From her, when bufy all the fummer's day

• She weaves the curious woof that snares her prey,
• I learn fair industry and art to prize,
Admiring Nature providently wife;
Who, tho' her bounty unexhaufted flows,
• Not daily bread on idleness bestows.
• Arachne, ftill fuperior to defpair,

• Reftores with art what accidents impair,
• The thousandth time the broken thread renews,
• And one great end with fortitude pursues :
To me her toil is ne'er renew'd in vain,
Taught what the wife by perfeverance gain;
• Warm'd by example to the glorious ftrife,
And taught to conquer in the fight of life.

When now with reft amidst her labours crown'd,
• She watchful, patient, eyes the circle round;
⚫ I learn, when toil has well deferv'd fuccefs,
• Hope's placid, calm expectance, to poffefs;
With care to watch, with patience still to wait,
• The golden moment, tho' delay'd by Fate.'
Impatient Chloe thus again reply'd:

• How foon is error thro' each veil descry'd!
• Still boasting reafon's power, how weak are we!
• How blind, alas! to all we would not fee!
Elfe how could Philo, in a Spider's cause,
• Talk thus of mercy with deferv'd applause ?
• Or call aught virtuous industry and skill,
• Exerted only to furprize and kill!

The blameless infect, whom no murder feeds,
• For her, the victim of her cunning, bleeds;
• Cunning! which when to wisdom we compare,
Is but to her, to men what monkies are.'

Hold!' Philo cries; and know, the fame decree • Gave her the fly, which gives the lamb to thee; • Or why those wings adapted to the fnare,

⚫ Why interceptive hangs the net in air?

As plain in these the precept, "Kill and eat,”
As in thy fkill to carve the living treat.'

To this,' fhe cries, perfuade me, if you can; Man's lord of all, and all was made for man.' • Vain thought! the child of ignorance and pride! Disdainful smiling, quickly he reply'd.

To man, vain reptile! tell me of what use
Are all that Africk's peopled wastes produce?
The nameless monfters of the fwarming feas,
The pigmy nations wafted on the breeze?
The happy myriads, by his eyes unfeen,

That bask in flowers, and quicken all the green?

Why live thefe numbers blefs'd in Nature's state?

Why lives this Spider object of thy hate?
Why Man? but life in common to poffefs,
Wide to diffuse the stream of happiness:

Blefs'd ftream! th' o'erflowing of the parent mind; • Great without pride, and without weakness kind.' With downcaft eyes, and fighs, and modest air, Thus in foft founds reply'd the wily fair:

This fatal fubtilty thy books impart,

To baffle truth, when unfuftain'd by art;
For this, when Chloe goes at twelve to bed,
Till three you fit in converfe with the dead;
No wonder, then, in vain my fkill's employ'd
• To prove it beft that vermin be deftroy'd!
But tho' you proudly triumph o'er my fex,
Joy to confute, and reason but to vex;
Yet, if you love me, to oblige your wife,.
• What could you lefs! you'd take a Spider's life.
Once, to prevent my wishes, Philo flew ;
But time, that alters all, has alter'd you.

⚫ Yet still unchang'd poor Chloe's love remains ; Thefe tears my witnefs, which your pride difdains;

These tears, at once my witness and relief!'

Here paus'd the fair, all-eloquen't in grief.

He, who had often, and alone, o'erturn'd
Witlings, and fophifts, when his fury burn'd,
Now yields to love the fortrefs of his foul!
His eyes with vengeance on Arachné roll:

• Curs'd wretch! thou poisonous quinteffence of ill,
Those precious drops, unpunifh'd, fhalt thou fpill
He faid; and stooping, from his foot he drew,
Black as his purpose, what was once a fhoe:
Now, high in air the fatal heel afcends,
Reafon's laft effort now the ftroke fufpends,

In doubt he ftood-when, breath'd from Chloe's breaft,
A ftruggling figh her inward grief exprefs'd.
Fir'd by the found, Die! forcerefs, die!' he cry'd,
And to his arm his utmost strength apply'd:
Crush'd falls the foe, one complicated wound,
And the fmote shelf returns a jarring found.
On Ida's top thus Venus erft prevail'd,
When all the fapience of Minerva fail'd:
Thus to like arts a prey, as poets tell,
By Juno lov'd in vain, great Dido fell.
And thus, for ever, beauty shall controul,
The faint's, the fage's, and the hero's foul.

But Jove with hate beheld th' atrocious deed,
And vengeance follows with tremendous speed;
In Philo's mind fhe quench'd the ray that fir'd
With love of science, and with verfe inspir'd;
Expung'd at once the philofophick theme,
All fages think, and all that poets dream;
Yields him, thus chang'd, a vaffal to the fair,
And forth the leads him with a victor's air:
Dress'd to her wish, he mixes with the gay, ..
As much a trifle, and as vain as they;
To fix their pow'r, and rivet fait the chain,
They lead where pleasure fpreads her foft domain;
Where, drown'd in mufick Reafon's hoarfer call,
Love fmiles triumphant in thy groves, Vauxhall.

A FATHER's ADVICE TO HIS SON.

BY JOHN GILBERT COOPER, ESQ

EEP in a grove, by cypress shaded,

DE

Where mid-day fun had seldom shone,

Or noise the folemn fcene invaded,

Save fome afflicted Mufe's moan;

A fwain tow'rds full-ag'd manhood wending,
Sat forrowing at the close of day;
At whofe fond fide a boy attending,
Lifp'd half his father's cares away. :

The father's eyes no object wrefted,
But on the smiling prattler hung;
Till, what his throbbing heart fuggested,
These accents trembled from his tongue.

'My youth's first hopes, my manhood's treasure!
My prattling innocent attend ;
• Nor fear rebuke, nor four displeasure,

A father's lovelieft name is Friend.

Some truths, from long experience flowing,
• Worth more than royal grants, receive;
For truths are wealth of Heav'n's bestowing,
• Which kings have seldom power to give.

Since, from an ancient race defcended,

You boast an unattainted blood;

• By your's be their fair fame attended,
• And claim by birthright to be good.

In love for every fellow-creature,

· Superior rife above the crowd; • What moft ennobles human nature, • Was ne'er the portion of the proud.

Be thine the generous heart, that borrows
From other's joys a friendly glow;
And for each hapless neighbour's forrows,
• Throbs with a fympathetick woe.

This is the temper most endearing :

• Tho' wide proud Pomp her banners spreads,
An heavenlier power, good-nature bearing,
• Each heart in willing thraldom leads.

• Taste not from fame's uncertain fountain,
• The peace-deftroying ftreams that flow;
• Nor from ambition's dangerous mountain,
• Look down upon the world below.

The princely pine on hills exalted,
• Whofe lofty branches cleave the sky,
By winds long brav'd, at laft affaulted,
Is headlong whirl'd in duft to lie:

Whilft the mild rofe, more fafely growing,
Low in it's unafpiring vale,

⚫ Amidft retirement's shelter blowing,
• Exchanges fweets with every gale.

• Wish not for beauty's darling features,
• Moulded by Nature's fondling power;
• For faireft forms 'mong human creatures,
Shine but the pageants of an hour.