The works of the English poets. With prefaces, biographical and critical, by S. Johnson

Come, Nymph, with rural honours dreft,
Virtue's exterior form confeft,

With charms untarnish'd, innocence
Difplay, and Eden fhall commence;
When thus you come in fober fit,
And wifdom is preferr'd to wit;
And looks diviner graces tell,

Which don't with giggling muscles dwell;
And beauty like the ray-clipt fun,
With bolder eye we look upon;
Learning fhall with obfequious mien
Tell all the wonders fhe has feen;
Reafon her logic armour quit,
And proof to mild perfuafion fit;
Religion with free thought difpenfe,
And ceafe crufading against fenfe;
Philofophy and the embrace,

And their firft league again take place;
And morals pure, in duty bound,
Nymph-like the fifters chief furround;
Nature fhall fmile, and round this cell
The turf to your light preffure fwell,
And knowing beauty by her fhoe,
Well air its carpet from the dew.
The Oak, while you his umbrage deck,
Lets fall his acorns in your neck;
Zephyr his civil kiffes gives,

And plays with curls inftead of leaves:
Birds, fecing you, believe it spring,
And during their vacation fing;

And flow'rs lean forward from their feats
To traffic in exchange of fweets;
And angels bearing wreaths defcend,
Preferr❜d as vergers to attend
This fane, whose deity intreats
feats.

The Fair to grace its upper

O kindly view our letter'd ftrife,
And guard us through polemic life';
From poifon vehicled in praise,
For fatire's fhots but flightly graze;
We claim your zeal, and find within,
Philofophy and you are kin.

What Virtue is we judge by you;
For actions right are beauteous too;
By tracing the fole female mind,
We beft what is true Nature find:
Your vapours bred from fumes declare,
How steams create tempeftuous air,
"Till gufhing tears and hafty rain
Make heaven and you ferene again:
Our travels through the starry skies
Were firft fuggefted by your eyes;
We, by the interpofing fan,
Learn how eclipfes first began:
The vaft ellipfe from Scarbro's home,
Defcribes how blazing comets roam;
The glowing colours of the cheek
Their origin from Phœbus fpeak;
Our watch how Luna ftrays above
Feels like the care of jealous love;

And all things we in fcience know
From your known love for riddles flow.
Father! forgive, thus far I ftray,
Drawn by attraction from my way.
Mark next with awe, the foundress well
Who on these banks delights to dwell;
You on the terrace fee her plain,
Move like Diana with her train.
If you then fairly fpeak your mind,
In wedlock fince with Ifis join'd,
You'll own, you never yet did fee,
At least in fuch a high degree,
Greatnefs delighted to undrefs;
Science a fcepter'd hand carefs;
A Queen the friends of freedom prize;
A woman wife men canonize.