5. Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle pow'rs,
We, who improve his golden hours,
By sweet experience know,
That marriage rightly understood,
Gives to the tender and the good,
A paradise below.

6. Our babes shall richest comfort bring;
If tutor'd right, they'll prove a spring
Whence pleasures ever rise:

We'll form their minds, with studious care,
To all that's manly, good, and fair,
And train them for the skies.

7. While they our wisest hours engage,
They'll joy our youth, support our age,
And crown our hoary hairs:
They'll grow in virtue ev'ry day,
And thus our fondest loves repay,
And recompense our cares.

8. No borrow'd joys! they're all our own,
While to the world we live unknown,
Or by the world forgot:
Monarchs! we envy not your state;
We look with pity on the great,
And bless our humbler lot.
9 Our portion is not large, indeed!
But then how little do we need!
For nature's calls are few:
In this the art of living lies,
To want no more than may suffice,
And make that little do.

10. We'll therefore relish, with content,
Whate'er kind Providence has sent,
Nor aim beyond our pow'r;
For if our stock be very small,
'Tis prudence to enjoy it all,
Nor lose the present hour.
11. To be resign'd, when ills betide,
Patient when favours are denied,

And pleas'd with favours giv'n:
Dear Chloe, this is wisdom's part;
This is that incense of the heart,
Whose fragrance smells to heav'n.
12. We'll ask no long protracted treat,
Since winter-life is seldom sweet
But when our feast is o'er,
Grateful from table we'll arise,

Nor grudge our sons, with envious eyes,
The relics of our store.

13 Thus, hand in hand, through life we'll go; Its checker'd paths of joy and wo,

With cautious steps, we'll tread
Quit its vain scenes without a tear,
Without a trouble or a fear,

And mingle with the dead.

Woven with pains into his plan,

To-morrow rends away.

2. The bow well bent, and smart the spring, Vice seems already slain;

But passion rudely snaps the string,
And it revives again.

3. Some foe to his upright intent,
Finds out his weaker part;
Virtue engages his assent,

But pleasure wins his heart.
4. "Tis here the folly of the wise,
Through all his art we view;
And while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.

5. Bound on a voyage of awful length,
And dangers little known,
A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.

6. But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;

The breath of heav'n must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.-COWPER.

SECTION XII.-Ode to Peace.
1. COME, peace of mind, delightful guest,
Return, and make thy downy nest,
Once more in this sad heart:
Nor riches I, nor pow'r pursue,
Nor hold forbidden joys in view;
We therefore need not part.
2. Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From av'rice and ambition free,
And pleasure's fatal wiles;
For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?

3. The great, the gay, shall they partake
The heav'n that thou alone canst make;
And wilt thou quit the stream,
That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove and the sequester'd shade,
To be a guest with them?

4. For thee I panted, thee I priz❜d,
For thee I gladly sacrific'd

Whate'er I lov'd before;

And shall I see thee start away,
And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say--
Farewell, we meet no more?-Cowper.

SECTION XIII.-Ode to Adversity.
1. DAUGHTER of Heav'n, relentless power,
Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge, and tort'ring hour,
The bad affright, afflict the best!

Bound in thy adamantine chain,

The proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan

With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.
2. When first thy sire to send on earth
Virtue, his darling child, design'd,
To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
And bade to form her infant mind.
Stern rugged nurse! thy rigid lore
With patience many a year she bore.
What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know;
And from her own she learn'd to melt at others wo.
3. Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly
Self-pleasing folly's idle brood,

Wild laughter, noise, and thoughtless joy,
And leave us leisure to be good.
Light they disperse; and with them go
The summer friend, the flatt'ring foe.
By vain prosperity receiv'd,

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ❜d.
4. Wisdom in sable garb array'd,

Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,
And melancholy, silent maid,

With leaden eye that loves the ground,
Still on thy solemn steps attend:
Warm charity, the gen'ral friend,

With justice, to herself severe,

And pity, dropping soft the sadly pleasing tear.
5. Oh, gently, on thy suppliant's head,
Dread power, lay thy chast'ning hand!
Not in thy gorgon terrors clad,

Nor circled with the vengeful band,
(As by the impicus thou art seen,)

With thund'ring voice, and threat'ning mien,
With screaming horror's fun'ral cry,
Despair, and fell disease, and ghastly poverty
6. Thy form benign, propitious, wear,
Thy milder influence impart;

Thy philosophic train be there,
To soften, not to wound my heart.
The gen'rous spark extinct revive;
Teach me to love, and to forgive;
Exact my own defects to scan;

What others are to feel; and know myself a man.-GRAY

SECTION XIV.

The Creation required to praise its Author.

1. BEGIN, my soul, th' exalted lay!

Let each enraptur'd thought obey,

And praise th' Almighty's name:

Lo! heaven and earth, and seas, and skies,
In one melodious concert rise,

To swell th' inspiring theme

2. Ye fields of light, celestial plains, Where gay transporting beauty reigns,

Ye scenes divinely fair!

Your Maker's wond'rous pow'r proclaim;
Tell how he form'd your shining frame,
And breath'd the fluid air.

3. Ye angels, catch the thrilling sound!
While all th' adoring thrones around,
His boundless mercy sing:

Let ev'ry list ning saint above,
Wake all the tuneful soul of love,
And touch the sweetest string.
4. Join, ye loud spheres, the vocal choir;
Thou dazzling orb of liquid fire,
The mighty chorus aid:

Soon as gray ev'ning gilds the plain,
Thou, moon, protract the melting strain,
And praise him in the shade.

5. Thou heav'n of heav'ns, his vast abode;
Ye clouds, proclaim your forming God,
Who call'd yon worlds from night:
"Ye shades dispel!"-th' Eternal said;
At once th' involving darkness fled,
And nature sprung to light.

6. Whate'er a blooming world contains, That wings the air, that skims the plains, United praise bestow:

Ye dragons, sound his awful name
To heav'n aloud; and roar acclaim,
Ye swelling deeps below.

7. Let ev'ry element rejoice;

Ye thunders burst with awful voice,
TO HIM who bids you roll:
His praise in softer notes declare,
Each whispering breeze of yielding air,
And breathe it to the soul.

8. To him, ye graceful cedars, bow;
Ye tow'ring mountains, bending low,
Your great Creator own;

Tell, when affrighted nature shook,
How Sinai kindled at his look,

And trembled at his frown.
9. Ye flocks that haunt the humble vale,
Ye insects flutt'ring on the gale,
In mutual concourse rise;
Crop the gay rose's vermeil bloom,
And waft its spoils, a sweet perfume,
In incense to the skies.
10. Wake all ye mounting tribes, and sing;
Ye plumy warblers of the spring,
Harmonious anthems raise

TO HIM who shap'd your finer mould,
Who tipp'd your glitt'ring wings with gold,
tun'd your voice to praise.