No doubt to genius fome reward is due, (Excluding that were fatirizing you):
But yet believe thy undefigning friend,
When truth and genius for thy choice contend,
Tho' both have weight, when in the balance caft,
Let probity be firft, and parts the laft.
On thefe foundations if thou dar'st be great,
And check the growth of folly and deceit,
When party rage fhall drop thro' length of days,
And calumny be ripen'd into praife,
Then future times fhall to thy worth allow
That fame, which envy wou'd call flattery now.
Thus far my zeal, tho' for the task unfit,
Has pointed out the rocks where others fplit:
By that infpir'd, tho' ftranger to the Nine,
And negligent of any fame but thine,
I take that friendly, but fuperfluous part,
That acts from nature what I teach from art.
To a LADY on a LANDSCAPE of her Drawing.
EHOLD the magic of Therefa's hand!
A new creation blooms at her command. Touch'd into life the vivid colours glow,
Catch the warm ftream, and quicken as they flow.
The ravish'd fight the pleasing landscape fills,
Here fink the vallies, and there rife the hills.
Not with more horror nods bleak Calpe's height,
Than here the pi&ur'd rock astounds the fight.
Not Thames more devious-winding leaves his fource,
Than here the wand'ring rivers fhape their course.
Obliquely lab'ring runs the gurgling rill;
Still murm'ring runs, or feems to murmur ftill.
An aged oak, with hoary mofs o'erfpread,
Here lifts aloft its venerable head;
There overshadowing hangs a facred wood,
And nods inverted in the neighb'ring flood.
Each tree as in its native forest shoots,
And blushing bends with Autumn's golden fruits.
Thy pencil lends the rose a lovelier hue,
And gives the lily fairer to our view.
Here fruits and flow'rs adorn the varied year,
And paradife with all its sweets is here.
There ftooping to its fall a tow'r appears,
With tempests shaken, and a weight of years.
The daified meadow, and the woodland green,
In order rife, and fill the various scene.
Some parts, in light magnificently drefs'd,
Obtrufive enter, and stand all confefs'd;
Whilft others decently in fhades are thrown,
And by concealing make their beauties known.
Alternate thus, and mutual is their aid,
The lights owe half their luftre to the shade.
So the bright fires that light the milky way,
Loft and extinguish'd in the folar ray;
In the fun's abfence pour a flood of light,
And borrow all their brightness from the night.
To cheat our eyes how well dost thou contrive!
Each object here feems real and alive.
Not more resembling life the figures ftand,
Form'd by Lyfippus, or by Phidias' hand.
Unnumber'd beauties in the piece unite ;
Rush on the eye, and crowd upon the fight.
At once our wonder and delight you raise,
We view with pleasure, and with rapture praise.
N frolick's hour, ere ferious thought had birth,
IT feclick's hour, ere when
I'
There was a time, my dear C
The Mufe would take me on her airy wing
And waft to views romantic; there present
Some motley vifion, fhade and fun: the cliff
O'erhanging, fparkling brooks, and ruins grey;
Bad me meanders trace, and catch the form
Of varying clouds, and rainbows learn to paint.
Sometimes ambition, brushing by, wou'd twitch
My mantle, and with winning look fublime
Allure to follow. What tho' fteep the track,
Her mountain's top wou'd overpay when climb'd
The fcaler's toil; her temple there was fine,
And lovely thence the prospects. She cou'd tell
Where laurels grew, whence many a wreath antique;
But more advis'd to shun the barren twig,
(What is immortal verdure without fruit?)
And woo fome thriving art: her num'rous mines
Were open to the fearcher's skill and pains.
Caught by th' harangue, heart beat, and flutt'ring pulfe
Sounded irregular marches to be gone
What, paufe a moment when Ambition calls?
No, the blood gallops to the diftant goal,
And throbs to reach it. Let the lame fit ftill.
When Fortune gentle, at the hill's verge extreme,
Array'd in decent garb, but fomewhat thin,
Smiling approach'd, and what occasion ask'd,
Of climbing? She already provident
Had cater'd well, if ftomach cou'd digeft
Her viands, and a palate not too nice.
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