It boasts a splendour ever new,
Safe with protecting Montagu.

To the fame patronefs refort,
Secure of favour at her court,

Strong Genius, from whose forge of thought
Forms rife, to quick perfection wrought,
Which, though new-born, with vigour move,
Like Pallas fpringing arm'd from Jove-
Imagination scattering round

Wild roses over furrow'd ground,
Which Labour of his frown beguile,
And teach Philosophy a smile—
Wit flashing on Religion's fide,
Whose fires, to facred truth applied,
The gem, though luminous before,
Obtrudes on human notice more,
Like funbeams on the golden height
Of fome tall temple playing bright—
Well tutor❜d Learning, from his books
Difmiff'd with grave, not haughty, looks,
Their order on his fhelves exact,
Not more harmonious or compact
Than that to which he keeps confined
The various treasures of his mind—
All these to Montagu's repair,
Ambitious of a shelter there.

There Genius, Learning, Fancy, Wit,
Their ruffled plumage calm refit,
(For ftormy troubles loudest roar
Around their flight who highest soar)
And in her eye, and by her aid,
Shine fafe without a fear to fade.

She thus maintains divided sway
With yon bright regent of the day;
The plume and Poet both we know
Their luftre to his influence owe;
And she the works of Phoebus aiding,
Both Poet faves and plume from fading.

VERSES

Supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk, during his folitary Abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez.

AM monarch of all I furvey,

My right there is none to difpute; From the centre all round to the fea I am lord of the fowl and the brute. O Solitude! where are the charms

That fages have feen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms Than reign in this horrible place.

I am out of humanity's reach,

I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the fweet mufic of speech-
I start at the found of my own.
The beasts that roam over the plain,
My form with indifference see;
They are so unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.

Society, friendship, and love,
Divinely bestow'd upon man,
O, had I the wings of a dove,
How foon would I tafte you again!
My forrows I then might affuage

In the ways of religion and truth, Might learn from the wisdom of age, And be cheer'd by the fallies of youth.

Religion! what treasure untold
Refides in that heavenly word!
More precious than filver and gold,
Or all that this earth can afford,
But the found of the church-going bell
Thefe valleys and rocks never heard,
Never figh'd at the found of a knell,
Or fmiled when a fabbath appear'd.

Ye winds, that have made me your sport, Convey to this defolate shore

Some cordial endearing report

Of a land I fhall vifit no more. My friends, do they now and then send A with or a thought after me? O tell me I yet have a friend, Though a friend I am never to fee.

How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempeft itself lags behind,

And the swift-winged arrows of light.

When I think of my own native land,
In a moment I feem to be there;
But alas! recollection at hand
. Soon hurries me back to despair.

But the fea-fowl is gone to her neft,
The beast is laid down in his lair;
Even here is a season of rest,
And I to my cabin repair.
There is mercy in every place,

And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,

And reconciles man to his lot.

ON OBSERVING SOME NAMES OF

LITTLE NOTE

Recorded in the Biographia Britannica.

H, fond attempt to give a deathless lot To names ignoble, born to be forgot! In vain, recorded in hiftoric page, They court the notice of a future age: Those twinkling tiny luftres of the land Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand; Lethæan gulfs receive them as they fall, And dark oblivion foon abforbs them all.

So when a child, as playful children use, Has burnt to tinder a ftale last year's news,

The flame extinct, he views the roving fire-
There goes my lady, and there goes the fquire,
There goes the parson, oh illuftrious spark!
And there, fcarce lefs illuftrious, goes the clerk!

REPORT OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, Not to be found in any of the Books.

ETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,

The spectacles fet them unhappily wrong; The point in dispute was, as all the world knows, To which the said spectacles ought to belong.

So the Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of

learning;

While chief baron Ear fat to balance the laws, So famed for his talent in nicely difcerning.

In behalf of the Nofe it will quickly appear,

And your lordship, he faid, will undoubtedly find That the Nofe has had fpectacles always in wear, Which amounts to poffeffion time out of mind.

Then holding the spectacles up to the courtYour lordship obferves they are made with a ftraddle,