Compose the storm, dispel the gloom,
Till Nature wear her wonted bloom,
Till fields and shades their sweets exhale,
And music swell each opening gale :
Then o'er his breast thy softness pour,
And let him learn the timely hour
To trace the world's benignant laws,
And judge of that presiding cause
Who founds on discord beauty's reign,
Converts to pleasure every pain,
Subdues each hostile form to rest,
And bids the universe be blest.

O thou, whose pleasing power I sing,
If right I touch the votive string,
If equal praise I yield thy name,
Still govern thou thy poet's flame;
Still with the Muse my bosom share,
And soothe to peace intruding care.
But most exert thy pleasing power
On friendship's consecrated hour;
And while my Sophron points the road
To godlike wisdom's calm abode,
Or warm in freedom's ancient cause
Traceth the source of Albion's laws,
Add thou o'er all the generous toil
The light of thy unclouded smile.
But, if by fortune's stubborn sway
From him and friendship torn away,
'I court the Muse's healing spell
For griefs that still with absence dwell,
Do thou conduct my fancy's dreams
To such indulgent placid themes,

As just the struggling breast may cheer,
And just suspend the starting tear,
Yet leave that sacred sense of wo
Which none but friends and lovers know.

TO GOOD-NATURE.

HAIL, cherub of the highest heaven,
Of look divine, and temper even,

Celestial sweetness, exquisite of mien !
Of every virtue, every praise the queen!

Soft gracefulness, and blooming youth,
Where, grafted on the stem of truth,

Akenside.

That friendship reigns, no interest can divide,
And great humility looks down on pride.

Oh! curse on slander's viperous tongue,
That daily dares thy merit wrong;

Idiots usurp thy title, and thy fame,
Without or virtue, talent, taste, or name.

Is apathy, is heart of steel,
Nor ear to hear, or 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,
And large with liberality thy heart.

Thy appetites in easy tides
(As reason's luminary guides)

Soft flow-no wind can work them to a storm,
Correctly quick, dispassionately warm.

Yet if a transport thou canst feel,
'Tis only for thy neighbour's weal;

Great, generous acts thy ductile passions move,
And smilingly thou weep'st with joy and love.

Mild is thy mind to cover shame,
Averse to envy, slow to blame,

Bursting to praise, yet still sincere, and free
From flattery's fawning tongue and bending

[knee.

Extensive, as from west to east,
Thy love descends from man to beast,
Nought is excluded, little or infirm,
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,
So shall existence then be life indeed.

Smart,

ON ILL-NATURE.

OFFSPRING of folly and of pride,
To all that's odious, all that's base allied;
Nurs'd up by vice, by pravity misled,
By pedant affectation taught and bred;

Away, thou hideous hell-born sprite,
Go, with looks of dark design,
Sullen, sour, and saturnine;

Fly to some gloomy shade, nor blot the goodly light.
Thy planet was remote when I was born:
"Twas Mercury that rul'd my natal morn,

What time the Sun exerts his genial ray,
And ripens for enjoyment every growing day;
When to exist is but to love and sing,
And sprightly Aries smiles upon the spring.
There in yon lonesome heath,
Which Flora or Sylvanus never knew,

Where never vegetable drank the dew, Or beast or fowl attempts to breathe;

Where Nature's pencil has no colours laid; But all is blank, and universal shade;

Contrast to figure, motion, life, and light, There may'st thou vent thy spite,

For ever cursing, and for ever curs'd, Of all th' infernal crew the worst;

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 may'st 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 dregs with thine,

Th' ear-piercing hern, the plover screaming high, Millions of humming gnats fit œstrum shall supply.

Away-away--behold an hideous band,

An herd of all thy minions are at hand; Suspicion first with jealous caution stalks,

And ever looks around her as she walks, With bibulous ear imperfect sounds to catch, And proud to listen at her neighbour's latch. Next, Scandal's meagre shade, Foe to the virgin's and the poet's fame, A wither'd time-deflower'd pld 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 nice-See, 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,
Away--thou art infectious-haste away.

Smart

TO HOSPITALITY.

DOMESTIC power! erewhile rever'd
Where Syria spread her palmy plain,
Where Greece her tuneful Muses heard,
Where Rome beheld her patriot-train ;