HOW useless and unhappy are those idle mortals who in the morning count the tedious hours of the day, complain of their number, and lay out part of them in contriving how to fquander the reft.

An HYMN to the CREATOR.

GOD of my health! whose bounteous care
First gave me power to move,
How fhall my thankful heart declare
The wonders of thy love?

Whilst void of thought and fenfe I lay,
Duft of my parent earth,

Thy breath inform'd the fleeping clay,
And call'd me into birth.

From thee my parts their fashion took,
And e'er my life begun,
Within the volume of thy book
Were written one by one.

Thy eye beheld in open view
The yet unfinished plan;

The fhadowy lines thy pencil drew,
And form'd the future man,

The foul that moves this earthly load
Thy femblance let it bear,
Nor loofe the traces of the GOD,
That stamp'd his image there,

THE refinements of diffipation have arisen to such a pitch, that what was luxury to our fore-fathers, does not now even comprize the neceffaries of life.

AFFLICTION

TO plead custom in defence of a fault, is to intimate that offences become more excufable by being multiplied: an inference as weak as it is dangerous.

On being waked in the Night by a violent STORM.

LOCK'D in the arms of balmy fleep,
From every care of day,

As filent as the folded theep,
And as fecure I lay.

Sudden, tremendous thunders roll,

Quick light'nings round me glare ;
The folemn fcene alarms the foul,
And wakes the heart to pray'r.

Whate'er, O Lord, at this ftill hour,
Thefe awful founds portend,
Whether meer enfigns of thy power,
Or groans for nature's end,

Grant me to bear with equal mind
These terrors of the sky,

For ever, as thou wilt, refign'd,
Alike to live or die.

Welcome the bolt, where'er it fall
Beneath the paffing fun;
Thy righteous will determines all,
And let that will be done.

Quick interpofe, all gracious Lord,

In this tremendous night;

Arife and be alike ador'd

For mercy as for might!

Vouchsafe, amidst this time of dread,
Thy fuppliant's voice to hear;

O fhield from harm each friendly head,
And all my foul holds dear.

VOL. II.

Let

Let it not kill where riot foul
Pours forth the drunken jeft,
Nor where the guilt-envenom'd soul
Starts wild from troubled reft.

A while, O fpare, those finful breasts,
Whose deeds the night deform,
Nor ftrike where fmiling virtue rests,
Unconscious of the storm.

Succour the couch where beauty lies,
All pale with tender fear;
Where fickness lifts her languid eyes,
O pour thy comforts there!

Let them not waste this awful night
Like common hours away;
But glow with wifdom's facred light,
More fair than orient day.

Warm'd by each flash, may virtue rise,
And with its glories fpread,
While ev'ry blafted bud of vice
Shrinks in new terrors dead.

So, on that dreadful judgment day,
Whofe image thakes the foul;
Tho' keeneft light'nings fhoot their ray,
And loudeft thunders roll,

Well pleas'd, O Lord, each eye shall see
Thofe final thunders hurl'd;

And mark with joy, for love of thee,
That flash which melts the world.

AGED wisdom, when joined with acknowledged virtue, exerts an authority over the huinan mind, greater even than that which arifes from power and flation. It can check the mot forward, abafa the most profligate, and strike with awe the moft giddy and unthinking. AFFLICTION

AFFLICTION is our best friend, and its awful lessons are never fo neceffary as in youth. We fet out in life, ardent with the hope of attaining happiness, but pursue a wrong path, as we seek it in diverfions and fenfual pleasures. Happy they who by afflictions are called off to a more rational courfe!

An INSCRIPTION written at a favourite Retirement.

WHAT tho' nor glitt'ring turret rise,
Nor fplendor gild thefe mild retreats ;
Yet nature here in modest guise,
Difplays her unambitious fweets;
Along each gentle swelling lawn

She ftrays, with ruftic garlands crown'd;
And wakes the flow'rs at early dawn,
To fling their bofom'd fragrance round.
Here teach thy votr'y, blameless guide,
To trace thy step, ferene, and free;
To fhun the toilfome heights of pride;
Thro' thefe calm fcenes to follow thee.
His filent walk do thou adorn,

O'er thefe green flopes, from tumult far;
Whether he greet the blushing morn,
Or welcome up yon ev'ning ftar;
Intent, while thro' thefe tufted bow'rs,
Thy gen'rous whifpers charm his ear,
To hail from heav'n thy kindred pow'rs,

And meet fair peace and freedom here.

WORLDLY enjoyments are shown to be hollow and deceitful, with an exprefs intention to direct our affections towards those which are spiritual. The fame difcoveries which diminish the value of the one, ferve to increase that of the other.

ONE of the most important leffons which can be given. to man, is refignation to his Maker; and nothing inculcates it more than the experience of his own inability to guide himself.

ODE to HUMANITY.

IN heav'n, bright maid, that bliss receive,
Which goodness only knows;

Who bidft the honest bofom grieve,
That hears another's woes.

Thy foothing voice the wretch can cheer,
Whom anguish taught to figh;
And speak away the rifing tear
From pale affliction's eye.

Where'er, in kind complacence dreft,
Thy facred beam shall shine;

It lifts, expands, exalts the breast,.
And fwells it to divine,

For ever clad in native charms,
Thy fmile benignant lives;
In friendship, with delight it warms,
In anger, it forgives.

Like heav'n's high goodnels unconfin'd,
It spreads from pole to pole;

And copies ftill th' eternal mind,

To blefs the human foul.

Thy ftream, and mercy's, child of love;
From one great current flow;

For all that mercy is above,

Humanity's below.

HE whofe wishes, refpecting the poffeffions of this world, are the most reasonable and bounded, is likely to lead the fafeft, and, for that reafon, the moft defirable life. By afpiring too high, we frequently mifs the happiness, which, by a lefs ambitious aim, we might have gained. High happinefs on earth, is rather a picture which the imagination forms, than a reality which man is allowed to poffefs.

OLD