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MISCELLANIES.

SOLILOQUY

OF A BEAUTY IN THE COUNTRY,

Written at Eaton School.

'Twas night, and Flavia to her room retir'd, With ev'ning chat and sober reading tir'd, There melancholy, pensive, and alone, She meditates on the forsaken Town; On her rais'd arm reclin'd her drooping head She sigh'd, and thus in plaintive accents said: "Ah! what avails it to be young and fair, "To move with negligence, to dress with care? "What worth have all the charms our pride can boast "If all in envious solitude are lost?

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"Where none admire it is useless to excel; "Where none are beaux it is vain to be a belle: "Beauty like wit to judges should be shown; "Both most are valu'd where they best are known. "With ev'ry grace of Nature or of Art 15 "We cannot break one stubborn country heart; "The brutes insensible our pow'r defy : "To love exceeds a squire's capacity.

"The Town, the Court, is Beauty's proper sphere "That is our heav'n, and we are angels there: 20

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"In that gay circle thousand Cupids rove; "The Court of Britain is the Court of Love. "How has my conscious heart with triumph glow'd, "How have my sparkling eyes their transport "Ateach distinguish'd birthnight ball to see[show'd, "The homage due to empire paid to me? "When ev'ry eye was fix'd on me alone,

"And dreaded mine more than the Monarch's frown; "When rival statesmen for my favour strove, "Less jealous in their pow'r than in their love. 30 "Chang'd is the scene, and all my glories die, "Like flow'rs transplanted to a colder sky; "Lost is the dear delight of giving pain, "The tyrant joy of hearing slaves complain. "In stupid indolence my life is spent, "Supinely calm and dully innocent: "Unblest I wear my useless time away,

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"Sleep, wretched maid ! all night and dreamall day, "Go at set hours to dinner and to pray'r, "For Dulness ever must be regular : "Now with mamma at tedious whist I play, "Now without scandal drink insipid tea, "Or in the garden breathe the country air, "Secure from meeting any tempter there. "From books to work from work to books I rove,

"And am, alas! at leisure to improve.

"Is this the life a Beauty ought to lead?

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"Were eyes so radiant only made to read?

"These fingers, at whose touch ev'n Age would glow, "Are these of use for nothing but to sew?

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"Sure erring Nature never could design
"To form a housewife in a mould like mine!
"O Venus ! queen and guardian of the fair,
"Attend propitious to thy vot'ry's pray'r;
"Let me revisit the dear Town again,
"Let me be seen!-Could I that wish obtain
"All other wishes my own pow'r would gain."

THE PROGRESS OF LOVE.

IN FOUR ECLOGUES.

I. UNCERTAINTY. TO MR. POPE.

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II. HOPE. TO THE HON. GEORGE DODDINGTON. III. JEALOUSY. TO EDWARD WALPOLE, ESQ. IV. POSSESSION.TO THE RIGHT HON.THE LORD VISCOUNT COBHAM.

UNCERTAINTY. ECLOGUE I.

TO MR. POPE.

POPE! to whose reed beneath the beechen shade
The nymphs of Thames a pleas'd attention paid,
While yet thy Muse content with humbler praise
Warbled in Windsor's grove her sylvan lays,
Tho' now sublimely borne on Homer's wing
Of glorious wars and godlike chiefs she sing,
Wilt thou with me revisit once again
The crystal fountain and the flow'ry plain?

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Wilt thou indulgent hear my verse relate
The various changes of a lover's state,
And while each turn of passion I pursue,
Ask thy own heart if what I tell be true?
To the green margin of a lonely wood
Whose pendent shades o'erlook'd a silver flood
Young Damon came, unknowing where he stray'd,
Full of the image of his beauteous maid;
His flock far off unfed, untended lay,
To ev'ry savage a defenceless prey;

No sense of int'rest could their master move,

And ev'ry care seem'd trifling now but love:
A while in pensive silence he remain'd,

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But tho' his voice was mute his looks complain'd; At length the thoughts within his bosom pent Forc'd his unwilling tongue to give them vent.

"Ye Nymphs !" he cry'd, " ye Dryads! who so "Have favour'd Damon and inspir'd his song,[long "For whom retir'd I shun the gay resorts "Of sportful cities and of pompous courts, "In vain 1 bid the restless world adieu, "To seek tranquillity and peace with you. "Tho' wild Ambition and destructive Rage "No factions here can form, no wars can wage, "Tho' Envy frowns not on your humble shades, "Nor Calumny your innocence invades,

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"Yet cruel Love, that troubler of the breast, 35 "Too often violates your boasted rest,

"With inbred storms disturbs your calm retreat, "And taints with bitterness each rural sweet.

"Ah luckless day! when first with fond surprise "On Delia's face I fix'd my eager eyes,

"Then in wild tumults all my soul was tost, "Then reason, liberty, at once were lost,

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"And every wish, and thought, and care, was gone, "But what my heart employ'd on her alone. "Then too she smil'd; can Smiles our peace destroy, "Those lovely children of Content and Joy? 46 "How can soft pleasure and tormenting woe "From the same spring at the same moment flow? "Unhappy boy! these vain inquiries cease, "Thought could not guard nor will restore thy peace; "Indulge the frenzy that thou must endure, "And sooth the pain thou know'st not how to cure. "Come, flatt'ring Memory! and tell my heart "How kind she was, and with what pleasing art "She strove its fondest wishes to obtain, "Confirm her pow'r and faster bind my chain. "If on the green we danc'd a mirthful band, "To me alone she gave her willing hand; "Her partial taste if ere I touch'd the lyre "Still in my song found something to admire; 60 "By none but her mycrook with flow'rs was crown'd, "By none but her my brows with ivy bound; "The world that Damon was her choice believ'd, "The world, alas ! like Damon was deceiv'd. "When last I saw her, and declar'd my fire "In words as soft as passion could inspire, "Coldly she heard, and full of scorn withdrew, "Without one pitying glance, one sweet adieu.

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