Their little wants, their low desires, refine, Not but the human fabric from the birth What wonder if to patient valour train'd, They guard with spirit, what by strength they gain'd? And while their rocky ramparts round they see, The rough abode of want and liberty, (As lawless force from confidence will grow) Insult the plenty of the vales below? What wonder, in the sultry climes, that spread Or on frail floats to neighb'ring cities ride, [The following couplet, which was intended to have been introduced in the poem on the Alliance of Education and Government, is much too beautiful to be lost.-Mason.] When love could teach a monarch to be wise, And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes. STANZAS TO MR. BENTLEY. A FRAGMENT. IN silent the tuneful choir among, Half pleased, half blushing, let the Muse admire, While Bentley leads her sister-art along, And bids the pencil answer to the lyre. See, in their course, each transitory thought The tardy rhymes that used to linger on, In swifter measures animated run, And catch a lustre from his genuine flame. Ah! could they catch his strength, his easy grace, His quick creation, his unerring line; The energy of Pope they might efface, And Dryden's harmony submit to mine. But not to one in this benighted age That burns in Shakespeare's or in Milton's page, and prodigality of heav'n. The pomp As when conspiring in the diamond's blaze, The meaner gems that singly charm the sight, Together dart their intermingled rays, And dazzle with a luxury of light. Enough for me, if to some feeling breast And as their pleasing influence 'flows confest,' SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER. WRITTEN IN 1761, AND FOUND IN ONE OF HIS POCKET-BOOKS. TOO poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune; He had not the method of making a fortune : Could love, and could hate, so was thought somewhat odd; No very great wit, he believed in a God: A post or a pension he did not desire, But left Church and State to Charles Townshend and Squire. |