COME, peace of mind, delightful guest! Return, and make thy downy nest Once more in this sad heart: Nor riches I nor power pursue, Nor hold forbidden joys in view; We therefore need not part. Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me, From avarice and ambition free, And pleasure's fatal wiles? For whom, alas! dost thou prepare The sweets that I was wont to share, The banquet of thy smiles?
The great, the gay, shall they partake The heaven that thou alone canst make? And wilt thou quit the stream That murmurs through the dewy mead, The grove and the sequester'd shed, To be a guest with them? For thee I panted, thee I prized, For thee I gladly sacrificed
Whate'er I loved before; And shall I see thee start away, And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say- Farewell! we meet no more?
HUMAN FRAILTY.
WEAK and irresolute is man; The purpose of to-day, Woven with pains into his plan,
To-morrow rends away.
The bow well bent, and smart the spring, Vice seems already slain;
But passion rudely snaps the string,
And it revives again.
Some foe to his upright intent
Finds out his weaker part;
Virtue engages his assent,
But Pleasure wins his heart.
"Tis here the folly of the wise Through all his art we view; And, while his tongue the charge denies, His conscience owns it true.
Bound on a voyage of awful length And dangers little known, A stranger to superior strength, Man vainly trusts his own. But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.
THE MODERN PATRIOT.
REBELLION is my theme all day; I only wish 'twould come
(As who knows but perhaps it may ?) A little nearer home.
Yon roaring boys, who rave and fight On t'other side the Atlantic, I always held them in the right,
But most so when most frantic.
When lawless mobs insult the court, That man shall be my toast, If breaking windows be the sport, Who bravely breaks the most.
But O! for him my fancy culls The choicest flowers she bears, Who constitutionally pulls
Your house about your ears.
Such civil broils are my delight,
Though some folks can't endure them, Who say the mob are mad outright, And that a rope must cure them.
A rope! I wish we patriots had Such strings for all who need 'em- What! hang a man for going mad! Then farewell British freedom.
BURNING OF LORD MANSFIELD'S LIBRARY,
TOGETHER WITH HIS MSS., BY THE MOB, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE 1780 So then the Vandals of our isle, Sworn foes to sense and law, Have burnt to dust a nobler pile Than ever Roman saw!
And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift,
And many a treasure more,
The well-judged purchase and the gift That graced his letter'd store.
Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn, The loss was his alone;
But ages yet to come shall mourn The burning of his own.
WHEN wit and genius meet their doom In all-devouring flame,
They tell us of the fate of Rome,
And bid us fear the same.
O'er Murray's loss the muses wept, They felt the rude alarm,
Yet bless'd the guardian care that kept His sacred head from harm.
There Memory, like the bee that's fed From Flora's balmy store, The quintessence of all he read Had treasured up before.
The lawless herd, with fury blind, Have done him cruel wrong;
The flowers are gone-but still we find The honey on his tongue.
THE LOVE OF THE WORLD REPROVED:
OR, HYPOCRISY DETECTED.
THUS says the prophet of the Turk, Good Mussulman, abstain from pork; There is a part in every swine No friend or follower of mine May taste, whate'er his inclination, On pain of excommunication. Such Mahomet's mysterious charge, And thus he left the point at large. Had he the sinful part express'd, They might with safety eat the rest; But for one piece they thought it hard From the whole hog to be debarr'd; And set their wit at work to find What joint the prophet had in mind. Much controversy straight arose, These choose the back, the belly those; By some 'tis confidently said
He meant not to forbid the head; While others at that doctrine rail, And piously prefer the tail.
Thus, conscience freed from every clog, Mahometans eat up the hog.
You laugh-'tis well-the tale applied May make you laugh on t'other side. Renounce the world-the preacher cries. We do a multitude replies.
While one as innocent regards
A snug and friendly game at cards; And one, whatever you may say,
Can see no evil in a play;
Some love a concert, or a race;
And others shooting, and the chase.
Reviled and loved, renounced and follow'd,
Thus, bit by bit, the world is swallow'd;
Each thinks his neighbour makes too free, Yet likes a slice as well as he:
With sophistry their sauce they sweeten, Till quite from tail to snout 'tis eaten.
ON THE DEATH OF MRS (AFTERWARDS LADY) THROCK. MORTON'S BULLFINCH.
YE nymphs! if e'er your eyes were red With tears o'er hapless favourites shed, O share Maria's grief! Her favourite, even in his cage, (What will not hunger's cruel rage?) Assassin'd by a thief.
Where Rhenus strays his vines among, The egg was laid from which he sprung And, though by nature mute,
Or only with a whistle blest,
Well taught he all the sounds express'd Of flageolet or flute.
The honours of his ebon poll Were brighter than the sleekest mole, His bosom of the hue
With which Aurora decks the skies, When piping winds shall soon arise, To sweep away the dew.
Above, below, in all the house, Dire foe alike of bird and mouse, No cat had leave to dwell; And Bully's cage supported stood On props of smoothest shaven wood, Large-built and latticed well.
Well latticed-but the grate, alas! Not rough with wire of steel or brass, For Bully's plumage sake,
But smooth with wands from Ouse's side, With which, when neatly peel'd and dried, The swains their baskets make.
Night veil'd the pole: all seem'd secure: When, led by instinct sharp and sure, Subsistence to provide,
A beast forth sallied on the scout,
Long back'd, long tail'd, with whisker'd snout, And badger-colour'd hide.
He, entering at the study door, Its ample area 'gan explore;
And something in the wind
Conjectured, sniffing round and round, Better than all the books he found, Food chiefly for the mind.
Just then, by adverse fate impress'd, A dream disturb'd poor Bully's rest; In sleep he seem'd to view
A rat fast clinging to the cage, And, screaming at the sad presage, Awoke and found it true.
For, aided both by ear and scent, Right to his mark the monster went- Ah, muse! forbear to speak Minute the horrors that ensued;
His teeth were strong, the cage was wood-- He left poor Bully's beak.
O had he made that too his prey; That beak, whence issued many a lay Of such mellifluous tone,
Might have repaid him well, I wot, For silencing so sweet a throat, Fast stuck within his own.
Maria weeps-the Muses mourn- So when, by Bacchanalians torn, On Thracian Hebrus' side The tree-enchanter Orpheus fell, His head alone remain'd to tell The cruel death he died.
THE rose had been wash'd, just wash'd in a shower. Which Mary to Anna convey'd,
The plentiful moisture encumber'd the flower, And weigh'd down its beautiful head.
The cup was all fill'd, and the leaves were all wet, And it seem'd, to a fanciful view,
To weep for the buds it had left, with regret, On the flourishing bush where it grew.
I hastily seized it, unfit as it was For a nosegay, so dripping and drown'd, And swinging it rudely, too rudely, alas! I snapp'd it, it fell to the ground.
And such, I exclaim'd, is the pitiless part Some act by the delicate mind,
Regardless of wringing and breaking a heart Already to sorrow resign'd.
This elegant rose, had I shaken it less,
Might have bloom'd with its owner a while And the tear, that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.
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