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Charity-An Elegy.

AIR Charity! 'tis thine to wipe away, From Sorrow's faded cheek, the ftreaming tear! 'Tis thine the debt of Sympathy to pay,

And whisper comfort in Affliction's ear!

From Heav'n's high portals come, thou peerless maid!
Borne on the radiant wings of beaming light:
Be wide thy olive branch of peace difplay'd,
And stand thyself confest to mortal fight!

Teach hearts humane to heave the tender figh
For others ills, adopted as their own,
Till ev'ry fcalded fluice of grief be dry,

And gen❜ral merriment their labours crown!
Where fell Oppreffion clanks the galling chain,
And fhackled captives writhe, in difmal caves;
Thine be the task to foothe, as they complain,
And to emancipate the hapless slaves!
Where haggard Poverty reclines on straw
Its meagre limbs, by aching rheums opprefs'd;
Vouchsafe to mitigate the weight of woe!
The hungry feed, and give the weary rest!
Where pale complexion'd Melancholy reigns,
And Beauty's roses droop their heads and die;
There image profpects bright, fair, flow'ry plains,
Gay, gilded scenes, and an indulgent sky!
Where Pain acute, in agonizing throes,

Roars diffonant, and fhrieks in difcord dire;
Tread foftly there! yet kindly interpose,

And ftedfaft faith and patient hope inspire!

Where finks the suff'rer, at his latest breath,
While dread, difrupting, doleful pangs dismay,
Thy presence lend; difpel the gloom of death,
And point the paffage to eternal day!

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Nor fix'd, alone, to one dark chequer'd scene,
Move cheerily, where harmless pleafures flow;
And frown not, with a ftern and ftoic mien,
At gleams of blifs the kinder Fates, bestow!

Where Temp'rance bland her wholefome viands spreads,
Difdain not thou the fimples that abound;
And where light Mirth to fairy Frolic leads,
Be not the laft to wind the wanton round!

Where grateful Tranfport darts its genial rays,
And youthful Joy holds open jubilee;
Fresh fuel fetch! increase the mantling blaze,
And fwell the choral lay with feftal glee!

But oh where mortals baneful paths purfue,
And fondly frifk to Folly's frenzy'd found;
Picture deep danger there, in frightful view!
Bid ferpents hifs, and scorpions bite the ground!

To me thy best and softest influence deign !

True tenderness, and feelings all refin'd!
The heart be mine, to fhare another's pain,
And wide expand to all the human kind!

Spent be my life my fellow men to blefs,
With meek-eyd Pity for my inmate dear!
Mine the fweet toil, to counteract diftrefs,

And fome lone widow's fickly heart to cheer!

To falve the foul, where keenest mis'ry dwells,
Gangren'd by Cruelty's envenom'd dart!
To vifit Want, in dark and dreary cells,
And wifh'd relief, if poffible, impart !

Then, at the period of my earthly woes,

May guardian angels tend my dying bed! Some faithful friend my eye-lids gently clofe, Some weeping wretch the tear unbidden fhed!

TEASDALE.

H

Ode to Sleep.

AIL! filken Somnus, balmy pow'r !
Round me Lethean poppies fhed;
And in the ftill, nocturnal hour,

Be kindly near thy fuppliant's bed!
My aching eye-lids lave and steep
In the oblivious dew of Sleep,

And hush to reft corroding Care:
For long continued, wakeful thought,
Would fret the web fair Fancy wrought,
And health's gay bloom impair.

On downy wings my call attend,
The eafy with'd for boon beftow;
And be not thou the faithlefs friend,
That ftudious flies from fights of woe!
With fibres lax, lethargic will,

And liftlefs fenfe, I court thee still,
Yet more than half awake remain:

In drowsy watchfulness I pant,
Nor one fair visit wilt thou grant
The poet and his pain!

Deep skill'd in Epicurean lore,

And prompt to wind in pleafure's maze, Till fated appetite's no more,

And loathing comes a thousand ways; The reas'ning brute, with follies fir'd, When to the couch of down retir'd,

His restless hours may curfe and weep! But Temp'rance, with unclouded mien, The paffions calm, and foul ferene, Be bleft with kindlieft Sleep!

Where coward Guilt, with pale affright,
Draws clofe his curtains, lean and gaunt,

Let all the fpectres of the night
His black imagination haunt !

Let wailing widows fhriek aloud,
And cheated orphans round him crowd,
Invoking curfes on his head!
Let ruin'd Innocence appear,
Grate accufations in his ear,
And shake the villain's bed!

Let wild Ambition's prideful creft
The troop of vengeful furies know;
Rooting and rankling in his breast,
For ever working keenest woe!
Fine airy nothings, gewgaws, toys!
Be all his unsubstantial joys,

Light built upon Delufion's bafe!
Tiffu'd, tormenting, wakeful care,
In wild dimensions, let him share,
Pervading nights and days!

The scepter'd wretch, the fcourge of state,
That fated millions dooms to bleed,
Merits, and meets with, heart-felt hate,
For ev'ry vile, atrocious deed!
The heaving bofom's boding fears,
The eye he gives to fcalding tears,
And vaffals, funk in mis'ry deep,
May well demand, that fuch a fiend
From Jove's red bolt be never screen'd,
Nor know the fweets of Sleep!

But oh! to thofe, in life's low vale,
Who humbly spend the harmless day,
Be comfort fent in ev'ry gale,

And let young flow'rets mark the way!
Where chafte affection's lambent flame,
And focial duties, have their claim,

Ye guardian angels, deign to fmile! For fuch, ye clouds, drop plenty down! Let calm content their labours crown, And Sleep repay their toil!

TEASDALE.

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Celadon and Amelia.

IS lift'ning fear, and dumb amazement all:
When to the Itartled eye the fudden glance
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And following flower, in explofion vaft,

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At first, heard folemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempeft growls; but, as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burden on the wind,

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Expanfive, wrapping ether in a blaze.
Follows the loofen'd aggravated roar,

Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal "
Crush'd horrible, convulfing heaven and earth"
Guilt hears appall'd, with deeply troubl'd thought;
And yet not always on the guilty head how t
Defcends the fated flath. Young Celadon nou 20.

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