III.

When Spring, returning to the earth,
Gives ev'ry fruit and flow'ret birth,
And, in new verdure cloath'd, the grove
Again renews the fong of love,
Delighted, oft with eager feet,

He'll hail each op'ning bloom and fweet,
With fwelling heart the scene survey,

And pour, by nature fir'd, the foul-enchanting lay.

IV.

At Summer noon-tide from the heat He'll feek in groves a green retreat, And, poring on the babbling stream, Indulge fome fweet poetic dream. When Autumn crowns the varied year, And funs a milder radiance wear,

He'll walk at cool of setting day,

And gaze with wistful eye on the departing ray.

V.

When Winter o'er the dreary plains
Confefs'd in all its horrors reigns,
When icy streams forget to flow,
And hills are hid beneath the snow,
No profpect feen around to rife,

But cheerless wastes and cloudy skies,

He'll fympathize with nature's state,

And mufe in mournful strains the wrecks of time and fate.

VI..

VI.

He nature loves in ev'ry form,

Alike the funfhine and the ftorm;
Though pleas'd the murm'ring rill he view
Through flow'ry meads its courfe pursue,
Not lefs he hears the torrent's roar,
Hoarfe dafhing on the founding fhore,

Nor brightest skies delight his foul

More than when lightnings flash, and thunders rend the

pole.

VII.

His is the bofom form'd to prove
Excefs of friendship and of love:
His-ardour, that impetuous glows,
And pity-his, that melting flows;
No common feelings doom'd to fhare,
His joy is rapture, grief-despair:

By joy exalted to the skies,

But, ah! by grief deprefs'd, how low on earth he lies!

VIII.

And as each paffion rules the hour, The willing mufe fhall own its pow're Now he fall fing in am'rous strains The lover's joys, the lover's pains; Now foothing pleasure fhail infpire, Now ardent glory roufe the lyre, Now fancy's fprightly lays fhall flow,

Now melancholy's ftrains move folemn, foft, and flow.

IX.

IX.

He'll fhun the bufy haunts of noise, And scorn the wealthy's fordid joys; But chiefly in the rural cell,

The mufe's haunt, he'll chufe to dwell;

In nature's scenes he'll love to stray,
And meditate the lonely lay:

To worldly joy and care unknown,

The muse shall fill his mind, and mark him as her own.

X.

And though in life's fequefter'd way

Unknown, unnotic'd he may ftray,

Or doom'd in his disastrous state

To prove the ills of partial fate;
Yet future times, to worth more just,
Shall deck the tomb, and rear the bust,

Shall bid his mem❜ry death defy,

And give on wings of fame through ev'ry age to fly.

TO A LADY IN A DECLINING STATE OF

HEALTH.

AH! where is fled each wonted charm,
With life, with health, and vigour warm,
The cheek of sweetly mingled dye,
The lively mien and cheerful eye,

Ali,

All, all exchang'd in youthful bloom
For the pale livery of the tomb :
Say, can a nymph so lovely share,
Or hopeless grief or pining care,
Or, long ere nature bid decay,
Death mark fo fair a form its prey;
Or, envious of thy worth, the skies
Remove from earth fo bright a prize?
Cannot affection's prayers prevail,
The fighs of love that fwell the gale,
Virtues fo dear from death to fave,
And snatch fuch beauty from the grave?
Oh! live to crown affection's prayer,
And live to blefs a lover's care;

Who, bending now with anxious eye,
Where all his hopes and wishes lie,

Vows still with thee to fhare an equal doom,
Through life to love thee and divide thy tomb.

SONGS

SONG S

Introduced in the Proceffion on laying the Foundation of a new College at Edinburgh, Nov. 16, 1789.

TUNE-The Conquering Hero.

SEE he comes: his way prepare,*

Rend with loud acclaims the air,
Raife aloft the joyful lay,

Loudly celebrate the day.

Sprung from him † whofe mental ray,
The dawn of fcience turn'd to day;
See he comes, on every hand
Encircled by the learned band.

TUNE The Hero Comes.

LONG,. long, difhonour of our Ifle,
Neglected lay the Muse's pile;

*The words of the fongs were, at the request of feveral gentlemen, haftily thrown together for the occafion by the Rev. John Armstrong, M. A. at that time a ftudent in the University of Edinburgh.

+ Napier of Merchiston, (of whom the prefent Lord Napier, who prefided at the proceffion as Grand Master Mason of Scotland, is a lineal defcendant) the famous inventor of the Logarithms, who, by the elegant hiftorian of England, is defervedly stiled, a truly Great Man.