-And yet methinks a beam of light breaks in
On my departing foul. Alas, I fear
I've been too hafty. O ye powers, that fearch
The heart of man, and weigh his inmoft thoughts,
If I have done amifs, impute it not!-
The best may err, but you are good, and-oh! [Dies,
LUCIU S.
There fled the greatest soul that ever warm'd
A Roman breaft; O Cato! O my friend!
Thy will fhall be religiously obferv'd.
But let us bear this awful corps to Cæfar,
And lay it in his fight, that it may stand
A fence betwixt us and the victor's wrath ;
Cato, tho' dead, fhall ftill protect his friends.
From hence, let fierce contending nations know
What dire effects from civil difcord flow.
'Tis this that shakes our country with alarms,
And gives up Rome a prey to Roman arms,
Produces fraud, and cruelty, and strife,
And robs the guilty world of Caro's life.
HAT odd fantastic things we women do!
Who wou'd not liften when young lovers woo?
But die a maid, yet have the choice of two!
Ladies are often cruel to their coft;
To give you pain, themselves they punish most.
Vows of virginity fhould well be weigh'd;
Too oft they're cancell'd, tho' in convents made.
Would you revenge fuch rafh refolves-you may:
Be fpiteful!and believe the thing we fay ;
We hate you when you're eafily faid nay.
How 'needless, if you knew us, were your fears?
Let love have eyes, and beauty will have ears.
Our hearts are form'd as you yourselves would choose,
Too proud to afk, too humble to refufe:
We give to merit, and to wealth we fell;
He fighs with moft fuccefs that fettles well.
The woes of wedlock with the joys we mix:
'Tis beft repenting in a coach and fix.
Blame not our conduct, fince we but pursue
Thofe lively leflons we have learn'd from you:
Your breafts no more the fire of beauty warms,
But wicked wealth ufurps the power of charms;
What pains to get the gaudy thing you hate!
To fwell in show, and be a wretch in state!
At plays you ogle, at the ring you bow;
Even churches are no fan&uaries now:
There, golden idols all your vows receive,
She is no goddess that has nought to give.
Oh, may once more the happy age appear,
When words were artless, and the thoughts fincere ;
When gold and grandeur were unenvy'd things,
And courts lefs coveted than groves and fprings.
Love then shall only mourn when truth complains,
And conftancy feel transport in its chains;
Sighs with fuccefs their own foft anguish tell,
And eyes fhall utter what the lips conceal :
Virtue again to its bright ftation climb,
And beauty fear no enemy but time;
The fair fhall liften to defert alone,
And every Lucia find a Cato's son.
To Her ROYAL HIGHNESS the
PRINCESS of WALES,
With the Tragedy of CATO, Nov. 1714.
HE mufe that oft, with facred raptures fir'd,
Has gen'rous thoughts of liberty infpir'd,
And, boldly rifing for Britannia's laws,
Engag'd great Cato in her country's caufe,
On you fubmiffive waits, with hopes affur'd,
By whom the mighty bleffing stands fecur'd,
And all the glories, that our age adorn,
Are promis'd to a people yet unborn.
No longer fhall the widow'd land bemoan
A broken lineage, and a doubtful throne;
But boaft her royal progeny's increase,
And count the pledges of her future peace.
O born to ftrengthen and to grace our isle !
While you, fair PRINCESS, in your offspring fmile,
Supplying charms to the fucceeding age,
Each heav'nly daughter's triumphs we prefage;
Already fee th' illuftrious youths complain,
And pity monarchs doom'd to figh in vain.
Thou too, the darling of our fond defires,
Whom Albion, opening wide her arms, requires,
With manly valour and attractive air
Shalt quell the fierce, and captivate the fair.
O England's younger hope! in whom confpire
The mother's sweetness, and the father's fire?
For thee perhaps, even now, of kingly race,
Some dawning beauty blooms in every grace,
Some Carolina, to heaven's dictates true,
Who, while the fcepter'd rivals vainly fue,
Thy inborn worth with confcious eyes fhall fee,
And flight th' imperial diadem for thee.
Pleas'd with the profpect of fucceffive reigns,
The tuneful tribe no more in daring ftrains
Shall vindicate, with pious fears oppreft,
Endanger'd rights, and liberty diftreft:
To milder founds each mufe fhall tune the lyre,
And gratitude, and faith to Kings infpire,
And filial love; bid impious difcord cease,
And footh the madding factions into peace;
'Or rife ambitious in more lofty lays,
And teach the nation their new monarch's praife,
Defcribe his awful lock, and godlike mind,
And Cæfar's power with Cato's virtue join'd.
Mean while, bright PRINCESS, who, with graceful eafe And native majefty art form'd to please,
Behold thofe arts with a propitious eye,
That fuppliant to their great protectress fly.!
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