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Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more, And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat.

Should fate command me to the fartheft verge Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to fong; where first the fun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on th' Atlantic ifles; 'tis nought to me; Since God is ever prefent, ever felt,

In the void waste as in the city full;

And where He vital fpreads, there must be joy.
"When even at last the folemn hour fhall come,
And wing my myftic flight to future worlds,
I chearful will obey; there with new powers.
Will rifing wonderfing: I cannot ge,
Where univerfal love not fmiles around,
Sustaining all you orbs, and all their funs;
From seeming evil ftill educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite-progreffion.-But I lofe
Myself in Him, in light ineffable!

Come ther, expreffive filence, muse his praise.

WINTER.

BY THE SAME.

IS done!· dread Winter spreads his latest glooms,

"Tand dreads tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.

How dumb the vegetable kingdom lies

How dead the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His defolate domain. Behold, fond man!

See here thy pictur'd life: pass some few years,
Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
Thy fober Autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at Ïast,

And shuts the fcene. Ah! whither now are fed
Thofe dreams of greatnefs? thofe unfolid hopes
Of happiness? thofe longings after fame?
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
Thofe gay spent feftive nights? thofe veering thoughts
Loft between good and ill, that shar'd thy life?
All now are vanish'd! Virtue fole furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of man,
His guide to happiness on high. And fee!
'Tis come, the glorious morn! the fecond birth
Of heaven and earth! awak'ning Nature hears
The new creating word, and starts to life,
In ev'ry heighten'd form, from pain and death
For ever fiee, The great eternal scheme.

Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting as the prospect wider spreads,
To reafon's eye refin'd clears up apace.

Ye vainly wife; ye blind prefumptuous! now,
Confounded in the duft, adore that Power

And Wildom oft arraign'd fee now the cause
Why unaffuming worth in fecret liv'd,
And dy'd neglected: why the good man's fhare
In life was gall and bitterness of foul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd
In ftarving folitude; while luxury,

In palaces, lay ftraining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heav'n born truth,
And moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of fuperftition's fcourge: who licens'd pain,
That cruel froiler, that embosom❜d foe,
Imbitter'd all our blifs. Ye good diftreft!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's preffure, yet bear up awhile,
And what your bounded view, which only faw
A little part, deem'd evil, is no more:

The ftorms of Winter Time will quickly pafs,
And one unbounded Spring encircles all.

E

THE

MESSIA H.

BY POPE.

YE Nymphs of Solyma!, begin the song:

To heavenly themes fublimer ftrains belong. The moffy fountains, and the fylvan shades, The dreams of Pindus and th' Aonian maids, Delight no more-0 thou, my voice inspire, Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallowed lips with fire!

A

Rapt into future times, the bard begun:
A virgin fhall conceive, a Virgin bear a Son!
From Jeffe's root behold a branch arise,
Whofe facred flow'r with fragrance fills the skies:
Th' etherial Ipirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top, defcends, the mystic Dove.
Ye heav'ns! from high the dewy nectar pour, A
And in foft filence fhed the kindly fhow'r!
The fick and weak the healing plant shall aid,
From forms a fhelter, and from heat a fhade:
All crimes fhall ceafe and ancient fraud fhall fail,
Returning Justice lift aloft her fcale;

Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-rob'd innocence from heav'n defcend.
Swift fly the years, and rife th' expected norn!-
Oh fpring to light aufpicious Babe, be born!
See Nature hafte her carlieft wreaths to bring,
With all the incenfe of the breathing spring;

See lofty Lebanon his head advance,

See nodding forefts on the mountains dance,
See fpicy clouds from lowly Sharon rife,
And Carmel's flow'ry top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears;
A God, a God the vocal hills reply.
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mouutains, and, ye vallies, rise!
With heads declin'd, ye cedars, homage pay:
Be fmooth, ye rocks: ye rapid floods, give way
The Saviour comes by ancient bards foretold;
Hear him, ye deaf! and, all ye blind, behold!
He from-thick films fhall purge the visual ray,
And on the fightless eye-ball pour the day:
"Tis he th' obftructed paths of found shall clear,
And bid new mufic charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb fhall fing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No figh, no murmur, the wide world fhall hear
From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear..
In adamantinc chains fhall death be bound,
And hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound.
As the good fhepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the pureft air,
Explores the loft, the wan'dring sheep directs
By day o'erfees thein, and by night protects.

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