The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, a New Ed , with Notes

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The frighted Indians with his thunder aw'd, And claim'd their homage, and commenc'd a god I flourish'd all the while in arts of peace, Retir'd and shelter'd in inglorious ease: I who before the songs of shepherds made, When gay and young my rural lays I play'd, And set my Tityrus beneath his shade. A SONG FOR ST. CECILIA'S DAY, AT OXFORD.' CECILIA, whose exalted hymns, With joy and wonder fill the blest, In choirs of warbling seraphims, Known and distinguish'd from the rest, Attend, harmonious saint, and see Thy vocal sons of harmony; Attend, harmonious saint, and hear our pray'rs; Enliven all our earthly airs, And, as thou sing'st thy God, teach us to sing of thee: Tune ev'ry string and ev'ry tongue, Be thou the muse and subject of our song. Let all Cecilia's praise proclaim, Employ the echo in her name. Hark how the flutes and trumpets raise, At bright Cecilia's name, their lays; The organ labours in her praise. The success of Alexander's Feast, made it fashionable for succeeding poets, to try their hand at a musical ode: but they mistook the matter, when they thought it enough to contend with Mr. Dryden.? It was reserved for one or two of our days to give us u true idea of lyric poetry in English. Cecilia's name does all our numbers grace, From ev'ry voice the tuneful accents fly, In soaring trebles now it rises high, And now it sinks, and dwells upon the base. Cecilia's name through all the notes we sing, The work of ev'ry skilful tongue, The sound of ev'ry trembling string, The sound and triumph of our song. For ever consecrate the day, To music and Cecilia; Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heav'n we have below. Music can noble hints impart, Engender fury, kindle love; With unsuspected eloquence can move, And ma...