ON READING SOME OF HIS POEMS,
THE RIGHT HON. LADY E. B.
ELDEST DAUGHTER TO THE EARL OF LOUTH.
DECEMBER XXVIII. MDCCLXX.
A FLOW of ftyle, by native genius taught,
Unftudied ease, improving every thought,
Sweetness, and grace, and energy divine,
And brilliant fancy, tune each charming line!
APOLLO's favourite! deftin'd from thy birth
His rightful heir, his substitute on earth;
Belov'd of all the bright PARNASSIAN choir,
Thine all their skill, thine their celeftial fire;
Thine each engaging, each effectual art,
To inform the judgment, and correct the heart-
Whether you paint the cool embowering shade,
The black brow'd mountain, or the steep cascade,
The murmuring stream, that in meanders glides,
The whirling tempeft, or rough furging tides;
Whether, with tafte peculiar and refin'd,
You give the portrait of the heaven-born mind;
Or, blefs'd with nature's choiceft pencil, trace
Your kind ideas of exterior grace,
The caufe of virtue ftill is your concern:
We hear with profit, and with pleasure learn ;
Learn what to fhun, and wifely what pursue;
Even blame, enforc'd, comes reconcil'd from you;
Fond to imbibe what friendly you inspire,
We praife, we love, we honour, we admire.
ON HIS CORRECTING A COLLEGE EXERCISE.
BY JAMES WHITE, ESQ
A YOUNG, a carelefs, but a grateful muse,
With joy, the freedom of a friend pursues ;
Submits her numbers to a faithful ear,
And, gladly, bids each effay'd flight appear.
Youth, ever prompt, improvident and vain,
Demands the voice of caution to restrain;
Rous'd by the blaft of fame, we feek to please,
And grafp unthinking, at the bribe of praise;
Heedlefs of fense, with fyllables we play,
And lull'd, through rhyme's enchanted pages stray.
But you, QUINCTILIUS! wide extremes can blend
And, kindly, hide the critic in the friend;
Each erring whisper of self-praise remove,
At once can cenfure and at once improve.
Then happy they-and yet a happy few→→
Who find a judge fo diffidently true.
A friend in act, in counsel as in name,
An honeft guardian of a future fame,
Cautious to blame, unprejudiced, fincere,
Pleas'd to commend, unwillingly fevere,
Studious to hint, or modeftly defign,
Such may each critic prove, and fuch is mine.
To read with spleen, to judge with envious rage, Explain perverse, correct the faultless page, Betrays the cynic and the poet's peft; 'Tis but a learn'd ill-nature at the best : Be then each critic fcrupulously just,→→→ How great the hazard! and how vast the trust! Bleft was the time, when foft inftruction drew, Each happy day, my youthful ears to you!
Even then I lov'd you for the mufe's fake,
And for your own :
-You taught the art to speak.*
O! loft then be that mufe, and dull my days,
Should this falfe tongue forget QUINCTILIUS' praise;
To diftant years, if fuch kind heaven decree,
When ftrength decays, this heart shall warm to thee; To thee, preceptor of my heedlefs age! 'Till we've run o'er life's variegated page,
Since then, QUINCTILIUS! with impartial eyes, You view the folid, fpecious, or unwife;
Convinc'd, I hufh each found of letter'd pride,
And cry with Cato, Gods! I'm fatisfied.'
MASTER BENJAMIN NUN'S ADDRESS
AT A PUBLIC JULY EXAMINATION,
(The Speaker having just completed bis tenth Year.)
BY R. N. ESQ.
FOR the laft time, ye walls! thou roof! farewell,
Where gentle rule and willing homage dwell;
And you, my fellows! howfoever class'd,
With whom this earliest stage of life I have pass'd,
While four bright funs revolv'd through æther's space,
And now the fifth pursues his annual race,
Farewell!-may happiness be ftill your lot!
And be our infant friendship ne'er forgot!
How many here, these thirty years, have been
The little actors in this bufy fcene!
Here as the friend, the hero or the fage,
Given the fair prospect of their future age!
How many here performed the mimick Play,
Like TOMMY MOORE, the ROSCIUS of the day!
Or, from this height, harangued the admiring train;
While echoing plaudits fhook that crouded plain!
Lefs pleafing cares their prefent thoughts engage;
Lefs pure ambition rules their riper age.
Some, rais'd aloft, who in the ftate prefide,
To their own gain the nation's councils guide,
Some, on whofe lips a crowd of clients dwell,
Swallow the fish and give to each a fhell.
On INDIA fome, or AFRIC's groaning fhores,
From human fufferings heap their guilty ftores:
While fome at home obnoxious Places hold,
And part with honeft fame for ribbands, chains, andgold!
But happier fome a better task pursue,
With gospel fhowers the barren land bedew,
Among the fick their healing cares dispense,
Teach the young mind to ripen into fenfe,
Extract its riches from the generous foil,
Or croud their native ports with foreign spoil;
On formless matter life and shape beftow,
With new delights the paths of science strew,
Or active, urge the manufacturing band,
While hundreds hang on their fupporting hand.
For me, whatever cares my thoughts engage;
My part performing on whatever ftage;
Or where the eaft around its odours flings,
And haughty merchants make and unmake kings;
|