And few, but with regret, affume
The plain-wrought labours of the loom.
Ah! let not me by fancy fteer,
When life's autumnal clouds appear;
Nor ev'n in learning's long delays
Confume my faireft, fruitless days:
Like him, who fhould in armour spend
The fums that armour should defend.
Awhile, in pleasure's myrtle bow'r,
We share her smiles, and bless her pow'r :
But find at laft, we vainly strive
To fix the worst coquette alive.
O you! that with affiduous flame
Have long purfu'd the faithless dame;
Forfake her foft abodes awhile,
And dare her frown, and flight her smile.
Nor fcorn, whatever wits may fay,
The foot-path road, the king's high-way.
No more the fcrup'lous charmer teize,
But feek the roofs of honest ease ;
The rival fair, no more purfu'd,
Shall there with forward pace intrude;
Shall there her ev'ry art effay,
To win you to her flighted sway;
And grant your scorn a glance more fair
Than e'er she gave your fondest pray'r.
But would you happiness pursue ?
Partake both eafe, and pleasure too?
Would you, thro' all your days, difpenfe
The joys of reason, and of fenfe?
Or give to life the most you can,
Let focial virtue shape the plan.
For does not to the virtuous deed
A train of pleasing fweets fucceed?
Or, like the fweets of wild defire,
Did focial pleafures ever tire?
Yet midft the groupe be fome preferr'd,
Be fome abhorr'd-for DAMON err'd:
And fuch there are-of fair addrefs-
As 'twere unfocial to carefs.
O learn by reafon's equal rule
To fhun the praise of knave, or fool!
Then, tho' you deem it better ftill
To gain fome ruftic 'fquire's good will;
And fouls, however mean or vile,
Like features, brighten by a smile;
Yet reafon holds it for a crime,
The trivial breast shou'd share thy time:
And virtue, with reluctant eyes,
Beholds this human facrifice!
Thro' deep referve, and air erect,
Mistaken DAMON won refpect;
But cou'd the fpecious homage pass,
With any creature, but an afs?
If conscious, they who fear'd the skin,
Wou'd fcorn the fluggish brute within.
What awe-ftruck flaves the tow'rs enclose,
Where Perfian monarchs eat, and doze?
What proftrate rev'rence all agree,
To pay a prince they never fee!
Mere vaffals of a royal throne!
The fophi's virtues must be fhewn,
To make the reverence his own.
As for THALIA-wouldft thou make her
Thy bride without a portion ?-take her.
She will with duteous care attend,
And all thy penfive hours befriend;
Will fwell thy joys, will fhare thy pain;
With thee rejoice, with thee complain;
Will smooth thy pillow, pleat thy bow'rs;
And bind thine aching head with flow'rs.
But be this previous maxim known,
If thou canft feed on love alone:
If bleft with her, thou canst sustain
Contempt, and poverty, and pain:
If fo-then rifle all her graces-
And fruitful be your fond embraces.
Too foon, by caitiff-fpleen infpir'd,
Sage DAMON to his groves retir'd:
The path disclaim'd by fober reason;
Retirement claims a later season;
Ere active youth and warm defires
Have quite withdrawn their ling'ring fires.
With the warm bofom, ill agree,
Or limpid stream, or fhady tree.
Love lurks within the rofy bow'r,
And claims the fpeculative hour;
Ambition finds his calm retreat,
And bids his pulse too fiercely beat;
Ev'n focial friendship duns his ear,
And cites him to the public sphere.
Does he refift their genuine force ?
His
temper takes fome froward courfe;
Till paffion, mifdirected, sighs
For weeds, or fhells, or grubs, or flies!
Far happiest he, whofe early days
Spent in the focial paths of praise,
Leave, fairly printed on his mind,
A train of virtuous deeds behind:
From this rich fund, the mem'ry draws
The lafting meed of self-applause.
Such fair ideas lend their aid
To people the fequefter'd fhade.
Such are the naiads, nymphs, and fawns,
That haunt his floods, or chear his lawns.
If where his devious ramble ftrays,
He virtue's radiant form furveys;
She feems no longer now to wear
The rigid mien, the frown severe ;*
To fhew him her remote abode;
To point the rocky arduous road:
But from each flower, his fields allow,
She twines a garland for his brow.
* Alluding to-the allegory in CEBES's tablet.
A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS.
Infanis; omnes gelidis quicunque lacernis
Sunt tibi, Nafones Virgiliofque vides.
To you, ye bards! whofe lavish breast requires
This monitory lay, the strains belong;
Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw,
Or fome dull cit unfeeling of the charms
That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal,
To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves,
Infpires the meaneft of the mufe's train !
Like I loath the groveling progeny,
Whose wily arts, by creeping time matur'd,
Advance them high on pow'r's tyrannic throne
To lord it there in gorgeous uselessness,
And spurn fuccefsless worth that pines below!
See the rich churl, amid the focial fons
Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins
In the free jeft delighted! feems to fhew
A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings!
Songs of
gay import, madrigals of glee,
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