"Admitted once, so soothing is thy strain, "It comes the sweeter, when it comes again; "And when confess'd as thine, what mind so strong "Forbears the pleasure it indulged so long? "Soft'ner of every ill! of all our woes "The balmy solace! friend of fiercest foes! Begin thy reign, and like the morning rise! 66 66 Bring joy, bring beauty, to our eager eyes; "Break on the drowsy world like opening day, "While grace and gladness join thy flow'ry way; "While every voice is praise, while every heart is gay. "From thee all prospects shall new beauties take, "'Tis thine to seek them and 'tis thine to make; "On the cold fen I see thee turn thine eyes, "Its mists recede, its chilling vapour flies; "Th' enraptured lord th' improving ground surveys, "And for his Eden asks the traveller's praise, "Which yet, unview'd of thee, a bog had been, "Where spungy rushes hide the plashy green. "I see thee breathing on the barren moor, "That seems to bloom although so bleak before; "There, if beneath the gorse the primrose spring, "Or the pied daisy smile below the ling, "They shall new charms, at thy command, disclose, "And none shall miss the myrtle or the rose. "The wiry moss, that whitens all the hill, "Shall live a beauty by thy matchless skill; "Gale (1) from the bog shall yield Arabian balm, "And the grey willow wave a golden palm. "I see thee smiling in the pictured room, "Now breathing beauty, now reviving bloom; (1) [" Myrica gale," a shrub growing in boggy and fenny grounds.] "There, each immortal name 'tis thine to give, "To graceless forms, and bid the lumber live. "Should'st thou coarse boors or gloomy martyrs see, "These shall thy Guidos, those thy Teniers be; "There shalt thou Raphael's saints and angels trace, There make for Rubens and for Reynolds place," “And all the pride of art shall find, in her, disgrace. Delight of either sex! thy reign commence ; "With balmy sweetness soothe the weary sense, “And to the sickening soul thy cheering aid dispense. "Queen of the mind! thy golden age begin; "In mortal bosoms varnish shame and sin; "Let all be fair without, let all be calm within." The vision fled, the happy mother rose, Kiss'd the fair infant, smiled at all her foes, And FLATTERY made her name:-her reign began: Her own dear sex she ruled, then vanquish'd man ; A smiling friend, to every class she spoke, Assumed their manners, and their habits took ; Her, for her humble mien, the modest loved; Her cheerful looks the light and gay approved; The just beheld her, firm; the valiant, brave; Her mirth the free, her silence pleased the grave; Zeal heard her voice, and, as he preach'd aloud, Well-pleased he caught her whispers from the crowd (Those whispers, soothing-sweet to every ear, Which some refuse to pay, but none to hear): Shame fled her presence; at her gentle strain, Care softly smiled, and guilt forgot its pain; The wretched thought, the happy found, her true, The learn'd confess'd that she their merits knew: The rich—could they a constant friend condemn ? The poor believed-for who should flatter them? Thus on her name though all disgrace attend, In every creature she beholds a friend. (1) (1) ["With many nervous lines and ingenious allusions, this poem has something of the languor which seems inseparable from an allegory which exceeds the length of an epigram."- JEFFREY.] REFLECTIONS UPON THE SUBJECT Quid juvat errores, mersâ jam puppe, fateri? CLAUDIAN. in Eutropium, lib. ii. lin. 7. What avails it, when shipwreck'd, that error appears? Are the crimes we commit wash'd away by our tears? (1) (1) [See antè, p. 21.] |