From envy, hurry, noife, and strife,
The dull impertinence of life,
In thy retreat I reft;

Pursue thee to thy peaceful groves,
Where Plato's facred spirit roves,
In all thy graces dreft,

He bid Ilyffus' tuneful stream
Convey the philofophic theme

Of perfect, fair, and good:
Attentive Athens caught the found,
And all her lift'ning fons around.
In awful filence stood,

Reclaim'd her wild licentious youth Confeft the potent voice of truth, And felt it's just controul:

The paffions ceas'd their loud alarms, And Virtues's foft perfuafive charms O'er all their fenfes ftole.

Thy breath infpires the poets fong,
The patriot's free unbias'd tongue.
The hero's generous ftrife:
Thine are retirement's filent joys,
And all the fweet endearing ties
Of ftill domeftic life.

No more to fabled names confin'd
To Thee, fupreme, all-perfect mind,

My thoughts direct their flight: Wifdom's thy gift, and all her force, From thee deriv'd unchanging fource Of intellectual light!

O fend her fure, her steady ray
To regulate my doubtful way
Through life's perplexing road:
The mists of error to controul,
And through its gloom direct my foul
To happiness and good!

Beneath her clear difcerning eye

The vifionary shadows fly,

Of Folly's painted show;

She fees through ev'ry fair disguise,
That all, but Virtue's folid joys,
Is, vanity and woe,

THE

ENQUIRY.

AFTER

HAPPINESS.

BY THE SAME.

HE midnight moon ferenely fmiles
O'er Nature's foft repose;

No low'ring cloud obfcures the sky,
Nor ruffling tempest blows,

Now ev'ry paffion finks to rest,
The throbbing heart lies ftill;
And varying schemes of life no more,
Diftract the lab'ring will.

In filence hufh'd to Reason's voice
Attends each mental power:

Come, dear Emilia, and enjoy
Reflection's fav'rite hour.

Come; while the peaceful fcene invites,
Let's fearch this ample round,
Where fhall the lovely fleeting form
Of happiness be found?

Does it amidst the frolic mirth

Of gay affemblies dwell;

Or hide beneath the falemn gloom

That fhades the hermit's cell?

How oft the laughing brow of joy

A fick'ning heart conceals!

And through the cloifter's deep recefs Invading forrow steals.

In vain through beauty, fortune, wit,
The fugitive we trace:

It dwells not in the faithlefs fmile
That brightens Clodia's face.

Perhaps the joy to these deny'd,
The heart in friendship finds :
Ah! dear delufion, gay conceit
Of vifionary minds!

Howe'er our varying notions rove,
Yet all agree in one,

To place its being in fome state
At diftance from our own,

O blind to each indulgent aim
Of pow'r fupremely wife,
Who fancy happiness in aught
The hand of Heav'n denies !

Vain is alike the joy we feek,
And vain what we poffefs,

Unless harmonious Reafon tunes

The paffions into peace.

To temper'd wishes, juft defires,
Is happiness confin'd

And deaf to Folly's call, attends
The mufic of the mind.

THE

H

EVENING WALK.

BY THE SAME.

OW sweet the calm of this fequefter'd shore
Where ebbing waters mufically roll:

And folitude and filent eve restore

The philofophic temper of the foul!

The fighing gale whose murmurs lull to reft
The bufy tumult of declining day,
To fympathetic quiet foothes the breaft,
And every wild emotion dies away.

Farewell the objects of diurnal care,

Your task be ended with the fetting fun:

Let all be undisturb'd vacation here,

While o'er yon wave afcends the peaceful moon.

What beauteous vifions o'er the foften'd heart

In this still moment all their charm diffuse, Serener joys, and brighter hopes impart,

And cheer the foul with more than mortal views.