And fome for "old fuits, cloaks, or coats,"
Cry, "D-n your preachers without notes!"
He that cries" coney-skins, or onions,"
Blames "toleration of opinions,"
Blue- apron whores, that fit with furmety,
Rail at " occafional conformity."
Inftead of "cucumbers to pickle,"
Some cry aloud, "No conventicle !"
Masons, instead of "building houses,"

To "build the church," would starve their spouses,
And gladly leave their trades, for ftorming
The meeting-houfes, or informing.

Bawds, ftrumpets, and religion-haters,

Pimps, pandars, atheifts, fornicators,

Rogues, that, like Falstaff, fcarce know whether
A church's infide 's ftone or leather,

Yet join the parfons and the people,

To cry "the church,"-but mean "the steeple."

If, holy mother, fuch you'll own For your true fons, and fuch alone, Then Heaven have mercy upon you, But the de'il take your beaftly crew!

AN

Quid prius dicam folitis parentis "Laudibus?

66 Qui mare & terras variifque mundum

"Temperat horis ?

"Unde nil majus generatur ipfo,

"Nec viget quicquam fimile aut fecundum."

HORAT.

THAT
HAT the praises of the Author of Nature, which

is the fittest subject for the sublime way of writ ing, was the most ancient use of Poetry, cannot be learn'd from a more proper instance (next to examples of holy writ) than from the Greek fragments of Orpheus; a relique of great antiquity: they contain feveral verfes concerning God, and his making and governing the universe; which, though imperfect, have many noble hints and lofty expreffions. Yet whether these verses were indeed written by that celebrated Father of Poetry and Mufick, who preceded Homer, or by Onomacritus who lived about the time of Pififtratus, and only contain fome of the doctrines of Orpheus, is a queftion of little ufe or importance.

A large paraphrase of these in French verse has been prefixed to the translation of Phocylides, but in a flat ftile, much inferior to the defign. The following Ode, with many alterations and additions proper to a modern poem, is attempted upon the fame model, in a language which, having stronger finews than the French, is, by the confefsion of their best critick Rapin, more capable of fuftaining great fubjects.

MUSE unfeign'd! O true cœleftial fire,
Brighter than that which rules the day,
Defcend! a mortal tongue inspire

To fing fome great immortal lay!
Begin, and strike aloud the confecrated lyre!
Hence, ye profane! be far away!
Hence all ye impious flaves that bow
To idol lufts, or altars raise,

And to false heroes give fantastic praise !

And hence ye gods, who to a crine your spurious beings

owe!

But hear, O Heaven, and Earth, and Seas profound! Hear, ye fathom'd deeps below,

And let your echoing vaults repeat the found;

Let nature, trembling all around,

Attend her mafter's awful name,

From whom heaven, earth, and feas, and all the wide

creation came !

15

II.

He spoke the great command; and Light,
Heaven's eldeft-born and fairest child,

Flash'd in the lowering face of ancient Night,
And, pleas'd with its own birth, ferenely fmil'd.
The Sons of Morning, on the wing,
Hovering in choirs, his praifes fung,
When from th' unbounded vacuous pace
A beauteous rifing world they saw,
When Nature fhew'd her yet unfinish'd face,
And motion took th' establish'd law

To roll the various globes on high;

When Time was taught his infant wings to try, And from the barrier fprung to his appointed race.

III.

Supreme, Almighty, ftill the fame!

'Tis he, the great infpiring mind,

That animates and moves this univerfal frame,
Present at once in all, and by no place confin'd.
Not Heaven itself can bound his sway,

Beyond th' untravel'd limits of the sky,
Invifible to mortal eye

He dwells in uncreated day.

Without beginning, without end; 'tis he

That fills th' unmeafur'd growing orb of vaft immenfity.

IV. What