• But, unimproved, Heav'n's noblest boons are vain, No sun with plenty crowns th' uncultured vale: Where green lakes languish on the silent plain, Death rides the billows of the western gale.

• Deep in yon mountain's womb, where the dark cave Howls to the torrent's everlasting roar,

Does the rich gem its flashy radiance wave?
Or flames with steady ray th' imperial ore?

Toil deck'd with glittering dooms yon champaign wide,

And wakes yon grove-embosom'd lawns to joy, And rends the rough ore from the mountain's side, Spangling with starry pomp the thrones of Troy. Fly these soft scenes. Even now, with playful art, Love wreathes the flowery ways with fatal snare. And nurse th' ethereal fire that warms thy heart, That fire ethereal lives but by thy care.

'Lo, hovering near on dark and dampy wing,

Sloth with stern patience waits the hour assign'd,
From her chill plume the deadly dews to fling,
That quench Heav'n's beam, and freeze the cheer-
less mind.

'Vain, then, th' enlivening sound of Fame's alarms,
For Hope's exulting impulse prompts no more:
Vain even the joys that lure to Pleasure's arms,
The throb of transport is for ever o'er.

O who shall then to Fancy's darkening eyes
Recal th' Elysian dreams of joy and light!
Dim through the gloom the formless visions rise,
Snatch'd instantaneous down the gulf of night,
'Thou who securely lull'd in youth's warm ray
Mark'st not the desolations wrought by Time,

Be roused or perish, Ardent for its prey

Speeds the fell hour that ravages thy prime.

And, 'midst the horrors shrined of midnight storm, The fiend Oblivion eyes thee from afar,

Black with intolerable frowns her form,

Beckoning th' embattled whirlwinds into war.

6 Fanes, bulwarks, mountains, worlds, their tempest

whelms :

Yet glory braves unmoved th' impetuous sweep. Fly then, ere, hurl'd from life's delightful realms, Thou sink t' Oblivion's dark and boundless deep. 'Fly, then, where Glory points the path sublime, See her crown dazzling with eternal light! "Tis Juno prompts thy daring steps to climb,

And girds thy bounding heart with matchless might. 'Warm in the raptures of divine desire,

Burst the soft chain that curbs th' aspiring mind: And fly, where Victory, borne on wings of fire, Waves her red banner to the rattling wind.

Ascend the car. Indulge the pride of arms, Where clarions roll their kindling strains on high, Where the eye maddens to the dread alarms, And the long shout tumultuous rends the sky. 'Plunged in the uproar of the thundering field I see thy lofty arm the tempest guide: Fate scatters lightning from thy meteor-shield, And Ruin spreads around the sanguine tide.

'Go, urge the terrors of thy headlong car

On prostrate Pride, and Grandeur's spoils o'erthrown,

While all amazed even heroes shrink afar,

And hosts embattled vanish at thy frown.

When glory crowns thy godlike toils, and all The triumph's lengthening pomp exalts thy soul, When lowly at thy feet the mighty fall, And tyrants tremble at thy stern control:

When conquering millions hail thy sovereign might, And tribes unknown dread acclamation join; How wilt thou spurn the forms of low delight! For all the ecstasies of Heav'n are thine:

For thine the joys, that fear no length of days, Whose wide effulgence scorns all mortal bound: Fame's trump in thunder shall announce thy praise, Nor bursting worlds her clarion's blast confound.'

The goddess ceased, not dubious of the prize :
Elate she mark'd his wild and rolling eye,
Mark'd his lip quiver, and his bosom rise,

And his warm cheek suffused with crimson die.

But Pallas now drew near. Sublime, serene,
In conscious dignity, she view'd the swain:
Then, love and pity softening all her mien,
Thus breathed with accents mild the solemn strain.

'Let those, whose arts to fatal paths betray,

The soul with passion's gloom tempestuous blind, And snatch from Reason's ken th' auspicious ray Truth darts from Heaven to guide th' exploring mind.

'But Wisdom loves the calm and serious hour, When Heaven's pure emanation beams confess'd: Rage, ecstacy, alike disclaim her power,

She wooes each gentler impulse of the breast.

'Sincere th' unalter'd bliss her charms impart,
Sedate th' enlivening ardours they inspire:
She bids no transient rapture thrill the heart,
She wakes no feverish gust of fierce desire.

Unwise, who, tossing on the watery way,
All to the storm th' unfetter'd sail devolve:
Man more unwise resigns the mental sway,

Borne headlong on by passion's keen resolve.

• While storms remote but murmur on thine ear, Nor waves in ruinous uproar round thee roll, Yet, yet a moment check thy prone career,

And curb the keen resolve that prompts thy soul.

Explore thy heart, that, roused by Glory's name, Pants all enraptured with the mighty charmAnd, does Ambition quench each milder flame? And is it conquest that alone can warm?

T' indulge fell Rapine's desolating lust,
To drench the balmy lawn in streaming gore,

To spurn the hero's cold and silent dust

Are these thy jeys? Nor throbs thy heart for more?

Pleased canst thou listen to the patriot's groan,

And the wild wail of innocence forlorn?
And hear th' abandon'd maid's last frantic moan,
Her love for ever from her bosom torn?

'Nor wilt thou shrink, when Virtue's fainting breath
Pours the dread curse of vengeance on thy head?
Nor when the pale ghost bursts the cave of death,
To glare distraction on thy midnight bed?

'Was it for this, though born to regal power,
Kind Heav'n to thee did nobler gifts consign,
Bade Fancy's influence gild thy natal hour,
And bade Philanthropy's applause be thine?

Theirs be the dreadful glory to destroy,

And theirs the pride of pomp, and praise suborn'd, Whose eye ne'er lighten'd at the smile of Joy, Whose cheek the tear of Pity ne'er adorn'd:

'Whose soul, each finer sense instinctive quell'd,
The lyre's mellifluous ravishment defies :
Nor marks where Beauty roves the flowery field,
Or Grandeur's pinion sweeps th' unbounded skies.

'Hail to sweet Fancy's unexpressive charm!
Hail to the pure delights of social love!
Hail, pleasures mild, that fire not while ye warm,
Nor rack th' exulting frame, but gently move!

But Fancy soothes no more, if stern Remorse
With iron grasp the tortured bosom wring.
Ah then, even Fancy speeds the venom's course,
Even Fancy points with rage the maddening sting.
'Her wrath a thousand gnashing fiends attend,

And roll the snakes, and toss the brands of Hell: The beam of Beauty blasts: dark Heavens impend Tottering: and Music thrills with startling yell.

'What then avails, that with exhaustless store Obsequious Luxury loads thy glittering shrine ? What then avails, that prostrate slaves adore,

And Fame proclaims thee matchless and divine?

• What though bland Flattery all her arts apply—
Will these avail to calm th' infuriate brain?
Or will the roaring surge, when heaved on high,
Headlong hang, hush'd, to hear the piping swain?
In health how fair, how ghastly in decay
Man's lofty form! how heavenly fair the mind
Sublimed by Virtue's sweet enlivening sway!
But ah, to guilt's outrageous rule resign'd,

How hideous and forlorn! when ruthless Care With cankering tooth corrodes the seeds of life, And deaf with passion's storms when pines Despair, And howling furies rouse th' eternal strife.

O, by thy hopes of joy that restless glow,

Pledges of Heaven! be taught by Wisdom's lore: With anxious haste each doubtful path forego,

And life's wild ways with cautious fear explore.

Straight be thy course: nor tempt the maze that leads

Where fell Remorse his shapeless strength conceals,

And oft Ambition's dizzy cliff he treads,

And slumbers oft in Pleasure's flowery vales.

Nor linger unresolved: Heaven prompts the choice; Save when Presumption shuts the ear of Pride: With grateful awe attend to Nature's voice, The voice of Nature Heaven ordain'd thy guide.

Warn'd by her voice, the arduous path pursue, That leads to Virtue's fane a hardy band: What, though no gaudy scenes decoy their view, Nor clouds of fragrance roll along the land?

"What, though rude mountains heave the flinty way? Yet there the soul drinks light and life divine, And pure aerial gales of gladness play,

Brace every nerve, and every sense refine.

Go prince, be virtuous, and be blest. The throne Rears not its state to swell the couch of Lust : Nor dignify Corruption's daring son,

To'erwhelm his humbler brethren of the dust.