!may you walk, as years advance,
Smooth and erect, as now you dance;
May you on each important ftage,
From bloom of youth to wither'd age,
Affert your claim to merit's prize,
And, as at present, charm our eyes ;
Obfervant of decorum's laws,
And moving with the fame applause,
May you, thro' life's perplexing maze,
Direct your steps with equal praife;
Its intricate meanders trace
With regularity and grace;
From the true figure never fwerve,
And time in every step obferve;
Give ear to harmony and reason,
Nor make one motion out of season !'
Thus will life's current gently flow,
pour forth every blifs below;
Till nature failing, ebb fhall bring
Death with his dart- but not his fting!
ON ASKING MY OPINION OF FRIENDSHIP.
Ould Chloe know the highest blifs,
That friendship boafts-it must be this ;
When Hymen crowns what Love begun,
And two fond hearts unite in one;
When each, as to delight or pain,
Is bound in fympathetic chain,
And both reciprocally borrow,
To heighten joy, or fweeten forrow.
This is the highest blifs below,
This friendship only can bestow;
And may propitious heaven defign,
That fuch a friendship fhall be mine,
And fince this with relates to two,
O! may that friendship be with you!
PRESENTED WITH A RING, BEARING A HEART,
WITH THIS MOTTO, STOP THIEF.
Oon as I faw thofe beauteous eyes,
You play'd a roguish part;
You first enthrall'd me by surprize,
Then robb'd me of my heart.
Since thus you now may boaft of two,
Difputing is in vain :
Render to me your own in lieu,
Or give me mine again.
If not, tho' you're by all confeft
The mafter-piece of nature;
I'll paint you to the world at best
A double-hearted creature.
WITH A BOOK OF MORALITY, ENTITLED
"VISIONS."
O ftrong the paffions of the human mind, To truth reluctant, and to reafon blind; "These rules, compar'd with real life, must seem "All airy vifions, and an empty dream:
"For when a plan of conduct we would draw,
"That dares the critic's eye to show a flaw,
Fancy may with its antitype to fee,
"And feast upon its charms in theory;
"Yet ftill in practice all our hopes are vain,
"To realize this image of the brain."
Thus, foe to nature, spoke the gloomy fage;
But let his labour'd lines inform the page;
Let him exhaust his genius to display,
Truth's pleasant path, and virtue's peaceful way:
Each moral rule with energy dispense,
That forms the conduct, or improves the sense:
Still muft philofophy renounce the prize,
Still nature muft to art fuperior rife;
For nature now triumphantly can show
A living inftance of thofe rules in you.
BY A LADY, JUST BEFORE MARRIAGE.
Repare me, O almighty Lord,
For that important day,
When I fhall plight my folemn word,
To honour and obey :". When at thy facred altar I
With trembling feet shall stand,
Be thy eternal spirit by
To join the heart and hand.
United thus, no human force
Can part the happy pair,
But life will run a cheerful course
Of funshine all the year:
Yet ftill, as pleasure's cup enjoy'd,
A bitter draught may prove,
Unless our thoughts be oft employ'd
On happiness above;
Within us, Lord, new hearts create,
Prepar'd for heavenly bliss; That we may seek a better state,
While fojourners in this.
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