For thee, loft maid! for thee alone,
Nor prayers fhall plead, nor tears atone ;
Reproach, fcorn, infamy, and hate,

On thy returning steps fhall wait ;'

Thy form be loath'd by ev'ry eye,
And ev'ry foot thy prefence fly!'
Thus arm'd with words of potent found,
Like guardian angels plac'd around,
A charm by Truth divinely caft,
Forward our young advent'rer pafs'd.
Forth from her facred eye-lids fent,
Like morn, fore running radiance went,
While Honour, handmaid late affign'd,
Upheld her lucid train behind.

Awe-ftruck, the much-admiring crowd

Before the virgin-vifion bow'd,
Gaz'd with an ever-new delight,
And caught fresh virtue at the fight;
For not of earth's unequal frame

They deem'd the heaven-compounded dame ;
If matter, fure the most refin'd,

High wrought, and temper'd into mind,
Some darling daughter of the day,
And body'd by her native ray.'
Where-e'er the paffes, thousands bend;
And thousands, where fhe moves, attend:
Her ways obfervant eyes confefs,
Her fteps pursuing praises blefs;
While, to the elevated maid,
Oblations, as to Heav'n, are paid.

"Twas on an ever-blythsome day,
The jovial birth of rofy May,
When genial warmth, no more fupprefs'd,
Now melts the froft in ev'ry breast,

The cheek with fecret flushing dyes,

And looks kind things from chastest eyes ;

The

2

The fun with healthier vifage glows,
Afide his clouded kerchief throws,
And dances up th' ethereal plain,
Where late he us'd to climb with pain ;
While Nature, as from bonds fet free,
Springs out, and gives a loose to glee.
And now, for momentary rest,
The nymph her travell'd steps reprefs'd,
Juft turn'd to view the stage attain'd,
And glory'd in the height she gain'd.
Out-ftretch'd before her wide survey,
The realms of fweet perdition lay;
And pity touch'd her foul with woe,
To fee a world fo loft below;

When straight the breeze began to breathe

Airs gently wafted from beneath,
That bore commiffion'd witchcraft thence,
And reach'd her fympathy of fenfe ;
No founds of difcord, that disclose
A people funk and loft in woes,
But as of present good poffefs'd,
The very triumph of the blefs'd.
The maid in rapt attention hung,
While thus approaching Sirens fung.

So fung the Sirens, as of yore,
Upon the falfe Aufonian fhore ;.
And O for that preventing chain,,
That bound Ulyffes on the main ;
That fo our fair-one might withstand
The covert ruin, now at hand!

The fong her charm'd attention drew,
When now the tempters stood in view;
Curiofity, with prying eyes,
And hands of bufy, bold emprize;
Like Hermes, feather'd were her feet,
And like fore-running Fancy, fleet.
By fearch untaught, by toil untir'd,
To novelty she still aspir'd;
Taftelefs of ev'ry good poffefs'd,
And but in expectation blefs'd.

With her, affociate, Pleafure came,
Gay Pleasure, frolick-loving dame;
Her mien all fwimming in delight,
Her beauties half reveal'd to fight;

Loofe

Loofe flow'd her garments from the ground, 'A

And caught the kiffing winds around.

As erft Medufa's looks were known

To turn beholders into ftone;
A dire reverfion here they felt,
And in the eye of Pleasure melt.

Her glance with fweet perfuafion charm'd;
Unnerv'd the strong, the steel'd difarm'd;
No fafety e'en the flying find,

Who, vent'rous, look but once behind.
Thus was the much-admiring maid,
While diftant, more than half betray'd,
With fmiles, and adulation bland,
They join'd her fide, and feiz'd her hand:
Their touch envenom'd fweets inftill'd,
Her frame with new pulfations thrill'd;'
While half consenting, half denying,
Reluctant now, and now complying,
Amidst a war of hopes and fears,
Of trembling wishes, fmiling tears,
Still down, and down, the winning pair
Compell'd the struggling, yielding fair.
As when fome stately veffel bound
To blefs'd Arabia's distant ground,
Borne from her courfes, haply lights
Where Barca's flow'ry clime invites,
Conceal'd around whofe treach'rous land,
Lurk the dire rock, and dang'rous fand;
The pilot warns with fail and oar
To fhun the much-suspected fhore,
In vain; the tide, too fubtly ftrong.
Still bears the wrestling bark along,
Till found'ring, fhe refigns to fate,

And finks, o'erwhelm'd, with all her freight.

So, baffling ev'ry bar to fin,

And Heav'n's own pilot plac'd within,

Along

Along the devious, fmooth defcent,

With pow'rs increafing as they went,
The dames, accuftom'd to fubdue,
As with a rapid current drew,
And o'er the fatal bounds convey'd
The loft, the long reluctant maid!

Here ftop, ye fair-ones, and beware,
Nor fend your fond affections there;
Yet, yet your darling, now deplor'd,
May turn, to you and Heav'n reftor'd;
Till then, with weeping Honour wait,
The fervant of her better fate,
With Honour, left upon the shore,
Her friend and handmaid now no more;
Nor with the guilty world, upbraid
The fortunes of a wretch betray'd;
But o'er her failings caft the veil,
Rememb❜ring you yourselves are frail!
And now, from all-enquiring light,
Faft fled the conscious fhades of night;
The damfel, from a fhort repofe,

Confounded at her plight, arofe.

As when, with flumb'rous weight opprefs'd,

Some wealthy mifer, finks to reft,

Where felons eye the glitt'ring prey,
And steal his hoard of joys away;
He, borne where golden Indus ftreams,
Of pearl, and quarry'd di'mond dreams,
Like Midas, turns the glebe to ore,
And ftands all rapt amidst his ftore;
But wakens naked, and defpoil'd

Of that for which his years

had toil'd.

So far'd the nymph, her treasure flown,
And turn'd, like Niobé, to stone :
Within, without, obfcure and void,
She felt all ravag'd, all destroy'd.

And