1797.] 
Till their agreeing charaers proclaim 
{ts nation, tribe, and family, and name. 
Such pleafing tafks be thine; and could the 
prayers, 
The watchful ardor of a mother’s cares, 
From thy dear head each future danger ward, 
From peril fhield thee, and from error guard, 
Nor pain, nor forrew fhould ditturbrhy ref, 
Nor folly teaze, nor paifion wound thy breatt. 
4nd hope deferibes thy path as ftraight ‘and fair, 
Removed from want, and toil, and furdid care. 
Not firewed- with briers. but with rofes dreit, 
By triends protected, and with culture blett. 
Yet, an! the common lot, affign’d to all, 
Spite of my tendereft cares, to thee mnt fall? 
Spite of my fond precautions thou muit bear 
Of difappointment’s weight, a common share ! 
Oh! th:n may reajon itrong, and virtue pure, 
Teach thee its neaviett preiiure to endure. 
So, fhould thy fun of happinefs decline, 
Should forruw, pain, or tuil, or-wanr be thine, 
By thefe fun; orted, fhall thy fleady pace . 
Right onward fteer, nor one weak ftep retrace. 
Guided by thefe thy well-formed mind may 
traf, 
That, to the wife, benovolent and jut, 
The paths of woe, tho’ gloomy and uneven, 
Tho’ ftrewed with thorns, fhal/ terminate in 
heaven. ; ; 
Shrewsbury. toe eH 
Erne 
THE. DREAM. 
AN IMITATION OF THE BEGINNING OF 
THE ELEVENTH BOOK OF AFULEIUS. 
[* a vifion of the night, 
Burfting on my vavith’d fight, 
Lo! the moon * before me ftood, 
By the foam-befilver’d flocd. 
a 

* {n order to underftand the defcription of the 
moon in thefe verfes, which, with fome addition, 
is taken from Apuleius, itis neceffary to ob- 
ferve, that each of thofe mighty powers, rooted 
in the firft caufe, and which were called gods by 
the ancients, is, according to the Grecian thevio- 
. giits, the leader of a luminous feries of a greater 
er lefs extent, according to its nearer, or more re- 
mote alliance to the higheit god. Hence, as the 
deity of the moon, i.e. Diana, is of the vivific 
fer es, fhe is celebrated by Apuleius, as Ceres, 
ef thoie divinities belonging to the fame feries. 
She is likewife faid even to illuminate the fun; 
becaufe, according to the fame theologi:is, that 
vivific feries of which fhe is the head, is fuperior 
- fo the Aarmonic feries to which the fun belongs. 
Confiderea, therefore, with relation to her fum- 
mit, or firit fubfifence, the is fuperior to the 
deity of the fun. Nature too, was coniidered by 
the fame theolegifts as principally flounthing in 
the moon; and hence they called the moon, 
wvlotloy pure; wyerpcty i.e. *¢ the feli-conipi- 
cuous image of nature.’ For nature belongs to 
the vivific feries. 
The many-celoured garment of the moon, is 
' 
Proterpine, Rhea, Ifis, &c. S&c. in confequence - 
Original Poetry. 375 
Matchlefs were the garb ané mien 
Of the heay’ns refulgent queen, 
As fhe graceful prefs’d the ground, 
Dews ambrofial fpreading round. 
Dazzling like the burnifh’d gold, 
Shone her hair, in ringlets roll’d, 
Copious on her neck behind, 
Softly waving tothe wind. 
Multiform, with fiow’rs around, 
Hecate’s crown her teinples bound, 
In whofe middle, on the fight 
Flathing like <a mirror brighty 
Shone an orb of glorious light, : 
Viper’s furrows, ears of corn, 
Bind the di'dem and adorn. 
With a many coloured veit, 
Was the awful goddefs dreft—° 
Lucid now with beauteous white, 
Now with yellow fafron bright ; 
Of this golden hue inftead, 
Flaming now with réefy red, 
But what dazzl’d moft my fight, 
Was a robe like that of night, | 
Of the deepeft dufky hue, 
Darkly fplendid ts the view. 
This the goddefs f{preading roand, 
Fying’d at bottom, on the ground 
loated gracefully behind, 
By a filver zone confin’d. 
Thence the folds fin’Rer tend, 
Embofs’d, and at her fhoulder ens. 
Glitt’ring flars in copious ftore, 
Spangied all the ve‘tment o’er; 
And half-full the moon between, 
Breathing flaming fires was feen. 
As I gaz’d witn holy awe, 
A brazen rattle next lfaw, _ 
Brandifh’d in her ftrong right-hand 3 
Emblem of her dread command 
O’er the favage fiends of hell, 
That in Stygian darknets dwelt, 
' While herarm from fide to fiié 
Vig’rous thook the rattle wide, 
With terrific thund’ring clang, 
Triple rods refounding rang. 
Next a boaz-like cup of gold, 
in her left-hand I behold, 
On whoie handle, proudly rais’d 
An afp, with venom bloated, gaz*¢ 
Sandles lak her feet difplay’d, 
From the conqu’ting palm-leaf made. 
Breathing all Arabia’s {weets, 
Me the goddefs mildly greets ; 
Rapture warbling as fhe {poke, 
And night’s awful fillnefs broke. 
Moved with thy feryent prayers, 
Adverfe fate, and anxious cares, 
I, from whom all beings fpringy 
Confolation deign to bring. > 
FM TE. ERS EL ED I: te Een SD 
Intendeu Cu repreient the various and mutable ce- 
lour of the lunar orb: and her darkly-tpiendid 
veftment, perhaps, alludes to the nature of that 
orb which is partly luminous, and partly ob- 
fcure. Her boat-like cup, perhaps, fignifies her 
dominion over moifture; and her agreement 
with [fs 
Fo: 

