"When fleep has clos'd my forrow-ftreaming eyes, "Then ghaftly dreams, and hateful thoughts arife: "All unaccompany'd methinks I go "O'er Irish bogs, a wilderness of woe!
"Ah! my wits turn! firange phantoms round me fly! "Lo! I am chang'd into a goofb'ry pye! "Forbear to eat me up, inhuman rabble! "Cocks crow, ducks quake, hens cackle, turkies gabble."
Thus as the rav'd, her womb with rueful throes Did to the light a lufty babe disclose:
Long while the doubted of the fmirking boy,
Or on her knee to dandle, or destroy;
Love prompted her to fave, and Pride to drown,
At length Pride conquer'd, and the dropt her fon.
Sola fibi, femper longam incomitata videtur
Ire viam, & Tyrios deferta quærere terrâ.
Eumenidum veluti demens videt agmina Pentheus, &c.
PRESENTING A SPRIG OF MYRTLE
WHAT fears, what terrors does thy gift create!
Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate!
The myrtle, enfign of fupreme command,
(Confign'd by VENUS to MELISSA's hand)
Not lefs capricious than a reigning fair,
Oft favours, oft rejects the lover's care.
In myrtle groves oft fings the happy swain,
In myrtle fhades defpairing ghofts complain;
The myrtle crowns the happy lovers heads,
Th' unhappy lovers graves the myrtle spreads;
Oh! then the meaning of thy gift impart,
And cure the throbbings of an anxious heart;
Soon must this bough, as you shall fix his doom,
Adorn PHILANDER's head, or grace his tomb.
FONTENELLE'S PLURALITY OF WORLDS.
N this fmall work all nature's wonders fee,
The foften'd features of philofophy.
In truth by eafy fteps you here advance,
Truth, as diverting as the best romance.
Long had these arts to fages been confin'd,
None faw their beauty till by poring blind;
By fudying spent, like men that cram too full,
From Wisdom's feaft they rofe not chear'd, but dull :
The gay and airy fmii'd to fee them grave,
And fled fuch wifdom like TROPHONIUS' Cave.
Juftly they thought they might thofe arts despise,
Which made men fullen, ere they would be wife.
Brought down to fight, with ease you view 'em here;
Tho' deep the bottom, yet the stream is clear.
Your flutt'ring fex, ftill valued fcience lefs;
Careless of any, but the arts of drefs.
Their pfclefs time was idly thrown away
On empty novels, or fome new-born play.
The beft, perhaps, a few loofe hours might fpare
For fome unmeaning thing, mifcall'd a pray'r.
In vain the glittering orbs, each starry night,
With mingling blazes fhed a flood of light:
Each nymph with cold indiff'rence saw 'em rise;
And, taught by fops, to them preferr'd her eyes.
None thought the ftars were funs fo widely fown,
None dreamt of other worlds, befides our own.
Well might they boast their charms, when ev'ry fair
Thought this world all; and her's the brighteft here.
Ah! quit not the large thoughts this book infpires,
For thofe thin trifles which your fex admires ;
your claim to fenfe, and fhew mankind,
That reafon is not to themselves confin'd.
The haughty belle, whofe beauty's awful shrine,
"Twere facrilege t'imagine not divine,
Who thought fo greatly of her eyes before,
Bid her read this, and then be vain no more.
How poor e'en You, who reign without controul,
If we except the beauties of your
foul!
Should all beholders feel the fame furprize;
Should all who see you, fee you with my eyes;
Were no fuch blasts to make that beauty less;
Should you be what I think, what all confess:
"Tis but a narrow space those charms engage;
One Inland only, and not half an Age!
AY FLORIMEL, of gen'rous birth,
The most engaging fair on earth,
To please a blind gallant,
Has much of wit, and much of worth,
And much of tongue to fet it forth,
How oft, alas! in vain I've try'd, To tempt her from her guardian's fide, And trap her in love's hook!
She's like a little wanton lamb,
That frifks about the careful dam,
And fhuns the fhepherd's crook.
Like wretched DIVES am I plac'd, To fee the joys I cannot tafte, Of all my hopes bereav'n:
Her AUNT the difmal gulph betwixt, By all the powers of malice fixt,
To cheat me of my heaven.
|