Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

How oft the laughing brow of joy
A sick'ning heart conceals!:
And through the cloister's deep recess
Invading sorrow steals.

In vain through beauty, fortune, wit,
The fugitive we trace;
It dwells not in the faithless smile.
That brightens Clodia's face.

Perhaps the joy to these deuy'd,
The heart in friendship finds :
Ah! dear delusion, gay conceit
Of visionary minds!

Howe'er our varying notions rove,
Yet all agree in one,

To place its being in some state,
At distance from our owⱭ:

O blind to each indulgent aim,
Of pow'r supremely wise,
Who ucy happiness in aught

The hand of heav'n denies !

CARTED

Vain is alike the joy we seek,
And vain what we possess,
Unless harmonious reason tunes
The passions into peace.

To temper'd wishes just desires,
Is happiness confin'd;

And, deaf to folly's call, attenda

The music of the mind.

SECTION VIII.

THE FIRE SIDE.

DEAR Chloe, while the busy crowd,
The vain. the wealthy, and the proud,
In lolly's maze advance;
Tho' singularity and pride

Be call'd our choice, we'll step aside,
Nor join the giddy dance.

From the gay world we'll oft retire
To our own family and fire,

Where love our hours employs;
No noisy neighbor enters here,
No intermeddling stranger near,
To spoil our heartfelt joys.

If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies;
And they are fools who roam
The world has nothing to bestow;
From our ownselves our joys must flow,
And that dear but, our home.

Of rest was Noah's dove bereft,
When with impatient wing she left
That safe retreat. the ark;
Giving her vain excursion o’er,
The disappointed bird once more
Explor'd the sacred bark.

Tho' fools spurn Hy men's gentle pow'rs,
We who improve his golden hours,

By sweet experience know,

That marriage rightly understood,
Gives to the tender and the good
A paradise below.

Our babes shall richest comforts bring;
If tutor'd right, they'll prove a spring
Whence pleasures ever rise;
We'll form their minds with studious care
To all that's manly, good, and fair,
And train them for the skies.

While they our wisest hours engage,
They'll joy our youth, support our age
And crown our hoary hairs:
They'll grow in virtue ev'ry day,
And thus our fondest loves repay,--
And recompence our cares.

No borrow'd joys! they're all our own,
While to the world we live unknowo,
Or by the world forgot:

Monarchs! we envy not your state ;
We look with pity on the great,
And bless our humble lot..

Our portion is not large indeed,
But then how little do we need !
For nature's calls are few:

In this the art of living lies,
To want no more than may suffice,
And make that little do...

We'll therefore relish with content,
Whate'er kind Providence has sent,
Nor aim beyond our pow'r;
For if our stock be very smail,
"Tis prudence to enjoy it all,
Nor lose the present hour.

To be resign'd when ills betide
Patient when favors are deny'd,
And pleased with lavors giv'o:

Dear Chloe, this is wisdom's part,
This is that incense of the heart,
Whose fragrance smells to heav'o.

We'll ask no long protracted treat,
Since winter life is seldom sweet;
But when our feast is o'er,
Grateful from table we'll arise,

Nor grudge our sons, with envious eyes,
The relics of our store.

Thus, hand in hand, through life we'll go:
Its checker'd paths of joy and woe,
With cautious steps we'll tread;
Quit its vain scenes without a tear,
Without a trouble or a fear,

And mingle with the dead.

While conscience, like a faithful friend,
Shall thro' the gloomy vale attend,
And cheer our dying breath;
Shall when all other comforts cease,
Like a kind angel whisper peace,
And smooth the bed of death.

SECTION IX.

COTTON.

PROVIDENCE VINDICATED IN THE PRESENT STATE OF MAN.

HEAV'N from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state;
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know,
Or who could suffer being here below?

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by heav'n
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall;
Atoms or systems into ruin burl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wan the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What fature bliss, he gives not thee to knew,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eterual in the human breast:
Man never is, but always To Be blest;
The soul uneasy, and coufin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutor❜d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the Solar Walk or Milky Way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, a humbler heav❜o;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat❜ry waste;

Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no christians thirst for gold,
TO BE, Contents his natural desire;

He asks no angel's wing. no seraph's fire:
But thinks admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such,
Say here he gives too little, there too much.
In pride, in reas'ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels tell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:

And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of ORDER, sins against th'ETERNAL cause.

SECTION X.

SELFISHNESS REPROVED.

Has God, thour fool! work'd solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,

For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn.

POPE.

« AnteriorContinuar »