Who can obferve the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?
My dog (the truftieft of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind:
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my service copy Tray.
In conftancy and nuptial love,
I learn my duty from the dove.
The hen, who from the chilly air,
With pious wing, protects her care,
And ev'ry fowl that flies at large,
Inftruct me in a parent's charge."
From nature too I take my rule,
To fhun contempt and ridicule.
I never, with important air,
In converfation overbear.
Can grave and formal pafs for wife,
When men the folemn owl defpife?
My tongue within my lips I rein;
For who talks much muft talk in vain.
We from the wordy torrent fly:
Who liftens to the chatt'ring pye?
Nor would I, with felonies flight,
By stealth invade my neighbour's right:
Rapacious animals we hate;
Kites, hawks, and wolves, deferve their fate.
Do not we just abhorrence find
Against the toad and ferpent kind?
But envy, calumny, and fpite,
Bear stronger venom in their bite.
Thus ev'ry object of creation.
Can furnish hints to contemplation ;
And, from the most minute and mean,
A virtuous mind can morals glean."
Phy fame is juft," the fage replies; "Thy virtue proves thee truly wife. Pride often guides the author's pen, Books as affected are as men :
But he who studies nature's laws,
From certain truth his maxims draws;
And thofe, without our schools, fuffice
To make men moral, good, and wife.”
The road to Happiness open to all Men.
OH happiness! our beings end and aim!
Good, pleasure, eafe, content! whate'er thy name;
That fomething ftill which prompts th' eternal figh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us liés,
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool and wife ;
Plant of celeftial feed, if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow?
air op'ning to fome court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvefts of the field?
? where grows it not? if vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the foil. Fix'd to no fpot is happiness fincere,
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where;
"Tis never to be bought, but always free;
And, fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.
Afk of the learn'd the way. The learn'd are blind;
This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind :
Some place the blifs in action, fome in eafe,
Thofe call it pleasure, and contentment these :
Some funk to beafts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some fwell'd to gods, confefs ev'n virtue vain;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, fay they more or lefs
Than this, that happiness is happiness?
Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave; All ftates can reach it, and all heads conceive ; Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common fenfe, and common ease,
Remember man, "the universal caufe Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" And makes what happiness we justly call Subsist not in the good of one, but all,
The Goodness of Providence.
THE Lord my pafture fhall prepare,
And feed me with a fhepherd's care;
His prefence shall my wants fupply,
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noon day walks he fhall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.
When in the fultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirfty mountains pant;
To fertile vales and dewy meads,
My weary wand'ring fteps he leads;
Where peaceful rivers, foft and flow,
Amid the verdant landfcape flow.
Tho' in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overfpread,
My fteadfast heart fhall fear no ill;
For thou, O Lord, art with me ftill
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.
Tho' in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty fhall my pains beguile;
The barren wildernefs fhall fmile,
With fudden greens and herbage crown'd
And streams fhall murmur all around.
The Creator's works attest his greatness.
THE fpacious firmament on high,
With all the blue etherial sky,
Soon as the ev❜ning fhades prevail,
The moon takes up the wond'rous tale,
And, nightly, to the lift'ning earth,
Repeats the ftory of her birth:
Whilft all the ftars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in folemn filence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball!
What tho' nor real voice nor found,
Amid their radiant orbs be found!
In reafon's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
For ever finging as they fhine,
The hand that made us is divine,"
O THOU! whofe balance does the mountains weigh;
Whose will the wild tumultuous feas obey;
Whose breath can turn those wat'ry worlds to flame,
That flame to tempeft, and that tempeft tame;
Earth's meaneft fon, all trembling, proftrate falls,
And on the boundless of thy goodness calls..
O! give the winds all paft offence to fweep,
To scatter wide, or bury in the deep.
Thy pow'r my weakness, may I ever fee,
And wholly dedicate my foul to thee.
Reign o'er my will; my paffions ebb and flow
At thy command, nor human motive know!
If anger boil, let anger be my praife,
And fin the graceful indignation raise.
My love be warm to fuccour the diftrefs'd,
And lift the burden from the foul opprefs'd.
✔Oh may my understanding ever read
This glorious volume which thy wisdom made!
May fea and land, and earth and heav'n be join'd,
To bring th' eternal Author to my mind!
When oceans roar, or awful thunders roll,
May thoughts of thy dread vengeance shake my foul!
When earth's in bloom, or planets proudly shine,
Adore, my heart, the Majesty divine!
Grant I may ever at the morning ray,
Open with pray'r the confecrated day;
Tune thy great praise, and bid my foul arise,
And with the mounting fun afcend the skies;
As that advances, let my zeal improve,
And glow with ardour of confummate love;
Nor ceafe at eve, but with the setting fun
My endless worship fhall be still begun.
And oh! permit the gloom of folemn night,
To facred thought may forcibly invite.
When this world's fhut, and awful planets rife,
Call on our minds,and raise them to the skies;
Cómpofe our fouls with a lefs dazzling fight,
And fhow all nature in a milder light;
How ev'ry boift'rous thought in calm fubfides!
How the fmooth'd spirit into goodnefs glides !
- O how divine! to tread the milky way,
To the bright palace of the Lord of day;
His court admire, or for his favour fue,
Or leagues of friendship with his faints renew;
Pleas'd to look down and fee the world afleep;
While I long vigils to its Founder keep!
Can'ft thou not shake the centre ? Oh control,
Subdue by force, the rebel in my foul;
Thou, who canft ftill the raging of the flood,
Restrain the various tumults of my blood;
Teach me, with equal firmness to sustain
Alluring pleasure, and affaulting pain.
Qmay I pant for thee in each defire !
And with ftrong faith foment the holy fire!
Stretch out my foul in hope, and grasp the prize,
Which in eternity's deep bofom lies;
At the great day of recompenfe behold,
Devoid of fear, the fatal book unfold!
Then wafted upward to the blissful feat,
From age to age my grateful fong repeat;
My Light, my Life, my God, my Saviour fee,
And rival angels in the praife of thee!
|