144 ANNUAL REGIS7ZER, 1790. 
Behold a taftelefs age in wonder ftand, . 
And hail him the Apell:s of the land! 
And Denner too—but yet fo void of eafe, 
His figures tell you—they’re forbid to pleafe ; 
Nor in proportion nor expreffion nice, 
The ftrong refemblance is itfelf a vice; 
As waxwork figures always fhock the fight, 
Too near to human fleth and fhape, aftright ; 
Andivi@llthey beit are form’d afford the leaft delight, 
Turn we from fuch to thee, whoie nobler art 
Rivets the eye and penetrates the heart: 
To thee, whom Nature, in thy earlieft youth, 
Fed with the honey of eternal Truth— 
Then, by her fondling art, in happy hour, 
Entic’d to Learning’s more fequefter’d bower : 
There all thy life of honours firft was plann’d, 
While Nature preach’d, and Science held thy hand— 
When, but for thefe, condemn’d perchance to trace 
The tirefome vacuum of each fenfelefs face, 
‘Thou in thy living tints had{t ne’er combin’d 
All grace of form and energy of mind— 
How, but for thefe, fhould we have trembling fled 
The guilty toffings of a BEAvFORT’s bed; 
Or let the fountain of our forrows flow 
At fight of famifh’d Uco11no’s woe? 
Bent on revenge, fhould we have penfive ftood 
O’er the pale Cherubs of the fatal Wood, 
Caught the laft perfume of their rofy breath, 
And view’d them {miling at the ftroke of death? 
Should we have queftion’d, ftung with rage and pain, 
‘The Speétre Line, with the diftracted THaneE? 
Or, with ALcmena’s natural terror wild, 
From the envenom’d ferpent torn her child? 
And mutt no more thy pure and claflic page 
Unfold its treafures to the rifing age? 2 
Nor from thy own Athenian temple pour 
On lift’ning youth, of art the copious ftore?—-~ . 
Hold up to Labour independent eafe, 
And teach Ambition all the ways to pleafe! 
With ready hand neglected Genius fave, 
Sick’ning, o’erlook’d in Mis’ry’s hidden cave ; 
And, nobly juft, decide; the attiveymind 
Neither to foil nor climate is confin’d! 
Defert not then my fors; thofe fons who foon 
Will mourn with me, and all their error own. 
Thou mult excufe that raging fire, the fame 
Which lights their daily courfe to endlefs fame, 
