Captivity led captive, rose to claim The wreath he won so dearly in our name; That, in the Heav'n of heav'ns, that space he deems Too scanty for th' exertion of his beams, The founder of that name alone inspires, 590 600 Though all accomplishment, all knowledge meet, To make the shining prodigy complete, Whoever boasts that name-behold a cheat! Were love, in these the World's last doting years, As frequent as the want of it appears, The churches warm'd, they would no longer hold Such frozen figures, stiff as they are cold; Relenting forms would lose their pow'r, or cease; And ev❜n the dipp'd and sprinkled live in peace: Each heart would quit it's prison in the breast, And flow in free communion with the rest. 611 She statesman, skill'd in projects dark and deep, 620 Did charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love; 628 And I might spare myself the pains to show And prove so weak for so divine a theme, That zeal, not vanity, has chanc'd to make, 636 CONVERSATION. Nam neque me tantum venientis sibilus austri, VIRG. Ecl. 5. THOUGH nature weigh our talents, and dispense To ev'ry man his modicum of sense, And Conversation in it's better part May be esteem'd a gift, and not an art, On culture, and the sowing of the soil. Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, Not more distinct from harmony divine, The constant creaking of a country sign. 10 |