Shall Siam's elephant fupply
The baneful defolating die?
Against the honest sylvan's will,
You taught his iv'ry tusk to kill.
Heav'n, fond it's favours to difpenfe,
Gave him that weapon for defence.
That weapon, for his guard design'd,
You render'd fatal to mankind.
He plann'd no death for thoughtless youth,
You gave the venom to his tooth.
Blush, tyrant, blush! for, oh! 'tis true,
That no fell ferpent bites like you.
The guests were order'd to depart,
Reluctance fat on ev'ry heart:
A porter fhew'd a diff'rent door;
Not the fair portal known before.
The gates, methought, were open'd wide;
The crowds defcended in a tide :
But oh ye heav'ns, what vaft furprize
Struck the advent'rers frighted eyes!
A barren heath before us lay,
And gath'ring clouds obfcur'd the day;
The darkness rofe in fmoaky fpires;
The lightnings flash'd their livid fires:
Loud peals of thunder rent the air,
While vengeance chill'd our hearts with fear.
Five ruthless tyrants fway'd the plain,
And triumph'd o'er the mangled flain.
Here fat Diftafte, with fickly mien,
And more than half devour'd with spleen ;
There flood Remorfe, with thought oppress'd,
And vipers feeding on his breast:
Then Want, dejected, pale, and thin,
With bones juft ftarting thro' his fkin;
A ghaftly fiend!-and clofe behind
Disease his aching head reclin'd!
His everlasting thirst confefs'd
The fires which rag'd within his breast:
Death clos'd the train! the hideous form
Smil'd, unrelenting, in the storm;
When straight a doleful fhriek was heard;
I 'woke-the vifion disappear'd.
Let not the unexperienc'd boy
Deny that pleasures will deftroy;
Or fay that dreams are vain and wild,
Like fairy tales, to please a child.
Important hints the wife may reap
From fallies of the foul in fleep.
And fince there's meaning in my dream,
The moral merits your esteem.
TTEND my vifions, thoughtless youths,
Ere long you'll think them weighty truths;
Prudent it were to think fo now,
Ere age has filver'd o'er your brow:
For he, who at his early years
Has fown in vice, fhall reap in tears.
If Folly has poffefs'd his prime,
Disease shall gather ftrength in time;
Poifon fhall rage in ev'ry vein-
Nor penitence dilute the ftain:
And when each hour shall
Thought, like the doctor, comes too late.
The fubject of my fong is Health,
A good, fuperior far to wealth.
Can the young mind diftruft it's worth!
Confult the monarchs of the earth':
Imperial czars, and fultans, own
No gem fo bright, that decks their throne;
Each for this pearl his crown would quit,
And turn a ruftick, or a cit.
Mark, tho' the bleffing's loft with ease
"Tis not recover'd when you please.
Say not that gruels fhall avail,
For falutary gruels fail:
Say not, Apollo's fons fucceed,
Apollo's fon is Egypt's reed.
How fruitless the phyfician's fkill,
How vain the penitential. pill,
The marble monuments proclaim,
The humbler turf confirms the fame!
Prevention is the better cure;
So fays the Proverb, and 'tis fure.
Would you extend your narrow span, And make the most of life you can; Would you, when med'cines cannot fave, Defcend with ease into the grave;
Calmly retire, like ev'ning light,
And chearful bid the world good night-
Let Temp'rance conftantly prefide,
Our beft phyfician, friend, and guide!
Would you to wifdom make pretence,
Proud to be thought a man of fenfe
Let Temp'rance (always friend to Fame)
With fteady hand direct your aim;
Or, like an archer in the dark,
Your random fhaft will mifs the mark;
For they who flight her golden rules,
In Wifdom's volume ftand for fools.
But morals, unadorn'd by art,
Are feldom known to reach the heart:
In allufion to 2 Kings xviii. 25.
I'll therefore strive to raise my theme
With all the scenery of dream.
Soft were my flumbers, sweet my reft,
Such as the infant's on the breast;
When Fancy, ever on the wing,
And fruitful as the genial spring,
Prefented in a blaze of light,
A new creation to my fight.
A rural landscape I defcry'd,
Drefs'd in the robes of fummer pride;
The herds adorn'd the floping hills,
That glitter'd with their tinkling rills;
Below the fleecy mothers ftray'd,
And round their sportive lambkins play'd.
Nigh to a murm'ring brook I faw
An humble cottage, thatch'd with straw;
Behind a garden, that supply'd
All things for ufe, and none for pride:
Beauty prevail'd thro' ev'ry part,
But more of nature than of art.
Hail, thou fweet, calm, unenvy'd feat!'
I faid, and blefs'd the fair retreat:
• Here would I pass my remnant days, Unknown to cenfure, or to praise;
Forget the world, and be forgot,
• As Pope describes his veftal's lot.'
While thus I mus’d, a beauteous maid Stepp'd from a thicket's neighb'ring shade; Not Hampton's gallery can boast,
Nor Hudson paint so fair a toast:
She claim'd the cottage for her own;
To Health a cottage is a throne.
The annals fay (to prove her worth}
The Graces folemniz'd her birth.
Garlands of various flow'rs they wrought;
The orchard's blufhing pride they brought:
Hence in her face the lily speaks,
And hence the rose which paints her cheeks;
The cherry gave her lips to glow,
Her eyes were debtors to the floe;
And, to compleat the lovely fair,
"Tis faid the chefnut ftain'd her hair.
The virgin was averse to courts,
But often seen in rural sports:
When in her rofy veft the morn
Walks o'er the dew-bespangled lawn,
The nymph is firft to form the race,
Or wind the horn, and lead the chace.
Sudden I heard a shouting train,
Glad acclamations fill'd the plain :
Unbounded joy improv'd the scene,
For Health was loud proclaim'd a queen.
Two smiling cherubs grac'd her throne,
(To modern courts, I fear, unknown :)
One was the nymph, that loves the light,
Fair Innocence, array'd in white;
With fifter Peace in close embrace,
And heav'n all opening in her face.
The reign was long, the empire great,
And Virtue, minifter of ftate.
In other kingdoms, ev'ry hour,
You hear of Vice preferr'd to Pow'r :
Vice was a perfect stranger here;
No knaves engrofs'd the royal ear;
No fools obtain'd this monarch's grace;
Virtue difpos'd of ev'ry place.
What fickly appetites are ours,
Still varying with the varying hours!
And tho' from good to bad we range,
No matter,' fays the fool,
Her fubjects now exprefs'd apace
Diffatisfaction in their face:
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