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OECONOMY,

A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS.

Infanis; omnes gelidis quicunque lacernis
Sunt tibi, Nalones Virgiliofque vides.

T

PART the FIRST.

MART.

O you, ye bards! whofe lavish breaft requires
This monitory lay, the ftrains belong;
Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw,
Or fome dull cit unfeeling of the charms
That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal,
To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves,
Infpires the meanest of the mufe's train!
Like you I loath the groveling progeny,
Whose wily arts, by creeping time matur'd,
Advance them high on pow'r's tyrannic throne:
To lord it there in gorgeous uselessness,
And spurn fuccefilefs worth that pines below!
See the rich churl, amid the focial fons
Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins
In the free jeft delighted! feems to thew
A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings!
Songs of gay import, madrigals of glee,

And

And drunken anthems fet agape the board.
Like DEMEA, in the play, benign and mild,
And pouring forth benevolence of foul,

'Till MICIO wonders: or, in SHAKESPEAR's line,
Obftrep'rous SILENCE; drowning SHALLOW's voice,
And startling FALSTAFF, and his mad compeers.
He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon,

To fmooth his careful brow; to let his purfe
Ope to a fix-pence's diameter !

He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit
Are ways of pleasaunce, and deferve regard.
True, we are dainty good fociety,

But what art thou? alas! confider well,
Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyself.
Thy fell approach, like fome invafive damp
Breath'd thro' the pores of earth from Stygian caves,
Deftroys the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we
Its flamens boast to guard: we know not how,
But at thy fight the fading flame affumes

A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.

True, thou feem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all enfky'd;
The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes.
Say thou art honeft; and of gentle kind,
But all is falfe! an intermitting figh

Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to smiles,
And deems thofe only loft, thou dost not lofe.
Ev'n for a demi-groat, this open'd foul,

This boon companion, this elastic breast
Revibrates quick; and fends the tuneful tongue

VOL. I.

S

• INTERENCE'S ADELPHI

..To

Prone to indulge thy tender paffion,
And make thee many an affignation.
Deep in the grove's obfcure retreat
Be plac'd MINERVA's facred feat;
There let here aweful turrets rife,
(For wisdom flies from vulgar eyes :)
There her calm dictates fhalt thou hear
Diftin&tly strike thy lift'ning ear:

And who wou'd fhun the pleafing labour,
To have MINERVA for his neighbour?"
In fhort, fo charm'd each wild fuggestion,
Its truth was little call'd in question:
And DAMON dreamt he faw the Fauns,
And Nymphs, diftinctly, kim the lawns ;
Now trac'd amid the trees, and then
Loft in the circling fhades again.
With leer oblique their lover viewing-
And CUPID-panting—and pursuing-
Fancy, enchanting fair, he cry'd,
Be thou my goddefs! thou my guide!
For thy bright visions I despise
What foes may think, or friends advise.
The feign'd concern, when folks furvey
Expence, time, study cast away;
The real spleen, with which they fee:
I please myself, and follow thee.

Thus glow'd his breast by fancy warm'd;
And thus the fairy landskip charm'd.
But most he hop'd his conftant care
Might win the favour of the fair;

And,

And, wand'ring late thro' yonder glade,
He thus the foft defign betray'd.

"Ye doves! for whom I rear'd the grove,
With melting lays falute my love!
My DELIA with your notes detain,
Or I have rear'd the grove in vain!
Ye flow'rs! which early fpring fupplies,
Display at once your brightest dyes!
That the your op'ning charms may fee,
Or what were elfe your charms to me?
Kind zephyr brush each fragrant flow'r,
And shed its odours round my bow'r,
Or ne'er again, O gentle wind!
Shall I, in thee, refreshment find.
Ye ftreams, if e'er your banks. I lov❜d,
If e'er your native founds improv'd,
May each foft murmur foothe my fair;
Or oh 'twill deepen my despair!
Be fure, ye willows! you be feen
Array'd in liveliest robes of green;
Or I will tear your flighted boughs,
And let them fade around my brows.
And thou, my grott! whofe lonely bounds
The melancholy pine furrounds !

May the admire thy peaceful gloom,

Or thou shalt prove her lover's tomb.”

And now the lofty domes were rear'd ; Loud laugh'd the fquires, the rabble star'd. "See, neighbours, what our DAMON's doing! I think fome folks are fond of ruin!

I faw his fheep at random ftray-
But he has thrown his crook away—
And builds fuch huts as, in foul weather,
Are fit for sheep nor fhepherd neither."
Whence came the fober swain misled
Why, PHOEBUs put it in his head.
PHOEBUS befriends him, we are told;
And PHOEBUS Coins bright tuns of gold.
'Twere prudent not to be so vain on't:
I think he'll never touch a grain on't.
And if, from PHOEBUS, and his mufe,
Mere earthly laziness ensues;

'Tis plain, for aught that I can say,
The dev'l infpires, as well as they. -
So they while fools of groffer kind,
Lefs weeting what our bard defign'd,
Impute his schemes to real evil;

That in these haunts he met the devil.

He own'd, tho' their advice was vain,
It fuited wights who trod the plain :
For dullness-tho' he might abher it→
In them, he made allowance for it."
Nor wonder'd, if beholding mottos,

And urns, and domes, and cells, and grottos,
Folks, little dreaming of the mufes,
Were plagu'd to guefs their proper uses.

But did the muses haunt his cell?
Or in his dome did VENUS dwell?
Did PALLAS in his counfels share?
The Delian god reward his pray'r ?
Or did his zeal engage the fair?

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