Rather, if Poverty hold converse with thee, Or dive to some sad cell :-there have recourse Mixed with reserve and coolness, can afford. But, if your better fortunes have prepared Your purse with ducats, and with health your frame, Assemble friends! and to the tavern straight, Nor Russia's Empress, signalized for war, Ye, who for health, for exercise, for air, Or, if for recreation you should stray To Leithian shore, and breathe the keener air Ply not your joints upon the homeward tract, Now, while stern Winter holds his frigid sway, And to a period spins the closing year ; While festivals abound, and sportive hours Kill the remembrance of our waning time, Let not Intemperance, destructive fiend! Gain entrance to our halls. Despoiled by him, Shall cloyed appetite, forerunner sad Of rank disease, inveterate clasp your frame. Contentment shall no more be known to spread Her cherub wings round thy once happy dwell ing, But misery of thought, and racking pain, Shall plunge you headlong to the dark abyss. TEA. YE maidens modest! on whose sullen brows anger, reddening on Lucinda's brow Knowing that stormy brows but ill become To her, ye fair! in adoration bow! Whether at blushing morn, or dewy eve, Her smoking cordials greet your fragrant board, With Hyson, or Bohea, or Congo, crowned. At midnight skies, ye mantua-makers! hail The sacred offering. For the haughty belles No longer can upbraid your lingering hands, With trains upborne aloft by dusty gales That sweep the ball-room. Swift they glide along, And, with their sailing streamers, catch the eye Of some Adonis, marked to love a prey. Whose bosom ne'er had panted with a sigh, But for the silken draperies that enclose Graces from Fancy's eye but ill concealed. Mark well the fair! observe their modest eye, With all the innocence of beauty blessed. Could Slander o'er that tongue its power retain, Whose breath is Music?-Ah, fallacious thought! The surface is Ambrosia's mingled sweets; But all below is death. At tea-board met, Attend their prattling tongues;-they scoff,they rail Unbounded; but their darts are chiefly aimed At some gay fair, whose beauties far eclipse Her dim beholders; who, with haggard eyes, Would blight those charms where raptures long have dwelt In ecstacy, delighted and sufficed. In vain hath Beauty, with her varied robe, Bestowed her glowing blushes o'er her cheeks, And called attendant Graces to her aid, To blend the scarlet and the lily fair. In vain did Venus in her favourite mould Adapt the slender form to Cupid's choice.When Slander comes, her blasts too fatal prove; Pale are those cheeks where youth and beauty glowed; Where smiles, where freshness, and where roses grew : Ghastly and wan their Gorgon picture comes, With every fury grinning from the looks Of frightful monster. Envy's hissing tongue With deepest vengeance wounds, and every wound With deeper canker, deeper poison, teems. O Gold! thy luring lustre first prevailed On man to tempt the fretful winds and waves, |