The Muse's Pocket Companion: A Collection of Poems

III. This sapient age disclaims all classic lore ; Else I thould here in cunning phrase display, How forth The Minstrel fared in days of yore,. Right glad of heart, though homely in array ; His waving locks and beard all hoary grey : And, from his bending shoulder, decent hung His harp, the fole companion of his way,

Which to the whilling wind responsive rung: And ever as he went fome merry lay lie sung.

IV. Fret not yourselves, ye filken fons of pride, That a poor wanderer Mould inspire my train, The muses fortune's fickle smile deride, Nor ever bow the knee in Mammon's fane ; Tf their delights are with the village train, Whom nature's law's engage, and nature's charms : They hate the sensual, and (corn the vain ;

The parasite their influence never warms, Nor him whose sordid soul the love of wealth alarms.

Though. richest hues the peacock's plumes adorn,
Yet horror screams from his discordant throat.
Rife, fons of harmony, and hail the morni,
While warbliog larks on rusiet pinions float ;
Or feck at noon the woodland scene remote,
Where the grey linnets carol from the hill.
o let them ne'er with artificial note,

To please a tyrant, Atrain the litue bill,
But fing what heaven inspires, and wander where they

will.

VI.
Liberal, not lavish, is kind nature's hand;
Nor was perfection inade for man below.
Yet all her schemes with nicest art are plann'd,
Good counteracting ill, and gladness wo.
With gold and.gems if Chilian mountains glowige

If bleak and barren Scotia's hills arise ;
There plague and poifon, luft and rapine grow;;

Here peacsful are ibe valçs, and pure the skies, And freedom fires the foul, and sparkles in the eyes.

VII. Then grieve not, thon to whom the indulgent Muse Vouchiafes a portion of celullial fire ; Nor blame the partial Fates, if they refuse T'h'imperial banquet, and the rich'attire. Know thine own worth and reverence the lyre. Wilt thou debale the heart which God refin'd.; No; let the heaven-taught foul, to heaven aspire

To fancy, freedom, harmony, resign'd;
Ambition's groveling crew for ever left behind.

VIII.
Canst thou forego the pure etherial soul
In each fine sente so exquisitely keen,
On the dull couch of Luxury to loll,
Stung with disease, and stupified with spleen;
Eain to implore the aid of Flattery's screen,
Even from thyself thy loathsome heart to hide,
(The mansion then no more of joy serene)

Where fear, distrust, malevolence, abide,
And impotent desire, and disappointed pride?

IX. O how canst thou renounce the boundless store Of charms which Nature to her vot'ry yields ! The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields; All that the genial ray of morning gilds, And all thai echoes to the fong of even, All that the mountain's sheltering bofom fields,

And all the dread magnificence of heaven, O how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven?

X. These charms shall work thy soul's eternal health, And love, and gentleness, and joy impart.

But these thou must renounce, if luft of wealth E'er win its way to thy corrupted heart; For, ah! it poisons like a scorpion’s dart ; Prompting the ungenerous wish, the selfish scheme. The ftern resolve, unmov'd by pity's smart,

The troublous day, and long distressful dream.Return, my roving Mufe, resume thy purposed theme.

XI.
There liv'd in Gothic days, as legends tell,
A fhepherd-fwain, a man of low degree ;
Whose Gres, perchance, in Faryland might dwell,
Sicilian groves, or vales of Arcady ;
But he, I ween, was of the north countrie : *
A'nation fam'd for fong, and beauty's charms;
Zealous, yet modest; innocent though free ;

Patient of toil; serene amidst alarms,
Inflexible in faith ; invincible in armi.

XII.
The shepherd-fwain of whom I mention made,
On: Scotia's mountains fed his little flock;
The fickle, scythe, or plough, he never sway?di
An honest heart was almost all his stock;
His drink the living water from the roek;
The milky dams supplied his board, and lent,
Their kindly fleece to baffle winter's shock;

And he, though oft with dust and sweet besprent, Did guide and guard their wanderings whersoe'er they

wept.

* There is hardly an ancient Ballad, or Romance, wherein a Minstrel or Harper appears, but he is characterised, by way of eminence, to have been “ Of the North countrie.” It is probable that under this. appellation were formerly comprehended all the provinces to the North of the Trent.

See Percy's Effay on the English Minftrels.

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