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Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.

SWEETNESS.

AN ODE.

BY MR. ROBERTSON.

Or damaík cheeks, and radiant eyes,

Let other poets tell;

Within the bofom of the fair,

Superior beauties dwell.

There all the fprightly powers of wit

In blithe affemblage play; There every focial virtue fheds

Its intellectual ray.

But as the fun's refulgent light

Heav'n's wide expanfe refines;

With fov'reign luftre through the foul,
Celestial sweetness shines.

This mental beam dilates the heart,

And sparkles in the face;

It harmonizes every thought,

And heightens every grace.

One glimpse can footh the troubled breast,
The heaving figh restrain;

Can make the bed of fickness please,
And stop the sense of pain.

Its power can charm the favage heart,
The tyrant's pity move:

To fmiles convert the wildest rage,

And melt the foul to love.

When sweetness beams upon the throne

In majesty benign,

The awful fplendors of a crown

With milder luftre fhine.

In fcenes of poverty and woe,
Where melancholy dwells,
The influence of this living ray

The dreary gloom difpels.

Thus, when the blooming spring returns

To cheer the mournful plains,

Through earth and air, with genial warmth,

Etherial mildness reigns.

Beneath its bright, aufpicious beams

No boisterous paffions rife;

Morofenefs quits the peaceful scene,
And baleful Difcord flies.

A thousand nameless beauties fpring,
A thousand virtues glow;

A fmiling train of joys appear,
And endless bleffings flow.

Unbounded Charity difplays

Her fympathizing charms :

And Friendship's pure feraphic flame
The generous bofom warms.

Almighty Love exerts his power,
And fpreads, with fecret art,
A foft fenfation through the frame,
A tranfport through the heart.

Nor fhall the ftorms of age, which cloud Each gleam of fenfual joy,

And blaft the gaudy flowers pride,

These bleft effects destroy.

When that fair form shall fink in years,

And all thofe graces fly;

The beauty of thy heavenly mind

Shall length of days defy.

CONJUGAL FELICITY.

FROM THOMSON'S SEASONS

HAPPY they! the happiest of their kind!
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

Attuning all their paffions into love;

Where Friendship full exerts her softest power,

Perfect esteem, enlivened by defire

Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;

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 nonfenfe all!
Who in each other clafp, whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven?
Meantime a smiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees

The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous 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 fudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various nature preffing on the heart:
An elegant fufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving Heaven.
Thefe are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The seasons thus,
As ceafelefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads:
'Till evening comes at last, ferene and mild,
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in focial fleep;

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