How fond to treat her chosen guest
Provides for every sense a feast;
Gives to the wide excursive eye
The radiant glories of the sky;
Or bids each odorous bloom exhale
His soul t' enrich the balmy gale;
Or
pour upon th' enchanted ear
The music of th' op'ning year;
Or bids the limpid fountain burst,
Friendly to life, and cool to thirst;
What arts the beauteous dame employs
To lead us on to genial joys,
When in her specious work we join
To propagate her fair design,
The virgin-face divine appears
In bloom of youth and prime of years,
And e'er the destin'd heart's aware
Fixes Monimia's image there.

Ah me! what helpless have I said?
Unhappy by myself betray'd!

I deem'd, but ah! I deem'd in vain,
From the dear image to refrain ;
For when I fixt my musing thought,
Far on solemn views remote ;
When wand'ring in the uncertain round
Of mazy doubt, no end I found;
O my unblest and erring feet!

What most I sought to shun, ye meet.
Come then my serious maid again :
Come and try another strain ;
Come and nature's dome explore,
Where dwells retir'd the matron hoar;
There her wondrous works survey,
And drive th' intruder love away.
"Tis done. Ascending heaven's height
Contemplation take thy flight:

Behold the sun, through heaven's wide space

Strong as a giant, run his race:

Behold the moon, exert her light,

As blushing bride on her love-night :

Behold the sister starry train,

Her bride maids, mount the azure plain.

See where the snows their treasures keep;
The chambers where the loud winds sleep;
Where the collected rains abide

'Till heav'n set all its windows wide,
Precipitate from high to pour

And drown in violence of show'r :
Or gently strain'd they wash the earth
And give the tender fruits a birth.
See where the thunder springs his mine;
Where the paths of lightning shine.
Or tir'd those heights still to pursue,
From heav'n descending with the dew,
That soft impregns the youthful mead,
Where thousand flowers exalt the head,
Mark how nature's hand bestows
Abundant grace on all that grows,
Tinges, with pencil slow unseen,
The grass that clothes the valley green;
Or spreads the tulips parted streaks,
Or sanguine dyes the rose's cheeks,
Or points with light Monimia's eyes,
And forms her bosom's beauteous rise.

Ah! haunting spirit art thou there!
Forbidden in these walks t' appear.
I thought, O love! thou wouldst disdain
To mix with wisdom's black stay'd train;`
But when my curious searching look,
A nice survey of nature took,

Well pleas'd the matron set to show
Her mistress-work, on earth below.
Then fruitless knowledge turn aside,
What other art remains untry'd
This load of anguish to remove,
And heal the cruel wounds of love?
To friendship's sacred force apply
That source of tenderness and joy;
A joy no anxious fears profane,
A tenderness that feels no pain:
Friendship shall all these ills
appease,
And give the tortur'd mourner ease.
Th' indissoluble tie, that binds
In equal chains, two sister minds:

Not such as servile int'rests choose,
From partial ends and sordid views;
Nor when the midnight banquet fires
The choice of wine-inflam'd desires;
When the short fellowships proceed,
From casual mirth and wicked deed;
"Till the next morn estranges quite
The partners of one guilty night;
But such as judgment long has weigh'd
And years of faithfulness have try'd;
Whose tender mind is fram'd to share
The equal portion of my care;

Whose thoughts my happiness employs
Sincere, who triumphs in my joys;
With whom in raptures I may stray,
Through study's long and pathless way,
Obscurely blest, in joys, alone,
To the excluded world unknown.
Forsook the weak fantastic train
Of flatt'ry, mirth, all false and vain ;
On whose soft and gentle breast
My weary soul may take her rest,
While the still tender look and kind,
Fair springing from the spotless mind,
My perfected delights ensure

To last immortal, free and pure.

Grant, Heav'n, if Heav'n means bliss for me,
Monimia such, and long may be.

Here, here again! how just my fear
Love ever finds admittance here;
The cruel spright, intent on harm,
Has quite dissolv'd the feeble charm ;
Assuming friendship's saintly guise,
Hast past the cheated sentry's eyes,
And once attained his hellish end,
Displays the undissembled fiend.
O say! my faithful fair ally,
How did'st thou let the traitor by
I from the desart bade thee come,*
Invok'd thee from thy peaceful home.

* Numbers, ch. 23.

More to sublime my solemn hour,
And curse this demon's fatal pow'r ;
Lo! by superior force opprest,

Thou these three several times hast blest.
Shall we the magic rites pursue,
When love is mightier far than thou?
Yes come, in blest enchantment skill'd,
Another altar let us build;

Go forth as wont, and try to find,
Where'er devotion lies reclin'd;

Thou her fair friend, by heaven's decree,
Art one with her, and she with thee.
Devotion come with sober pace,
Full of thought and full of grace;
While humbled on the earth I lie,
Wrapt in the vision of the sky,
To noble heights and solemn views
Wing my heav'n-aspiring muse;
Teach me to scorn, by thee refin'd,
The low delights of human kind :
Sure then to put to flight the boy
Of laughter, sport, and idle joy.
O plant these guarded groves about,
And keep the treach'rous felon out.

Now see the spreading gates unfold,
Display'd the sacred leaves of gold.
Let me with holy awe repair,
To the solemn house of prayer.
And as I go, O thou! my heart,
Forget each low and earthly part.
Religion enter in my breast,
A mild and venerable guest!
Put off, in contemplation drown'd,
Each thought impure in holy ground,
And cautious tread with awful fear
The courts of heav'n ;-for God is here.
Now my grateful voice I raise.

Ye angels, swell a mortal's praise,
To charm with your own harmony,
The ear of him who sits on high.

Grant me, propitious heav'nly pow'r,
Whose love benign we feel each hour,
An equal lot on earth to share,

Nor rich, nor poor, my humble pray'r;
Lest I forget, exaited proud,

The hand supreme that gave the good;
Lest want o'er virtue should prevail,
And I put forth my hand and steal;
But if thy sov'reign will shall grant,
The wealth I neither ask nor want;
May I the widow's need supply,
And wipe the tear from sorrow's eye;
May the weary wanderer's feet,
From me a blest reception meet!
But if contempt and low estate
Be the assignment of my fate,
O! may no hope of gain entice
To tread the green broad path of vice.
And bounteous O! vouchsafe to clear
The errors of a mind sincere.
Illumine thou my searching mind,
Groping after truth and blind.

With stores of science be it fraught

That bards have dream'd, or sages taught;
And chief the heav'n-born strain impart,
A muse acccording to thy heart;
That wrapt in sacred ecstasy,
I may sing, and sing of thee;
Mankind instructing in thy laws,
Blest poet in fair virtue's cause,
Her former merit to restore,
And make mankind again adore.
As when conversant with the great,
She fixt in palaces her seat.
Before her all-revealing ray,
Each sordid passion should decay:
Ambition shuns the dreaded dame,
And pales his ineffectual flame;
Wealth sighs her triumphs to behold,
And offers all his sums of gold;

*

* See Hamlet.