Like him, the foul thus kindled from above,
Spreads wide her arms of univerfal love,
And still enlarg❜d as the receives the grace,
Includes creation in her clofe embrace.
Behold a Chriftian-and without the fires
The founder of that name alone infpires,
Though all accomplishments, all knowledge meet,
To make the fhining prodigy complete,
Whoever boafts that name-behold a cheat.
Were love in thefe the world's laft doting years
As frequent, as the want of it appears,
The churches warm'd, they would no longer hold
Such frozen figures, ftiff as they are cold;
Relenting forms would lofe their pow'r or cease,
And ev'n the dipt and fprinkled, live in peace;
Each heart would quit its prifon in the breast,
And flow in free communion with the rest.
The statesman skill'd in projects dark and deep,
Might burn his ufelefs Machiavel, and fleep;
His budget often filled yet always poor,
Might fwing at cafe behind his study door,
No longer prey upon our annual rents,
Nor fcare the nation with its big contents:
Difbanded legions freely might depart,
And flaying man would cease to be an art.
No learned difputants would take the field,
Sure not to conquer, and fure not to yield,
Both fides deceiv'd if rightly understood,
Pelting each other for the public good.
Did Charity prevail, the prefs would
A vehicle of virtue, truth and love,
And I might spare myself the pains to show
What few can learn, and all suppose they know.
Thus have I fought to grace a serious lay
With many a wild indeed, but flow'ry spray,
In hopes to gain what else I must have loft,
Th' attention pleasure has fo much engross'd.
But if unhappily deceiv'd I dream,
And prove too weak for fo divine a theme,
Let Charity forgive me a mistake
That zeal not vanity has chanc'd to make,
And spare the poet for his subject sake.
Nam neq; me tantum venientis fibilus auftri,
Nec percuffa juvant fluctu tam litora, nec qua
Saxofas inter decurrunt flumina valles.
HOUGH nature weigh our talents, and dispense
To ev'ry man his modicum of fenfe,
And Conversation in its better part,
May be esteemed a gift and not an art,
Yet much depends, as in the tiller's toil,
On culture, and the fowing of the foil.
Words learn'd by rote, a parrot may rehearse,
But talking is not always to converse,
Not more distinct from harmony divine.
The conftant creaking of a country fign.
As alphabets in ivory employ
Hour after hour the yet unletter'd boy,
Sorting and puzzling with a deal of glee
Those feeds of fcience called his A B C,
So language in the mouths of the adult,
Witnefs its infignificant refult,
Too often proves an implement of play,'
A toy to sport with, and pass time away.
Collect at evening what the day brought forth,
Comprefs the fum into its folid worth,
And if it weigh th' importance of a fly,
The fcales are falfe or Algebra a lie.
Sacred interpreter of human thought,
How few respect or ufe thee as they ought!
But all fhall give account of ev'ry wrong
Who dare difhonour or defile the tongue,
Who prostitute it in the cause of vice,
Or fell their glory at a market-price,
Who vote for hire, or point it with lampoon,~
The dear-bought placeman, and the cheap buffoon. There is a prurience in the fpeech of fome, Wrath ftays him, or elfe God would ftrike them
His wife forbearance has their end in view,
They fill their measure and receive their due.
The heathen law-givers of antient days,
Names almoft worthy of a Chriftian praife,
Would drive them forth from the refort of men,
And fhut up ev'ry fatyr in his den.
Oh come not ye near innocence and truth,
Ye worms that eat into the bud of youth!
Infectious as impure, your blighting pow'r
Taints in its rudiments the promised flow'r,
Its odour perifh'd and its charming hue,
Thenceforth 'tis hateful for it smells of you,
Not ev❜n the vigorous and headlong rage
Of adolefcence or a firmer age,
Affords a plea allowable or just,
For making fpeech the pamperer of luft;
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