Anger, grief, terror, catch th' adaptive spring,
While the eye darts it! and the accents ring.

See art's fhort path! 'tis easy to be found,

Winding, delightful, thro' the mazy round!
Tempt the try'd f'kill, to no fole proof confin'd;
Shift the fhort fhadowings, o'er your figur'd

mind

Mournful, recall fome friend's lamented fate:
Sad, on each feature, hangs the mind's feld weight:
Seek you ftrong fenfe of Joy! Looks, first, im-
part-
Then, the nerv'd ftricture bounds it from the heart:
Does rage inflame? No vifage can conceal,
What the mark'd muscle bids the spirit feel:
Still, as the nerves conftrain, the looks obey,
And what the look enjoins, the nerves display:
Mutual their aid, reciprocal their strain,
Will but commanding, face, and nerves explain.
Light'ning and thunder, fo concurring, strike,
One their joint origin, tho' form'd unlike:
So, to the look, th' attentive nerves reply,
As, from the flafh, fucceeding thunders fly.
'Tis caufe, and confequence; nor flows more grace
From beauty's fmile, than the touch'd actor's face.
Poize the rule's practice; turn it o'er and o'er;
Nor think it tedious, tho' conceiv'd before:
'Tis but, to Look, and Will Th' imprinted eye
Moves the ftrung muscles, and the limbs comply:
Gefture is meaning's Ape - grave, furious, gay,
Changeful, as cloud-form'd fhapes, when winds
make way;
Imag'd conception, firft, but face inflames;
Then, the mien paints it, and the tone proclaims.

Is there, who doubts an art, thus briefly fhown? Call out proof's pow'r, and make that art hist

own:

Bid him, with mournful brow, fwell founds of joy,
Half the mock'd fenfe th' 'unbracing nerves de-
stroy:
Tun'd to the tea ful eye's retentive woe,
Rapture's check'd phrafe fhalt quench its fiery
glow:

Painfully plaintful, each flat note fhall die,
And his look's anguil h, give his words the lie.
Next, while foft fmiles reftrain his voic'd eflay
Bid angry founds give Rage its thund'ring way;
Vainly, mouth'd menace fwells th' attempted
ftorm,

Kind, as confent, th' unfright'ning accents form:
While his look frown'd not, fenfe cou'd found but
fweet;

No nerve, concurring, help'd th' unfinew'd heat.
But had his eyes th' impatient fire difplay'd,
Each note had fnatch'd it, and each step convey'd:
Thus, one plain practice paints whole nature
right,
And all her changeful pictures move delight.

There, then,

Is there, who loves not Joy?
begin,

Search the foul-pleafing paffion's power, within;
Find your Smile's force, before fome faithful
Glafs,

Heedful, to let no faint impreffion pafs:
There, to touch'd gladnefs, thought-form'd features
train,

'Till each crifp'd fibre feels th' enrapt'ring ftrain:
Then (stretch'd), behold your op'ning forehead
rife,

Back'ning, in boastful sense of sparkling eyes.
Broadly majestical your breaft expands,

Brac'd your prefs'd joints neck, knee, feet, fhoul-
ders, hands,
Treading on air, each step new foul displays,
Your limbs all lighten, and your looks all blaze:

Then,

Bill.

Then, fpeak-joy anfwers; every found its own;
Mufick, and rapture, mix'd, in transport's tone!

Fall, from this height (ah! 'tis but fortune's
road!)
ì

Down, to deep fenfe of forrow's pungent goad;
Damp your loofe features into thought's diftrefs,
Fade fancy's glofs, to dim-ey'd wretchedness;
The fad look fick'ning, ftrait the spirits break,
Unbending nerves grief's lax impreffion take:
Faint hangs the clouded eye fhort steps drag

flow,
And every heedlefs gefture bends with woe:
Now, to the heart-touch'd fenfe, the voice com-
plains,
And fighing pityers catch th' infectious pains.

Say, fhould fome flak'ner of the paffion's

#

care,

Form'd for gay flights, and struggling from de-
fpair;
Bow'd, from his native bent, to doubt's new part
Find Fear's cold caft affign'd a fearless heart?
What could he do! Where house th' intrusive
guest,

Let his Eye lodge him-'twill prepare his breast.
From the foul's optic fhoots th' admitted fhape,
Nor lets one tim'rous wavering ftart escape.
Fear is elufive forrow, fhunning pain:

Active yet, ftop'd-it dims the doubtful brain;
Spirit fnatch'd inward, ftagnating, by dread,
Slow, thro' the limbs, crawls cold, the living lead:
Form'd to the look, that moulds th' affumer's
face,

'His joints catch tremblings life's moist strings

This road, and that, th'alarmful paffion tries,
Halts, in the motion flutters, in the eyes;
Checks the clipt accent's hefitative way,
And, on th' evafive mufcles, hangs delay..

unbrace;

Anger

Anger is pride provok'd, (fo felt, so known)
Strange! its ftage-influence is fo faintly, fhown!
Yet, with what absent sense of all its flame
See we rage meek fire cold and fury tame!
Bid the face, red'ning, warm'd idea take,
Strait, the foul's wild fires all obftruction break.
Stung, by inflicted thought's imagin'd pain,
Hard heave the mufcles, rolling eyeballs ftrain:
'Twixt the clos'd teeth, indignantly, fuppreft,
Or, ftorm-like, loud, out-pours th' unguarded
breaft:
Slack'ning, exclaiming, fwift, flow, reftlefs chan-
ge,

Wings the voic'd tempeft, in its whirlwind range;
Quick turns and ftartings, face, and air, deform;
And thick, fhort, breathings paint the infelt
ftorm.

Nor fea, nor life, eternal Tempeft fweeps,
Hufh'd calms fucceed it, and the thunder fleeps:
Such, the foft, filent tide, that floods the mind,
To mov'd Compaffion's pain-touch'd warmth, in
clin'd:
Aidful idea springs to pitied woe,

Thence, every quiv'ring finew learns to glow:
Back, from the panting bofom, to the eye,

Kind, figh-wing'd dews in soft sensation, fly:

So, from earth's op'ning breaft in flow'r-drefs'd

May

Steams the fipt fragrance, to the fun's felt ray;
Lightly fuftain'd, to morn's faint clasp it clings,
Yet, oft (let go) falls back-oft, upward, fprings:
So learn, to fteal foft pity's copied grace;
Languor's moift cloud marks, firft, the mournful

face;

Then, hope's kind tenfion warms the mufc'ly

mien,

Dragg'd diff'rent ways, contending contrafts lean;

Clafh'd

Bill.

Hill. Clafh'd looks, 'gainst movements, paint internal

fight

'Twixt the heart's anguish, and the help's delight:
Then, touch'd attention's hark'ning hufh creeps
round:
And breathless mouths devour th' expected found.

Nature loves change -Cold night fucceeds to

morn:

And pity's dark'ning oppofite is fcorn:
Far be this brown- ftretch'd arrogance of air,
From mifery's doomful claim, in sons of care →
Ah! minds (too apt) turn but the look within,
We find prid'es image, there, as fure, as fin!
Yet, with fuch bias, rolls man's will from right,
That fearch, firft, mifles, what is moft in fight:
Elfe, how unneedful, to defcribe a rage,
No player wants power to feel but on the ftage.

Cautious (life's speaking picture) wear that. ftain,

Rightly to fhow, be thine but not retain!
Scorn is calm, carelefs, anger, flagg'd of wing,
Brufh'd fenfe of harmless wrong, too weak to fting
Safe in fufpended power, eas'd warmth difclaims
Exertion and, with flack remifsnefs, flames:
Now fmiles now frowns yet, both, with eye
ferene,
While half- ftrung nerves play fprings of painless
fpleen.

Clofe following fcorn amazement ought to rife;

-

Angels feel wonder, men fhould dare defpife!
Born to mistakes, and erring out life's fpan,
Man as if heaven were his looks down on
Man.

Say, then, what wonder is
Mark its true features, and
Wonder is curious doubt,
Shrinking from danger, it prepares to meet:

trace its taught caufe? make known its laws: Will's check'd retreat,

'Tis