No longer Virtue breathing in thy breast,
With all her confcious majefty confest,

Still bright and brighter wakes the Almighty flame,
To rouze the feeble, and the wilful tame,
And where the fees the catching glimpfes roll,
Spreads the ftrong blaze, and all involves the foul;
But cold restraints thy conscious fancy chill,
And formal paffions mock thy ftruggling will;
Or, if thy Genius e'er forget his chain,

And reach impatient at a nobler ftrain,

Soon the fad bodings of contemptuous mirth
Shoot through thy breaft, and ftab the generous birth,
Till, blind with fmart, from Truth to Frenzy toft,
And all the tenor of thy reafon loft,
Perhaps thy anguifh drains a real tear;
While fome with pity, fome with laughter hear.
-Can Art, alas! or Genius, guide the head,
Where Truth and Freedom from the heart are fled?
Can leffer wheels repeat their native stroke,
When the prime function of the foul is broke?

But come, unhappy man! thy fates impend;
Come, quit thy friends, if yet thou haft a friend;
Turn from the poor rewards of guilt like thine,
Renounce thy titles, and thy robes resign;
For fee the hand of Destiny display'd

To fhut thee from the joys thou haft betray'd!
See the dire fane of Infamy arife!

Dark as the grave, and fpacious as the skies;
Where, from the first of time, thy kindred train,
The chiefs and princes of the unjuft remain.

Eternal

Eternal barriers guard the pathlefs road
To warn the wanderer of the curft abode ;
But prone as whirlwinds fcour the paffive sky,
The heights furmounted, down the fteep they fly.
There, black with frowns, relentless Time awaits,
And goads their footsteps to the guilty gates:
And still he asks them of their unknown aims,
Evolves their fecrets, and their guilt proclaims;
And still his hands despoil them on the road
Of each vain wreath, by lying Bards bestow'd,
Break their proud marbles, crush their festal cars,
And rend the lawless trophies of their wars.
At laft the gates his potent voice obey;
Fierce to their dark abode he drives his prey,
Where, ever arm'd with adamantine chains,
The watchful dæmon o'er her vaffals reigns,
O'er mighty names and giant-powers of luft,
The Great, the Sage, the Happy, and August
No gleam of hope their baleful manfion cheers,
No found of honour hails their unbleft ears;
But dire reproaches from the friend betray'd,
The childless fire and violated maid;
But vengeful vows for guardian laws effac'd,
From towns inflav'd and continents laid wafte;
But long Pofterity's united groan,

And the fad charge of horrors not their own,

Titles which have been generally afcribed to the most pernicious of men.

AKENSIDE.

VOL. LXIV.

M

For

For ever through the trembling space refound,
And fink each impious forehead to the ground.
Ye mighty foes of Liberty and Rest,

Give way, do homage to a mightier guest!
Ye daring fpirits of the Roman race,

See Curio's toil. your proudeft claims efface!
-Aw'd at the name, fierce * Appius rifing bends,
And hardy Cinna from his throne attends :

<

"He comes, they cry, to whom the fates affign'd
"With furer arts to work what we defign'd,
"From year to year the stubborn herd to sway,
"Mouth all their wrongs, and all their rage obey;
"Till, own'd their guide and trufted with their power,
"He mock'd their hopes in one decifive hour :
"Then, tir'd and yielding, led them to the chain,
"And quench the fpirit we provok'd in vain.”

But thou, Supreme, by whofe eternal hands
Fair Liberty's heroic empire ftands ;
Whofe thunders the rebellious deep controul,
And quell the triumphs of the traitor's foul,
O turn this dreadful omen far away!
On Freedom's foes their own attempts repay;
Relume her facred fire fo near fuppreft,
And fix her shrine in every Roman breast:
Though bold Corruption boaft around the land,
"Let Virtue, if she can, my baits withstand!"

Appius Claudius the Decemvir, and L. Cornelius Cinna, both attempted to establish a tyrannical dominion in Rome, and both perished by the treafon. AKENSIDE,

Though

Though bolder now fhe urge the accursed claim,
Gay with her trophies rais'd on Curio's shame;
Yet fome there are who scorn her impious mirth,
Who know what confcience and a heart are worth.
-O friend and father of the human mind,
Whose art for noblest ends our frame defign'd!
If I, though fated to the ftudious fhade
Which party-strife nor anxious power invade,
If I afpire in public virtue's cause,
To guide the Muses by fublimer laws,
Do thou her own authority impart,

And give my numbers entrance to the heart.
Perhaps the verse might roufe her fmother'd flame,
And fnatch the fainting patriot back to fame;
Perhaps, by worthy thoughts of human kind,.
To worthy deeds exalt the conscious mind;
Or dash Corruption in her proud career,
And teach her flaves that Vice was born to fear.

00

LOVE. AN ELE G Y,

TOO much my heart of Beauty's power hath known,
Too long to Love hath Reason left her throne;
Too long my genius mourn'd his myrtle chain,
And three rich years of youth confum'd in vain.
My wishes, lull'd with foft inglorious dreams,
Forgot the patriot's and the fage's themes:
Through each Elyfian vale and Fairy grove,
Through all the enchanted paradife of Love.
M 2

Milled

Mifled by fickly hope's deceitful flame,
Averse to action, and renouncing fame.
At laft the vifionary fcenes decay,
My eyes, exulting, blefs the new-born day,
Whofe faithful beams detect the dangerous road
In which my heedlefs feet fecurely trod,
And ftrip the phantoms of their lying charms
That lur'd my foul from Wisdom's peaceful arms.
For filver ftreams and banks bespread with flowers,
For moffy couches and harmonious bowers,
Lo! barren heaths appear, and pathless woods,
And rocks hung dreadful o'er unfathom'd floods:
For openness of heart, for tender fmiles,

Looks fraught with love, and wrath difarming wiles,
Lo! fullen Spite, and perjur'd Luft of Gain,
And cruel Pride, and crueler Difdain.
Lo! cordial Faith to ideot airs refin'd,

Now coolly civil, now transporting kind.
For graceful Eafe, lo! Affectation walks ;
And dull Half-sense, for Wit and Wisdom talks.
New to each hour what low delight fucceeds,
What precious furniture of hearts and heads!
By nought their prudence, but by getting, known;
And all their courage in deceiving shown.

See next what plagues attend the lover's ftate,
What frightful forms of terror, scorn, and hate!
See burning Fury heaven and earth defy!
See dumb Defpair in icy fetters lie!
See black Sufpicion bend his gloomy brow,
The hideous image of himself to view!

And