Birds, birds purfue; as hunger's rage infpires: Their sweetest fongs are now but fongs of woe. Here from th' encroaching shore the wave retires: There hoarfe floods roar; impetuous torrents flow; Invade the land, and the scarce harvests overthrow.^ L.

Stretcht on the bank eftfoons th' inviting form
Of Pfyche faded; brac'd up lank and flim,
Her dwindled body shrunk into a worm :
Her make new-moulded, chang'd in every limb;
Her colours only left, all pale and dim :
Doom'd in a caterpillar's fhape to lout.
Her paffions ill fuch worthlefs thing beseem;
Pride, rage, and vanity to banish out,

She creeping crawls, and drags aloathfome length about.
LI.

How Cupid wash'd her noisome filth away;
What arts he tried to win her love again;

By what wiles guileful Ant'ros did affay,

By leafing, ftill her recreant to maintain,

And render Cupid's kindly labours vain: Their combat, Cupid's conqueft, Pfyche's crown, (My day's fet task here ended) must remain

Unfung; far nobler verse mote they renown:

Unyoke the toiled steers, the weary fun

goes

down.

JOVI

XXXXXXX

JOVI ELEUTHERI O.

Or, an OFFERING to

LIBERTY.

Quifnam igitur liber? Sapiens, fibique imperiofus ; Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent ; Refponfare cupidinibus, contemnere bonores

Fortis; et in feipfo totus teres atque rotundus.

H

HOR. Serm. Lib. II. Sat. 7.

AIL LIBERTY! whose presence glads th' abode

Of heav'n itself, great attribute of God!

By thee fuftain'd, th' unbounded spirit runs,
Moulds orbs on orbs, and lights up funs on funs;
By thee fuftain'd, in love unwearied lives,
And uncontroul'd creates, fupports, forgives:

No pow'r, or time, or space his will withstood;
Almighty! endlefs! infinite in good!

"If fo, why not communicate the bliss, "And let man know what this great bleffing is ?** Say what proportion, creature, wouldst thou claim As thy Creator's, in extent, the fame! Unless his other attributes were join'd

To poise the will, and regulate the mind,
Goodness to aim, and wisdom to direct,
What mighty mischiefs must we thence expect?
The maker knows his 'work; nor judg'd it fit
To trust the rash refolves of human wit:

Which prone to hurt, too blind to help, is still
Alike pernicious, mean it good or ill.

A whim, t'improvements making fond pretence, Would burst a system in experiments;

Sparrows and cats indeed no more should fear,
But Saturn tremble in his distant sphere :
Give thee but footing in another world,
Say, Archimedes, where should we be hurl'd?
A fprightly wit, with liquor in his head,
Would burn a globe to light him drunk to bed:
Th', Ephefian temple had escap'd the flame,

And heav'n's high dome had built the madman's fame. The fullen might (when malice boil'd within)

Strike out the stars to intimate his spleen:

Not

Not poppy-heads had spoke a Tarquin croft ;
Nature's chief spring had broke, and all been loft.
Nor less destructive would this license prove,
Though thy breaft flam'd with univerfal love.
In vain were thy benevolence of foul;

Soon would thy folly difconcert the whole.
No rains, or fnows, fhould difcompose the air;
But flow'rs and funfhine drain the weary year:
No clouds fhould fully the clear face of day;
No tempefts rifse, - to blow a plague away.
Mercy fhould reign untir'd, unstain'd with blood;
Spare the frail guilty, -
-to eat up the good:
In their defence, rife, facred Juftice, rife!
Awake the thunder fleeping in the skies,
Sink a corrupted city in a minute:

Wo! to the righteous ten who may be in it. Pick out the bad, and sweep them all away!

So leave their babes, to cats and dogs a prey. Such pow'r, without God's wifdom and his will, Were only an omnipotence of ill.

Suited to man can we fuch pow'r esteem?

Fiends would be harmless, if compar'd with him.
Say then, fhall all his attributes be giv'n?
His effence follows, and his throne of heav'n;

His very unity. Proud wretch! fhall he
Un-god himself, to make a god of thee?

How wide, fuch luft of liberty confounds! Would less content thee, prudent mark the bounds. "Those which th' almighty Monarch first design'd, "When his great image feal'd the human mind; "When to the beafts the fruitful earth was giv❜n; "To fish the ocean, and to birds their heav'n; "And all to man: whom full creation, stor'd, "Receiv'd as its proprietor, and lord.

"Ere earth, whofe fpacious tract unmeafur'd spreads
"Was flic'd by acres and by roods to shreds:
"When trees and streams were made a general good;
"And not as limits, meanly to exclude :
"When all to all belong'd; ere pow'r was told
"By number'd troops, or wealth by counted gold:
"Ere kings, or priests, their tyranny began;
"Or man was vaffal'd to his fellow-man."

O halcyon state! when man begun to live!
A bleffing, worthy of a God to give !
When on th' unfpotted mind his Maker drew
The heav'nly characters, correct and true.
All useful knowledge, from that source, supply'd;
No blindness sprung from ignorance, or pride:

All