So sang the parent Muse. The youth retains The treasur'd memory of her cheering strains. Long o'er his head, in ever-changeful dyes, Dreams of soft hope, and pleasing cares arise. Deluded boy whose generous aims aspire To catch the glories of the deathless lyre, Hid 'midst the blooms, where Fancy weaves her wreath, The lurking adder twines his folds beneath. Survey the world, yet to thy vision new, And tear the veil, that shrouds it to thy view. See where meek Flattery pays to swelling Pride The unearn'd meed to starving Worth denied ; Go, call Suspicion to thy throbbing breast, And wear her mail within thy folded vest. Go join the cringing gaping crowds that wait In lingering levees at Preferment's gate. The short blooms fade, that to thy cheated sense Their roseate tints and healing sweets dispense; The rays that warm'd their stems shall shine no more And all is drear where Edens blush'd before. The pleasant dreams that lull'd thy youthful hours. In halls of gladness, and in summer bowers, In clouds of sorrow speed dispers'd away, And ambush'd Penury marks thee for her prey. So, newly launch'd, while loud the rebeck sounds, On the white stream the gallant vessel bounds. The streamers fly. The white-topp'd foam below Enamour'd plays around her stately prow. The unconscious helms-man courts the favouring gale That whispers flattery to the silken sail. But cloak'd in night o'erwhelming tempests lie, Tho' gay the brightness of yon cloudless sky; The storm-winds hurl her on the sharp rock's verge, And o'er her bright wreck roars the unsparing surge. Son of the Muse! must thou unheeded weep Or, if some sounds its faint strings gently swell, But ah! what sounds were those; gentle as rills As their sweet murmurings fill'd the pausing air, Far, on her dusky pinions flew Despair, From the lone couch where suffering Genius lay; And Hope diffus'd abroad her healing ray. 'Twas Pity's voice. In stealing airs it came, And whisper'd as it flow'd a BRUNSWICK'S name "Oh child of song," it said, "though every grace "Smiles on the gem of England's royal race; 66 Though Valour sits high towering on his crest, "The sweetest mercies throb within his breast. "He mark'd the grief, whose bursting currents break "In silent channels down thy famish'd cheek; "He saw the languors of thy drooping eye; "He heard thy groan, nor pass'd forgetful by. "Go, child of song, renew thy lofty course, "And strike thy wild harp with a master's force; Wing to the realms of day a Theban flight, "And spurn the bondage of inglorious night. "And let thy sweet vows bless the gentle deed; "Warm from a heart whose wounds have ceas'd to bleed." *Alluding to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales's munificent patronage of the Literary Fund, announced at the last Anniversary. MODERN PHILOSOPHY, AND THE GODWINIAN SYSTEM. From an unpublished Poem. By Socrates pourtray'd with matchless grace, The goddess takes a thousand forms and shapes; Or floats on oxygen, or prowls the dell Where weeds and grubs long hid from mortal ken, But when from Nature's wide domains she bends * Virgil Æneid, lib. vi. Far beyond Nature's bounds he boldly springs, And man's perfectibility he sings; Fashions a new Utopia's blest domain Uncurst with laws, exempt from Custom's rein, Love, Friendship, Gratitude, the pleasing glow Where man imparts no social bliss to man. Untouch'd by Misery, Kindness, Friendship, Love: All hearts, all thoughts, all voices, wishes, hands, Ah! grieve not, Anarchists, if heav'n assign If Nature reassume her ravish'd right, With Truth and Logic arm'd, lo, Green * prepares *See Examination of the leading Principles of the new System of Morals, by Mr. Green. From this work Dr. Parr has quoted several passages in his notes to his Spital Sermon, and his testimony in favour of the author is thus expressed: "Mr. Green, whose penetration, whose taste, whose large views in philosophy, and whose great talents for composition entitle him to my respects." CONSOLATION. BY W. CAREY, ESQ. WHEN Heaven dissolves the sacred tie The arrows of Despair to shun? Oh, can the musing hours of Grief From empty forms of outward woe? Or can the sprightly song and dance, A Balm to heal the wounded heart. |