1797+] 
What tho’ I ne’er my virtue fold, 
For empty fame, or emptier gold, 
Or caus’d one wretcha figh: — 
Tho” not in diffipation’s round, 
6 With giddy {tep and zone ynbound,’* 
Wve ming)’¢ nights and days ; 
Though e’er, by ftarts, ny waken’d mind 
Has foar’d to things of nobleft kind, 
To deeds of folid praife: 
Have [ not waited months and yearsy 
In thoufand vain and various cares, ” 
Thus fritt’ring life away ; 
As if their fhort, uncertain {pans 
A forded time for idle plans, 
To creatures of a day? _ 
‘* Oh, happinefs ! my being’s end,” 
To which my ev'ry hope muft tends 
’ How art thou beit enfurd? 
By fenfelefs tricks, or felfith arts, 
Of filly heads, or fordid hearts, 
Is real blifs fecur’d ? 
No ; let me fearch all nature through, 
Caft wide around my ample view, 
Qs turn within mine cye ; 
One anfwers, lo! all nature gives 5 
Not for itfelf one being lives 
Through all infinity. 
Then to conform to nature’s Jaws, 
To follow where my duty draws, 
Be this my aim alone ; 
To imitate th’ All-ruling Mind, 
To feek the good of human kind, © 
And thro’ their good my own. nen 
As hounds, inftin@tive, urge the chafe, 
With fteady courfe and rapid pace, 
To feize their defiin’d prey ; 
Nor velvet lawn, nor fhelt’ring wood, 
Nor headlong fteep, nor roaring fiood, 
Can check, or change their way: 
Let me, of nobler powers poffet, 
While nobler motives fill my breaf, 
To brutes fuperior rife ; 
With warmer zeal and fteadier view, 
Mare ardently my courfe purfue, 
To gain my brighter prize. 

SONNET. 
O FAIREST gem that decks yon azure vault 
Of heav’n, fweet ftar! thy brighteft luftre 
fheds ! 
While all alone, and penfive, I delight 
‘6 {n cloyfters dim, far from the haunts of 
folly,”’ 
To fteal away unfeen, as thy pale radiance 
Beams on this gloom of death, and fcarce betrays 
The native horrors of each holy aifle! 
All nature fleeps, and not a found difturbs 
The deep ferene, fave where the folemn breeze 
Sighs, or athwart fome winding cave’s recefs 
The flitting bat fhoots on fwift circling wings: 
Sad pleafure to my mind! O {weetly fhine, 
With unremitted {pléndour, beauteous ftar ! 
And on my mournful foul thy mildeft influence 
ur. 
re J ye M. A. S. 
Original Poetry. 45% 
2 
~TO A ROSE. j 
"THY rofe, oh, Venus ! blooms one fleeting 
day, 
Her virgin leaves unfold and fade away + 
She buds when morn in bluthes lights the fkies, 
And as the flame defcends, her beauty dics ! 
T. M.A. S. 

NV . Bott 1:55 35S 
ON THE EARLY DEATH OF A YouN® 
LADY’s LINNET, WHICH SHE HAD 
TAKEN FROM THE NEST, 
HRO?’ low’ring clouds, with pallid beam, 
The moon thot temporary light, 
Now glitt’ring on the rippled fiream, | 
Now eh fading from the fight: ~ 
The clock ftruck twelve-——whentwitt'ring thrill, 
Linnetta to the window flew ; 
_ There thrice the peck’d, with tiny bill, 
Thrice, flutt’ring, brufh’d the evening dew, 
Fair Sally wak"d, her fav’rite fpy’d, 
And, throbbing, with impatient hafte, 
Forth from her downy couch the hied, 
To lure the fongfter to her breaft. 
_** Liv? thou again ?” exelaim’d the maid, 
‘* Or does fond fancy paint thy form 5 
Or art thou but a fleeting fhade, 
_ That, tecklefs, views life’s pelting ftorm 2 
“* On airy wing,” the bird reply’d, 
*€ Swift a8 the lightning’s flath I fly, 
Henceforth to mortal touch deny’d, 
I thare the pure empyreal fky. 
‘Forth from that happy land I come, 
Where fhadows fkim the fairy grove, 
Thofe blifsful fcenes beyond the tomb, 
Where all our Ijte is joy and love. 
“ There happy pairs, in union {weet, 
Enraptur'd, hail eternal day ; . 
There in each bufh a friend we meet, 
A kindred foul on every fpray. 
‘¢ Fair maid ! in thofe fequefier’d fhades, 
Where calm fecurity prefides, 
No net the cruel fportfman {preads, 
No deadly thund’ring tube he guides. 
« And, mark me well, no thoughtlefs hand 
Rafhly invades the downy nett, ‘ 
Rudely divides the kindred band, 
And wrings with woe a parent’s breaft. 
« My errand’s done—the pearly tear 
That, tremb’ling, gliftens in thine eyes 
Forbids my longer ling’ring here, 
And fpeeds me to th’ Elyfian iky.’”” 
W. SHEPHERD. 

SONNET. 
HE Lord of Life fhakes off his drowfihed, 
And ’gins todprinkle on the earth below 
Thoie rays that frem his fhaken locks de 
_ flow ; 
Meantime, by truant loye of sambling ie. 
; turn 
a 
a 
