On receiving a Gilt Pocket-Book. 1751.

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By Mr. JAG O.

HESE fpotlefs leaves, this neat array
Might well invite your charming quill,
In fair affemblage to difplay

The power of learning, wit, and skill:

But fince you carelessly refuse,

And to my pen the task affign;
O! let your Genius guide my Muse,
And every vulgar thought refine.

Teach me your best, your best-lov'd art,
With frugal care to store my mind;

In this to play the miser's part,
And give mean lucre to the wind:

To fhun the coxcomb's empty noife ;
To fcorn the villain's artful mask ;
Nor truft gay pleafure's fleeting joys,
Nor urge ambition's endless task.

Teach

Teach me to ftem youth's boisterous tide;
To regulate its giddy rage;

By reason's aid, my barque to guide
Into the friendly port of age:

To fhare what claffic culture yields;
Thro' rhetoric's painted meads to roam;
With you to reap hiftoric fields,

And bring the golden harvest home:

To taste the genuine fweets of wit;
To quaff in humour's sprightly bowl;
The philofophic mean to hit,

And prize the dignity of foul.

Teach me to read fair Nature's book,
Wide-opening in each flowery plain;

And with judicious eye to look
On all the glories of her reign.

To hail her feated on her throne;

By aweful woods encompafs'd round:

Or her divine extraction own,

Tho' with a wreath of rufhes crown'd.

Thro' arched walks, o'er fpreading lawns,
Near folemn rocks, with her to rove:

Or court her, 'mid her gentle fauns,

In moffy cell, or maple grove.

E 4

Whether

Whether the prospect strain the fight,
Or in the nearer landskips charm,
Where hills, vales, fountains, woods unite,
To grace our fweet Arcadian farm,

On Nature's works by Art refin'd;
And own, while we their contest view,
Both fair, but faireft, thus combin'd!

And gave to wintry ftorms the varied year,
The Swallow-race, with forefight clear infpir'd,
To Southern climes prepar'd their course to steer.

On Damon's roof a grave affembly fate;

His roof, a refuge to the feather'd kind; With ferious look he mark'd the nice debate, And to his Delia thus addrefs'd his mind.

Obferve

Obferve yon twitt'ring flock, my gentle maid,
Obferve, and read the wond'rous ways of heav'n!
With us thro' fummer's genial reign they stay'd,

And food, and lodging to their wants were giv’n.

;

But now, thro' facred prescience, well they know
The near approach of elemental strife
The bluftry tempeft, and the chilling fnow,
With ev'ry want, and fcourge of tender life!

Thus taught, they meditate a speedy flight;
For this, ev'n now they prune their vig'rous wing;
For this, confult, advife, prepare, excite,
And prove their strength in many an airy ring.

No forrow loads their breaft, or fwells their eye,
To quit their friendly haunts, or native home;
Nor fear they, launching on the boundless sky,
In fearch of future fettlements, to roam.

They feel a pow'r, an impulfe all divine!

That warns them hence; they feel it, and obey; To this direction all their cares refign,

Unknown their deftin'd ftage, unmark'd their way!

Well fare your flight! ye mild domestic race!
Oh! for your wings to travel with the fun!

· Health brace your nerves, and Zephyrs aid your pace,
Till your long voyage happily be done!

See,

See, Delia, on my roof your guests to-day;
To-morrow on my roof your guests no more!
Ere yet 'tis night, with hafte they wing away,
To-morrow lands them on fome fafer fhore.

How just the moral in this scene convey'd !
And what without a moral wou'd we read?
Then mark what Damon tells his gentle maid,
And with his leffon regifter the deed.

"Tis thus life's chearful seasons roll away; Thus threats the winter of inclement age; Our time of action but a fummer's day;

And earth's frail orb the fadly-varied stage!

And does no pow'r its friendly aid difpenfe,

Nor give us tidings of fome happier clime?

Find we no guide in gracious Providence

Beyond the stroke of death, the verge of time!

Yes, yes, the facred oracles we hear,

That point the path to realms of endless day : That bid our hearts, nor death, nor anguish fear, This future tranfport, that to life the way.

Then let us timely for our flight prepare,
And form the foul for her divine abode ;
Obey the call, and truft the Leader's care
To bring us fafe thro' Virtue's paths to God.

Let