ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.

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E CLOG U E I.

SELIM ; OR, THE SHÉPHÉRD'S MORAL:

SCENE, A VALLEY NEAR BAGDAT.

TIME, THE MORNING.

E Perfian maids, attend your poet's lays,

Y

And hear how shepherds pass 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 bliss, where'er we dwell.

Thus Selim fung, by sacred Truth infpir'd; Nor praise, but such as Truth beftow'd, defir'd : Wise in himself, his meaning songs convey'd Informing morals to the shepherd maid ; Or taught the swains that surest bliss to find, What groves nor streams beftow, a virtuous mind.

When

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When sweet and blothing, like a virgin bride,
The radiant morn resum'd her orient pride,
When wanton gales along the valleys play,
Breathe on each flower, and bear their sweets away;
By Tigris' wandering waves he fat, and fung
This useful lesson for the fair and young.

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Ye Persian dames, he said, to you belong,
Well may they please, the morals of my song:
No fairer maids, I trust, than you are found,
Grac'd with soft arts, the peopled world around!
The morn that lights you, to your loves supplies
Each gentler ray delicious to your eyes :
For you thofe flowers her fragrant hands bestow,
And yours the love that kings delight to know.
Yet think not these, all beauteous as they are,
The best kind blessings heaven can grant the fair !
Who trust alone in beauty's feeble ray,
Boast but the worth Basfora's pearls display ;
Drawn from the deep we own their surface bright,
But, dark within, they drink no luftrous light:

Such

Such are the maids, and such the charms they boast,
By sense unaided, or to virtue loft.
Self-flattering sex! your hearts believe in vain
That love shall blind, whence once he fires the swain ;
Or hope a lover by your faults to win,
As spots on ermin beautify the skin :
Who seeks secure to rule, be first her care
Each softer virtue that adorns the fair ;
Each tender pasion man delights to find,
The lov'd perfections of a female mind !

Bleft were the days, when wisdom held her reign, And shepherds sought her on the filent plain ; With Truth she wedded in the secret grove, Immortal Truth, and daughters bless’d their love.

O hafte, fair maids ! ye Virtues come away, Sweet Peace and Plenty lead you on your way! The balmy shrub, for you shall love our shore, By Ind excell'd or Araby no more.

Loft to our fields, for so the fates ordain, The dear deerters shall return again.

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Come