In every form of beauty bright,
That captivates the mental sight
With pleasure and surprise.
To thy unspotted shrine I bow;
Attend thy modest suppliant's vow,
That breathes no wild desires :
But taught, by thy unerring rules,
To shun the fruitless wish of fools,
To nobler views aspires.
Not Fortune's gem, Ambition's plume,
Nor Cytherea's fading bloom,
Be objects of my pray'r:
Let Av'rice, Vanity, and Pride,
Those envied glittering toys divide,
The dull rewards of care.
To me thy better gifts impart,
Each moral beauty of the heart,
By studious thoughts refin'd;
For wealth, the smiles of glad content,
For power, its amplest, best extent,
An empire o'er the mind.
When Fortune drops her gay parade,
When Pleasure's transient roses fade,
And wither in the tomb;
Unchang'd is thy immortal prize,
Thy ever-verdant laurels rise
By thee protected, I defy
The coxcomb's sneer, the stupid lie
Of ignorance and spite :
Alike contemn the leaden fool,
And all the pointed ridicule
Of undiscerning wit.
From envy, hurry, noise, and strife,
The dull impertinence of life,
In thy retreat I rest;
Pursue thee to the peaceful groves
Where Plato's sacred spirit roves,
In all thy graces drest.
He bid Ilyssus' tuneful stream
Convey thy philosophic theme,
Of perfect, fair, and good;
Attentive Athens caught the sound,
And all her listening sons around
In awful silence stood.
Reclaim'd, her wild licentious youth Confess'd the potent voice of Truth, And felt its just controul:
The Passions ceas'd their loud alarms, And Virtue's soft persuasive charms O'er all their senses stole.
Thy breath inspires the poet's song, The patriot's free, unbias'd tongue, The hero's gen'rous strife;
Thine are retirement's silent joys,
And all the sweet endearing ties
Of still, domestic life.
No more to fabled names confin'd,
To Thee! Supreme, all-perfect Mind,
My thoughts direct their flight:
Wisdom's thy gift, and all her force
From Thee deriv'd, unchanging Source
Of intellectual light!*
O send her sure, her steady ray,
To regulate my doubtful way,
Through life's perplexing road :
The mists of error to controul,
And through its gloom direct my soul
To happiness and good!
Beneath her clear discerning eye,
The visionary shadows fly
Of Folly's painted show :
She sees, through ev'ry fair disguise,
That all, but Virtue's solid joys,
Is vanity and woe.†
* See the general epistle of St. James, i. 5. 17.
+ [See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 585, where this poem was first printed, and thence inserted by Richardson in his Cla. rissa.' The rev. Mr. Pennington, in his Life of Mrs. Carter, has printed an apologetical letter to her, written by the author of Clarissa on that occasion.]
FRIENDSHIP, peculiar gift of Heaven,
The noble mind's delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,
To all the lower world denied.
While Love, unknown among the blest,
Parent of rage and hot desires,
The human, and the savage breast,
Inflames alike with equal fires.
With bright, but oft destructive gleam,
Alike o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.
Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys
On fools and villains ne'er descend;
In vain for thee the monarch sighs,
And hugs a flatterer for a friend.
When Virtues kindred Virtues meet,
And sister-souls together join,
Thy pleasures, permanent as great,
Are all transporting, all divine.
[Or rather by Dr. Johnson: being inserted by him in the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1743, with some variations from the present copy.]
Oh! shall thy flames then cease to glow,
When souls to happier climes remove?
What rais'd our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above.
THE world, my dear Myra, is full of deceit,
And friendship's a jewel we seldom can meet;
How strange does it seem, that in searching around,
This source of content is so rare to be found?
O, friendship! thou balm, and rich sweet'ner of life;
Kind parent of ease, and composer of strife;
Without thee, alas! what are riches and pow'r ?
But empty delusion, the joys of an hour!
How much to be priz'd and esteem'd is a friend,
On whom we may always with safety depend?
Our joys, when extended, will always increase;
And griefs, when divided, are hush'd into peace.
When fortune is smiling, what crowds will appear,
Their kindness to offer, and friendship sincere ;
Yet change but the prospect, and point out distress,
No longer to court you they eagerly press,
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