VOL. I.

Original Poetry.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

TO THE

NYMPH OF THE FOUNTAIN OF TEARS,

BY THE LATE SIR GREY COOPER, BART.

The idea of the subject is taken from an Alcaic Frag ment, written by Mr. Gray, and preserved in the Memoirs of his Life and Writings, of which Mr. Mason says, that "" no Poet of the Augustan age "produced four more perfect lines, or which would "sooner impose upon the best critic, as being a genuine ancient composition."

Vide MEMOIRS, p. 33.

Oh Lachrymarum Fons! tenero sacros
Ducentium ortus ex animo; quater
Felix! in imo qui scatentem
Pectore, Te pia Nympha! sensit

HAIL, pious Nymph! whose guardian power
The holy Spring of Tears protects,
And each soft drop, and tender shower,
From the mysterious source directs;

Not tears, that on th' approach of death
Down the pale cheeks of tyrants rall,
When Conscience to the latest breath,
Holds
up the mirror to the soul:

Nor such as moisten the dark cells

Where, whilst the slaves the rack prepare, The stern Inquisitor compels

Even godlike virtue to despair.

These bitter waters of distress

Arise from other springs than thine, Springs which infernal gnomes possess, Dread ministers of wrath divine.

Heaven gives to thee the sacred part
Of watching the pure streams, that flow
From the soft motions of the heart,

That learns to feel another's woe;

To raise the head by care depress'ḍ,
With gentle, delicate relief,

Το pour into the wounded breast,
The balm of sympathetic grief:

Such soothing offices engage

Thy Sylphs, the messengers of grace,

Sent by thy order to assuage

The sorrows of the human race.

To thee belong the gushing rills
Of sudden joy, and glad surprise,
The rapt soul's transport, that distils
Glistening in th' expressive eyes.