Of their own limbs: how many drink the cup
Of baleful Grief, or eat the bitter bread
Of Misery sore pierced by wintry winds,
How many shrink into the sordid hut
Of cheerless Poverty: how many shake
With all the fiercer tortures of the mind,
Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse.

DOMESTIC BLISS.

James Thomson.

HAPPY they, the happiest of their kind,
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend
'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

Attuning all their passions into love;

Where friendship full exerts her softest power,
Perfect esteem, enliven'd by desire

Ineffable, and sympathy of soul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will With boundless confidence.

James Thomson.

HYMN ON SOLITUDE.

HAIL, mildly pleasing Solitude,
Companion of the wise and good,
But, from whose holy, piercing eye,
The herd of fools and villains fly.
Oh how I love with thee to walk,
And listen to thy whisper'd talk,
Which innocence and truth imparts,
And melts the most obdurate hearts.

RULE BRITANNIA.

James Thomson.

WHEN Britain first, at Heaven's command,
Arose from out the azure main;

This was the charter of the land,

66

And guardian angels sung this strain:
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never will be slaves!"

The nations not so blessed as thee

Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
"Rule," etc.

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,

More dreadful from each foreign strake;
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.
"Rule," etc.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;
All their attempts to bend thee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame;
But work their woe, and thy renown.
"Rule," etc.

IDLENESS.

James Thomson.

HAD unambitious mortals minded nought,
But in loose joy their time to wear away;
Had they alone the lap of dalliance sought,
Pleased on her pillow their dull heads to lay,
Rude Nature's state had been our state to-day;
No cities e'er their towery fronts had raised,
No arts had made us opulent and gay;

With brother-brutes the human race had grazed; None e'er had soar'd to fame, none honor'd been, nonɛ

praised.

James Thomson.

GRONGAR HILL.

O MAY I with myself agree,
And never covet what I see;
Content me with an humble shade,
My passions tamed, my wishes laid,

For, while our wishes wildly roll,
We banish quiet from the soul:
'Tis thus the busy beat the air,
And misers gather wealth and care.

SONG.

John Dyer, 1700-'58.

Ан, the poor shepherd's mournful fate,

When doom'd to love and doom'd to languish, To bear the scornful fair one's hate,

Nor dare disclose his anguish ! Yet eager looks and dying sighs

My secret soul discover,

While rapture, trembling through mine eyes,
Reveals how much I love her.

The tender glance, the reddening cheek,
O'erspread with rising blushes,
A thousand various ways they speak
A thousand various wishes.

For, oh that form so heavenly fair,
Those languid eyes so sweetly smiling,
That artless blush and modest air,
So fatally beguiling:

Thy every look, and every grace,

So charm, whene'er I view thee,
Till death o'ertake me in the chase,
Still will my hopes pursue thee.
Then, when my tedious hours aic past,
Be this last blessing given,

Low at thy feet to breathe my .ast,

And die in sight of heaven.

William Hamilton, 1704-'54

THE VANITY OF HUMAN WISHES.

LET observation, with extensive view,
Survey mankind from China to Peru;
Remark each anxious toil, each eager strife,
And watch the busy scenes of crowded life;

Then say how hope and fear, desire and hate,
O'erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate.
Where wav'ring man, betray'd by vent'rous pride,
To chase the dreary paths, without a guide,
As treach'rous phantoms in the mist delude,
Shuns fancied ills, or chases airy good;

How rarely reason guides the stubborn choice,
Rules the bold hand, or prompts the suppliant voice;
How nations sink by darling schemes oppress'd,
When vengeance listens to the fool's request.

Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find ? Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind? Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?

Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise,

No cries invoke the mercies of the skies?

Inquirer, cease; petitions yet remain

Which Heav'n may hear, nor deem religion vain.
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,

But leave to Heav'n the measure and the choice:
Safe in his power, whose eyes discern afar
The secret ambush of a specious pray'r ;
Implore his aid, in his decisions rest,

Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best.

Samuel Johnson, 1709-'84.

PREFERMENT.

UNNUMBER'D suppliants crowd Preferment's gate,
Athirst for wealth, and burning to be great;
Delusive Fortune hears the incessant call,
They mount, they shine, evaporate, and fall.
On every stage the foes of peace attend,

Hate dogs their flight, and insult mocks their end,
Samuel Johnson,

SHAKESPEARE.

WHEN Learning's triumph o'er her barbarous foes First rear'd the Stage, immortal Shakespeare rose.

Each change of many-color'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new ;
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain :
His powerful strokes presiding Truth impress'd
And unresisted passion storm'd the breast.
Samuel Johnson.

CHARLES XII.

ON what foundation stands the warrior's pride,
How just his hopes let Swedish Charles decide;
A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,

No dangers fright him, and no labors tire:
O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain,
Unconquer'd lord of pleasure and of pain;
No joys to him pacific sceptres yield,

War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field;
Behold surrounding kings their pow'rs combine,
And one capitulate, and one resign;

Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain : "Think nothing gain'd," he cries, " till naught remain ; On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly,

And all be mine beneath the polar sky."

*

*

*

His fall was destin'd to a barren strand,

A petty fortress, and a dubious hand:

He left the name, at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale

Samuel Johnson.

FRIENDSHIP.

FRIENDSHIP, peculiar boon of heaven,
The noble mind's delight and pride,

To men and angels only given,

To all the lower world denied.

Samuel Johnson.

PASTORAL BALLAD.

YE shepherds so cheerful and gay,
Whose flocks never carelessly roam :