The lady Janes and Joans repair,° Such as in silence of the night Come (sweep) along some winding entry, (Styack has often seen the sight,) Or at the chapel-door stand sentry. In peaked hoods and mantles tarnished, The peeress comes. The audience stare, 100 105 And doff their hats with due submission: 110 She curtsies, as she takes her chair, To all the people of condition. The bard, with many an artful fib, Disproved the arguments of Squib,° And all that Groom° could urge against him. But soon his rhetoric forsook him, He stood as mute as poor Macleane.° Yet something he was heard to mutter, 115 120 (Without design to hurt the butter, Or any malice to the poultry,) "He once or twice had penned a sonnet; The ghostly prudes with hagged face My lady rose, and with a grace She smiled, and bid him come to dinner. "Jesu-Maria! Madam Bridget, Why, what can the Viscountess mean? (Cried the square-hoods in woful fidget,) "The times are altered quite and clean! "Decorum's turned to mere civility; Her air and all her manners show it. [Here five hundred stanzas are lost.] And so God save our noble king, And guard us from long-winded lubbers, That to eternity would sing, And keep my lady from her rubbers.° 125 130 135 140 ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE° Now the golden morn aloft Waves her dew-bespangled wing, Till April starts, and calls around The sleeping fragrance from the ground; New-born flocks, in rustic dance, The birds his presence greet: But chief, the sky-lark warbles high 5 10 And, lessening from the dazzled sight, 15 Rise, my soul! on wings of fire, Rise the rapturous choir among; Yesterday the sullen year Saw the snowy whirlwind fly; 20 Mute was the music of the air, Smiles on past misfortune's brow Soft reflection's hand can trace; Still, where rosy pleasure leads, The hues of bliss more brightly glow, See the wretch, that long has tost The meanest floweret of the vale, Humble quiet builds her cell, Near the source whence pleasure flows; THE ALLIANCE OF EDUCATION AND A FRAGMENT ESSAY I Πόταγ ̓, ὦ γαθέ. τὰν γὰρ ἀοιδὰν Οὔτι πα εἰς Αΐδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελάθοντα φυλαξεις. THEOCRITUS, Id. I. 63. As sickly plants betray a niggard earth, Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins: Unformed, unfriended, by those kindly cares, |