23.

Since in me such thoughts are scant,

Of thy grace repair my want,

Often meditations grant,

And in me more deeply plant.

24.

Work of wisdom more desire,
Grant I may with holy ire

Slight the world, and me inspire

With thy love to be on fire.

25.

What care I for lofty place,
If the Lord grant me his grace,
Shewing me his pleasant face,
And with joy I end my race.

26.

This is only my desire,

This doth set my heart on fire,
That I might receive my hire,
With the saints' and angels' quire.

27.

O my soul of heavenly birth,
Do thou scorn this basest earth,
Place not here thy joy and mirth,
Where of bliss is greatest dearth.

28.

From below thy mind remove,
And affect the things above:
Set thy heart and fix thy love
Where thou truest joys shalt prove.

29.

If I do love things on high,
Doubtless them enjoy shall I,
Earthly pleasures if I try,

They pursued faster fly.

30.

O Lord, glorious, yet most kind,

Thou hast these thoughts put in my mind,

Let me grace increasing find,

Me to thee more firmly bind.

31.

To God glory, thanks, and praise,
I will render all my days,

Who hath blest me many ways,
Shedding on me gracious rays.

32.

To me grace, O Father, send,
On thee wholly to depend,
That all may to thy glory tend;
So let me live, so let me end.

33.

Now to the true Eternal King,
Not seen with human eye,

Th' immortal, only wise, true God
Be praise perpetually!

1

KATHERINE PHILIPS,

Born 1631, died 1664,

Known as a poetess by the name of Orinda, was the daughter of John Fowles of Bucklersbury, a London merchant. She married James Philips of the Priory, of Cardigan; nor did her devotion to the Muses (which had shewn itself at an early age) prevent her from discharging, in the most exemplary manner, the duties of domestic life. Her poems, which had been dispersed among her friends in manuscript, were first printed without her knowledge or consent; and the circumstance is said to have occasioned a fit of illness to the sensitive authoress. To this amiable woman Jeremy Taylor addressed a Discourse on the Nature, Offices, and Measures of Friendship, with Rules for conducting it: she is praised more than once by Dryden; and her death, caused by the small-pox, was mourned by Cowley in a long Pindaric.

The verses of Orinda appear to have been hastily composed: if they do not frequently gleam with poetry, they are generally impregnated with thought.

Against Pleasure,

AN ODE.

THERE'S no such thing as pleasure here,

'Tis all a perfect cheat,

Which does but shine and disappear,
Whose charm is but deceit;

The empty bribe of yielding souls,
Which first betrays, and then controuls.

'Tis true, it looks at distance fair,

But if we do approach,

The fruit of Sodom will impair,
And perish at a touch;

It being than in fancy less,
And we expect more than possess.

For by our pleasures we are cloy'd,
And so desire is done;

Or else, like rivers, they make wide
The channels where they run;
And either way true bliss destroys,
Making us narrow, or our joys.

We covet pleasure easily,

But ne'er true bliss possess ;
For many things must make it be,
But one may make it less.

Nay, were our state as we could chuse it, 'Twould be consum'd by fear to lose it.