A scheme, forsooth! to benefit the nation!
Some queer, odd whim of pious propagation ! *
Lord ! talk fo, here—the man must be a widgeon :
Drury may propagate-but not Religion.

Yet, after all, to give the Devil his due,
Our Author's scheme, though strange, is wholly new :
Well, hall the novelty then recommend it?
If not from liking, from caprice befriend it.
For drums and routs, make him a while your passion,
A little while let Virtue be the fashion :
And, spite of real or imagin'd blunders,
Ev'n let him live, nine days, like other wonders.

P R O LOGŲ E.

то

MR. THOMSON'S AGAMEMNON.

WHE
W

3

HE N this decisive night, at length, appears,

The night of every author's hopes and fears,
What shifts to bribe applause, poor poets try!
In all the forms of wit they court and lye :
These meanly beg it, as an alms; and those,
By boastful bluster dazzle and impose.

Nor

* The profits arising from this play were intended to be given, by the Author, to the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge,

Nor poorly fearful, nor securely vain, Ours would, by honest ways, that grace

obtain ; Would, as a free-born wit, be fairly try'd : And then – let candor, fairly too, decide. He courts no friend, who blindly comes to praise; He dreads no foe-but whom his faults

may

raise, Indulge a generous pride, that bids him own, He aims to please, by noble means alone ; By what may win the judgment, wake the heart, Inspiring nature, and directing art; By scenes, so wrought, as may applause command More from the judging head, than thundering han.l.

Important is the moral we would teach Oh may this island practise what we preachVice in its first approach with care to Thun; The wretch, who once engages, is undone. Crimes lead to greater crimes, and link so streight, What first was accident, at last is fate : Guilt's hapless servant sinks into a flave ; And Virtue's last fad strugglings cannot fave.

" As such our fair attempt, we hope to see " Our judges,-here at least--from influence free: “ One place,-ubiass’d yet by party-rage, " Where only honour votes-the British stage, “ We ask for justice, for indulgence sue : « Our last belt licence must proceed from you."

I M P R O M P T U, On a LADY, who had passed some time in playing with a very young child.

. WHY, on this leaft of little Misses,

Did Celia waste so many kisses ? Quoth Love, who stood behind and smil'd, She kiss'd the father in the child.

E PIG RAM, On seeing two persons pass by, in very different

equipages.
IS
N modern, as in ancient days,

See what the Muses have to brag on :
The Player in his own post-chaise;.
The Poet in a carrier's waggon!

EPIGRAM,
On a certain Lord's passion for a SINGER.

;
Nerina's devil-face affrights :
How whimsical her Strephon's fate,
Condemn'd at once to like and hate!
But be the cruel, be the kind,
Love! strike her dumb, or make him blind.

:

A SIMILE IN PRIOR,

Applied to the same Person.

DEAR Thomas, didł thou never pop

Thy head into a tin-man's shop?
There, Thomas, didft thou never fee-
'Tis but by way of fimile-
A squirrel spend its little rage,
In jumping round a rowling cage ?
Mov'd in the orb, pleas’d with the chimes,
The foolish creature thinks it climbs ;
But here or there, turn wood or wire,
It never gets two inches higher,

So fares it with this little Peer,
So busy and so bustling here ;
For ever firting up and down,
And frisking round his cage, the town.
A world of nothing in his chat,
Of who said this, and who did that:
With similies, that never hit;
Vivacity, that has no wit;
Schemes laid this hour, the next forsaken;
Advice oft ask'd, but never taken :
Still whirl'd, by every rising whim,
From that to this, from her to him ;
And when he hath his circle run,
He ends-just where he first begun.

ON AN AMOROUS OLD MAN.

STI

TILL hovering round the fair at fixty-four,

Unfit to love, unable to give o'er ;
A feth-fly, that just flutters on the wing,
Awake to buz, but not alive to sting;
Brisk where he cannot, backward where he can;
The teazing ghost of the departed man.

T!

HE youth liad wit himself, and could afford

A witty neighbour his good word.
Though scandal was his joy, he would not swear :

An oath had made the ladies stare.
At them he duly dress’d, but without passion :

His only mistress was the fashion.
Her verse with fancy glitter'd, cold and faint;

His profe, with fenfe, correctly quaint.

Trisles he lov'd; he tasted arts : At once a fribble, and a man of parts.

A F R A. G M E N T.

FA

AIR morn ascends : soft zephyr's wing

O'er hill and vale renews the spring : Where, sown profusely, herb and flower, Of balmy smell, of healing power,

Their