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Shook the young leaves about her ears,
And fill'd her with a thousand fears,
Left the rude blast should snap the bough,
And fpread her golden hopes below.
But just at eve the blowing weather,
And all her fears were hufh'd together:
And now, quoth poor unthinking Ralph,
'Tis over, and the brood is fafe;

(For ravens, though as birds of omen,

They teach both conj'rers and old women
To tell us what is to befall,

Can't prophefy themselves, at all.)

The morning came, when neighbour Hodge,
Who long had mark'd her airy lodge,

And deftin'd all the treasure there

A gift to his expecting fair,

Climb'd like a fquirrel to his dray,
And bore the worthless prize away.

MOR A L.

'Tis providence alone fecures.

In every change, both mine and your's.
Safety confifts not in escape

From dangers of a frightful`shape,
An earthquake may be bid to spare
The man that's ftrangled by a hair.

Fate

Fate fteals along with filent tread,

Found oft'neft in what least we dread,
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the funshine ftrikes the blow.

A COMPARISON.

THE lapse of time and rivers is the fame, Both speed their journey with a restless stream, The filent pace with which they steal away, No wealth can bribe, no pray'rs perfuade to stay, Alike irrevocable both when past,

And a wide ocean fwallows both at laft.

Though each resemble each in ev'ry part,

A difference ftrikes at length the musing heart; Streams never flow in vain; where ftreams abound, How laughs the land with various plenty crown'd! But time that fhould enrich the nobler mind, Neglected, leaves a dreary wafle behind.

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ANOTHER.

Addreffed to a YOUNG LADY.

SWEET ftream that winds through yonder

glade,

Apt emblem of a virtuous maid

Silent and chafte fhe fteals along

Far from the world's gay bufy throng,

With gentle yet prevailing force

Intent upon

her deftin'd course,

Graceful and useful all she does,

Bleffing and bleft where'er fhe goes,
Pure-bofom'd as that watʼry glass,
And heav'n reflected in her face.

VERSES, fuppofed to be written by ALEXANDER SELKIRK, during his folitary Abode in the land of JUAN FERNANDEZ.

I.

I AM monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute,
From the centre all round to the fea,

I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

Oh

Oh folitude! where are the charms

That fages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms,

Than reign in this horrible place.

II.

I am out of humanity's reach,
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet mufic of speech,

I ftart at the found of

my own.

The beasts that roam over the plain,
My form with indifference fee,
They are fo unacquainted with man,
Their tameness is shocking to me.

III.

Society, friendship, and love,
Divinely bestow'd upon man, ›
Oh had I the wings of a dove,
How foon wou'd I tafte you again!
My forrows I then might affuage
In the ways of religion and truth,
Might learn from the wifdom of age,
And be cheer'd by the fallies of youth.

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IV.

Religion! what treasure untold
Refides in that heav'nly word!
More precious than filver and gold,
Or all that this earth can afford.

But the found of the church going bell
Thefe vallies and rocks never heard,
Ne'er figh'd at the found of a knell,
Or fmil'd when a sabbath appear'd.

V.

Ye winds, that have made me your fport,
Convey to this defolate fhore,

Some cordial endearing report

Of a land I fhall visit no more.

My friends do they now and then fend
A wish or a thought after me?

O tell me I yet have a friend,

Though a friend I am never to fee.

VI.

How fleet is a glance of the mind!

Compar'd with the fpeed of its flight,

The tempeft itself lags behind,

And the fwift winged arrows of light.

When

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