O DE

ΟΝ

ST. CECILIA's DA Y.

M DCC VIII.

AND OTHER

PIECES for MUSIC.

ODE for MUSIC

ΟΝ

ST. CECILIA's DAY.

I.

DE

ESCEND, ye Nine! descend and sing;
The breathing inftruments infpire,
Wake into voice each filent ftring,
And fweep the founding lyre!
In a fadly-pleafing strain

Let the warbling lute complain:
Let the loud trumpet found
'Till the roofs all around

The fhrill echoes rebound:

While in more lengthen'd notes and flow,
The deep, majeftic, folemn organs blow.

Hark! the numbers foft and clear
upon the ear;

Gently steal
Now louder, and yet louder rife
And fill with spreading founds the skies;
Exulting in triumph now fwell the bold notes,
In broken air, trembling, the wild mufic floats;

"Till, by degrees, remote and small,
The ftrains decay,
And melt away,

In a dying, dying fall.

II.

By Mufic, minds an equal temper know,
Nor fwell too high, nor fink too low.
If in the breaft tumultuous joys arife,
Mufic her foft, affuafive voice applies ;

Or, when the foul is prefs'd with cares,
Exalts her in enlivening airs.

Warriors fhe fires with animated founds;
Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds:
Melancholy lifts her head,
Morpheus rouzes from his bed,

Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes,
Lift'ning Envy drops her fnakes;
Inteftine war no more our Paffions wage,
And giddy Factions hear away their rage.

III.

But when our Country's caufe provokes to Arms, How martial mufic ev'ry bofom warms!

So when the firft bold veffel dar'd the feas,

High on the ftern the Thracian rais'd his train,
While Argo faw her kindred trees
Defcend from Pelion to the main.

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