"TIS education forms the common mind
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclin'd.
With pleasure let us own our errors past;
And make each day a critic on the last.
The private path, the secret acts of men,
If noble far the noblest of their lives.
Necessary Knowledge easily attained.
Our needful knowledge, like our needful food,
Unhedg'd lies open in life's common field;
And bids all welcome to the vital feast.
Disappointment lurks in many a prize,
As bees in flowers; and stings us with success. NOTE. In the first chapter, the Compiler has exhibited a considerable variety of poetical construction, for the young reader's preparatour exercise.
The mind that would be happy must be great ;
Great in its wishes; great in its surveys.
Extended views a narrow mind extend.
Natural and fanciful Life.
Who lives to nature, rately can be poor:
Who lives to fancy, never can be rich.
In faith and hope the world will disagree:
But all mankind's concern is charity.
What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy,
Is virtue's prize.
Sense and Modesty connected.
Distrustful sense with modest caution speaks;
It still looks home, and short excursions makes;
But rattling nonsense in full vollies breaks.
Moral Discipline salutary.
Heav'n gives us friends to bless the present scene;
Resumes them to prepare us for the next.
All evils natural are moral goods ;.
All discipline, indulgence, on the whole.
Present Blessings undervalued.
Like birds, whose beauties languish, half conceal'd,
Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes
Expanded shine with azure, green, and gold,
How blessings brighten as they take their flight!
Hope, of all passions most befriends us here;
Passions of prouder name befriend us less.^
Joy has her tears, and transport has her death
Hope, like a cordial, innocent though strong,
Man's heart, at once, inspirits and serenes.
Happiness, Modesty, and Tranquillity.
Never man was truly blest,
But it compos'd, and gave him such a cast
As folly might mistake for want of joy :
A cast unlike the triumph of the proud;
A modest aspect, and a smile at heart.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains.
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.
No radiant peail, which crested fortune wears,
No gem, that twinkling hangs from beauty's ears,
Nor the bright stars, which night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre, as the tear that breaks,
For other's wo, down Virtue's manly cheeks.
VERSES IN WHICH THE LINES are of difFERENT LENGTH.
Bliss of Celestial Origin.
RE-TLESS mortals toil for nought;
Biss in vain from earth is sought;
Bliss, a native of the sky,
Never wanders. Mortals, try,
'There thou cannot seek in vains For to seek her is to gain.
The passions are a num'rous crowd,
Imperious, positive and loud.
Curb these licentious sons of strife;
He
lence chiefly rise the storms of life ; If they grow mutinous, and rave,
They are the masters, thou their slaves.
Trust in Providence recommended.
Tis Providence alone securesg
In ev'ry change, both mine and yours.
Safety consists not in escape
From dangers of a trightful shape;
An earthquake may be bid to spare
The man that's strangled by a hair.
Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oft'nest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow.
How lov'd, how valu'd once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot:
A heap of dust alone remains of thee;
"Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be.
All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One self-approving hour, whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas:
And more true joy, Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Caeser with a senate at his heels.
Virtue the Guardian of Youth.
Down the smooth stream of life the stripling darts,
Gay as the morn; bright glows the vernal sky,
Hope swells his sails, and Passion steers his course,
Safe glides his little bark along the shore,
Where Virtue takes her stand: but if too far
He launches forth beyond Discretion's mark,
Sudden the tempest scowls, the surges roar,
Blot his fair day, and plunge him in the deep.
But yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo, now, apparent all
Aslant the dew bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad:
And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks,and Lills, and towers,and wand'ring streams,
High gleaming from afar.
May I govern my passions with absolute sway
And grow wiser and better as life wears away.
On the mountain, stretch'd beneath a hoary willow,
Lay a shepherd swain, and view'd the rolling billow,
VERSES CONTAINING EXCLAMATIONS,
A COMPETENCE is all we can enjoy :
Oh! be content, where heaven can give no more!
Reflection essential to Happiness.
Much joy not only speaks small happiness,
But happiness that shortly must expire.
Can joy unbottom'd in reflection stand?
And in a tempest, can reflection live?
Can gold gain friendship? Impudence of hope
As well mere man an angel might beget.
Love, and love only, is the loan for love.
Lorenzo! pride repress nor hope to find
A friend, but what has found a friend in thee.
All like the purchase ; few the price will pay
And this makes friends such miracles below.
Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day
(Live till to-morrow) will have pass'd away.
Bane of elevated life, of affluent states,
What dreary change, what ruin is not thire!
|