Presume not on To-morrow.
In human hearts what bolder thoughts can rise,
Than man's presumption on to-morrow's dawn 2
Where is to-morrow? In another world.
For numbers this is certain; the reverse
Is sure to none.
Dum vivimus vivamus.
Whilst we live, let us live.
Live, while you live," the epicure would And seize the pleasures of the present day." "Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries; "And give to God each moment as it flies." Lord! in my views, let both united be; I live in pleasure, when I live to thee!
VERSES IN VARIOUS FORMS.
The Security of Virtue,
LET Coward guilt, with pallid fear,
To shelt ring caverns fly,
And justly dread the vengeful fate,
That thunders through the sky.
Protected by that hand, whose law
The threat'ning storms obey,
Intrepid virtue smiles secure,
As in the blaze of day.
And O! by errour's force subdu'd,
Since oft my stubborn will
Prepost'rous shuns the latent good,
And grasps the specious ill.
Not to my wish, but to my want,
Do thou thy gifts apply;
Unask'd, what good thou knowest, grant,
What ill, though ask'd, deny.
I have found out a gift for my fair
I have found where the wood pigeons breed,
But let me that plunder forbear!
She will say, 'tis a barbarous deed. brown ; For be ne'er can be true, she averr'd, "aer down. Who can rob a poor bird of its
And I lov'd her the more, when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.
Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown ;
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere ;
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send : He gave to mis'ry all he had-a tear;
He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, ('There they alike in trembling hope repose,) The bosom of his Father and his God.
Joy and Sorrow connected.
Still, where rosy pleasure leads,
See a kindred grief pursue;
Behind the steps that mis'ry treads,
Approaching comforts view.
The hues of bliss more brightly glow,
Chastis'd by sable tints of wo
And blended form, with artful strife,
The strength and harmony of life.
The Golden Mean.
He that holds fast 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.
'The tallest pines feel most the pow'r
Of wintry blast; the loftiest tow'r
Comes, heaviest to the ground.
'The bolts that spare the mountain's side,
His cloud-capt eminence divide;
And spread the ruin round.
Moderate Views and Aims Recommended.
With passions unruffled, untainted with pride,
By reason my life let me square;
The wants of my nature are cheaply supply'd
And the rest are but folly and care.
How vainly, through infinite trouble and strife,
The many their labours employ !
Since all that is truly delightful in life,
Is what all, if they please, may enjoy.
Attachment to Life.
The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground
'Twas therefore said, by ancient sages,
That love of life increas'd with years,
So much that in our later stages,
When pains grow sharp, and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.
Virtue's Address to Pleasure.*
Vast happiness enjoy thy gay allies!
A youth of follies, an old age of cares; Young, yet enervate, old yet never wise,
Vice wastes their vigour, and their mind impairs. Vain, idle, delicate, in thoughtless ease,
Reserving woes for age, their prime they spend; All wretched, hopeless, in the evil days;
With sorrow to the verge of life they tend.
Griev'd with the present, of the past asham❜d,
They live and are despis'd! They die, nor more are nam'dı
VERSES IN WHICH SOUND CORRESPONDS WITH SIGNIFICATION.
SOFT is the strain when zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows.
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.
Slow Motion imitated.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow.
Swift and easy Motion.
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.
Felling Trees in a Wood.
Loud sounds the axe, redoubling strokes on strokes ;
On all sides round the forest hurls her oaks
Headlong. Deep echoing groan the thickets brown ;
Then, rustling, crackling, crashing, thunder down.
Sound of a Bow String.
The string let y
Twang'd short and sharp, like the shrill swallow's cry.
See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings.
Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.
When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves,
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves.
Boisterous and gentle Sounds.
Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring winds' tempestuous rage restrain:
Within the waves in softer murmurs glide;
And ships secure without their haulsers ride.
Laborious and impetuous Motion.
With many a weary step, and many a grean,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone resulting with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the grounds
Regular and slow Movement.
First march the heavy mules securely slow;
O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go.
Motions slow and difficult.
A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.
A Rock torn from the Brow of a Mountain.
Still gath'ring force, it smokes, and arg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain,
Extent and violence of the Waves.
The waves behind impel the waves before,
Wide rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore.
Pensive Numbers.
In these deep solitudes, and awful cells,
Where heav'nly pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever musing melancholy reigns.
Arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible discord; and the madding wheels
Of brazen fury rag'd.
Sound imitating Reluctance.
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd;
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind.
Paragraphs of greater length.
Connubial affection."
THE love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against sickness and old age,
Preserved by virtue from declension,
Becomes not weary of attention:
But, lives, when that exterior grace,
Which first inspir'd the flame, decays,
"Tis gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compassionate, or blind;
And will with sympathy endure
Those evils it would gladly cure.
But angry, coarse, and harsh expression,
Shows love to be a mere profession;
Proves that the heart is none of his,
Or soon expels him if it is.
Swarms of Flying Insects.
Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways,
Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd,
The quiv'ring nations sport; till, tempest-wing'd,
Fierce winter sweeps them from the face of day,
Ev'n so, luxurious men, unheeding, pass.
An idle summer life, in fortune's shine,
A season's glitter! Thus they flutter on,
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice;
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes
Behind, and strikes them from the book of life.
Beneficence its own Reward.
My fortune for I'll mention all,
And more than you dare tell) is small;
Yet ev'ry friend partakes my store,
And want goes smiling from my door.
Will forty shillings warm the breast
Of worth or industry distress'd ?
This sum I cheerfully impart;
Tis fourscore pleasures to my heart:
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