Light flows the shining azure vest, I view'd the change with sweet surprise ; COTTON CHAPTER III. DIDACTIC PIECES. SECTION I. Thé vanity of wealth. SECTION II. Nothing formed in vain. . And lives the man, whose universal eye THOMSON SECTION III. On pride. Als peep oʻer hills, and Alps on Alps arise, POPE. SECTION IV. Cruelty to beasts censured. I would not enter on my list of friends, (Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility,) the man Who needlesly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail, That crawls at evening in the public path ; But he that has humanity, fore warn'd, Will tread aside, and let the repiile live. The creeping vermine, loathsome to the sight, And charg'd perhaps with venom, that intrudes A visitor unwelcome into scenes Sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove, The chamber, or refectory, may die. A necessary act incurs no blame. Not so, when held within their proper bounds, And guiltless of offence, they range the all', Or take their pastime in the spacious field : There they are privileg d. And he that hunts Or harms ibem there, is guilty ot a wrong; Disturbs th' economy of nature's realm, Who, when she formd, design d them an abode. The sum is this: if inan's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs. Else they are all the meanest things that are, As free to live and to enjoy that life, As God was free to form them at the first, Who, in his sovreign wisdom, made them all. Ye, therefore, who loye mercy, teach your sons To love it too. The spring time of our years Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd, in most, By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand To check them. But, alas ! none suoner shoots Ifunrestrain'd into luxuriant growth, Than cruelty, most dev’list of them all. Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule And righteous limitation of its act. By which Hrav'n moves in pard':ing guilty man; And he that shows none, being ripe in years, And conscious of the outrage be commits, Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn. COWPER. SECTION V. A paraphrase on the lutter part of the 6th chapter of St. Mat thew. When ing breast labours with oppressive care, And o'er my cheek descends the falling tear ; U While all my warring passions are at strife, “Think not, when all your scanty stores afford, Observe the rising lily's snowy grace ; “ If, ceaseless, thus, the fowles of heav'n he feeds; If o'er the fields such lucid robes he spreads ; Will he not care for you, ye faithless, say ? Is hc unwise ? or are ye less than they !" SECTION VI. The death af a good man a strong incentive to virtue. The chamber where the good man meets his fate, Is privileg'd beyond the common walk Of virtuous life, quite in the verge of heav'n. Fly ye protane! if not, draw near with a we, Receive the blessing, and adore the chance, That threw jó this Bethesda your disease : If unrestor*d by this, despair your cure. For, here, resistless demonstration dwells ; A death-bed's a detector of the heart Here tir'd Dissimulation drops her mask, 'Thro' life's grimace, that mistress of the scene ! Here real, and apparent, are the same. ou see the man ; you see his hold on heav'n, If sound his virtue, as Philander's sound. Whatever farce the boastsul hero plays, YOUNG SEGTION VII. Reflections on a future stare, froin a review of winter. 'Tis done ! dread winter spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. How dead the vegetable kingdom lies! How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends His desolate doma 11. Behold, fond man ! See here they picturd lite : pass some few years, Thy flow'ring spring, thy summer's ardent strength, Thy sober autumn fading into age, And pale conciuding winter comes at last, And shuts the scene. Ah ! whither now are fled Those dreams of greatness } those unsolid hopes Of happiness ? those longings after fame? Those restless cares ? those busy bustling days ? Those gay-spent, festive nights ? those veering thoughts, Lost bei ween good and ill, that shard thy life? All now are vanish'd ! Virtue sole survives, Immorial never failing friend of man, His guide to happiness on high. And see ! 'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth Of heaven and earth ! awak’ning nature hears The new creating word ; and starts to life, In ev'ry heighten'd form, from pain and death For ever free. The great eternal scheme, Involving all, and in a perfect whole Uniting as the prospect wider spreads, To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace. Ye vainly wise! Ye blind presumptuous ! now, Confounded in the dust, adore thai Power, And Wisdom oft arraigned : see now the cause Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd, And died neglected : why the good man's share In life was gall and bitterness of soul : Why the love widow and her orphans pip'd In starying solitude ; while luxury, In palaces, lay straining her low thought, To form unreal wants ; why heav'n-born truth, And moderation fair, wore the red marks Of superstition's scourge : why licens'd pain, |