The dame, who own’d, adorn’d the place ;
Three blooming daughters added grace.
The first, with gentlest manners bleit
And temper sweet, each heart poffeft;
Who view'd her, catch'd the tender flame :
And soft AMASIA was her name.
In sprightly fenfe and polith'd air,
What maid with MIRA might compare;
While LUCIA's eyes, and LUCIA's lyre,
Did unresisted love inspire.

Imagine now the table clear,
And mirth in'ev'ry face appear:
The song, the tale, the jeft went round,
The riddle dark, the trick profound,
Thus each admiring and admir'd,
The host and guests at length retir’d;
When wit thus spake her sister train :

“ Faith, friends, our errand is but vain-
“ Quick let us measure back the sky;
“ These nymphs alone may well fupply
“ WIT, INNOCENCE, and HARMONY.

THE SWEET NEGLECT.
STILL to be neat, still to be drest,

As you were going to a feast;
Still to be powder’d, ftill perfum’d;
Lady; it is to be presum’d,
Tho' art's hid causes are not found,
All is not sweet, all is not found.
Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes SIMPLICITY a grace;
Robes lootely flowing, hair as free;
Such SWEET NEGLECT more taketh me
Than all th' adulteries of art
That strike mine eye, but not mine heart.

THE HERMIT AND HIS DOG.

IN life's fair morn,. I knew an aged seer,

Who sad and lonely pass’d his jovlefs year; Betray'd, heart-broken, from the world he ran, And shunn'd, oh, dire extreme! the face of man ; Humbly he rear'd his hut within the wood, Hermit his vert, an hermit's was his food. Nitch'd in some corner of the gelid cave Where chilling drops the rugged rock-stone lave; Hour after hour, the melancholy sage, Drop after drop, to reckon, would engage The ling'ring day, and trickling as they fell, A tear went with them to the narrow well; Then thus he moraliz’d, as slow it pass’d, “ This brings me nearer LUCIA than the last; “ And this, now streaming from the eye,” said he, « Oh, my lov’d child! will bring me nearer thee.”

When first he roam’d, his DOG with anxious care, His wand'rings watch'd, as emulous to fare; In vain the faithful brute was bid to go, In vain the forrower fought a lonely woe. The HERMIT paus'd, th' attendant dog was near, Slept at his feet, and caught the falling tear; Up rose the HERMIT, up the dog would rife, And ev'ry way to win a matter tries.“ Then be it io. Come, faithful fool,” he said; One pat encourag'd, and they fought the shade; An unfrequented thicket foon they found, And both repos’d upon the leafy ground; Mellifluous murin’rings told the fountains nigh, Fountains, which well a pilgrim's drink fupply: And thence, by many a labyrinth led, Where ev'ry tree beftow'd an ev’ning bed. Skill'd in the chace the faithful creature brought Whate'er at morn or moon-light course he caught; But the fage lent his sympathy to all, Nor law unwept his dumb allociates tall,

He was, in footh, the gentlest of his kind, And, though an HERMIT, had a social mind : “ And why,” said he, “ must man fubfift by prey? “ Why, stop yon melting music on the spray? “ Why, when assail'd by hounds and hunters' cry, 66 Mult half the harmlets race in terrors die ? “ Why must we work of innocence the woe ? “ Still fhall this bofom throb, these eyes o’erflow: “ An heart too tender here, from man, retires, “ An heart that aches, if but a wren expires.” Thus liv'd the mafier good, the servant true, "Till to its God the master's fpirit few; Beside a fount, which daily water gave, Stooping to drink, the Hermit found a grave; All in the running stream his garments spread, And dark, damp verdure ill conceal'd his head; The faithful SERVANT from that fatal day Watch'd the lov'd corse, and hourly pin’d away: His head upon his master's cheek was found, While the obstructed water mourn’d around.

TO THE FEATHER'D RACE. AGAIN the balmy zephyr blows,

Fresh verdure decks the grove, Each bird with vernal rapture glows,

And tunes his note to love. Ye gentle warblers, hither fly,

And fun the noon-tide heat;
My shrubs a cooling shade supply,

My groves a safe retreat.
Here freely hop from spray to spray,

Or weave the mossy neit;
Here rove and fing the live-long day;

At night here sweetly reft.
Amidst this cool translucent rill,

That trickles down the glade,
Here bathe your plumes, here drink your fill,

And revel in the thade.

No school-boy rude, to mischief prone,

E’er shews his ruddy face,
Or twangs his bow, or hurls a stone,

In this fequefter'd place.
Hither the vocal Thrush repairs,

Secure the LINNET sings,
The GOLDFINCH dreads no limy snares

To clog her painted wings.
Sad PHILOMEL! ah, quit thy haunt,

Yon distant woods among,
And round my friendly grotto chaunt

Thy sweetly-plaintive fong.
Let not the harmless RED-BREAST fear,

Domeftic bird, to come
And seek a sure asylum here,

With one that loves his home!
My trees for you, ye artless tribe,

Shall store of fruit preferve ;
Oh, let me thus your friendship bribe !

Come!-feed without reserve.
For you these cherries I protect,

To you these plumbs belong :
Sweet is the fruit that you have peck’d,

But sweeter far your song.
Let then this league, betwixt us made,

Our mutual intretis guard :
Mine be the gift of fruit and shade;

Your songs be my reward.

SLAVERY.
OH! for a lodge in fome vafi wilderness,

Some boundless contiguity of thade,
Where rumour of oppreflion and deceit,
Of unfuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more. My ear is pain'd,
My soul is sick with ev'ry day's report
Ol' wrong and outrage, with which the earth is fill'd.
There is no fleth in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for MAN. The nat'ral bond
Of brotherhood, is fever'd as the flax
That falls afunder at the touch of fire.
He finds his fellow, guilty of a skin
Not colour'd like his own; and having pow'r
T'inforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause,
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
Lands intersected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpos’d,
Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingl'd into one.
Thus man devotes his BROTHER, and destroys;
And worse than all, and most to be deplor’d,
As human-nature's broadest, fouleft blot,
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes, that MERCY with a bleeding heart
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.
Then what is MAN? And what man seeing this,
And having human feelings, does not blush
And hang his head, to think himself a man?
I would not have a SLAVE to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That finews bought and fold have ever earn’d.
No! dear as FREEDOM is, and in my heart's
Just estimation priz'd above all price,
Ï had much rather be myself the SLAVE,
And wear the bonds, than faften them on him.
We have no SLAVES at home--then why abroad?
And they themselves once ferry'd o'er the wave
That parts us, are emancipate and loos’d.
Slaves cannot breathe in ENGLAND; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud
And jealous of the blessing. Spread it, then,
And let it circulate through ev'ry vein
Of all your empire. That where BRITAIN's pow'r
Is felt, mankind may feel her MERCY too.