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Will he be ever kind, and juft, and good?

And is there yet no mistress in the wood?

None, none there is; the thought was rash and vain
A falfe idea, and a fancy'd pain.

Doubt fhall for ever quit my ftrengthen❜d heart,
And anxious jealoufy's corroding fmart;
Nor other inmate shall inhabit there,

But foft Belief, young Joy, and pleafing Care.
Hence let the tides of plenty ebb and flow,
And Fortune's various gale unheeded blow.
If at my feet the fuppliant goddess stands,
And sheds her treasure with unweary'd hands;
Her present favour cautious I'll embrace,
And not unthankful use the proffer'd grace:
If the reclaims the temporary boon,
And tries her pinions, fluttering to be gone;.
Secure of mind, I'll obviate her intent,
And unconcern'd return the goods she lent.
Nor happiness can I, nor mifery feel,
From any turn of her fantastic wheel:
Friendship's great laws, and Love's fuperior powers,
Muft mark the colour of my future hours.
From the events which thy commands create
I must my bleffings or my forrows date;
And Henry's will must dictate Emma's fate.
Yet while with close delight and inward pride
(Which from the world my careful soul shall hide)
I fee thee, lord and end of my defire,
Exalted high as virtue can require;

With power invested, and with pleasure cheer'd ;
Sought by the good, by the oppreffor fear'd;
VOL. XXXIII.

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Loaded

Loaded and bleft with all the affluent store,

Which human vows at smoking shrines implore;
Grateful and humble grant me to employ
My life fubfervient only to thy joy;

And at my death to bless thy kindness shown
To her, who of mankind could love but thee alone.

WHILE thus the conftant pair alternate said,
Joyful above them and around them play'd
Angels and sportive Loves, a numerous crowd;
Smiling they clapt their wings, and low they bow'd:
They tumbled all their little quivers o'er,

To choose propitious fhafts, a precious ftore;
That, when their God fhould take his future darts,
To ftrike (however rarely) conftant hearts,
His happy fkill might proper arms employ,
All tipt with pleasure, and all wing'd with joy:
And those, they vow'd, whofe lives fhould imitate
Thefe lovers' conftancy, should share their fate.

The Queen of Beauty ftopt her bridled doves;
Approv'd the little labour of the Loves;
Was proud and pleas'd the mutual vow to hear;
And to the triumph call'd the God of War:
Soon as the calls, the God is always near.

Now, Mars, fhe faid, let Fame exalt her voice:
Nor let thy conquefts only be her choice:
But, when she fings great Edward from the field
Return'd, the hoftile fpear and captive fhield
In Concord's temple hung, and Gallia taught to yield;
And when, as prudent Saturn fhall complete
The years defign'd to perfect Britain's state,

The

The fwift-wing'd power fhall take her trump again,
To fing her favourite Anna's wondrous reign;
To recollect unweary'd Marlborough's toils,
Old Rufus' hall unequal to his spoils;
The British foldier from his high command

Glorious, and Gaul thrice vanquish'd by his hand :
Let her at least perform what I defire ;
With fecond breath the vocal brass inspire;
And tell the nations, in no vulgar strain,

What wars I manage, and what wreaths I gain.
And, when thy tumults and thy fights are paft;
And when thy laurels at my feet are cast;
Faithful may'ft thou, like British Henry, prove:
And, Emma-like, let me return thy love.

Renown'd for truth, let all thy fons appear;
And conftant Beauty shall reward their care.
Mars fmil'd, and bow'd: the Cyprian Deity
Turn'd to the glorious ruler of the sky;
And thou, fhe fmiling faid, great God of days
And verfe, behold my deed, and fing my praise;
As on the British earth, my favourite isle,
Thy gentle rays and kindeft influence smile,
Through all her laughing fields and verdant groves,
Proclaim with joy these memorable loves.
From every annual course let one great day
To celebrated fports and floral play
Be fet afide; and, in the fofteft lays

Of thy poetic fons, be folemn praise
And everlasting marks of honour paid

To the true Lover, and the Nut-brown Maid.

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WHEN I first thought of writing upon this oc

cafion, I found the ideas fo great and numerous, that I judged them more proper for the warmth of an Ode, than for any other fort of poetry: I therefore fet Horace before me for a pattern, and particularly his famous ode, the fourth of the fourth book,

"Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem, &c.

which he wrote in praise of Drufus after his expedition into Germany, and of Auguftus upon his happy choice of that general. And in the following poem, though I have endeavoured to imitate all the great ftrokes of that

that ode, I have taken the liberty to go off from it, and to add variously, as the fubject and my own imagination carried me. As to the style, the choice I made of following the ode in Latin determined me in English to the ftanza; and herein it was impoffible not to have a mind to follow our great countryman Spenfer; which I have done (as well at least as I could) in the manner of my expreffion, and the turn of my number: having only added one verse to his stanza, which I thought made the number more harmonious; and avoided fuch of his words as I found too obfolete. I have however retained fome few of them, to make the colouring look more like Spenfer's. Beheft, command; band, army; prowess, ftrength; I weet, I know; I seen, I think; whilom, heretofore; and two or three more of that kind, which I hope the ladies will pardon me, and not judge my Muse less handsome, though for once the appears in a farthingale. I have alfo, in Spenfer's manner, ufed Cæfar for the emperor, Boya for Bavaria, Bavar for that prince, Ifter for Danube, Iberia for Spain, &c.

That noble part of the Ode which I just now mentioned,

"Gens, quæ cremato fortis ab Ilio

"Jactata Tufcis æquoribus, &c.

where Horace praises the Romans as being defcended from Æneas, I have turned to the honour of the British nation, defcended from Brute, likewife a Trojan. That this Brute, fourth or fifth from Æneas, fettled in

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