Maintain your modesty and station,

And if my actions suit my song, So women shall preserve the nation.

You can 'i in conscience ihink me wrong. Mothers, 'tis said, in days of old, Exeenid their girls more choice than gold; To well a daughter's worth they knew,

$ 81. Vision I. Slander. Inscribed to

Miss S****.
To make her cheap by public view :
Fex, who their diamond's value weigh, My lovely girl, I write for you,
Expose those diamonds every day.

And pray believe my Visions true;
Then, if sir Plume drew near, and smil'd, They 'll form your mind to ev'ry grace;
The parent trembled for her child :

They'll add new beanatics to your face;
The first advance alarm d her breast ;

And when old age impairs your prime, And fancy pietur'd all the rest.

You'll triumph o'er the spoils of timo. But now no mother fears a foe;

Childhood and youth engage my pen ; No daughter shudders at a beau.

"Tis labor lost to talk to men: Pleasure is all the reigning theme;

Youth may perhaps reform when wrong;
Our noon-day thought, our midnight dream. jge will not listen to my song.
In Folly's chace our youths engage,

He who at fifty is a fool,
And shameless crowds of tott'ring age. Is far too stubborn grown for school.
The die, the dance, th' intemperate bowl, What is that vice which still prevails,
With various charms engross the soul. When almosi ev'ry presion fails ;
Are gold, fame, liealth, the terms of vice? Which with our very dawn begun,
The frantic tribes shall pay the price.

Nor ends but with our setting sun;
But tho' to ruin post they run,

Which, like a noxious weed can spoil They 'll think it hard to be undone.

The fairest Row'rs, and choke the soil! Do not arraign my want of taste,

"Tis Slander--and, with shame I ona, Or sight, to ken where joys are placu. The vice of human kind alone. They widely ert who think me blind;

Be Slander, then, my leading dream,
And I disclaim a stoic's mind.

Tho' you 're a stranger to the theme;
Like
Fours are my sensations quite;

Thy softer breast, and honest heart, i only strive to feel aright.

Scorn the defamatory art,
Vy joys, like streams, glide gently by; Thy soul asserts her native skies,
Tho'small their channel, neier dry;

Nor asks detraction's wings to rise;
Kepa still, even, fruitful wave,

In foreign spoils let others shine,
Aní bless the neighb'ring meads they lave. Intrinsic excellence is thine.
Ju fortune (for I'll mention all,

The bird in peacock's plumnes who shone
And more than you dare tell, is small; Could plead no merit of her own;
Yeterry friend partakes my store,

The silly theft betray'd her pride, And want goes smiling from my door. And spoke her poverty beside. Will forty shullings warm the breast

Th’insidious sland'ring thief is worse Of worthi or industry distrest

Than the poor rogne who steals pour purse. This sum I cheerfully impart,

Say, he purloins your glitt'ring store ; To fourscore pleasures to my heart;

Who takes your gold, takes trash -- no mort; And you may make, by means like these, Perhaps he pilfers to be fedFive talents ten, whene'er you please.

Al! gniltless wretch who steals for bread! Tis true, . my little purse grows light;

But the dark villain who shallaiin But then I sleep so sweet at night!

To blast my fair, my spotless name, This grand specific will prevail

He'd steal a precious gem away, When all the doctor's opiates fail.

Steal what both Indies can 't repay!
You ask what party!

Here the strong pleas of want are vain,
Perhaps you mean, Whose fool are you?' Or the more pious pleas of gain.
The names of party I detest;

No sinking family to save!
Bulges of slavery at best :

No gold to glut rh' insatiate knare! I're too much grace to play the knave, linprove the hint of Shakspeare's tongue; And too much pride to turn a slave.

"Twas thus immortal Shak-peare sung * : I love my country from my soul,

And trust the bard's unerring rule, And grieve when k'naves or fools control: For nature was that poct's school. I'm pleased when vice and folly smart,

As I was nodding in my chair, Or at the gibbet or the cart :

I saw a rueful wild appear; Itt always pity where I can;

No verdure met iny aching sight, Abhor the guilt, but mourn the man.

But hemlock and cold aconite; Now the religion of your poet.

Two very pois nous plants, 'tis true, Dres not this litile prefáce show it !

But not so bad as vice to you. Mr Visions if you scan with care,

The dreary: prospect spread around;
To len to one you 'll find it there.

Deep snow had whitend all the ground:
Othello,

A bleuk

pursue;

A bleak and barren mountain nigh,

Slander smild horribly, to view
Expos'd to ev'ry friendless sky!

How wide her conquests daily grew :
Here foul-mouth'd Slander lay reclin'd, Around the crowded levees want,
Her snaky tresses hiss'd behind ;

Like oriental slaves of state; • A bloated toad-stool rais'd her head,

Of either sex whole arinies prest,
The plumes of ravens were her bed * ;' But chicfly of the fair and best.
She fed
upon the viper's brood,

Is it a breach of friendship's law,
And slak'd her impious thirst with blood. To say what fe:nale friends I saw?
The rising sun, and western ray,

Slander assumes the idol's part, Were witness to her distant sway.

And claims the tribute of the heart; The tyrant claim'd a mightier host

The best in some unguarded hour, Than the proud Persian c'er could boast.

Have bow'd the knee, and own'd her pow's. No conquest grac'd Darius' sont,

Then let the poet not reveal

What candor wishes to conceal.
By his own numbers half undone:
Success attended Slander's pow's;

If I beheld some faulty fair,
She reap'd fresh laurels ev'ry hour:

Much worse delinquents crowded there: Her troops a deeper scarlet worc

Prelates in sacred lawn I saw, Than ever arinies knew before.

Grave physic, and loquacious law; No plea divers the fury's rage,

Courtiers, like summer flies, abound; The fury spares nor sex nor age.

And hungry poets swarm around. E'en Merit, with destructive charms,

But now my partial story ends, Provokes the vengeance of her arms.

And makes my females full amends. Whene'er the tyrant sounds to war,

If Albion's isle such dreams fulfils, Her canker'd trump is heard afar.

'Tis Albion's isle which cures the ills; Pride, with a heart unknown to vield,

Fertile of ev'ry worth and grace, Commands in chief, and guides the field;

Which warın ihe heart and Hush the face. He stalks with vast gigantic stride,

Fancy disclos'd a smiling train And scatters fear and ruin wide:

Of British nymphs that tripp'd the plain. So the impetucus torrents sweep

Good-nature first, a sylvan queen, At once whole nations to the deep.

Attir'd in robes of chicerful green; Revenge, that base Hesperiant, known

A fair and smiling virgin she! A chief support of Slander's throne,

With ev'ry charn that shines in thee. Amidst the bloody crowd is seen,

Prudence assuin'd the chief command, And treach'ry brooding in his mien;

And bore a mirror in her hand; The monster often chang'd his gait,

Grey was the matron's head by age, But march'd resolv'd and fix'd as fate.

Her mind by long experience sage; Thus the fell kite, whom hunger stings,

Of ev'ry distant ill afraid, Now slowly moves his outstretch'd wing;

And anxious for the simp’ring maid. Now swift as lightning bears away,

The Graces danc'd before the fair ; And darts upon his trembling prey.

And white-rob’d Innocence was there. Envy commands a sacred band,

The trees with golden fruits were crown'd With sword and poison in her hand,

And rising How'rs adorn d the ground; Around her haggard cye-balls roll;

The sun display'd each brighter ray, A thousand fiends possess her soul.

And shone in all the pride of day: The artful unsuspected sprite

When Slander sicken'd at the sight,
With fatal aim attacks by night.

And skulk'd away to shun the light.
Her troops advance with silent tread,
And stab the hero in his bed ;

82. Vision II. Pleasure. Or shoot the wing d malignant lic,

HEAR, ye fair mothers of our isle, And female honors pine and die.

Nor scorn

your

Poet's homely style.
So prowling wolves, when darkness reigns, What tho’iny thoughts be quaint or nev,
Intent on murder, scour the plains;

I'll warrant that my doctrine 's true:
Approach the folds where lanıbs repose, Or, if my sentiments be old,
Whose guileless breasts suspect no foes ; Remember truth is sterling gold.
The savage gluts his fierce desires,

You judge it of important weight,
And bleating innocence expires.

To keep your rising otfspring straight; * Garth's Dispensatory.

+ Xerxes, king of Persia, and son of Darius. He invaded Greece with an army consisting of more than a million of men (some say more than two millions); who, together with their cattle, perished in a great measure through the inability of the countries to supply such a vast host with provisión.

Hesperia includes Italy as well as Spain; and the inhabitants of both are remarkable for their revengeful dispositions.

For

For this such anxious moments feel,

Paint Cressy's vanquish'd field anew, And ask the friendly aids of steel ;

Their souls shall kindle at the view; For this import the distant cane,

Resolv'd to conquer or to fall, Or slay the monarch of the main.

When Liberty and Britain call. And shall the soul be warp'd aside

Thus shall they rule the crimson plain; By passion, prejudice, and pride?

Or hurl their ihunders thro' the main; Deformity of heart I call

Gain with their blood, nor grudge the cost, The worst deformity of all.

What their degen'ra te sires have lost: Your cares to body are confin'd;

The laurel thus shall grace their hrow, Few fear obliquity of mind.

As Churchill's once, or Warren's now. Why not adorn the better part?

One summer evening as ! stray'd This is a noble theme for art.

Along the silent moon-light glade, For what is form, or what is face,

With these reflections in my brcast, But the soul's index, or its case ?

Beneath an oak I sunk to rest; Now take a simile at hand,

A gentle slumber intervenes, Conspare the mental soil to land.

And fancy dress'd instructive scenes, Shall fields be tilld with annual carc,

Methought a spacious road I spied, And ininds lie fallow ev'ry year?

And stately trees adorn'u its side; Oh, since the crop depends on you,

Frequented by a gidely crowd Give them the culture which is due :

Of ihoughtless mortals, vain ard loud; Hoe ev'ry weed, and dress the soil,

Who tripp'd with jocund heel along, So hars est shall repay your toil.

And bade me join iheir smiling throng. If human minds resemble trees ;

I straight obey'd --persuasion hung (As ev'ry moralist agrees),

Like honey on the speaker's tongues Prime all the stragglers of your vine,

A cloudless sun improu 'd the day, Then shall the purple clusters shine.

And pinks and roses strew'd our war: The gard'ner knows that fruitful life

Now as our journey we purstie, Demands that salutary knife:

A beauteous fabric rose to view; For ev'ry wild laxuriant shoot

A stately dome, and sweetly grac'd Or robs the bloom, or starves the fruit.

With ey’ry ornainent of taste. A satirist * in Roman times,

This struciure was a female's claim,
When Rome, like Britain, groand with crimes, And Pleasure was the Monarch's name.
Asserts it for a sacred truth,

The hall we enter'd uncontrold,
That pleasures are the bane of youth; And saw the queen enthron'd on gold:
That sorrows such pursuits attend,

Arabian sweets persum'd the ground,
Or such pursuits in sorrows cnd :

And laughing Cupids flutter'd round; That all the wild advent'rer gains,

A Aowing rest adorn'? the fair, Are perils, penitence, and pains.

And flow'ry chaplets wreath'd her hair. Approve, ye fair, the Roman page,

Fraud taught the queen a thousand wiles, And bid your sons revere the sage;

A thousand soft insidious siniles; In study spend their midnight oil,

Love taught her lisping tongue to speal,
And string their nerves by manly toil.

And form'd the dimple in her cheek;
Thus shall they grow, like Temple, wise; The lily and the damask rose
Thus future Lockes and Newtons sise;

The tincture of her face compose;.
Or hardy chiefs to wield the lance,

Nor did the god of wit disdain And save us from the chains of France. To mingle with the shining train. Yes, bid your sons betimes forego

Her vot'ries flock from various parts, Those treach'rous paths where pleasures grow, And chicfly youth resign'd their hearts; Where the young mind is Folly's slave; The old in sparing numbers press'd, Where ev'ry virtue finds a grave.

But awkivard devotees at best! Let each bright character be namid,

• Now let us range at large,' we cried, For wisdom or for valor fam'd.

• Thro' all the garden's boasied pride.' Are the dear youths to science prone ?

Here jasınines spread the silver flows, Tell how th’immortal Bacon shone !

To deck the wall, or weave the bow'r; Who, leaving meaner joys to kings,

The woodbines mix in am'rous play, Sourd high on contemplation's wings ; And breathe their fragrant lives away. Rang'd the fair fields of nature o'er,

Here rising myrtles forir a shade; Where never mortal trod before :

There roses blush, and scent the glade;. Bacon! whose vast capacious plan

The orange, with a vernal face, Be.poke him angel more than man!

Wears ev'ry rich autumnal grace; Does love of martial fame inspire?

While the young blossoms here unfold, Cherish, ye fair, the gen'rous sire ;

There shines the fruit like pendent gold. Teach them to spurn inglorious rest,

Cirrons their balmy sweets exhale, And rouse the hero in his breast :

And triumph in tlie distant gale. • Persius,

Now

Now fountains, murm'ring to the song, Blush, tvrant, blush! for, oh! 'lis true,
Roll their translucent streams along;

That no fell serpent bites like you.
Thro' all the aromatic groves

The guests were order'd to depart; The faithful turiles coo their lores;

Reluctance sat on every heart: The lark ascending pours his notes,

A porter show'd a diff'rent door, And linnets swell their räpt'rous throats. Not the fair portal known before. Pleasure, imperial fair ! how

gay

The gates, nicthought were open'd wide ;
Thy empire, and how wide thy svay!

The crowds descended in a tide :
Enchanting queen, how soft thy reign! But oh! ye heavens, what vast surprise
How man, fond man! implores thy chain ! Struck the advent'rers frighted eyes!
Yet thinc each meretricious art,

A barren heath bcfore us lay,
That weakens and corrupts the heart:

Ind gath'ring clouds obscurd the day; The childish toys, and wanton page,

The darkness rose in smoky spires; Wlich sink and prosiitute the stage! The lightning tash'd their livid fires; The masquerade, that just otlence

Loud peals of thunder rent the air, To virtue, and reproach to sense!

With vengeance chill'd our hearts will fear. The midniglit dance, the mantling bowl, Five ruihless tyrants sway'd the plain, And all that dissipaie the soul;

And triumph'd o'er the mangled slain. All that to ruin nian combine,

llere sat Distaste, wiih sickly mnien, Yes, specious harici! all are thine.

And more than half devour'd with spleen: Whence sprung th'accursed lust of play,

There siood Remorse with thought oppresi, Which beggars thousands in a day?

And vipers feeding on his breast :
Spreak, sorc'ress, speak (for thou canst tell), Then Iant, dejected, pale, and thin,
Who cali'dihetreach'rous card from hell: With bones just starting thro' his skin;
Now man profines his reas'ning pow'rs, Aghastly fiend! -- and close behind,
Protanes sweet friendship's sacred liours; Disease his aching head reclin'd;
Abandon'd to inglorious ends,

Ilis everlasting thirst confessid
And faithless to himself and friends;

The fires which rag'd within his breast A dupe to ev'ry artful knave,

Death clos'd the train! the hideous form To ev'ry abject wish a slave:

Smild, unrelenting, in the storm ; But who against himself combines,

When straight a doleful shrick was hcard: Abets his enemy's designs.

I'woke-she vision disappear'd. When rapine niedicates a blow,

Let not the unexperienc'd boy He shares the guilt who aids tlie foc.

Deny that pleasures will destroy;
Is man a thief who steals my pelf-

Or say that dreams are rain and wild,
How great his theft who rob's brimself? Like fairy tales to please a child.
Is man, who gulls his friendl, a cheat-

Important hints the wise may reap
How heinous, thea, is self-deceit:

Froin sallies of the soul in sleep;
Is murer justly deem'd a crime-

And since there's meaning in my dream,
How black is guilt who murders time! The moral merits your esieeni.
Should custom plead, as custom will,
Grand precedents to palliate ill;
Shall modes and formis avail with me,

83. Vision III. Healih.
When reason disavows the plea?
Who gaines is felon of his wealth,

ATTEND my Visions, thoughtless youths, His time, his liberty, his health ·

Ere long you 'll think them weighty truths ; ; Virtue forsakes his sordid mind,

Prudent it were to think so now,
And Honor scorus to stay beltind.

Ere age has silver'd o'er your brow :
From man when these bright cherubs part, For he, who at his early years
Ah, what's the poor deserted heart!

Has sown in vice, shall reap in tears.
A savage wild thai shocks the sight!

If folly has possesz’d his prime, Or chaos, and impervious night!

Disease shall gather strength in time; Each gen'rous principle destroy'd,

Poison shall rage ju ev'ry vein; And dæmons crowd the frighiful void. Nor penitence dilute the stain : Shall Siam's elephant supply

And when cach hour shall urge his fate, The baneful desolating die!

Thought, like the doctor, comes too late. Against the honest sylvan's will,

The subject of my song is Health, You taught his iv'ry tusk to kill.

A good superior far to wealth. Heaven, fond its favors to dispense,

Can the young mind distrust its worth? Gave him that weapon for defence:

Consult the monarchs of the earth : That weapon for his guard desigu'd,

Inperial czars, and sultans, own You render'd fatal to mankind.

No gem so bright that decks their throne; He plann'd no death for thoughtlers youth; Each for this pearl his crown would quit, You gave the venom to his tooth.

And turn a rustic, or a cit.

Mark

Viark, tho' the blessing's lost with ease, The annals say (to prove her worth) 'Tis not recover'd when you please.

The Graces soiuinnicü her birth, Say not that gruels shall avail;

Garlands of various How's they wrought, For salutary gruels fail;

The orchard's blushing pride they brought: Say not, Apollo's sons succeed;

Hence in her face the lily speaks, Apollo's Son is Egypt's * reed.

And hence the rose which paints her cheeks; How fruitless the physician's skill,

The cherry gave her lips to glow : How vain the penitencial pill,

Her eyes were debtors to the sloe; The marble monuments proclaim ;

And, to complete the lovely fair, 'The humbler turf confirnis the sarwe!

'Tis said the chesnut stain' her hair. Prevention is the better cure ;

The virgin was averse to courts, So says the proverb, and 'tis sure.

But often seen in rural sports : Would you extend your narrow span,

When in her rosy vest the morn And make the most of life you can ;

Walks o'er the dew-bespangled lawn, Would you, when med'cines cannot save, The nymph is first to form the race, Descend with ease into the grave

Or wind the horn, and lead the chace, Calmly retire, like ev'ning light,

Sudden I heard a shouting train;
And cheerful bid the world good night? Glad acclamations fill'd the plain ;
Let Temp'rance constantly preside ;

Abundant joy impsov'd the scene,
Our best physician, friend, and guide! For llcalth was loud proclaim'd a queen.
Would you to wisdom make pretence,

Two smiling cherubs grac'd her throne Proud to be thought a man of sense?

(To modern courts, I fear, unknown): let Temp'rance (always friend to fame) One was the nymph that loves the light, With steady hand direct your aim!

Fair Innocence, array'd in white; Or, like an archer in the dark,

With sister Peace in close embrace, Your random shaft will miss the mark : And heaven all opening in her face. For they who slight her golden rules,

The reign was long, the empire great, In wisdom's volume stand for fools.

And Virtue ininister of state.
But morali, unadorn'd by art,

In other kingrons, ev'ry hour,
Are seldom known to reach the heart : You hear of lice preferr'd to power :
I'll therefore strive to raise my theme

Vice was a perfect stranger here;
With all the scenery of a dream.

No knaves engross'd the royal ear: Soft were my slumbers, sweet my rest,

No fools obtain'd this monarchi's grace; Such as the infant's on the breast;

Virtue dispos'd of ev'ry place. When fancy, ever on the wing,

What sickly appetites are ours, And fruitful as the genial spring,

Still varying with the varying hours ! Presented in a blaze of light,

And thó' from good to bad we range, A new creation to my sight.

No matter,' says the fool,

" 'tis change. A rural landscape I deseried,

Her subjects now express d apace Drest in the robes of summer pride ;

Dissatisfaction in their face; The herds adorn'd the sloping hills;

Soine view the state with Envy's eye; I'nat glitter'd with their tinkling rills; Some were displeas'd, they knew not why; Below the Acecy mothers stray'd,

When Faction, cver bold and vain, And round their sportive jambkins play'd. With rigor tax'd their monarch's rign. high to a murm'ring brook I saw

Thus, should an angel from above, An humble cottage, thatch'd with straw ; Fraught with benevolence and love, Behind, a garden, that supplied

Descend to earth, and here impert All things for use, and none for pride : Important truths to mend the heart, Beauty prevail'd thro' ev'ry part;

Would not ih' instructive guest dispense But n.ore of nature than of art.

With passion, appetite, and sense, Hail, thou sweet, calm, uncnvied seat!'. We should his heavenly lore despise, Isid, and bless'd the fair retreat ;

And send hiin to his foriner skies. Here would I pass my remnant days, A dang'rous hostile pow'r arose Unknown to censure or to praise ;

To Health, whose household were her foes : Forget the world, and be forgot,

A harlot's loose attire she wore, * As Pope describes his vestal's lot.'

And Luxury the name she bore. While thus I mus'd, a beauteous maid This princess of unbounded sway, Stepp'd from a thicket's neighbouring shade; Whom Asia's softer sons obey, Not Hampton's gallery can boast,

Made war against the queen of Health Nor lludson's paint, so fair a toast :

Assisted by ile troops of \'calıhı. She clim'd the cottage for her own:

The queen was first to take the field, To Health a cottage is a throne.

Arm'u with her helinet and her shield; * An allusión to 2 Kings, xviii. 21.

Temperid