*

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i praise the Frenchman,* his remark was shrewd-
How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude ! 740
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper-solitude is sweet.
Yet neither these delights, nor aught beside,
That appetite can ask, or wealth provide,
Can save us always from a tedious day,

745
Or shine the dulness of still life away ;
Divine communion, carefully enjoy'd,
Or sought with energy, must fill the void.
O sacred art, to which alone life owes
Its happiest seasons, and a peaceful close ; 750
Scorn'd in a world, indebted to that scorn
For evils daily felt and hardly borne.
Not knowing thee, we reap with bleeding hands
Flow'rs of rank odour upon thorny lands,
And while Experience cautions us in vain, 755
Grasp seeming happiness, and find it pain.
Despondence, self-deserted in her grief,
Lost by abandoning her own relief,
Murmuring and ungrateful discontent,
That scorns afflictions mercifully nieant,

760 Those humours tart as wine upon the fret, Which idleness and weariness beget ; These, and a thousand plagues, that haunt the breast, Fond of the phantom of an earthly rest, Divine communion chases, as the day

765 Drives to their dens th' obedient beasts of prey. See Judah's promis’d king, bereft of all, Driv'n out an exile from the face of Saul; To distant caves the lonely wand'rer flies, To seek that peace a tyrant's frown denies. 770 Hear the sweet accents of his tuneful voice, Hear him, o'erwhelm'd with sorrow, yet rejoice ; No womanish or wailing grief has part, No, not a moment, in his royal heart;

7775

780

785

790

'Tis manly musick, such as martyrs make,
Suff'ring with gladness for a Saviour's sake ;
His soul exults, hope animates his lays,
The sense of mercy kindles into praise,
And wilds, familiar with a lion's roar,
Ring with ecstatick sounds unheard before ;
'Tis love like his, that can alone defeat
The foes of man, or make a desert sweet.

Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumber'd pleasures harmlessly pursu'd ;
To study culture, and with artful toil
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil ;
To give dissimilar, yet fruitful lands,
The grain, or herb, or plant, that each demands;
To cherish virtue in an humble state,
And share the joys your bounty may create ;
To mark the matchless workings of the pow'r,
That shuts within its seed the future flow'r,
Bid these in elegance of form excel,
In colour these, and those delight the smell ;
Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies,
To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes,
To teach the canvass innocent deceit,
Or lay the landscape on the snowy sheet-
These, these are arts pursu'd without a crime,
That leave no stain upon the wing of Time.

Me poetry, (or rather notes that aim
Feebly and vainly at poetick fame,)
Employs, shut out from more important views,
Fast by the banks of the slow-winding Ouse ;
Content if thus sequester'd I may raise
A monitor's though not a poet's praise,
And while I teach an art too little known,
To close life wisely, may not waste iny own.

795

800

805 171

THE YEARLY DISTRESS,

OR,

TITHING TIME AT STOCK, IN ESSEX.

Verses addressed to a country clergyman, complaining

of the disagreeableness of the day annually appointed for receiving the dues at the parsonage.

COME, ponder well, for 'tis no jest,

To laugh it would be wrong,
The troubles of a worthy priest,

The burden of my song.
The priest he merry is and blithe,

Three quarters of the year,
But, oh! it cuts hiin like a sithe,

When tithing time draws near.
He then is full of frights and fears,

As one at point to die,
And long before the day appears,

He heaves up many a sigh.
For then the farmers come, jog, jog,

Along the miry road,
Each heart as heavy as a log,

To make their payments good.

In sooth, the sorrow of such days

Is not to be express’d, When he that takes, and he that pays,

Are both alike distress'd.

Now all unwelcome at his gates

The clumsy swains alight,
With rueful feces and bald pates

He trembles at the sight.

And well he may, for well he knows

Each bumpkin of the cian, Instead of paying what he owes,

Will cheat him if he can.

So in they come-each makes his leg,

And flings his head before, And looks as if he came to beg,

And not to quit a score.

“ And how does miss and madam do,

“ The little boy, and all ?" « All tight and well. And how do you,

“ Good Mr. What-d'ye-call ?"

The dinner comes, and down they sit:

Were e'er such hungry folk ? There's little talking, and no wit ;

It is no tiine to joke.

One wipes his nose upon his sleeve,

One spits upon the floor,
Yet not to give offence or grieve,

Holds up the cloth before.

The punch goes round, and they are dull

And lumpish still as ever ;
Like barrels with their bellies full,

They only weigh the heavier.

At length the busy time begins,

“Come, neighbours, we must wag—” The money chinks, down drop their chins,

Each lugging out his bag.
One talks of mildew and of frost,

And one of storms of hail,
And one of pigs, that he has lost

By maggots at the tail.

Quoth one,

“ A rarer man than you “In pulpit none shall hear : “ But yet, methinks, to tell you true,

“ You sell it plaguy dear.”
O why are farmers made so coarse,

Or clergy made so fine ?
A kick that scarce would move a horse,

May kill a sound divine.
Then let the boobies stay at home ;

"Twould cost him, I dare say. Less trouble taking twice the sun,

Without the clowns that payn

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