Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

And cure of ev'ry ill!

More cruelty could none express,

And I, if you had shewn me less

Had been your pris'ner ftill.

The PINE APPLE and the BEE.

THE pine apples in triple row,
Were basking hot and all in blow,
A bee of most discerning taste
Perceiv'd the fragrance as he pass'd,
On eager wing the spoiler came,
And fearch'd for crannies in the frame,
Urg'd his attempt on ev'ry fide,

To ev'ry pane his trunk applied,
But still in vain, the frame was tight,
And only pervious to the light.
Thus having wafted half the day,
He wing'd his flight another way.
Methinks, I faid, in thee I find
The fin and madnefs of mankind;
To joys forbidden man aspires,
Confumes his foul with vain defires;
Folly the fpring of his pursuit,
And disappointment all the fruit.

[blocks in formation]

While Cynthio ogles as the paffes

The nymph between two chariot glaffes,

She is the pine apple, and he

The filly unfuccefsful bee.

The maid who views with pensive air

The fhow-glafs fraught with glitt❜ring ware,
Sees watches, bracelets, rings, and lockets,
But fighs at thought of empty pockets,
Like thine, her appetite is keen,
But ah the cruel glafs between!

Our dear delights are often fuch,
Expos'd to view but not to touch;
The fight our foolish heart inflames,
We long for pine apples in frames,
With hopeless with one looks and lingers,
One breaks the glass and cuts his fingers,
But they whom truth and wisdom lead,
Can gather honey from a weed.

HORACE

HORACE. Book the 2d. ODE the 10th.

I.

RECEIVE, dear friend, the truths I teach,

So fhalt thou live beyond the reach

Of adverse fortune's pow'r ;
Not always tempt the diftant deep,
Nor always timorously creep,
Along the treach'rous fhore.

II.

He that holds faft the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between

The little and the great;

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,

Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,
Imbitt'ring all his state.

III.

The tallest pines feel moft the pow'r
Of wintry blasts, the loftieft tow'r
Comes heaviest to the ground;

The bolts that fpare the mountain's fide,

His cloud-capt eminence divide,

And spread the ruin round.

[blocks in formation]

IV.

The well inform'd philofopher
Rejoices with an wholefome fear,
And hopes in fpite of pain;

If winter bellow from the north,

Soon the fweet fpring comes dancing forth,

And nature laughs again.

V.

What if thine heav'n be overcaft,
The dark appearance will not laft,
Expect a brighter fky;

The God that ftrings the filver bow,
Awakes fometimes the mufes too,
And lays his arrows by.

VI.

If hindrances obftruct thy way,
Thy magnanimity display,

And let thy ftrength be feen;

But oh! if Fortune fill thy fail
With more than a propitious gale,

Take half thy canvass in.

AREFLEC

A REFLECTION on the foregoing ODE.

AND is this all? Can reafon do no more
Than bid me fhun the deep and dread the fhore?
Sweet moralist! afloat on life's rough sea,

The Chriftian has an ait unknown to thee;
He holds no parley with unmanly fears,
Where duty bids he confidently steers,
Faces a thousand dangers at her call,
And trusting in his God, furmounts them all.

Tranflations from VINCENT BOURNE.

I.

THE

GLOW-WORM.

I.

BENEATH the hedge, or near the stream,

A worm is known to stray;

That fhews by night a lucid beam,

Which disappears by day.

II.

Difputes have been and still prevail
From whence his rays proceed;
Some give that honour to his tail,

And others to his head.

N 4

III. But

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »