Armine and Elvira . 
46.9 
u Well may’st thou wonder when I blame 
“ The tenderest, noblest, and the best 
“ Nature *tis true, with love design’d 
“To sooth the race our fathers ran ; 
“ The savage of the human kind 
“ By Love was soften’d into man. 
“ As feels the ore the searching fire, 
“ Expanding and refining too, 
“ So fairer glow’d each fair desire, 
“ Each gentle thought so gentler grew. 
“ How chang’d, alas ! those happier days 1 
“ A train how different now succeeds 1 
u While sordid avarice betrays, 
“Or empty vanity misleads. 
M Fled from the heart each nobler guest, 
“ Each genuine feeling we forego ; 
“ What nature planted in the breast, 
“ The flowers of love are weeds of woe. 
“ Hence all the pangs the heart must feel* 
“ Between contending passions tost, 
“ Wild jealousy’s avenging steel, 
“ And life and fame and virtue lost ! 
“ Yet falling life, yet fading fame, 
“ Compar’d to what his heart annoy, 
u Who cherishes a hopeless flame, 
“ Are terms of happiness and joy. 
“ Ah ! then the soft contagion fly !. 
“ And timely shun th* alluring bait 1” 
The rising blush, the downcast eye, 
Proclaim’dr-4he precept was too late. 
PART THE SECOND, 
DEEP in the bosom of the wood, 
Where art had form’d the moated isle. 
An antique castle tow’ring stood, 
In Gothic grandeur rose the pile. 
