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Her secret stores let Memory tell,
Bid Fancy quit her fairy cell,

In all her colours drest;

While prompt her sallies to control,
Reason, the judge, recalls the soul
To Truth's severest test.

Then launch through Being's wide extent;
Let the fair scale, with just ascent
And cautious steps, be trod;
And from the dead, corporeal mass,
Through each progressive order pass
To Instinct, Reason, God.

There, Science! veil thy daring eye;
Nor dive too deep, nor soar too high,
In that divine abyss ;

To Faith content thy beams to lend,
Her hopes to assure, her steps befriend,

And light her way to bliss.

Then downwards take thy flight again,
Mix with the policies of men,

And social Nature's ties ;

The plan, the genius of each state,
Its interest and its powers relate,
Its fortunes and its rise.

Through private life pursue thy course,

Trace every action to its source,

And means and motives weigh:

Put tempers, passions, in the scale;
Mark what degrees in each prevail,
And fix the doubtful sway.

That last best effort of thy skill,
To form the life, and rule the will,
Propitious power! impart:

Teach me to cool my passion's fires,
Make me the judge of my desires,
The master of my heart.

Raise me above the vulgar's breath,
Pursuit of fortune, fear of death,
And all in life that's mean:
Still true to reason be my plan,
Still let my actions speak the man,
Through every various scene.

Hail! queen

of manners, light of truth;

Hail! charm of age, and guide of youth;

Sweet refuge of distress:

In business, thou! exact, polite;
Thou giv'st retirement its delight,
Prosperity its grace.

Of wealth, power, freedom, thou the cause;
Foundress of order, cities, laws,

Of arts inventress thou!

Without thee, what were human kind?

How vast their wants, their thoughts how blind; Their joys how mean, how few!

Sun of the soul! thy beams unveil :
Let others spread the daring sail

On Fortune's faithless sea;
While, undeluded, happier I
From the vain tumult timely fly,
And sit in peace with thee.

LOVE: AN ELEGY.24

Too much my heart of Beauty's power hath known,
Too long to Love hath reason left her throne;
Too long my genius mourn'd his myrtle chain,
And three rich years of youth consum'd in vain.
My wishes, lull'd with soft inglorious dreams,
Forgot the patriot's and the sage's themes;
Through each Elysian vale and fairy grove,
Through all the enchanted paradise of love,
Misled by sickly Hope's deceitful flame,
Averse to action, and renouncing fame.

At last the visionary scenes decay;
My eyes, exulting, bless the new-born day,
Whose faithful beams detect the dangerous road
In which my heedless feet securely trod,
And strip the phantoms of their lying charms
That lur'd my soul from Wisdom's peaceful arms.
For silver streams and banks bespread with
flowers,

For mossy couches and harmonious bowers,

Lo! barren heaths appear, and pathless woods,
And rocks hung dreadful o'er unfathom'd floods:
For openness of heart, for tender smiles, [wiles;
Looks fraught with love, and wrath-disarming
Lo! sullen Spite, and perjur'd Lust of Gain,
And cruel Pride, and crueller Disdain;
Lo! cordial Faith to idiot airs refin'd,
Now coolly civil, now transporting kind.

For graceful Ease, lo! Affectation walks;
And dull Half-sense, for Wit and Wisdom talks.
New to each hour what low delight succeeds,
What precious furniture of hearts and heads!
By nought their prudence, but by getting, known,
And all their courage in deceiving shown.

See next what plagues attend the lover's state,
What frightful forms of Terror, Scorn, and Hate!
See burning Fury heaven and earth defy!
See dumb Despair in icy fetters lie!

See black Suspicion bend his gloomy brow,

The hideous image of himself to view!

And fond Belief, with all a lover's flame,

Sink in those arms that point his head with shame!
There wan Dejection, faltering as he goes,
In shades and silence vainly seeks repose;
Musing through pathless wilds, consumes the day,
Then lost in darkness weeps the hours away.
Here the gay crowd of Luxury advance,
Some touch the lyre, and others urge the dance;
On every head the rosy garland glows,

In every hand the golden goblet flows.

The Siren views them with exulting eyes,
And laughs at bashful Virtue as she flies.
But see behind, where Scorn and Want appear,
The grave remonstrance and the witty sneer;
See fell Remorse in action, prompt to dart
Her snaky poison through the conscious heart;
And Sloth to cancel, with oblivious shame,
The fair memorial of recording Fame.

Are these delights that one would wish to gain?
Is this the Elysium of a sober brain?
To wait for happiness in female smiles,

Bear all her scorn, be caught with all her wiles, With prayers, with bribes, with lies, her pity crave, Bless her hard bonds, and boast to be her slave; To feel, for trifles, a distracting train

Of hopes and terrors equally in vain;

This hour to tremble, and the next to glow,

Can Pride, can Sense, can Reason, stoop so low?
When Virtue, at an easier price, displays
The sacred wreaths of honourable praise;
When Wisdom utters her divine decree,
To laugh at pompous Folly, and be free.

I bid adieu, then, to these woful scenes;
I bid adieu to all the sex of queens;
Adieu to every suffering, simple soul,
That lets a woman's will his ease control.

There laugh, ye witty; and rebuke, ye grave!
For me, I scorn to boast that I'm a slave.
I bid the whining brotherhood be gone;
Joy to my heart! my wishes are my own!

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