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Her votaries? What avails from iron chains
Exempt, if rofy fetters bind as faft?

Beftir, and anfwer your creation's end.
Think we that man with vig'rous pow'r endow'd
And room to stretch, was deftin'd to fit ftill?
Sluggards are Nature's rebels, flight her laws,
Nor live up to the terms on which they hold
Their vital leafe. Laborious terms and hard;
But fuch the tenure of our earthly state!
Riches and fame are Induftry's reward;
The nimble runner courses Fortune down,
And then he banquets, for the feeds the bold.
Think what you owe your country, what yourself.
If fplendor charm not, yet avoid the fcorn
That treads on lowly ftations. Think of fome
Affidious booby mounting o'er your head,
And thence with faucy grandeur looking down:
Think of (Reflection's ftab !) the pitying friend
With shoulder shrugg'd and forry. Think that Time
Has golden minutes, if difcreetly feiz'd:

And if fome fad example, "indolent,

To warn and feare be wanting-think of mé.

CHA P. XX.

ELEGY то A YOUNG NOBLEMAN

Ε

LEAVING THE UNIVERSITY.

'ER yet, ingenuous Youth, thy steps retire

From Cam's fmooth margin, and the peaceful vale,

Where Science call'd thee to her ftudious quire,
And met thee mufing in her cloyfters pale;
O let thy friend (and may he boast the name)
Breath from his artlefs reed one parting lay!

A lay

A lay like this thy early Virtues claim, **
And this let voluntary Friendship pay.
Yet know, the time arrives, the dangerous time,
When all those Virtues, opening now so fair,
Tranfplanted to the world's tempeftuous clime,
Muft learn each Paffion's boift'rous breath to bear.
There if Ambition, peftilent and pale,

Or Luxury should taint their vernal glow;
If cold Self-intereft, with her chilling gale,
Should blast th' unfolding bloffoms e'er they blow;
If mimic hues, by Art, or Fashion spread,>
Their genuine, fimple colouring fhould

O with them may thefe laureate honours fade;
And with them (if it can) my Friendship die.

And do not blame, if, tho' thyfelf inspire,
Cautious I ftrike the panegyric ftring;
The Mufe full oft pursues a meteor fire,
And vainly vent'rous, foars on waxen wing.
Too actively awake at Friendship's voice,
The poet's bofom pours the fervent strain,
Till fad reflection blames the hafty choice,
And oft invokes Oblivion's aid in vain.
Go then, my Friend, nor let thy candid breaft
Condemn me, if I check the plaufive ftring;
Go to the wayward world; compleat the rest;
Be, what the pureft Mufe would wish to fing.
Be ftill thyself; that open path of Truth,
Which led thee here, let Manhood firm purfue;
Retain the fweet fimplicity of Youth,

And all thy virtue dictates, dare to do.

Still fcorn, with confcious pride, the mask of Art ;
On Vice's front let fearful Caution lour,

And

And teach the diffident, difcreeter part

Of knaves that plot, and fools that fawn for power.
So, round thy brow when age's honours fpread,
When death's cold hand unftrings thy MASON's lyre,
When the green turf lies lightly on his head,

Thy worth shall some fuperior bard inspire:
He to the ampleft bounds of Time's domain,
On Rapture's plume fhall give thy Name to fly;
For truft, with rev'rence truft this Sabian ftrain :
The Mufe forbids the virtuous Man to die."

MASON.

С НА Р. XXI.

ON THE MISERIES OF HUMAN LIFE.

A

H little think the gay licentious proud,

Whom pleasure, power, and affluence furround;
They, who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth,
And wanton, often cruel, riot waste;

Ah little think they, while they dance along,
How many feel, this very moment, death,
And all the fad variety of pain:

How many fink in the devouring flood,
Or more devouring flame: how many bleed,
By fhameful variance betwixt Man and Man:
How many pine in want, and dungeon glooms;
Shut from the common air, and common ufe
Of their own limbs: how many drink the cup
Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread

:

Of mifery fore pierc'd by wintry winds,
How many fhrink into the fordid hut
Of cheerless poverty: how many fhake

With all the fiercer tortures of the mind,

Unbounded paffion, madnefs, guilt, remorse;
Whence tumbling headlong from the height of life,
They furnish matter for the tragic muse:

Even in the vale, where wifdom loves to dwell,
With friendship, peace, and contemplation join'd,
How many rack'd, with honeft paffions, droop
In deep retir'd diftrefs: how many stand
Around the death-bed of their dearest friends
And point the parting anguish.-Thought fond man
Of these, and all the thousand nameless ills,
That one inceffant struggle render life,
One scene of toil, of fuffering, and of fate,
Vice in his high career would stand appall'd,
And heedless rambling Impulfe learn to think;
The conscious heart of charity would warm,
And her wide with benevolence dilate;
The focial tear would rife, the focial figh;
And into clear perfection, gradual bliss,
Refining ftill, the social paffions work.

CHA P. XXII.

THOMSON.

REFLECTIONS ON A FUTURE STATE.

T

IS done!-dread WINTER fpreads his lateft glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.

How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!

How dumb the tuneful! horror wide extends

His defolate domain. Behold, fond Man!

See here thy pictur'd life, pass some few years:

Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,

Thy

Thy fober Autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at laft,
And fhuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled
Thofe dreams of greatnefs? thofe unfolid hopes
Of happiness? those longings after fame ?
Those restlefs cares? thofe bufy bustling days?
Those gay-spent feftive nights? thofe veering thoughts
Loft between good and ill, that fhar'd thy life?
All now are vanish'd! VIRTUE fole furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of Man,
His guide to happiness on high.—And fee!
'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth
Of heaven, and earth! awakening Nature hears
The new creating word, and starts to life,
In every heightened form, from pain and death
For ever free. The great eternal scheme
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads,
To reafon's eye refin'd clears up apace.
Ye vainly wife! ye blind prefumptuous! now,
Confounded in the duft, adore that POWER,
And WISDOM oft arraing'd: fee now the cause,
Why unaffuming worth in fecret liv'd,

And dy'd, neglected: why the good Man's fhare
In life was gall and bitterness of foul:
Why the lone widow, and her orphans pin'd,
In ftarving folitude; while luxury,

In palaces, lay ftraining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born truth,
And moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of fuperftition's fcourge; why I'c ns'd pain,
That cruel fpoiler, that embofom'd foe,

G

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