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She fills profuse ten thousand little throats
With music, modulating all their notes;
And charms the woodland scenes, and wilds
unknown,

With artless airs and concerts of her own:
But seldom (as if fearful of expense)
Vouchsafes to man a poet's just pretence-
Fervency, freedom, fluency of thought,
Harmony, strength, words exquisitely sought:
Fancy that from the bow that spans the sky,
Brings colours dipp'd in Heaven, that never die;
A soul exalted above earth, a mind

Skill'd in the characters that form mankind;
And, as the Sun in rising beauty dress'd,
Looks to the westward from the dappled east,
And marks, whatever clouds may interpose,
Ere yet his race begins, its glorious close;
An eye like his to catch the distant goal:
Or, ere the wheels of verse begin to roll,
Like his to shed illuminating rays

On every scene and subject it surveys:
Thus graced, the man asserts a poet's name,
And the world cheerfully admits the claim.
Pity Religion has so seldom found

A skilful guide into poetic ground!

The flowers would spring where'er she deign'd to stray,

And

Muse attend her in her way.
every
Virtue indeed meets many a rhyming friend,
And many a compliment politely penn❜d;
But, unattired in that becoming vest
Religion weaves for her, and half undress'd
Stands in the desert, shivering and forlorn,
A wintry figure, like a wither'd thorn.

The shelves are full, all other themes are sped;
Hackney'd and worn to the last flimsy thread,
Satire has long since done his best; and cursed
And loathsome Ribaldry has done his worst;
Fancy has sported all her powers away
In tales, in trifles, and in children's play;
And 'tis the sad complaint, and almost true,
Whate'er we write, we bring forth nothing new.
"Twere new indeed to see a bard all fire,
Touch'd with a coal from Heaven, assume the lyre,
And tell the world, still kindling as he sung
With more than mortal music on his tongue,
That He, who died below, and reigns above,
Inspires the song, and that his name is Love.
For, after all, if merely to beguile,

By flowing numbers and a flowery style,
The tædium that the lazy rich endure,
Which now and then sweet poetry may cure;
Or, if to see the name of idle self,

Stamp'd on the well bound quarto, grace the shelf,
To float a bubble on the breath of Fame,
Prompt his endeavour, and engage his aim,
Debased to servile purposes of pride,

How are the powers of Genius misapplied!
The gift, whose office is the Giver's praise,
To trace him in his word, his works, his ways;
Then spread the rich discovery, and invite
Mankind, to share in the divine delight;
Distorted from its use and just design,
To make the pitiful possessor shine,
To purchase at the fool-frequented fair
Of Vanity a wreath for self to wear,
Is profanation of the basest kind-
Proof of a trifling and a worthless mind.

A. Hail, Sternhold, then; and, Hopkins,
hail! B. Amen.

If flattery, folly, lust employ the pen;
If acrimony, slander, and abuse

Give it a charge to blacken and traduce;
Though Butler's wit, Pope's numbers, Prior's

ease,

With all that fancy can invent to please,
Adorn the polish'd periods as they fall,
One madrigal of theirs is worth them all.

A. "Twould thin the ranks of the poetic tribe, To dash the pen through all that you proscribe. B. No matter we could shift when they were not;

And should, no doubt, if they were all forgot.

THE

PROGRESS OF ERROR.

Si quid loquar audiendum, HOR, Lib. 4. Od. 2,

SING, Muse (if such a theme, so dark, so long,
May find a Muse to grace it with a song),
By what unseen and unsuspected arts
The serpent Error twines round human hearts;
Tell where she lurks, beneath what flowery shades,
That not a glimpse of genuine light pervades,
The poisonous, black, insinuating worm
Successfully conceals her loathsome form.

Take, if ye can, ye careless and supine,
Counsel and caution from a voice like mine!
Truths, that the theorist could never reach,
And observation taught me, I would teach.
Not all, whose eloquence the fancy fills,
Musical as the chime of tinkling rills,
Weak to perform, though mighty to pretend,
Can trace her mazy windings to their end;
Discern the fraud beneath the specious lure,
Prevent the danger, or prescribe the cure.
The clear harangue, and cold as it is clear,
Falls soporific on the listless ear;

Like quicksilver, the rhetoric they display
Shines as it runs, but grasp'd at slips away.
Placed for his trial, on this bustling stage,
From thoughtless youth to ruminating age,
Free in his will to choose or to refuse,
Man may improve the crisis or abuse;
Else, on the fatalist's unrighteous plan,
Say to what bar amenable were man?
With nought in charge, he could betray no trust;
And, if he fell, would fall because he must;
If Love reward him, or if Vengeance strike,
His recompense in both unjust alike.
Divine authority within his breast

Brings every thought, word, action to the test;
Warns him or prompts, approves him or restrains,
As reason, or as passion takes the reins,

Heaven from above, and Conscience from within,
Cries in his startled ear- -Abstain from sin!
The world around solicits his desire,
And kindles in his soul a treacherous fire;
While, all his purposes and steps to guard,
Peace follows virtue as its sure reward;

And Pleasure brings as surely in her train
Remorse, and Sorrow, and vindictive Pain,

Man, thus endued with an elective voice,
Must be supplied with objects of his choice:
Where'er he turns, enjoyment and delight,
Or present, or in prospect, meet his sight;
Those open on the spot their honey'd store;
These call him loudly to pursuit of more.
His unexhausted mine the sordid vice
Avarice shows, and virtue is the price.
Here various motives his ambition raise-
Power, pomp, and splendour, and the thirst of
praise;

There Beauty woos him with expanded arms;
E'en bacchanalian madness has its charms.

Nor these alone, whose pleasures less refined
Might well alarm the most unguarded mind,
Seek to supplant his inexperienced youth,
Or lead him devious from the path of truth;
Hourly allurements on his passions press,
Safe in themselves, but dangerous in the' excess,
Hark! how it floats upon the dewy air!
O what a dying, dying close was there!
"Tis harmony from yon sequester'd bower,
Sweet harmony, that sooths the midnight hour!
Long ere the charioteer of day had run
His morning course, the' enchantment was begun;
And he shall gild yon mountain's height again,
Ere yet the pleasing toil becomes a pain.

Is this the rugged path, the steep ascent, That Virtue points to? Can a life thus spent Lead to the bliss she promises the wise, Detach the soul from earth, and speed her to the Ye devotees to your adored employ,

Enthusiasts, drunk with an unreal joy,

[skies?

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