Aftonish'd knew, before him, on her knee,
His Theodora! To his arms he rais'd
The loft lov'd fair, and in his bosom press’d.
My father! - O my child! at once they cry'd:
Nor more. The rest ecstatic silence spoke, 495
And Nature from her inmost feat of sense
Beyond all utterance mov’d. On this blest scene,
Where emulous in either bosom strove
Adoring gratitude, earth, ocean, air,
Around with softening afpect seem'd to smile; 500
And heaven, approving, look’d delighted down.

Nor theirs alone this blissful hour: the joy,
With instant flow, from shore to shore along
Diffusive ran; and all th' exulting isle
About the new-arriv'd was pour'd abroad, 50:5
To hope fong loft, by miracle regain'd!
In each plain bosom Love and Nature wept:
While each a fire, a husband, or a friend,
Embracing held and kiss'd.
Now, while the song,

510
The choral hymn, in wildly-warbled notes,
What Nature dettates when the full heart prompts,
Best harmony, their grateful souls effus'd
Aloud to heaven ; Montano, reverend Seer,
(Whofe eye prophetic far through time's abyss

515
Could shoot its beam, and there the births of fate,
Yet immature and in their causes hid,
Illumin'd fee) a space abstracted stood :
His frame with shivery horror stirr’d, his eyes
From outward vision held, and all the man 526

Entranc'd

530

Entranc'd in wonder at th' unfolding scene,
On fluid air, as in a mirror seen,
And glowing radiant, to his mental fight.

They Aly! he cry'd, they melt in air away,
The clouds that long fair Albion's heaven d'ercaft! 525
With tempest delug'd, or with flame devour'd
Her drooping plains : while dawning rofy round
A purer morning lights up all her skies !
He comes, behold! the great deliverer comes !
Immortal William, borne triumphant on,
From yonder orient, o'er propitious feas,
White with the fails of his unnumber'd fleet,
A floating forest, stretch'd from shore to shore !
See! with spread wing Britannia's genius flies,
Before his prow; commands the speeding gales 535
To waft him on; and, o'er the hero's head,
Inwreath'd with olive bears the lawrel-crown,
Blest emblem, peace with liberty restor’d!
And hark! from either strand, which nations hide,
To welcome-in true freedom's day renew'd
What thunders of acclaim! Aurelius, man
By heaven belov'd, thou too that facued fun
Shalt live to hail; fhalt warm thee in his thine!
I see thee on the flowery lap diffus'd
Of thy lov’d vale, amid a smiling race

545 From this blest pair to spring: whom 'equal faith, I And equal fondness, in soft league shall hold From youth to reverend age; the calmer hours Of thy last day to sweeten and adorn; Through life thy comfort, and in death thy crown! 555

TO

546

DUKE OF MARLBOROU G H *. YOUR Grace has given leave, that these few Poems

should appear in the world under the patronage of your name.

But this leave would have been refused, I. know, had you expected to find your own praises, however just, in any part of the present address. I do not say it, my Lord, in the stile of compliment. Genuine modesty, the companion and the grace of true merit, may be surely distinguished from the affectation of it: as surely as the native glowing of a fine complection: from that artificial colouring, which is used, in vain, to supply what Nature had denied, or has resumed.

Yet, permit me just to hint, my Lord, while I restrain my pen from all enlargement, that if the fairelt public character must be raised upon private virtue, as furely it must, your Grace has laid already the securesti foundation of the former, in the latter. The eyes of man-kind are therefore turned upon you : and, from what you are known to have done, in one way, they reason-ably look for whatever can be expected from a great and good man, in the other.

The Author of these lighter amusements hopes soon to present your Grace with something more folid, more deserving your attention, in the life of the first Duke of Marlborouglı t.

You * This dedication was prefixed by the author to a. small collection of his poems published in 1762. N.

+ A work which has not yet appeared. N.

You will then see, that superior talents for war have been, though they rarely are, accompanied with equal abilities for negotiation : and that the same extensive capacity, which could guide all the tumultuous scenes of the camp, knew how to direct, with equal skill, the calmer but more perplexing operations of the cabinet.

In the mean while, that you may live to adorn the celebrated and difficult title you wear; that you may be, like him, the defender of your country in days of public danger; and in times of peace, what is perhaps Jets frequently found, the friend and patron of those useful and ornamental arts, by which human nature is exalted, and human fociety rendered more happy: this, my Lord, is respectfully the wish of

YOUR GRACE's

most obedient

humble servant.

TRUTH