ORIENTAL ECLOGUES.

ECLOGUE I.

Selim; or the Shepherd's Moral. Scene, a Valley near Bagdat. Time, the Morning.

E Perfian maids, attend your poet's lays,

YE

And hear how fhepherds pafs their golden days. Not all are bleft, whom fortune's hand fuftains

With wealth in courts, nor all that haunt the plains:
Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell!
'Tis virtue make the blifs, wheree'er we dwell.
Thus Selim fung, by facred truth inspir'd;
Nor praise, but fuch as truth bestow'd, defir'd:
Wife in himself, his meaning fongs convey'd
Informing morals to the fhepherd maid;
Or taught the fwains that fureft blifs to find,
What groves nor ftreams bestow, a virtuous mind.
When sweet and blushing, like a virgin bride
The radiant morn resum'd her orient pride,

When wanton gales along the vallies play,

Breathe on each flower, and bear their sweets away: By Tigris' wandering waves he fat, and fung

This useful leffon for the fair and young.

Ye Perfian dames, he said, to you belong,
Well may they please, the morals of my fong:
No fairer maids, I truft, than you are found,

Grac'd with foft arts, the peopled world around!
The morn that lights you, to your loves fupplies
Each gentler ray delicious to your eyes:

For

you thofe flowers her fragrant hands bestow,
And yours the love that kings delight to know.
Yet think not these, all beauteous as they are,
The best kind blessings heaven can grant the fair!
Who trust alone in beauty's feeble ray,
Boaft but the worth Baffora's pearls display ;
Drawn from the deep we own their furface bright,
But, dark within, they drink no luftrous light:
Such are the maids, and fuch the charms they boast,
By fense unaided, or to virtue loft.

Self-flattering fex! your hearts believe in vain
That love fhall blind, when once he fires the swain ;
Or hope a lover by your faults to win,
As spots on ermin beautify the skin :

Who seeks fecure to rule, be first her care
Each fofter virtue that adorns the fair;
Each tender paffion man delights to find,
The lov'd perfections of a female mind!

Bleft were the days, when wisdom held her reign,
And shepherds fought her on the filent plain;
With Truth fhe wedded in the secret grove,
Immortal Truth, and daughters blefs'd their love.

O hafte, fair maids! ye Virtues come away, Sweet Peace and Plenty lead you on your way!

The