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A text for Henley, or a glofs for Hearne,
Who loves to teach, what no man cares to learn.
How little, knowledge reaps from toils like these !
'Too doubtful to direct, too poor to please.
Yet, Critics, would your tribe deserve a name,
And, fairly useful, rife to honeft fame;
First, from the head, a load of lumber move,
And, from the volume, all yourselves approve:
For patch'd and pilfer'd fragments, give us fense,
Or learning, clear from learn'd impertinence,
Where moral meaning, or where taste presides,
And wit enlivens but what reafon guides:
Great without fwelling, without meanness plain;
Serious, not filly; fportive, but not vain;
On trifles flight, on things of ufe profound,
In quoting fober, and in judging found.

225

VERSES prefented to the Prince of ORANGE, on his vifiting OXFORD, in the Year 1734

R

ECEIVE, lov'd prince, the tribute of our praise,
This hafty welcome, in unfinish'd lays.

At beft, the pomp of fong, the paint of art,
Difplay the genius, but not speak the heart;
And oft, as ornament must truth supply,
Are but the fplendid colouring of a lye.
These need not here; for to a foul like thine,
Truth, plain and fimple, will more lovely shine.

The

The truly good but wish the verse fincere:
They court no flattery, who no cenfure fear.
Such Naffau is, the fairest, gentlest mind,
In blooming youth the Titus of mankind.
Crouds, who to hail thy wifh'd appearance ran,
Forgot the prince, to praise and love the man.
Such fenfe with sweetness, grandeur mix'd with ease!
Our nobler youth will learn of thee to please:
Thy bright example fhall our world adorn,
And charm, in gracious princes, yet unborn.

Nor deem this verfe from venal art proceeds,
That vice of courts, the foil for baneful weeds.
Her candor dwells; here honeft truths are taught,
To guide and govern, not disguise, the thought.
See thefe enlighten'd Sages, who prefide
O'er learning's empire; fee the youth they guide:
Behold, all faces are in transport drest!

But those most wonder, who difcern thee beft.
At fight of thee, each free-born heart receives.
A joy, the fight of princes rarely gives;
From tyrants fprung, and oft themselves defign'd,
By Fate, the future Neroes of their kind:

But though thy blood, we know, transmitted springs
From laurel'd heroes, and from warrior-kings,
Through that high feries, we, delighted, trace
The friends of liberty, and human race!

Oh, born to glad and animate our Isle!

For thee, our heavens look pleas'd, our seasons smile. For thee, late object of our tender fears,

When thy life droop'd, and Britain was in tears,

All

All-chearing Health, the goddess rofy-fair,

Attended by foft funs, and vernal air,

Sought thofe * fam'd fprings, where, each afflictive hour,
Disease, and age, and pain, invoke her power:
She came; and, while to thee the current flows,
Pour'd all herself, and in thy cup arofe.

Hence, to thy cheek, that inftant bloom deriv'd!
Hence, with thy health, the weeping world reviv'd!
Proceed to emulate thy race divine:

A life of action, and of praise, be thine.
Affert the titles genuine to thy blood,
By Nature, daring; but by reafon, good.
So great, fo glorious thy forefathers fhone,
No fon of theirs must hope to live unknown :
Their deeds will place thy virtue full in fight;
Thy vice, if vice thou haft, in ftronger light.
If to thy fair beginnings nobly true,

Think what the world may claim, and thou must do:
The honours, that already grace thy name,

Have fix'd thy choice, and force thee into fame.

Ev'n fhe, bright Anna, whom thy worth has won,

Infpires thee what to seek and what to fhun :
Rich in all outward grace, th' exalted fair
Makes the foul's beauty her peculiar care.
O, be your nuptials crown'd with glad encrease
Of fons, in war renown'd, and great in peace;
Of daughters, fair and faithful, to fupply
The patriot-race, till Nature's felf shall die!

Batli.

VERSES Occafioned by Dr. FRAZER's rebuilding Part of the University of ABERDEEN.

IN times long paft, ere Wealth was Learning's foe,

And dar'd despise the worth he would not know; Ere mitred pride, which arts alone had rais'd, Thofe very arts, in others faw, unprais'd; Friend to mankind, * a prelate, good and great, The Mufes courted to this fafe retreat: Fix'd each fair virgin, decent, in her cell, With learned leifare, and with peace to dwell. The fabric finish'd, to the † fovereign's fame, His own neglecting, he transfer'd his claim. Here, by fucceffive worthies, well was taught Whate'er enlightens, or exalts the thought. With labour planted, and improv'd with care, The various tree of knowledge flourish'd fair: Soft and ferene the kindly feafons roll'd, And Science long enjoy'd her age of gold. Now, dire reverfe! impair'd by lapfe of years, A falling waste the Mufes' feat appears. O'er her gray roofs, with baneful ivy bound, Time, fure destroyer, walks his hostile round: Silent, and flow, and ceafelefs in his toil, He mines each wall, he moulders every pile!

Bishop Elphinston.

Ruin

+ Calling it King's College, in compliment to James IV.

Ruin hangs hovering o'er the fated place :
And dumb Oblivion comes with mended pace.
Sad Learning's genius, with a father's fear,
Beheld the total defolation near:

Beheld the Mufes ftretch the wing to fly;

And fix'd on heaven his forrow-streaming eye!

From heaven, in that dark hour, commiffion'd came Mild Charity, ev'n there the foremost name. Sweet Pity flew before her, foftly bright;

At whofe felt influence, Nature smil'd with light. "Hear, and rejoice!.

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the gracious Power begun"Already, fir'd by me thy favourite fon, "This ruin'd scene remarks with filial eyes; "And, from its fall, bids fairer fabrics rife. "Ev'n now, behold! where crumbling fragments grey, • In duft deep-bury'd, loft to memory lay, "The column fwells, the well-knit arches bend, "The round dome widens, and the roofs afcend!

"Nor ends the bounty thus: by him bestow'd, "Here, Science fhall her richest stores unload. "Whate'er, long-hid, Philosophy has found; "Or the Mufe fung, with living lawrel crown'd "Or History defcry'd, far-looking fage,

"In the dark doubtfulness of distant age;

"Thefe, thy best wealth, with curious choice combin❜d, "Now treafur'd here, fhall form the studious mind : "To wits unborn the wanted fuccours give, "And fire the Bard, whom Genius means to live. "But, teach thy fons the gentle laws of peace; "Let low Self-love and pedant-Discord ceafe:

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