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O Truth divine! enlighten'd by thy ray,

I

grope and guefs no more, but fee my way; Thou clear'dft the fecret of my high defcent,

And told me what thofe myftick tokens meant:
Marks of my birth, which I had worn in vain,
Too hard for worldly fages to explain.
Zeno's were vain, vain Epicurus' fchemes,
Their fyftems false, delufive were their dreams;
Unskill'd my two-fold nature to divide,

One nurs'd my pleasure, and one nurs'd my pride:
Those jarring truths which human art beguile,
Thy facred page thus bids me reconcile.-
Offspring of God, no lefs thy pedigree,
What thou once wert, art now, and ftill may be,
Thy God alone can tell, alone decree;
Faultless thou dropp'dft from his unerring skill,
With the bare power to fin, fince free of will:
Yet charge not with thy guilt his bounteous love,
For who has power to walk, has power to rove;
Who acts by force impell'd, can nought deferve,
And wisdom, fhort of infinite, may fwerve.

Borne on thy new-imp'd wings, thou took'ft thy flight,
Left thy Creator, and the realms of light;
Difdain'd his gentle precept to fulfil;

And thought to grow a god by doing ill:
Though by foul guilt thy heavenly form defac'd,
In nature chang'd, from happy manfions chac'd,
Thou ftill retain't fome sparks of heav'nly fire,
Too faint to mount, yet restlefs to aspire;
Angel enough to feek thy blifs again,
And brute enough to make thy fearch in vain.
The creatures now withdraw their kindly use,
Some fly thee, fome torment, and fome feduce;
Repaft ill-fuited to fuch diff'rent guests,
For what thy fenfe defires, thy foul distastes

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Thy luft, thy curiofity, thy pride,

Curb'd, or deferr'd, or baulk'd, or gratify'd,
Rage on, and make thee equally unblefs'd,

In what thou want'ft, and what thou haft poffefs'd.
In vain thou hop'ft for blifs on this poor clod;
Return, and feek thy Father and thy God:
Yet think not to regain thy native sky,
Borne on the wings of vain philofophy;
Mysterious paffage! hid from human eyes;
Soaring you'll fink, and finking you will rife.
Let humble thoughts thy wary footsteps guide,
Repair by meekness what you loft by pride.

CONTENTMENT.

FAR

BY MR. DUCK.

AREWEL, afpiring thoughts! no moré
My foul fhall leave the peaceful shore,
To fail Ambition's main;

Fallacious as the harlot's kifs,

You promise me uncertain blifs,
And give me certain pain.

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I'm weary of the painful chace;

Let others run this endless race
To catch a flying fhade.

Let others boaft their useless wealth;
Have I not honefty and health,
Which riches cannot give?

Let others to preferment foar,
And, changing liberty for pow'r,
In golden fhackles live.

'Tis time, at length, I fhould be wife,
'Tis time to feek substantial joys,
Joys out of Fortune's pow'r:
Wealth, honours, dignities, and fame,
Are toys the blind capricious dame
Takes from us ev'ry hour.

Come, conscious Virtue, fill my breast,
And bring Content, thy daughter, dress'd
In ever-fmiling charms:

Let facred Friendship, too, attend;
A friendship worthy of my friend,
Such as my Lælius warms.

With these I'll in my bofom make
A bulwark Fortune cannot fhake,
Tho' all her ftorms arife;
Look down and pity gilded slaves,
Defpife Ambition's giddy knaves,

And wish the fools were wife.

THE

THE EDUCATION OF ACHILLES.

A

BY MR. BEDINGFIELD.

H, me! is all our pleasure mix'd with woe!

Is there on earth no happiness fincere ?

Muft e'en this bitter ftream of forrow flow

From joy's domeftick spring, our children dear?
How oft did Thetis drop the filver tear,

When with fond eyes fhe view'd her darling boy!
How oft her breaft heav'd with prefaging fear,
Left Vice's fecret canker fhould annoy

Fair Virtue's op'ning bud, and all her hopes deftroy!

At length, fo Nereus had her rightly taught,
That doubtful cares might eat her heart no more,
Her imp in prattling infancy fhe brought

To the fam'd Centaur, on Mount Pelion hoar,
Hight Chiron, whom to Saturn Phyl'ra bore;
Chiron, whose wisdom flourish'd 'bove his peers,
In ev'ry goodly thew, and virtuous lore,

To principle his yet untainted years;

The feed that's early fown, the faircft harvest bears.

Far in the covert of a bufhy wood,

Where aged trees their ftar-proof branches spread,
A grott, with grey mofs ever dropping flood;
Ne coftly gems the fparkling roof display'd,
Ne cryftal fquares the pavement rich inlaid,
But o'er the pebbles, clear with glaffy fhine,
A limpid ftream in foothing murmurs ftray'd,

And all around the flow'ring eglantine

It's balmy tendrils spread in many a wanton twine.

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A lowly habitation, well I ween,

Yet facred made by men of mickle fame,
Who there in precepts wife had leffon'd been;
Chafte Peleus, confort of the fea-born dame,
Sage Efculape, who cou'd the vital flame

(Blefs'd leach!) relumine by his healing skill;
And Jafon, who, his father's crown to claim,
Defcended dreadful from the craggy hill,
And with his portence stern did false ufurper thrill.

Faft by the cave a damfel was ypight,

Afraid from earth her blushing looks to rear,
Left aught indecent fhou'd offend her fight,
Left aught indecent fhou'd offend her ear;
Yet wou'd she sometime deign at sober chear
Softly to fmile, but ever held it shame
The mirth of foul-mouth'd ribaldry to bear,

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A cautious nymph, and Modesty her name:
Ah! who but churlish carle would hurt fo pure a dame ?

With her fate Temperance, companion meet,

Plucking from tree-en bough her fimple food,

And pointing to an urn befide her feet,

Fill'd with the chrystal of the wholesome flood: With her was feen, of grave and awful mood, Hoary Fidelity, a matron ftaid;

And sweet Benevolence, who smiling stood,

Whilft at her breaft two fondling infants play'd,

And turtles, billing soft, coo'd through the echoing glade.

On t'other fide, of bold and open air,
Was a fair perfonage hight Exercise;
Reclin'd he feem'd upon his rough boar-fpear,

As late furceas'd from hardy enterprize;

(For

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