Nor would I rob thy brows to grace'my own;
Such arts are to my honeft foul unknown.
I read thee over as a friend should read,
Griev'd when you fail, o'erjoy'd when you
Why should thy Mufe, born fo divinely fair,
Want the reforming toilet's daily care?
Drefs the gay maid, improve each native grace,
And call forth all the glories of her face:
Studiously plain, and elegantly clean,
With unaffected fpeech, and eafy mien,
Th' accomplish'd nymph, in all her beft attire,
Courts fhall applaud, and proftrate crowds admire.
Difcreetly daring, with a ftiffen'd rein,
Firm in thy feat the flying steed restrain.
Though few thy faults, who can perfection boaft?'
Spots in the fun are in his luftre loft:
Yet ev'n thofe fpots expunge with patient care,
Nor fondly the minutest error spare.
For kind and wife the parent, who reproves
The flightest blemish in the child he loves.
Read Philips much, confider Milton more;
But from their drofs extract the purer ore.
To coin new words, or to restore the old,
In fouthern bards is dangerous and bold;
But rarely, very rarely, will fucceed,
When minted on the other fide of Tweed.
Let perfpicuity o'er all prefide
Soon fhalt thou be the nation's joy and pride.
The rhyming, jingling tribe, with bells and fong,
Who drive their limping Pegafus along,
Shall learn from thee in bolder flights to rise,
To scorn the beaten road, and range the skies.
A genius fo refin'd, so just, so great,
In Britain's ifle fhall fix the Mufes' feat,
And new Parnaffus fhall at home create:
Rules from thy works each future bard fhall draw,
Thy works, above the critic's nicer law,
And rich in brilliant gems without a flaw.
To the Right Hon. Lady ANNE COVENTRY.
Upon viewing her fine Chimney-piece of Shell-work.
HE greedy merchant ploughs the sea for gain,
And rides exulting o'er the watery plain;
While howling tempefts, from their rocky bed,
Indignant break around his careful head.
The royal fleet the liquid wafte explores,
And fpeaks in thunder to the trembling fhores;
The voice of wrath awak'd the nations hear,
The vanquish'd hope, and the proud victors fear;
Thofe quit their chain, and these refign their palm,
While Britain's awful flag commands a calm.
The curious fage, nor gain nor fame pursues,
With other eyes the boiling deep he views;
Hangs o'er the cliff inquifitive to know
The fecret caufes of its ebb and flow:
Whence breathe the winds that ruffle its smooth face;
Or ranks in classes all the fishy race,
From thofe enormous monfters of the main,
Who in their world, like other tyrants; reign,
To the poor cockle-tribe, that humble band
Who cleave to rocks, or loiter on the ftrand.
Yet ev'n their fhells the forming hand divine
Has, with diftinguish'd luftre, taught to fhine.
What bright enamel ! and what various dyes 1
What lively tints delight our wondering eyes!
Th' Almighty Painter glows in every line:
How mean, alas! is Raphael's bold defign,
And Titian's colouring, if compar'd to thine!
Juftly fupreme! let us thy power revere,
Thou fill'ft all space! all-beauteous every where !
Thy rifing fun with blushes paints the morn,
Thy fhining lamps the face of night adorn;
Thy flowers the meads, thy nodding trees the hills;
The vales thy pastures green, and bubbling rills;
Thy coral groves, thy rocks, that amber weep,
Deck all the gloomy manfions of the deep;
Thy yellow fands diftinct with golden ore,
And these thy variegated fhells the shore.
To all thy works fuch grandeur haft thou lent,
And fuch extravagance of ornament.
For the falfe traitor, man, this pomp and show!
A fcene,fo gay, for us poor worms below!
No-for thy glory all these beauties rife,
Yet may improve the good, inftruct the wife.
You, madam, fprung from Beaufort's royal line,
Who, loft to courts, can in your closet shine,
Q
Best know to use each bleffing he bestows,
Best know to praise the power from whence it flows. Shells in your hand the Parian rock defy,
Or agat, or Ægyptian porphyry
More gloffy they, their veins of brighter dye.
See! where your rifing pyramids afpire,
Your guests furpriz'd the fhining pile admire !
In future times, if fome great Phidias rife,
Whofe chiffel with his mistress Nature vies,
Who, with fuperior skill, can lightly trace
In the hard marble block the fofteft face:
To crown this piece, fo elegantly neat,
Your well-wrought busto shall the whole compleat;
O'er your own work from age to age prefide,
Its author once, and then its greatest pride.
ADDRESS to his ELBOW-CHAIR, new cloathed
Y dear companion, and my faithful friend!
If Orpheus taught the listening oaks to bend ;
If ftones and rubbish, at Amphion's call,
Danc'd into form, and built the Theban wall;
Why shouldft not thou attend my humble lays,
And hear my grateful harp refound thy praise?
True, thou art fpruce and fine, a very beau;
But what are trappings and external show?
To real worth alone I make my court;
Knaves are my fcorn, and coxcombs are my fport.
Once I beheld thee far lefs trim and gay;
Ragged, disjointed, and to worms a prey;
The fafe retreat of every lurking mouse;
Derided, fhunn'd; the lumber of my house!
Thy robe how chang`d from what it was before!
Thy velvet robe, which pleas'd my fires of yore!
'Tis thus capricious Fortune wheels us round;
Aloft we mount-then tumble to the ground.
Yet grateful then, my conftancy I prov'd;
I knew thy worth; my friend in rags I lov'd;
I lov'd thee, more; nor, like a courtier, spurn'd
My benefactor, when the tide was turn'd.
With confcious fhame, yet frankly, I confefs,
That in my youthful days lov'd thee less.
Where vanity, where pleasure call'd, I ftray'd;
And every wayward appetite obey'd.
But fage experience taught me how to prize
Myfelf; and how, this world: the bade me rife
To nobler flights, regardless of a race
Of factious emmets; pointed where to place
My blifs, and lodg'd me in thy foft embrace.
Here on thy yielding down I fit fecure;
And, patiently, what heaven has fent, endure;
From all the futile cares of business free;
Not fond of life, but yet content to be:
Here mark the fleeting hours; regret the past ;
And seriously prepare to meet the last.
So fafe on fhore the penfion'd failor lies;
And all the malice of the ftorm defies:
With ease of body blest, and peace of mind,
Pities the reftlefs crew he left behind;
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