By treach'ry prompts the noify hound
To fcent his footsteps on the ground?
Thou trait'ress vile! for this thy blood
Shall glut my rage, and dye the wood!
So saying, on the lamb he flies,
Beneath his jaws the victim dies.

THE

S

THE STORY OF LAVINIA.

By Mr. ТнOMSON.

OON as the morning trembles o'er the sky,
And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the spreading day;

Before the ripened field the reapers ftand,
In fair array; each by the lass he loves,
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate
By nameless gentle offices her toil.
At once they stoop, and swell the lufty sheaves;
While thro' their chearful band the rural talk,
The rural scandal, and the rural jest,
Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And steal unfelt the fultry hours away.
Behind the mafter walks, builds up the shocks;
And confcious, glancing oft on every fide
His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners spread around, and here and there,
Spike after spike, their scanty harveft pick,
Be not too narrow, husbandmen! but fling
From the full sheaf, with charitable stealth,
The liberal handful. Think, oh grateful think!
How good the God of Harvest is to you;
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields;
While these unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,

And ask their humble dole. The various turns
Of fortune ponder; that your fons may want
What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give.
The lovely young Lavinia once had friends;
And fortune smil'd deceitful on her birth.
For, in her helpless years depriv'd of all,
Of every stay, save innocence and Heaven,
She, with her widow'd mother, feeble, old,
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd
Among the windings of a woody vale;
By folitude and deep furrounding shades,
But more by bashful modesty, conceal'd.
Together thus they shunn'd the cruel scorn
Which virtue, funk to poverty, would meet
From giddy passion and low-minded pride :
Almost on nature's common bounty fed;
Like the gay birds that sung them to repose,
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare.
Her form was fresher than the morning rose,
When the dew wets its leaves; unstain'd, and pure,
As is the lily, or the mountain snow.
The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes,
Still on the ground dejected, darting all
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers:
Or when the mournful tale her mother told,
Of what her faithless fortune promis'd once,
Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy star
Of evening, shone in tears. A native grace

Sat

Sat fair-proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a fimple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of dress; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorn'd adorn'd the most.
Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's felf.
Recluse amid the close-embowering woods,
As in the hollow breast of Appenine,
Beneath the shelter of encircling hills,
A myrtle rises, far from human eye,
And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild;
So flourish'd blooming, and unseen by all,
The sweet Lavinia; till, at length, compell'd
By ftrong neceffity's fupreme command,
With fmiling patience in her looks, she went
To glean Palemon's fields. The pride of swains
Palemon was, the generous, and the rich;
Who led the rural life in all its joy
And elegance, such as Arcadian fong
Tranfmits from ancient uncorrupted times;
When tyrant custom had not shackled man,
But free to follow nature was the mode.
He then, his fancy with autumnal scenes
Amufing, chanc'd beside his reaper train
To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye;
Unconfcious of her power, and turning quick
With unaffected blushes from his gazes
He faw her charming, but he saw not half

'The charms her down-caft modesty conceal'd.
That very moment love and chafte defire

Sprung in his bosom, to himself unknown.
For still the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn,
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field :
And thus in fecret to his foul he figh'd.

"What pity! that so delicate a form,

By beauty kindled, where enlivening sense
" And more than vulgar goodness seem to dwell,
Should be devoted to the rude embrace

"Of fome indecent clown! She looks, methinks,
"Of old Acasto's line; and to my mind
"Recalls that patron of my happy life,
" From whom my liberal fortune took its rife;
"Now to the dust gone down; his houses, lands,
"And once fair-fpreading family, dissolv'd.
" "Tis faid that in fome lone obscure retreat,

Urg'd by remembrance sad, and decent pride,
"Far from those scenes which knew their better days,
"His aged widow and his daughter live,
"Whom yet my fruitless search could never find.
"Romantic wish! would this the daughter were!"
When, strict enquiring, from herself he found
She was the fame, the daughter of his friend,
Of bountiful Acasto; who can speak
The mingled passions that surpriz'd his heart,
And thro' his nerves in shivering transport ran?

Then

!