light’nings of his eye.

1. 3. Thee f the voice, the dance obey,

25 Temper'd to thy warbled lay: O’er Idalia's velvet green The rosy-crowned Loves are feen, On Cytherea's day, With antic Sports and blue-ey'd Pleasures Frisking light in frolic measures : Now pursuing, now retreating, Now in circling troops they meet ; To brikk notes in cadence beating Glance their many-twinkling feet.

35 Slow-melting strains their queen's approach declare; Where'er she turns the Graces homage pay: With arms sublime, that float upon the air, In gliding state she wins her easy way: O’er her warın cheek and rising bosom move The bloom of young desire and purple light of love.

40

II.1.

Man's feeble race what ills await!
Labour and Penury, the racks of Pain,

# Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body.

T To compensate the real or imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given to mankind by the fame Provi. dence that sends the day by it's chearful presence to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night.