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"Why, Sir, d'ye think I've loft my eyes?"
""Twere no great lofs," the friend replies;
"For if they always ferve you thus,
You'll find them but of little ufe."

So high at last the contest rose,
From words they almoft came to blows:
When luckily came by a third:
To him the question they referr'd;
And begg'd he'd tell them, if he knew,
Whether the thing was green or blue.

"Sirs," cries the umpire, "ceafe your pother,
The creature's-neither one nor t'other.
I caught the animal last night,

And view'd it o'er by candle-light:
I mark'd it well-'twas black as jet-
You ftare-but, Sirs, I've got it yet,
And can produce it.". "Pray, Sir, do :
I'll lay my life the thing is blue."-

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"And I'll be fworn, that when you've feen
The reptile, you'll pronounce him green.'
"Well then, at once to end the doubt,"
Replies the
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man, I'll turn him out:
And when before your eyes I've fet him,
If you don't find him black, I'll eat him."
He faid: then full before their fight
Produc'd the beaft: and lo!-'twas white.

II. On the Order of Nature.

SEE, through this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being! which from God began:
Natures ethereal, human; angel, man;
Beaft, bird, fifh, infect, what no eye can fee,
No glafs can reach; from Infinite to thee,
From thee to Nothing.-On fuperiour pow'rsa
Were we to prefs, inferiour might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great fcale's deftroy'd :
From Nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.

R3

What

What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,
Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
To ferve mere engines to the ruling Mind 2
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame:
Just as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND of ALL ordains.

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,.
Whole body Nature is, and God the foul:
That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame,
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart.;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt feraph that adores and burns :
To him no high, no low, no great, no fmall
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.

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Ceafe then, nor ORDER imperfection name ::
Our proper blifs depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weaknefs, Heav'n bestows on thee..
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,

Secure to be as bleft as thou canft bear::
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All Nature, is but Art unknown to thee;

All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not fee ;;
All Difcord, Harmony not understood;

All partial Evil, univerfal Good:

And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reafon's fpite,
One truth is clear,-WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT

III. Defcription of a Country Ale-house.

NEAR yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, Where once the fign-poft caught the paffing eye Low lies that houfe, where nut-brown draughts infpir'd; Where gray beard mirth, and fmiling toil, retir'd;

Where

Where village-statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
And news much older than their ale went round.
Imagination fondly ftoops, to trace

The parlour-fplendours of that feftive-place:
The white-wath'd wall; the nicely-fanded floor;
The varnish'd clock, that click'd behind the door ;..
The cheft, contriv'd a double debt to pay,
A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day;.
The pictures plac'd for ornament and ufe,
The twelve good rules, the royal game of goofe;
The hearth, except when winter chill'd the day,
With afpen boughs, and flowers, and fennel, gay
While broken tea-cups, wifely kept for fhow,
Rang'd o'er the chimney, gliften'd in a row.
Vain tranfitory fplendours! could not all
Reprieve the tottering manfion from its fall!"
Obfcure it finks; nor fhall it more impart
An hour's importance to the poor man's heart.
Thither no more the peafant fhall repair
To fweet oblivion of his daily care;

No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale,,
No more the woodman's ballad fhall prevail ;-
No more the fmith his dufky brow fhall clear,
Relax his ponderous ftrength, and lean to hear:
The hoft himself no longer fhall be found
Careful to fee the mantling blifs go round;
Nor the coy maid, half willing to be prefs'd,
Shall kifs the cup, to pass it to the reft.

BE

IV. Character of a Country Schoolmaster.
ESIDE yon ftraggling fence, that skirts the way
With bloffom'd furze unprofitably gay,
There, in his noify manfion, fkill'd to rule,
The village-mafter taught his little school.----
A man fevere he was, and ftern to view:
I knew him well; and every truant knew.
Well had the boding tremblers learned to traces
The day's difafters in his morning face:
Full well they laugh'd, with counterfeited glee,,
At all his jokes-for many a joke had he:
Full well the bufy whifper, circling round,
Convey'd the difmal tidings when he frown'd.

Yet

Yet he was kind: or, if fevere in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault.
The village all declar'd how much he knew:
'Twas certain he could write-and cipher too;
Lands he could measure; terms and tides prefage;*
And even the story ran, that he could-gauge.
In arguing, too, the parfon own'd his skill:
For, ev'n though vanquith'd, he could argue ftill
While words of learned length and thund'ring found
Amaz'd the gazing ruftics rang'd around;

And still they gaz'd; and fill the wonder grew
That one small head-could carry all he knew.

V. Story of Palemon and Lavinia.

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THE lovely young Lavinia once had friends,
And fortune fmil'd deceitful on her birth.
For, in her helpless years depriv'd of all,
Of every stay, fave innocence and Heav'n,
She, with her widow'd mother, feeble, old,,
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'de
Among the windings of a woody vale; ·
By folitude and deep furrounding fhades,,
But more by bashful modesty conceal'd.
Together, thus they fhunn'd the cruel scorn,
Which virtue, funk to poverty, would meet
From giddy paffion and low-minded pride:
Almoft on Nature's common bounty fed;
Like the gay birds that fung them to repofe,
Content, and carelefs of to-morrow's fare.
Her form was fresher than the morning-rofe,
When the dew wets its leaves; unftain'd and pure,
As is the lily or the mountain-fnow.

The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes,
Still on the ground dejected, darting all
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers
Or, when the mournful tale her mother told,
Of what her faithlefs fortune promis'd once,
Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy star
Of ev'ning, fhone in tears. A native grace
Sat fair-proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a fimple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of drefs; for lovelinefs

Needs

Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.
Thoughtless of beauty, he was Beauty's felf,
Reclufe amid the clofe embow'ring woods.
As in the hollow breast of Appenine,
Beneath the fhelter of encircling hills,
A myrtle rifes, far from human eye,
And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild :
So flourish'd, blooming and unfeen by all,
The fweet Lavinia; till at length, compell'd
By ftrong Neceffity's fupreme command,
With fmiting patience in her looks, fhe went
To glean Palemon's fields.-The pride of swaing
Palemon was; the generous, and the rich;
Who led the rural life in all its joy

And elegance, fuch as Arcadian fong
Tranfmits from ancient uncorrupted times,
When tyrant Custom had not shackled man,
But free to follow Nature was the mode.
He then, his fancy with autumnal fcenes
Amufing, chanc'd befide his reaper train
To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye;
Unconscious of her pow'r, and turning quick
With unaffected blushes from his gaze :

He faw her charming; but he faw not half
The charms her downcast modesty conceal'd.
That very moment love and chafte desire
Sprung in his bosom, to himself unknown;
For ftill the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
(Which scarce the firm philofopher can scorn)
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field:
And thus, in fecret, to his foul he figh❜d.
"What pity, that fo delicate a form,
By beauty kindled, where enlivening fenfe
And more than vulgar goodness feem to dwell,
Should be devoted to the rude embrace

Of fome indecent clown! She looks, methinks,
Of old Acafto's line: and to my mind
Recalls that patron of my happy life,
From whom my liberal fortune took its rise;
Now to the duft gone down, his houses, lands,
And once fair-fpreading family, diffolv'd.

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