A Wilmington goes flower than the Sun;
And all mankind mistake their Time of Day;
Even Age itself: Fresh Hopes are hourly fown
In furrow'd Brows. So gentle Life's Defcent,
We shut our eyes and think it is a Plain:
We take fair days in Winter, for the Spring:
We turn our Bleffings into Bane: fince oft
Man must compute that Age He cannot feel;
He fcarce believes He's older for his Years.
Thus, at Life's latest Eve, we keep in Store
One Difapointment fure, to crown the Reft;
The Difapointment of a promis'd Hour.
On This, or Similar, Philander! Thou Whofe mind was Moral, as the Preacher's tongue; And ftrong, to wield all Science, worth the name; How often we talk'd down the Summer's Sun, And cool'd our Paffions by the breezy stream? How often thaw'd, and fhortred Winter's Eve,
By Conflict kind, that ftruck out latent Truth;
Beft found, fo fought; to the Reclufe more Coy?
Thoughts difentangle paffing o'er the Lip;
Clean runs the thread; if not, 'tis thrown away,
Or kept to tie up Nonfenfe for a Song ;
Song, fashionably fruitlefs! fuch as Stains
The Fancy, and unhallow'd Paffion fires;
Chiming her Saints to Cytherea's Fane.
Know'ft thou, Lorenzo! what a Friend contains? As Bees mixt Nectar draw from fragrant Flow'rs, So Men from FRIENDSHIP, Wisdom and Delight; Twins ty'd by Nature, if they part they die. Haft thou no Friend to fet thy mind abroach?
Good Senfe will Stagnate: Thoughts shut up want
And spoil, like Bales unopen'd to the Sun.
Had Thought been All, fweet Speech had been
Speech, Thought's Canal! Speech, Thought's Crite
Thought, in the Mine, may come forth Gold or
When coin'd in Word, we know its real worth.
If Sterling; ftore it for thy future Ufe;
'Twill buy thee Benefit; perhaps, Renown.
Thought, too, deliver'd, is the more poffeft;
Teaching, we learn; and giving, we retain
The Births of Intellect; when dumb, forgot,
Speech ventilates our Intellectual fire;
Speech burnishes our Mental Magazine :
Brightens for Ornament; and whets for Ufe:
What Numbers, fheath'd in Erudition lie,
Plung'd to the Hilts in venerable Tomes,
Aud rufted in; who might have born an Edge,
And play'd a sprightly beam, if born to Speech;
If born bleft Heirs of half their Mother's tongue?
"Tis Thought's exchange, which like th' alternate
Of waves conflicting, breaks the learned Scum,
And defecates the Students ftanding Pool.
In Contemplation is his proud Resource?
'Tis poor, as proud, by Converse unsustain’d
Rude Thought runs wild in Contemplation's Field
Converfe, the Menage, breaks it to the Bit
Of due Restraint; and Emulation's Spur
Gives graceful Energy, by Rivals aw'd.
'Tis Converse qualifies for Solitude ;
As Exercise, for Salutary Rest.
By That untutor'd, Contemplation raves
A Lunar Prince, or famifh'd Beggar dies;
And Nature's Fool, by Wisdom's is outdone.
Wisdom, tho' richer than Peruvian Mines,
And sweeter than the sweet Ambrofial Hive,
What is she, but the means of Happiness?
That unobtain'd, than Folly more a Fool;
A melancholy Fool, without her Bells:
Friendship the Means, and Friendship richly gives
The precious End, which makes our Wisdom wife.
Nature in Zeal for human Amity,
Denies, or damps an undivided Joy:
Joy is an Import; Joy is an Exchange;
Joy flies Monopolifts, It calls for Two:
Rich fruit! heaven-planted! never pluckt by One,
Needful Auxiliars are our Friends, to give
To facial man true relish of himself :
Full on ourselves defcending in a Line
Pleafure's bright Beam, is feeble in delight;
Delight intenfe, is taken by rebound;
Reverberated Pleasures fire the Breast.
Celeftial Happiness, whene'er she stoops
To vifit Earth, One fhrine the Goddess finds,
And One alone, to make her sweet amends
For abfent Heaven,---the Bofom of a Friend;
Where heart meets heart, reciprocally foft,
Each other's Pillow to repofe divine.
Beware the counterfeit; In Paffion's Flame
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