"Ah! quench not then its beams in black despair. "God hears the heart-felt sigh and humble pray'r.

"Oh! come with me, to prove Religion's pow'r, "How fmiles the faint in mis'ry's faddeft hour." Thus as he spoke, the pious man had led

The mourner to his neat, but humble fhed.

Behold, (he cry'd) to pain and grief a prey,

My dearest spouse fast finking to decay.

"Childless, her bury'd offspring fhe deplores;
"A cancer now her feeble frame devours
's;

"Too ill our fcanty means her wants supply,
"The nurfe's care, and phyfic's aid deny.

"Yet mark, her breast no fretful murmur moves; "The Pow'r that wounds her, fhe adores and loves." "Oh! teach me, teach me (the fair fceptic cry'd) "Thofe healing truths; be heav'n, and you, my guide;

"Teach

"Teach me this pride, thefe doubtings, to controul,

"And break, Oh! break these lime-twigs of the foul." Here the meek fuff'rer rais'd her pitying eyes :"Ah! fee this book, from which my comforts rise. "Here taught we hope, when this frail life is o'er, "And all its ftorms, to gain a happier fhore: "And though a while fome fyren fin deceive,

"The hand of heav'n is always ftretch'd to fave. "Hence thro' the mifts, which hover round the tomb,

"Faith learns to contemplate a world to come."

THE PEN.

έντε πιοιμι μελαν πόλον, ἔνθεος δια

Παν ἐπῷ ἀφθεγκλῳ τῳδε λεγω τοματι.

ANON. EP.

"HAT fubtle pow'rs direct the grey goofe-Quill,

WHE

fkill,

How lov'd, how fear'd, how great its magic

I fing;

I fing; let Phoebus aid the pious lays;

His was the gift, let his too be the praise.

When once, as poets tell, in mortal guife
He tended fheep, an outcaft of the fkies,

Taught by his ftrains, which oft in noontide bow'rs,
Or ev❜ning fhades, beguil'd the tedious hours,
With rival aim the fhepherds pip'd and sung;
Through Tempe's plains the ceaseless echos rung.
The phrenzy grew; and trees in ev'ry grove
Bore in their barks recorded fongs of love.

This quaint device his forming hands refin'd,
And, yet unknown, the shapely pen defign'd.
Pointed and fimooth'd, and dipt in fable juice,
A flender* reed defcrib'd its wond'rous use.

Still

*Reeds and canes were the first inftruments ufed in writing. Pliny fays, that Egypt furnished a great quantity of reeds for this purpofe; and Martial confirms it, Dat chartis habiles calamos Memphitica tellus. Reeds and canes are ftill ufed by the Tartars, the Indians, the Perfians, the Turks, and the Greeks.

Aftle's Origin and Progrefs of Writing, c. 8.

Still from the trees they drew their fimple aid,

And the peel'd † bark their ruftic tales convey'd.

t

But foon, when Folly spawn'd her fcribbling brood,
When, tho' the Muse's scorn, the Muse they woo'd,
The reed-crown'd Naiads wept the fpreading ill :
He faw, and bad the goofe refign her Quill.

Hail, facred gift! when truth, and learning guide,
With joy we trace, where-e'er thy currents glide.
'Tis thine, to teach, perfuade, reprove, confole,
To paint each varying movement of the soul.
Faft as ideas fpring, they meet our eyes;

Thou giv'ft them shape and substance, as they rise

In ev'ry tongue thou speak'ft to ev'ry end,

;

To all, in all, interpreter, and friend.

Thine

The bark of trees hath been used for writing upon, in every quarter of the globe, and is ftill ufed in feveral parts of Afia. It is obfervable, that the word LIBER was ufed, by the Romans, as well for the bark of a tree, as for a book. A fpecimen of Latin writing en bark is still preserved.

See Aftle's Origin, &c.

Thine too that pow'r, whofe influence can impart

Such harmless pride, to footh the poet's heart.

Him, who ne'er bask'd in fortune's golden fmiles,
Untrain'd in gainful arts and worldly wiles,

Though friendless, fasting, shiv'ring through the day,
Though duns and bailiffs mark him for their prey,
Though round his cell their webs the spiders weave,
Which hungry rats by cautious instinct leave,

Thy fingle aid can cheer; the scene illume,

And pour bright comfort o'er the joyless gloom.
Heedlefs of home, his fportive fancy roves

Through lawns, and rofeate bow'rs, and myrtle groves,
Walks with the wood-nymphs in their verdant glades,
Or holds high converfe with Aonia's maids.
Full oft he mounts fublime to heav'n's abodes,
And hears, and fpeaks the language of the gods.
Thus in romance the forc'rer waves his wand,
When instant culture clothes a naked land;

The