And fay, what Theme employs thy mind; "What occupies the fculptor here? "A Theme, perhaps, which he will find "Worfe than indifferent in a year. XIII.

"Some pupil fair of London's art,

"Where polished falfehood holds her reign?
"Or warms a rural nymph thy heart,
"Some ruddy virgin of the plain ?
XIV.

"Or fome protectress of renown,
"Some guardian of the Mufe's flame;
"Whofe fovereign tafte directs the town,

And flakes ambition's thirst with fame?
XV.

"Rafh man, you court a constant strife
"With numerous woes; of verfe beware 3.
"I've heard, and read the poet's life;
"His toil, is thought; his prize is, air.
XVI.

Though now her friendship you enjoy,
"And on her eulogies repofe,
"Envy that friendship may deftroy;
"For merit brings a hoft of foes.
XVII.

Politeness may have formed your friend, "Politeness in the bright extreme; "On which the wretches who depend, "For truth mistake a golden dream. XVIII.

Charms to the perfon, to the face "It gives; but withers Virtue's bloom; "Its varnish rots ber nobler grace; "It is the fcripture's whited tomb. XIX.

"Tis branded by the moral pen;

66

Opinion, ftill, the daftard fears ; 'Tis meanly all things to all men ; *It never is what it appears.

24

XX. " Bat

XX.

"But fhould your patronefs withstand
"Each barbarous witling of the age,
"The dull, and the malicious band,
"That conftant war with genius wage;
XXI.

"In affluence give your strains to flow,
"And bid with Pope's their spirit vie;
"On one plain truth your thoughts bestow;

66

Yourfelf, your friend, your verse, muft die.
XXII.

"All the great fcenes that bards difplay,
"All their ftrong pictures of mankind,
"By Time's impreffion will decay,

66

Like this infcription on the rind.

"Then let the fit, the good, the true,
Be all thy work, and all thy care;
Through life, their facred path pursue,
"Nor fubftance quit for tinfel glare.
XXV.

"Give reafon her divine controul;
"And to be great, be truly wife;
"Let profpects animate thy foul,

66

Sublime, and lafting, as the fkies."
XXVI.

To me these words, in vain addreffed,
Produced but momentary awe;
As wayward Chriftians are imprcffed,
In hearing their affecting law.
XXVII.

But fince, I've longer felt their force ;
For where Perfuafion's current fails,

Adversity's alarming course,

Her ftronger torrent oft prevails.
XXVIII.

How to the fwain Maria's praise

Flowed from the poet's lavifh tongue,
Shall not employ thefe temperate lays ;
Nor on my accents how he hung.
XXIX,

The picture, which my fancy drew,
I wish to recolle& no more;
It brings a groupe of woes to view;
It wounds the breaft it foothed before.

XXX. Yet

XXX.

Yet her negle&t I'll error deem ;

For had the all my nature known;
Surveyed the fprings of my etteem,
Its honeft rife, its generous tone;
XXXI.

My fame she then would ne'er have left
To northern favages a prey ;
Then, of her influence ne'er bereft,

The mufe had triumphed in her fway.
XXXII.

Nay, could fhe know, with what regret,
My verfe, half-praife, half-cenfure, flows,
Her candour foon would pay the debt,
The noble debt that justice owes.
XXXIII.

Friendship with poetry she'd prize,
Rejoin their pure, congenial flames;
And thus again she'd authorize

The rural union of our names.
XXXIV.

Then happy might her poet live,
As long as he enjoyed his breath;
And what can future chances give;
What are our names beyond our death?
XXXV.

What then imports it, that they're stormed
By poisoned fhafts against them hurled?
Imports it aught, that they're deformed,
Or on a tree, or in the world?

monarchy

In this piece the judicious Reader will obferve fome obscure lines, and fome which are exceedingly profaic, but the general air and expreffion are fo pleafing, that we have given it, in juftice to the Author, as one of the most finished pieces in his Mifcellany. E.

ART. V. The Chronicle of England. Vol. II. From the Acceffion of Egbert to the Norman Conqueft. By Jofeph Strutt. 4to. 15s. Boards. Shropshire. 1778.

L'

ITERARY men who give up their time and their labour to gratify the inquifitive temper of the age they live in, challenge at once our attention and acknowledgment. Mr. Strutt, in his Ecclefiaftical Antiquities, and the Manners and Cuftoms of the ancient English, prefented to the Public a very ingenious and pleafing arrangement of hiftorical anecdotes, which he had collected from manufcripts, &c. locked up in colleges, or hoarded in the cabinets of the antiquary. In these researches he muft unavoidably have met with many rare incidents, which had lain unnoticed in the ancient memorials, &c. which he met with; and this circumftance, most probably, intimated to him the first thought of furnishing the Public with a more copious compilation in the Chronicle of England.

The reputation Mr. Strutt acquired in his firft performance, we prefume hurried him on too faft in this laft undertaking; which will account for those inaccuracies that are to be found in the first volume. In the prefent volume, the language is much more correct.

The fecond volume, now before us, begins at the acceffion of Egbert, and ends with the Saxon haptasetry.

Continuing the fame regular method of dividing the work into general heads, the Author prefents us, firft, with the civil and military hiftory; in which we are reminded that the inhabitants of this ifland, in the year 860, differed very little in temper and difpofition from the inhabitants of the fame spot in the year 1778. The inhabitants of Northumberland were at this time divided amongst themselves, and governed occafionally by rulers of their own chufing, who were fuddenly advanced to their dignity by one party, and as fuddenly difplaced when another prevailed. By these inteftine difcords their country was left open to the attacks of the common enemy, the Danes, who improved every opportunity that promifed fuccefs.'

And in the ninth century we find that the Saxons were not lefs prone to drunkenness than the English are now; but Edgar, to leffen the evil, would not permit any little ftraggling alehoufes to be kept within his dominions, juftly esteeming them as nurseries of indolence and vice; but made a ftrict law, ordaining that only one public houfe fhould be allowed in any

one

one village or small town, and more only in proportion to the fize of larger towns or boroughs.' If a fimilar remedy was to be applied in the age we live in, we should foon feel an advantage in the reformation of the lower clafs of people. Our foldiers would be more fober and healthy, and our artificers and peafants would be more induftrious: the poor-houfes would be a refuge only for the difeafed and aged; and mifery would be lefs frequently met with in the public ftreets.

Hiftory is the voice of time, and princes who wish to correct their judgment fhould listen to the notes of experience. We are informed that the Danes invaded and conquered England from Athelred's placing an injudicious confidence in men difaffected to his government.

The great fuccefs which the Danes had met with in England the preceding year, and more particularly the money which had been paid to them, was an irrefiftable temptation to them, or others of their countrymen, to make fresh efforts to enrich themselves with the fpoils of a declining kingdom.-Therefore, the fecond year following, with a large fleet, they failed into England. The rumour of their coming was quickly fpread amongst the people to their univerfal terror and difmay. In the mean time Æthelred, with the greateft difficulty, collected a fleet in order to oppofe them. The command of this fleet was committed to Alfric, the fon of Elfer, duke of Mercia-a man, who was but juft returned from banifhment, whither he had been fent by the king for fome great offence, which being now forgiven, he was reftored to favour, and invefted with the command. The fleet which Ethelred had fitted out, it is thought, would have been more than fufficient to have oppofed that of the Danes, had the command been given to a faithful man; but Alfric, having nothing lefs at heart than the interest of his country, treacheroufly gave the enemy notice of his approach, fo that they readily efcaped the danger. Soon after falling in unavoidably with part of the enemy's fleet, he was reduced to the neceffity of engaging with them, which he pretended to do, whilft in reality he was only giving them leifure to escape; and not content with this manifeftation of his treachery, he fully confirmed it at laft by an actual revolt from the king's fleet, and joining that of the Danes. This behaviour fo exafperated the other Saxon chieftains, that they purfued the Acet of the Danes, and at last retook the fhip in which Alfric had made his escape, with all his foldiers, and his armour, but he fufpecting their defign, had been careful to fecure himself on board fome veffel. However, when they found not the prize they logs for on board the ship, they wreaked their vengeance on thofe that were there, and put every one of them to the fword The Saxon chieftains, who diftinguished themfelves

upon