Her conscious tail her joy declared; Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Still had she gazed; but 'midst the tide Two angel forms were seen to glide, The Genii of the stream: Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue The hapless Nymph with wonder saw : She stretch'd in vain to reach the prize. What female heart can gold despise? What Cat's averse to fish? Presumptuous Maid! with looks intent (Malignant Fate sate by, and smile) The slipp'ry verge her feet beguiled, She tumbled headlong in. Eight times emerging from the flood, No Dolphin came, uo Nereid stirr❜d : From hence, ye beauties, undeceived, III. ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF *Ανθρωπος ἱκανὴ πρόφασις εἰς τὸ δυστυχεῖν. YE distant spires, ye antique towers, That crown the watʼry glade, Where grateful Science still adores Of Her Henry's* holy shade; And ye, that from the stately brow Menander. Of Windsor's heights th' expanse below grove, of lawn, of mead survey; Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among Wanders the hoary Thames along His silver-winding way! Ah happy hills! ah pleasing shade! Ah fields beloved in vain, Where once my careless childhood stray'd A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow, As waving fresh their gladsome wing, My weary soul they seem to sooth, To breathe a second spring. Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen Or To chase the rolling circle's speed, the flying ball? urge King Heury the Sixth, founder of the College. While some on earnest business bent 'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint To sweeten liberty: Some bold adventurers disdain The limits of their little reign, And unknown regions dare descry: Still as they run they look behind, Gay hope is theirs, by fancy fed, The thoughtless day, the easy night, That fly th' approach of morn. Alas! regardless of their doom, No sense have they of ills to come, Yet see how all around 'em wait The ministers of human fate, And black Misfortune's baleful train : Ah, shew them where in ambush stand, To seize their prey, the murth’rous band Ah, tell them they are men! These shall the fury Passions tear, Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear, And Shame that scuiks behind; That inly gnaws the secret heart, And Envy wan, and faded Care, Ambition this shall tempt to rise, And grinning Infamy. The stings of Falsehood those shall try, And keen Remorse with blood defiled, And moody Madness laughing wild Amid severest woe. Lo, in the vale of years beneath A griesly troop are seen, The painful family of Death, More hideous than their queen: This racks the joints, this fires the veins, That every labouring sinew strains, Those in the deeper vitals rage: Lo, Poverty, to fill the band, That numbs the soul with icy hand, And slow-consuming Age. To each his suff'rings: all are men, The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate, Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their paradise. "Tis folly to be wise IV. TO ADVERSITY. Zñva Τον φρονεῖν Βροτοὺς ὁδώ Eschylus, in Agamemnon, DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless power, Bound in thy adamantine chain With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone When first thy sire to send on earth And bade to form her inf.nt mind. What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe. Scared at thy frown terrific, fly Self-pleasing Folly's idle brood, Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy And leave us leisure to be good. Light they disperse, and with them go. The summer Friend, the flattering Foe; By vain Prosperity received, To her they vow their truth, and are again believed. Wisdom in sable garb array'd, Immersed in rapt'rous thought profound, And Melancholy, silent maid, With leaden eye, that loves the ground, |