Where wild Ofwego fpreads her fwamps around, E'en now, perhaps, as there fome pilgrim ftrays, Vain. very vain, my weary fearch, to find Our own felicity we make or find: Contentment is the only happiness we can enjoy in this world, therefore happinefs is to be fought for only in the mind. + Human laws may refrain the actions of men, but God alone can fway the confcience. With fecret courfe, which no loud forms annoy, Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel*; *The poet here refers to modes of punishment the ingenuity of man has contriv'd, which may be justly filed a difgrace to humanity, in whatever nation or country they are practis'd. EVE EVA EVENING IN A CONTEMPLATIONS COLLEGE: An Imitation of Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard. HE curfew tolls the hour of clofing gates, THE With jarring found the porter turns the key; Now fhine the fpires beneath the pallid moon, Within those walls, where through the glimmering fhade Each in his narrow bed til morning laid, The tinkling bell proclaiming early prayers, The calls of bufinefs, and domeftic cares, * Among the many imitations of Gray's celebrated elegy, this fuppos'd to be written by an Oxford fcholar, is truly worthy general admiration. No chattering females croud their focial fire, No dread have they of difcord and of Arife, Of have they bask'd beneath the funny walk, Oh! let not temp'rance, too disdainful, hear How long their feafts, how long their dinners laft: The fplendid fortune, and the beauteous face, Forgive, ye fair, th' involuntary fault, Say, is the fword well fuited to the band? + A late celebrated Italian finger. Perhaps Perhaps in thefe time tottering walls refide But Science now has fill'd their vacant mind With Rome's rich spoils, and truth's exalted views;. Fir'd them with transports of a nobler kind, And bade them flight all females-but the mufe. Full many a lark, high towering to the fky, Unheard, unheeded, greets th' approach of light ; Full many a far, unfeen by mortál eye, With twinkling luftre glimmers through the night. Some future Herring, who, with dauntless breast, From prince and people to command applauss, And fteer with fteady courfe the helm of flate, Fate yet forbids; nor circumfcribes alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confines, Forbids in Freedom's veilt' infult the throne, Beneath her mafque to hide the worst defigns; E 3 |