ANTISTROPHE I.

O heaven-born sisters! source of art!

Who charm the sense, or mend the heart;

Who lead fair virtue's train along,
Moral truth and mystic song!

To what new clime, what distant sky,
Forsaken, friendless, shall ye fly?

Say, will ye bless the bleak Atlantic shore?
Or bid the furious Gaul be rude no more?

STROPHE II.

When Athens sinks by fates unjust, When wild Barbarians spurn her dust; Perhaps e'en Britain's utmost shore Shall cease to blush with strangers' gore, See arts her savage sons control,

And Athens rising near the pole!

Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand, And civil madness tears them from the land.

ANTISTROPHE II.

Ye gods! what justice rules the ball?
Freedom and arts together fall;
Fools grant whate'er ambition craves,
And men, once ignorant, are slaves.
O curs'd effects of civil hate,

In every age, in every state!

Still, when the lust of tyrant power succeeds,

Some Athens perishes, some Tully bleeds.

CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND VIRGINS.

SEMICHORUS.

O tyrant Love! hast thou possest
The prudent, learn'd, and virtuous breast?

Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim,

And arts but soften us to feel thy flame.
Love, soft intruder, enters here,
But entering learns to be sincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.

Why, virtue, dost thou blame desire
Which nature hath imprest?
Why, nature, dost thou soonest fire
The mild and generous breast?

CHORUS.

Love's purer flames the gods approve;
The gods and Brutus bend to love:

Brutus for absent Portia sighs,

And sterner Cassius melts at Junia's eyes.
What is loose love? a transient gust,
Spent in a sudden storm of lust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wandering, self-consuming fire.
But Hymen's kinder flames unite,
And burn for ever one;
Chaste as cold Cynthia's virgin light,
Productive as the sun.

SEMICHORUS.

O source of every social tie, United wish, and mutual joy! What various joys on one attend, As son, as father, brother, husband, friend? Whether his hoary sire he spies, While thousand grateful thoughts arise; Or meets his spouse's fonder eye, Or views his smiling progeny; What tender passions take their turns What home-felt raptures move! His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns, With reverence, hope, and love.

CHORUS.

Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmises,
Hence false tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises,

Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine!

Purest love's unwasting treasure,
Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure,
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure,
Sacred Hymen ! these are thine.

EPISTLE TO ROBERT EARL OF OXFORD AND

MORTIMER,

PREFIXED TO PARNELL'S POEMS.

SUCH were the notes thy once lov'd poet sung, Till death untimely stopp'd his tuneful tongue. Oh, just beheld and lost! admir'd and mourn'd! With softest manners, gentlest arts, adorn'd! Bless'd in each science! bless'd in every strain! Dear to the Muse! to Harley dear-in vain !

For him thou oft hast bid the world attend, Fond to forget the statesman in the friend; For Swift and him despis'd the farce of state, The sober follies of the wise and great, Dexterous the craving, fawning crowd to quit, And pleas'd to 'scape from flattery to wit.

Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear (A sigh the absent claims, the dead a tear); Recall those nights that clos'd thy toilsome days, Still hear thy Parnell in his living lays; Who, careless now of interest, fame, or fate, Perhaps forgets that Oxford e'er was great; Or deeming meanest what we greatest call, Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.

And sure if aught below the seats divine Can touch immortals, 'tis a soul like thine;

A soul supreme, in each hard instance tried,
Above all pain, all passion, and all pride,
The rage of power, the blast of public breath,
The lust of lucre, and the dread of death.

In vain to deserts thy retreat is made; The Muse attends thee to thy silent shade; 'Tis hers the brave man's latest steps to trace, Rejudge his acts, and dignify disgrace. When Interest calls off all her sneaking train, And all th' oblig'd desert, and all the vain, She waits, or to the scaffold or the cell, When the last lingering friend has bid farewell. E'en now she shades thy evening walk with bays (No hireling she, no prostitute to praise); E'en now, observant of the parting ray, Eyes the calm sunset of thy various day, Through fortune's cloud one truly great can see, Nor fears to tell that Mortimer is he.

EPISTLE TO JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ.

SECRETARY OF STATE.

A SOUL as full of worth as void of pride,
Which nothing seeks to show, or needs to hide,
Which nor to guilt nor fear its caution owes,
And boasts a warmth that from no passion flows;
A face untaught to feign; a judging eye,
That darts severe upon a rising lie,