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No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright;
No begging wants his middle fortune bite:
But sweet content exiles both misery and spite.

Instead of music and base flattering tongues,
Which wait to first-salute my lord's uprise,
The cheerful lark wakes him with early songs,
And birds' sweet whistling notes unlock his eyes.
In country plays is all the strife he uses;
Or sing, or dance unto the rural Muses;
And but in music's sports all difference refuses.

His certain life, that never can deceive him,

Is full of thousand sweets and rich content:
The smooth-leaved beeches in the field receive him
With coolest shades, till noontide's rage is spent:
His life is neither tost in boisterous seas

Of troublous world, nor lost in slothful ease;
Pleased and full blest he lives, when he his God can please.

His bed of wool yields safe and quiet sleeps,

While by his side his faithful spouse hath place:

His little son into his bosom creeps,

The lively picture of his father's face.

Never his humble house or state torment him;

Less he could like, if less his God had sent him;

And when he dies, green turfs, with grassy tomb, content him.

PHINEAS FLETCHER.

High Life.

'T is from high life high characters are drawn :
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;
A judge is just, a chancellor juster still;

A gownman learned; a bishop, what you will;
Wise, if a minister; but, if a king,

More wise, more learned, more just, more every thing.
Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heaven's influence scarce can penetrate:
In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the same sun with all-diffusive rays
Blush in the rose, and in the diamond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly set the gem above the flower.

POPE.-[From the "Epistle to Lord Cobham."]

Home Happiness.

HAPPY they! the happiest of their kind! Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend. "T is not the coarser tie of human laws, Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind, That binds their peace, but harmony itself, Attuning all their passions into love,

Where Friendship full exerts her softest power,

Perfect esteem, enlivened by desire

Ineffable; and sympathy of soul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence; for nought but love
Can answer love, and render bliss secure.

What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all!
Who in each other clasp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish?
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumined face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven.
Meantime, a smiling offspring rises round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees
The human blossom blows, and every day,

Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,
The father's lustre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an assiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
Oh speak the joy! ye whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss,
All-various Nature pressing on the heart :
An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven.
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love,
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy, and consenting Spring
Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads;
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild,
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamoured more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they sink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

THOMSON.

To the Queen,

ENTERTAINED AT NIGHT BY THE COUNTESS OF ANGLESEA.

FAIR as unshaded light; or as the day
In its first birth, when all the year was May;
Sweet, as the altar's smoke, or as the new
Unfolded bud, swelled by the early dew;
Smooth as the face of waters first appeared,
Ere tides began to strive, or winds were heard:
Kind as the willing saints, and calmer far
Than in their sleeps forgiven Hermits are:
You that are more than our discreeter fear
Dares praise with such full art, what make
Here, where the summer is so little seen,
That leaves (her cheapest wealth) scarce reach at green.
You come, as if the silver planet were

you here?

Misled awhile from her much injured sphere,
And t' ease the travails of her beams to-night,
In this small lanthorn would contract her light.

DAVENANT.

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