In happy climes, the feat of innocence,
Where nature guides and virtue rules,
Where men shall not impofe for truth and sense
The pedantry of courts and schools:

There shall be fung another golden age,
The rife of empire and of arts,
The good and great inspiring epic rage,
The wisest heads, and noblest hearts.

Not fuch as Europe breeds in her decay;
Such as the bred when fresh and young,
When heav'nly flame did animate her clay,
By future poets shall be fung.

Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past,

A fifth fhall close the drama with the day;
Time's nobleft offspring is the laft.

To

Το Mr. MASO N.

By WILLIAM WHITEHEAD, Efq;

I.

ELIEVE me, MASON, 'tis in vain Thy fortitude the torrent braves; Thou too must bear th' inglorious chain; The world, the world will have its flaves. The chofen friend, for converse sweet, The small, yet elegant retreat,

Are peaceful unambitious views

Which early fancy loves to form,
When, aided by the ingenuous Muse,
She turns the philofophic page,
And fees the wife of every age
With Nature's dictates warm.

II.

But ah! to few has Fortune given
The choice, to take or to refuse;
To fewer still indulgent Heaven

Allots the very will to chufe.

And why are varying schemes preferr❜d? Man mixes with the common herd,

By cuffom guided to purfue

Or wealth, or honors, fame, or ease;
What others wifh he wiflies too,

Nor, from his own peculiar choice,
'Till ftrengthen'd by the public voice,
His very pleafures please.

III.

How oft, beneath fome hoary fhade
Where Cam glides indolently flow,
Hast thou, as indolently laid,

Preferr'd to Heav'n thy fav'rite vow;
"Here, here for ever let me stay,
"Here calmly loiter life away,

"Nor all thofe vain connections know
"Which fetter down the free-born mind

""The flave of intereft, or of fhew;
"Whilst yon gay tenant of the grove,
"The happier heir of Nature's love,
"Can warble unconfin'd."
IV.

Yet fure, my friend, th' eternal plan
By Truth unerring was defign'd;
Inferior parts were made for man,

But man himself for all mankind.

Then by th' apparent judge th' unfeen;
Behold How rolls this vaft machine

Το

To one great end, howe'er withstood,
Directing its impartial course,
All labour for the general good.
Some stem the wave, fome till the foil,
By choice the bold, th' ambitious toil,
The indolent by force.
V.

That bird, thy fancy frees from care,
With many a fear unknown to thee,
Muft 1ove to glean his fcanty fare

From field to field, from tree to tree:
His lot, united with his kind,
Has all his little joys confin'd;
The Lover's and the Parent's ties

Alarm by turns his anxious breaft;
Yet, bound by fate, by instinct wife,
He hails with fongs the rifing morn,
And pleas'd at evening's cool return
He fings himself to reft.

VI.

And tell me, has not Nature made
Some stated void for thee to fill,

Some fpring, fome wheel, which asks thy aid
To move, regardless of thy will?

Go then, go feel with glad furprise

New blifs from new connections rife ;

"Till, happier in thy wider sphere,

Thou quit thy darling schemes of ease ;
Nay, glowing in the full career

Ev'n wish thy virtuous labours more;

Nor 'till the toilsome day is o'er
Expect the night of peace.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

QD E. To INDEPENDENCY.

H

By Mr. MASON.

I.

ERE, on my native fhore reclin'd,
While Silence rules the midnight hour,

I woo thee, GODDESS. On my musing mind
Defcend, propitious Power!

And bid thefe raffling gales of grief fubfide:
Bid

my calm'd foul with all thy influence shine; As yon chafte Orb along this ample tide

Draws the long luftre of her filver line,

While the hufh'd breeze its laft weak whisper blows,
And lulls old HUMBER to his deep repose.

11.

Come to thy Vot'ry's ardent prayer,
In all thy graceful plainness drest ;
No knot confines thy waving hair,
No zone thy floating veft.

Uufullied