SELECT POEMS. ODES. IDLENESS. GODDESS of ease, leave Lethe's brink, Sister of peace and indolence, Bring, muse, bring numbers soft and slow, Elaborately void of sense, And sweetly thoughtless let them flow. Near to some cowslip-painted mead, And under me let Flora spread Where, Philomel, your notes you breathe And murmurs of the stream beneath Still flow in unison with thine. For thee, O Idleness! the woes Of life we patiently endure; Thou art the source whence labour flows, We shun thee but to make thee sure. For who'd sustain war's toil and waste, And find a pleasing end in thee? GOOD-NATURE. HAIL cherub of the highest heaven, Celestial sweetness, exquisite of mien ! Soft gracefulness, and blooming youth, That friendship reigns, no interest can divide, Oh! curse on slander's viperous tongue, Idiots usurp thy title, and thy frame, Without or virtue, talent, taste, or name. Is apathy, is heart of steel, Nor ear to hear, nor sense to feel, Life idly inoffensive, such a grace [place: That it should steal thy name and take thy No-thou art active-spirit all— Swifter than lightning, at the call Of injur'd innocence, or griev'd desert, Thy appetites in easy tides (As reason's luminary guides) Soft flow-no wind can work them to a storm, Yet if a transport thou canst feel Great, generous acts thy ductile passions move, Mild is thy mind to cover shame, Averse to envy, slow to blame, Bursting to praise, yet still sincere and free Extensive, as from west to east, Thy love descends from man to beast, Nought is excluded, little or infirm, [knee. Thou canst with greatness stoop to save a worm. Come, goddess, come with all thy charms (For oh! I love thee) to my arms— All, all my actions guide, my fancy feed, ON ILL-NATURE. OFFSPRING of folly and of pride, To all that's odious, all that's base allied; Sullen, sour, and saturnine; Fly to some gloomy shade, nor blot the goodly light. VOL. XXX. Bb Thy planet was remote when I was born; Which Flora or Sylvanus never knew, For ever cursing, and for ever ours'd, The worst in genius, measure, and degree; For envy, hatred, malice, are but parts of thee. Or would'st thou change the scene, and quit the den Where spleen, by vapours dense begot and bred, Hardness of heart, and heaviness of head, Have rais'd their darksome walls, and plac'd their thorny bed; There may'st thou all thy bitterness unload, There mayst thou croak in concert with the toad, With thee the hollow howling winds shall join, Nor shall the bittern her base throat deny, The querulous frogs shall mix their dirge with thine, The' ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high, Millions of humming gnats fit ostrum shall supply. Away-away-behold an hideous band, An herd of all thy minions are at hand; Suspicion first with jealous caution stalks, Foe to the virgins and the poet's fame, A wither'd time-deflower'd old maid, That ne'er enjoy'd love's ever-sacred flame. Hypocrisy succeeds with saint-like look, And elevates her hands, and plods upon her book. Next comes illiberal scrambling Avarice, Then vanity and affectation niceSee, she salutes her shadow with a bow, As in short Gallic trips she minces by, Starting antipathy is in her eye, And squeamishly she knits her scornful brow. To thee, Ill-Nature, all the numerous group With lowly reverence stoop They wait thy call, and mourn thy long delay, TO THE REV. AND LEARNED DR. WEBSTER, (OCCASIONED BY HIS DIALOGUES ON ANGER AND forGIVENESS.) 'Twas when the' omniscient creative pow'r And delegated, at the' appointed hour, |