1309.] 
[- 363 J 
ORIGINAL POETRY. 
TO EURILLA IN ADVERSITY. 
FROM CARLO MAGGI. 
ALONE and pensive in those wilds I stray, 
Where, save the feather’d choir who ca- 
rol gay, 
No sound obtrudes ; 
throne, 
By mute Oblivion’s poppies overgrown, 
And with such sway. despotic rules the soul, 
As e’en the starts of Sorrow to controul ; 
As e’en to bid the fears of Friendship cease, 
And make me fancy all my cares at peace. 
Yet, wheresoe’er my wand’ring footsteps 
tread, 
My thouphis: by some spontaneous impulse 
led, 
Fly fast tothee; nor will I pause to own, 
Thou most art with me when I’m most alone. 
But if my Muse, too sedulous t’impart 
The balm of comfort to thy anguish’d heart, 
Hath oft disgusted by officious zeal, 
And widen’d wounds she fondly hop’d to 
— 
More irksome now thou’lt deem th’ obtrusive 
lyre, 
Whose notes I waken with increag‘d desire ; 5 
Thy woes to soothe--forgive th’ advent’rous 
strain, 
Which dares the rigours of thy fate arraign 3 
Which dares lament—(O pardon, righteous 
Heav’n!) 
That Peace to thankless ‘Apathy i is giv’n 3 
Whilst Virtue’s self, in human sey en-= 
shrin’d, 
To cruel, hateful Warfare seems consign’d. 
Full well I know reproach were vainly 
hurl'd 
Against the unfeeling baseness of this world: 
“Full well I know how impotent each art 
To melt, with Pity’s drops, the flinty heart ; 
To check the bitter taunts of scowling Pride, 
Make ranc’rous Envy throw her snakes 
aside, 
Compel curs’d Falsehood at Truth’s shrine to 
kneel, 
Or rob the hand of Malice of its steel; 
Yet, tho’ thy woes, with my upbraidings 
join’d, 
In vain wou’d strive to meliorate mankind, 
Still are there means all potent to confound 
The iron breasts thy suff’rings fail to wound ; 
Still to their pow’r superior mayst thou rise, 
And ey'ry arrow of their wrath despise. 
Too just,’ too ample is thy cause for woe ; 
Then, check not tears, but freely lee them 
flow ; 
Affliction’s tide, by constant force repress’d, 
And closely pent within a single breast, 
There rages fierce, with direst mischiefs rife, 
Dethroning Reason, and o’erwhelming Life. 
Then give it way; and, to some kindred 
heart, 
Thy ev'ry care, thy ev'ry thought impart ; 
where Silence rears her 
=~ 
For Sympathy, blest instinct of our kind, 
Is purest opium to the tortur’d mind. 
Seek, then, some Friend, who early leatn’d 
to grieve 
At others’ woe, who lives but to relieve 3 __ 
Some breast so much in concert with thy 
own. 
As, when thou smilst, or weep’st, to joy oF 
groan; 
With sweet Mimosa be her temples crown’d, 
By patient Prudence let her lips be bound ; 
Of all thy griefs Jet her have felt the smart, 
And shew where once they ee in her 
heart; 
Let her (rare gift!) possess the skill to know 
When to check tears, and when to bid them 
flow; 
Thus will her hand be competent to spread 
Comfort’s soft roses o’er thy thorny bed. 
But, once again, dear suft’ ring Saint, take 
heed - 
This Friend be deck’d with Caution’ s choicest 
teed 5 
For Grief firiliseles the soul, and brings to 
view 
Each thought, each merit, ae each failing 
too, 
Seek then a Friend, sage, cautious, faithe 
ful, kind— 
But hold (2 know the temper of thy. mind. 
If some good Angel such a Friend bestow'd, | 
To rescue thee ‘from Grief’s Oyen 
load, 
Thy soul: woud doat on her’s—and hoe 
thou lose 
This first of besitos viata! ah, hela; “my 
Muse! 
Nor paint a scene which Nature cou’d ‘noe 
bear. 
Yes—=seek a Friend! a firmer Friend than 
e’er 
Adorn’d our mortal clay—a Friend, whose 
mind 
“ Not all the malice of this world combined 
Can e’er wean from thee—a celestial Guard 3 
Who, from thy breast each stroke of Fate to — 
ward, zs 
Over Fate herself presides, oer Time, o'er 
Space, 
And all the myriads of the Human Race; 
Who knows no change, whose love will never 
cease, 
Whose voice is comfort, and whose paths are 
peace. 
O turn to him, to God! the only Brievds 
On whom thou may’st, withouta fear, de- 
pend; 
And learn, that, mid Adversity’s dark maze, 
Or gay Prosperity’s seductive blaze, 
He only knows our erring steps to guide, 
Where spotless Truth, and deathless foy pre-e 
side. 
Exmouths M, STARKE, 
