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Natural and fanciful life.

Who lives to nature, rarely can be poor;
Who lives to fancy, never can be rich.

Charity.

In faith and hope the world will disagree;
But all mankind's concern is charity.

The prize of Virtue.

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is virtue's prize.

Sense and modesty connected.
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks;
It still looks home, and short excursions makes;
But rattling nonsense in full volleys breaks.
Moral discipline salutary.

Heav'n gives us friends to bless the present scene,
Resumes them to prepare us for the next.
All evils natural are moral goods;

All discipline, indulgence, on the whole.

Present blessings undervalued.

Like birds, whose beauties languish, half conceal'd,
Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes
Expanded, shine with azure, green, and gold,
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
Hope.

Hope, of all passions, most befriends us here;
Passions of prouder name befriend us less.
Joy has her tears, and transport has her death;
Hope, like a cordial, innocent, though strong,
Man's heart, at once, inspirits and serenes.
Happiness modest and tranquil.
-Never man was truly blest,
But it compos'd and gave him such a cast,
As folly might mistake for want of joy:
A cast unlike the triumph of the proud;
A modest aspect, and a smile at heart.
True greatness.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius, let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.

The tear of sympathy.

No radiant pearl, which crested fortune wears,
No gem, that twinkling hangs from beauty's ears,

Nor the bright stars, which night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre, as the tear that breaks,
For others' wo, down Virtue's manly cheeks.
SECTION II.

VERSES IN WHICH THE LINES ARE OF DIFFERENT LENGTH.

Bliss of celestial Origin.

RBliss in vain from earth is sought;

ESTLESS mortals toil for nought;

Bliss, a native of the sky,

Never wanders. Mortals, try;
There you cannot seek in vain ;
For to seek her, is to gain.

The Passions.

The passions are a num'rous crowd,
Imperious, positive, and loud.
Curb these licentious sons of strife;
Hence chiefly rise the storms of life:
If they grow mutinous, and rave,
They are thy masters, thou their slave.

Trust in Providence recommended.
"Tis Providence alone secures,
In ev'ry change, both mine and yours.
Safety consists not in escape
From dangers of a frightful shape:
An earthquake may be bid to spare
The man that's strangled by a hair.
Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oft'nest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow.

Epitaph.

How lov'd, how valu'd once, avails thee not;
To whom related, or by whom begot:
A heap of dust alone remains of thee;
"Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.

Fame.

All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One self-approving hour, whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.

Virtue the guardian of youth.

Down the smooth stream of life the stripling darts,
Gay as the morn; bright glows the vernal sky,
Hope swells his sails, and Passion steers his course.
Safe glides his little bark along the shore,
Where Virtue takes her stand: but if too far
He launches forth beyond discretion's mark,
Sudden the tempest scowls, the surges roar,
Blot his fair day, and plunge him in the deep.
Sunrise.

But yonder comes the pow'rful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The less'ning cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illum'd with Auid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo, now, apparent all
Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad,

And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and tow'rs, and wand'ring streams,
High gleaming from afar.

Self-government.

May I govern my passions with absolute sway;
And grow wiser and better, as life wears away.
Shepherd.

On a mountain, stretch'd beneath a hoary willow,
Lay a shepherd swain, and view'd the rolling billow
SECTION III.

VERSES CONTAINING EXCLAMATIONS, INTERROGATIONS, AND PARENTHESES.

Competence.

A COMPETENCE is all we can enjoy

Oh! be content, where Heav'n can give no mere ! Reflection essential to happiness. Much joy not only speaks small happiness, But happiness that shortly must expire. Can joy, unbottom'd in reflection, stand? And, in a tempest, can reflection live?

Friendship.

Can gold gain friendship? Impudence of hope!
As well mere man an angel might beget.
Love, and love only, is the loan for love.
Lorenzo! pride repress; nor hope to find
A friend, but what has found a friend in thee.
All like the purchase; few the price will pay:
And this makes friends such miracles below.

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Patience.

Beware of desp'rate steps. The darkest day (Live till to-morrow) will have pass'd away.

Luxury.

O luxury!

Bane of elated life, of affluent states,

What dreary change, what ruin is not thine!
How doth thy bowl intoxicate the mind!
To the soft entrance of thy rosy cave,

How dost thou lure the fortunate and great!
Dreadful attraction!

Virtuous activity.
Seize, mortals! seize the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies:
Life's a short summer-man a flow'r ;
He dies-Alas!—how soon he dies!

The source of happiness.

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words; health, peace, and competence:
But health consists with temperance alone;
And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own.

Placid emotion.

Who can forbear to smile with nature? Can
The stormy passions in the bosom roll,
While ev'ry gale is peace, and ev'ry grove,
Is melody?

Solitude*.

O sacred solitude; divine retreat !

Choice of the prudent! envy of the great!
By thy pure stream, or in thy waving shade,
We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid:
The genuine offspring of her lov'd embrace,
(Strangers on earth,) are innocence and peace.
There from the ways of men laid safe ashore,
We smile to hear the distant tempest roar;
There, bless'd with health, with bus'ness unperplex'd,
This life we relish, and ensure the next.

Presume not on to-morrow.

In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rise,
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn?
Where is to-morrow? In another world.

For numbers this is certain; the reverse

Is sure to none.

• My soțitude høre is meant, a temporary seclusion from the world.

Dum vivimus vivamus.Whilst we live, let us live.

"Live, while you live," the epicure would say,
"And seize the pleasures of the present day."
"Live, while you live," the sacred preacher cries,
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
Lord! in my views, let both united be;

I live in pleasure, when I live to thee!—DODDRIDGE
SECTION IV.

VERSES IN VARIOUS FORMS.

The security of Virtue.

LET coward guilt, with pallid fear
To shelt'ring caverns fly,

And justly dread the vengeful fate,
That thunders through the sky.
Protected by that hand, whose law
The threat'ning storms obey,
Intrepid virtue smiles secure,
As in the blaze of day.

Resignation.

And Oh! by error's force subdu'd,
Since oft my stubborn will
Prepost'rous shuns the latent good,
And grasps the specious ill,
Not to my wish, but to my want,
Do thou thy gifts apply;
Unask'd, what good thou knowest grant;
What ill, though ask'd', deny.

Compassion.
I have found out a gift for my fair

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed :
But let me that plunder forbear!

She will say, 'tis a barbarous deed. For he ne'er can be true, she averr'd, Who can rob a poor bird of its young: And I lov'd her the more, when I heard Such tenderness fall from her tongue

Epitaph.

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And melancholy mark'd him for her own
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ;
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to mis'ry all he had-a tear;

He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend

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