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And urging their various opinions, intended To make me wed systems, which they recommended.

Said a lech'rous old friar skulking near Lincoln'sinn,

(Whose trade's to absolve, but whose pastime's to

sin;

Who, spider-like, seizes weak Protestant flies,
Which hung in his sophistry cobweb he spies ;)

Ah! pity your soul; for without our church pale,
If you happen to die, to be damn'd you can't fail;
The Bible, you boast, is a wild revelation:
Hear a church that can't err, if you hope for sal-
vation."

grace

Said a formal non-con, (whose rich stock of Lies forward expos'd in shop-window of face,) "Ah! pity your soul: come, be of our sect: For then you are safe, and may plead you're elect. As it stands in the Acts, we can prove ourselves saints,

Being Christ's little flock everywhere spoke against." Said a jolly church parson, (devoted to ease, While penal-law dragons guard his golden fleece,) "If you pity your soul, I pray listen to neither; The first is in error, the last a deceiver:

That our's is the true church, the sense of our tribe is,

And surely in medio tutissimus ibis."

Said a yea and nay Friend, with a stiff hat and band,

(Who while he talk'd gravely would hold forth his hand,)

"Dominion and wealth are the aim of all three, Though about ways and means they may all dis

agree;

Then prithee be wise, go the Quaker's by-way, "Tis plain, without turnpikes, so nothing to pay."

THE GROTTO,*

WRITTEN BY MR GREEN, UNDER THE NAME OF PETER DRAKE, A FISHERMAN OF BRENTFORD.

Printed in the year 1732, but not published.

Scilicet hic possis curvo dignoscere rectum, Atque inter silvas Academi quærere verum.

Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace Gives leave to view what beauties grace Your flow'ry banks, if you have seen The much-sung Grotto of the queen. Contemplative, forget awhile Oxonian towers, and Windsor's pile, And Wolsey's pridet (his greatest guilt) And what great William since has built, And flowing fast by Richmond scenes, (Honor'd retreat of two great queens!) From Sion-House, whose proud survey Browbeats your flood, look 'cross the way, And view, from highest swell of tide, The milder scenes of Surrey side.

Though yet no palace grace the shore,
To lodge that pair you should adore;
Nor abbeys, great in ruin, rise,
Royal equivalents for vice;
Behold a grot, in Delphic grove,
The Graces' and the Muses' love.
(O, might our laureate study here,
How would he hail his new-born year!)
A temple from vain glories free,
Whose goddess is Philosophy,
Whose sides such licens'd idols crown
As Superstition would pull down :
The only pilgrimage know,

That men of sense would choose to go:
Which sweet abode, her wisest choice,
Urania cheers with heavenly voice,
While all the Virtues gather round,
To see her consecrate the ground.
If thou, the god with winged feet,
In council talk of this retreat,
And jealous gods resentment show
At altars rais'd to men below;
Tell those proud lords of Heaven, 'tis fit
Their house our heroes should admit;
While each exists, as poets sing,
A lazy, lewd immortal thing,
They must (or grow in disrepute)
With Earth's first commoners recruit.

Needless it is in terms unskill'd
To praise whatever Boyle § shall build
Needless it is the busts to name
Of men, monopolists of fame;
Four chiefs adorn the modest stone,T
For virtue as for learning known;
The thinking sculpture helps to raise
Deep thoughts, the genii of the place:

;

Hor.

Our wits Apollo's influence beg,
The Grotto makes them all with egg:
Finding this chalkstone in my nest,
I strain, and lay among the rest.

ADIEU awhile, forsaken flood,
To ramble in the Delian wood,
And pray the god my well-meant song
May not my subject's merit wrong.

Hampton Court, begun by Cardinal Wolsey, and improved by King William III.

Queen Anne, consort to King Richard II. and Queen Elizabeth, both died at Richmond.

Sion House is now a seat belonging to the Duke of Northumberland.

§ Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington, a nobleman remark. able for his fine taste in architecture. "Never were protection and great wealth more generously and judiciously diffused than by this great person, who had every quality

* A building in Richmond Gardens, erected by Queen of a genius and artist, except envy." He died December Caroline, and committed to the custody of Stephen Duck. 4, 1753.

At the time this poem was written, many other verses appeared on the same subject.

The author should have said five; there being the busts of Newton, Locke, Wollaston, Clarke, and Boyle

To the mind's ear, and inward sight,
Their silence speaks, and shade gives light:
While insects from the threshold preach,
And minds dispos'd to musing teach:
Proud of strong limbs and painted hues,
They perish by the slightest bruise;
Or maladies, begun within,
Destroy more slow life's frail machine;
From maggot-youth through change of state,
They feel like us the turns of fate;
Some born to creep have liv'd to fly,

And change earth-cells for dwellings high;
And some that did their six wings keep,
Before they died been forc'd to creep;
They politics like ours profess,
The greater prey upon the less:
Some strain on foot huge loads to bring,
Some toil incessant on the wing,
And in their different ways explore
Wise sense of want by future store;
Nor from their vigorous schemes desist
Till death, and then are never miss'd.
Some frolic, toil, marry, increase,
Are sick and well, have war and peace,
And, broke with age, in half a day
Yield to successors, and away.

Let not profane this sacred place,
Hypocrisy with Janus' face;

Or Pomp, mixt state of pride and care;
Court Kindness, Falsehood's polish'd ware;
Scandal disguis'd in Friendship's veil,
That tells, unask'd, th' injurious tale;
Or art politic, which allows

The Jesuit-remedy for vows;
Or priest, perfuming crowned head,
"Till in a swoon Truth lies for dead;
Or tawdry critic, who perceives

No grace, which plain proportion gives,
And more than lineaments divine
Admires the gilding of the shrine;
Or that self-haunting spectre Spleen,
In thickest fog the clearest seen;
Or Prophecy, which dreams a lie,
That fools believe and knaves apply;
Or frolic Mirth, profanely loud,
And happy only in a crowd;
Or Melancholy's pensive gloom,
Proxy in Contemplation's room.

O Delia! when I touch this string,
To thee my Muse directs her wing.
Unspotted fair! with downcast look
Mind not so much the murm'ring brook;
Nor fixt in thought, with footsteps slow
Through cypress alleys cherish woe:
I see the soul in pensive fit,
And moping like sick linnet sit.
With dewy eye, and moulting wing,
Unperch'd, averse to fly or sing;
I see the favorite curls begin
(Disus'd to toilet discipline)

To quit their post, lose their smart air,
And grow again like common hair;
And tears, which frequent kerchiefs dry,
Raise a red circle round the eye;
And by this bur about the Moon,
Conjecture more ill weather soon.
Love not so much the doleful knell:
And news the boding night-birds tell;

Nor watch the wainscot's hollow blow;
And hens portentous when they crow;
Nor sleepless mind the death-watch beat;
In taper find no winding-sheet:
Nor in burnt coal a coffin see,
Though thrown at others, meant for thee:
Or when the coruscation gleams,
Find out not first the bloody streams;
Nor in imprest remembrance keep
Grim tap'stry figures wrought in sleep;
Nor rise to see in antique hall
The moonlight monsters on the wall,
And shadowy spectres darkly pass
Trailing their sables o'er the grass,
Let vice and guilt act how they please
In souls, their conquer'd provinces;
By Heaven's just charter it appears,
Virtue's exempt from quartering fears,
Shall then arm'd fancies fiercely drest,
Live at discretion in your breast?
Be wise, and panic fright disdain,
As notions, meteors of the brain;
And sights perform'd, illusive scene!
By magic-lantern of the Spleen.
Come here, from baleful cares releas'd,
With Virtue's ticket, to a feast,
Where decent Mirth and Wisdom, join'd
In stewardship, regale the mind.
Call back the Cupids to your eyes,

I see the godlings with surprise,
Not knowing home in such a plight,
Fly to and fro, afraid to light.———

Far from my theme, from method far, Convey'd in Venus' flying car,

I go compell'd by feather'd steeds,
That scorn the rein, when Delia leads.
No daub of elegiac strain
These holy wars shall ever stain;
As spiders Irish wainscot flee,
Falsehood with them shall disagree;
This floor let not the vulgar tread,
Who worship only what they dread:
Nor bigots who but one way see
Through blinkers of authority.
Nor they who its four saints defame
By making virtue but a name;
Nor abstract wit, (painful regale
To hunt the pig with slippery tail!)
Artists, who richly chase their thought,
Gaudy without, but hollow wrought,
And beat too thin, and tool'd too much
To bear the proof and standard touch
Nor fops to guard this sylvan ark,
With necklace bells in treble bark:
Nor cynics growl and fiercely paw,
The mastiffs of the moral law.
Come, nymph, with rural honors drest,
Virtue's exterior form confest,
With charms untarnish'd, innocence
Display, and Eden shall commence ;
When thus you come in sober fit,
And wisdom is preferr'd to wit;
And looks diviner graces tell,

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Which don't with giggling muscles dwell,
And Beauty like the ray-clipt Sun,
With bolder eye we look upon;
Learning shall with obsequious mien
Tell all the wonders she has seen;

Reason her logic armor quit,
And proof to mild persuasion sit;
Religion with free thought dispense,
And cease crusading against sense;
Philosophy and she embrace,

And their first league again take place:
And Morals pure, in duty bound,
Nymph-like the sisters chief surround;
Nature shall smile, and round this cell
The turf to your light pressure swell,
And knowing Beauty by her shoe,
Well air its carpet from the dew.
The Oak, while you his umbrage deck,
Lets fall his acorns in your neck;
Zephyr his civil kisses gives,

And plays with curls instead of leaves :
Birds, seeing you, believe it spring,
And during their vacation sing;

And flow'rs lean forward from their seats,
To traffic in exchange of sweets;
And angels bearing wreaths descend,
Preferr'd as vergers to attend
This fane, whose deity entreats
The fair to grace its upper seats.

O kindly view our letter'd strife,
And guard us through polemic life;
From poison vehicled in praise,
For Satire's shots but slightly graze;
We claim your zeal, and find within,
Philosophy and you are kin.

What virtue is we judge by you;
For actions right are beauteous too;
By tracing the sole female mind.
We best what is true nature find:
Your vapors bred from fumes declare
How steams create tempestuous air,
Till gushing tears and hasty rain
Make Heav'n and you serene again.
Our travels through the starry skies
Were first suggested by your eyes;
We, by the interposing fan,
Learn how eclipses first began:
The vast ellipse from Scarbro's home,
Describes how blazing comets roam :
The glowing colors of the cheek
Their origin from Phœbus speak;
Our watch how Luna strays above
Feels like the care of jealous love;
And all things we in science know
From your known love for riddles flow.

Father! forgive, thus far I stray, Drawn by attraction from my way. Mark next with awe the foundress well Who on these banks delights to dwell; You on the terrace see her plain, Move like Diana with her train. If you then fairly speak your mind, In wedlock since with Isis join'd, You'll own, you never yet did see, At least in such a high degree, Greatness delighted to undress; Science a sceptred hand caress;

A

queen the friends of freedom prize;

A woman wise men canonize.

THE SPARROW AND DIAMOND.

A SONG.

I LATELY saw, what now I sing, Fair Lucia's hand display'd; This finger grac'd a diamond ring, On that a sparrow play'd.

The feather'd play thing she caress'd,
She strok'd its head and wings;
And while it nestled on her breast,
She lisp'd the dearest things.

With chisel'd bill a spark ill-set
He loosen'd from the rest,

And swallow'd down to grind his meat,
The easier to digest.

She seiz'd his bill with wild affright, Her diamond to descry:

"Twas gone! she sicken'd at the sight, Moaning her bird would die.

The tongue-tied knocker none might use, The curtains none undraw,

The footmen went without their shoes, The street was laid with straw.

The doctor us'd his oily art

Of strong emetic kind, Th' apothecary play'd his part, And engineer'd behind.

When physic ceas'd to spend its store,
To bring away the stone,
Dicky, like people given o'er,
Picks up, when let alone.

His eyes dispell'd their sickly dews, He peck'd behind his wing; Lucia, recovering at the news, Relapses for the ring.

Meanwhile within her beauteous breast
Two different passions strove;
When av'rice ended the contest,

And triumph'd over love.

Poor little, pretty, fluttering thing,
Thy pains the sex display,
Who, only to repair a ring,

Could take thy life away.

Drive av'rice from your breasts, ye fair
Monster of foulest mien :
Ye would not let it harbor there,
Could but its form be seen.

It made a virgin put on guile,
Truth's image break her word,
A Lucia's face forbear to smile,
A Venus kill her bird.

THOMAS TICKELL.

THOMAS TICKELL, a poet of considerable ele-Gentleman at Avignon." Both these are selected gance, born at Bridekirk, near Carlisle, in 1686, was the son of a clergyman in the county of Cumberland. He was entered of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1701, and having taken the degree of M. A. in 1708, was elected fellow of his college, first obtaining from the crown a dispensation from the statute requiring him to be in orders.. He then came to the metropolis, where he made himself known to several persons distinguished in letters. When the negotiations were carrying on which brought on the peace of Utrecht, he published a poem entitled "The Prospect of Peace," which ran through six editions. Addison, with whom he had ingratiated himself by an elegant poem on his opera of Rosamond, speaks highly of "The Prospect of Peace," in a paper of the Spectator, in which he expresses himself as particularly pleased to find that the author had not amused himself with fables out of the Pagan theology. This commendation Tickell amply repaid by his lines on Addison's Cato, which are superior to all others on that subject, with the exception of Pope's Prologue.

for the purpose of the present volume.
He was
about this time taken to Ireland, by Addison, who
went over as secretary to Lord Sunderland. When
Pope published the first volume of his translation of
the Iliad, Tickell gave a translation of the first
book of that poem, which was patronized by Addi-
son, and occasioned a breach between those emi-
nent men. Tickell's composition, however, will
bear no poetical comparison with that of Pope, and
accordingly he did not proceed with the task. On
the death of Addison, he was intrusted with the
charge of publishing his works, a distinction which
he repaid by prefixing a life of that celebrated
man, with an elegy on his death, of which Dr. John-
son says, "That a more sublime or elegant funeral
poem is not to be found in the whole compass of
English literature." Another piece, which might be
justly placed at the head of sober lyrics, is his
Ode to the Earl of Sunderland," on his installa-
tion as a knight of the Garter; which, keeping
within the limits of truth, consigns a favorite name
to its real honors.

64

Tickell, being attached to the succession of the Tickell is represented as a man of pleasing manHouse of Hanover, presented George I. with a poem ners, fond of society, very agreeable in conversaentitled "The Royal Progress;" and more effec- tion, and upright and honorable in his conduct. He tually served the cause by two pieces, one called was married, and left a family. His death took "An Imitation of the Prophecy of Nereus;" the place at Bath, in 1740, in the 54th year of his age. other, "An Epistle from a Lady in England, to a

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ON THE DEATH OF MR. ADDISON.

IF, dumb too long, the drooping Muse hath stay'd,
And left her debt to Addison unpaid,
Blame not her silence, Warwick, but bemoan,
And judge, oh judge, my bosom by your own.
What mourner ever felt poetic fires!
Slow comes the verse that real woe inspires:
Grief unaffected suits but ill with art,
Or flowing numbers with a bleeding heart.

Can I forget the dismal night that gave
My soul's best part for ever to the grave!
How silent did his old companions tread,
By midnight lamps, the mansions of the dead,
Through breathing statues, then unheeded things,
Through rows of warriors, and through walks of
kings!

What awe did the slow solemn knell inspire;
The pealing organ, and the pausing choir;
The duties by the lawn-rob'd prelate paid;
And the last words that dust to dust convey'd!
While speechless o'er thy closing grave we bend,
Accept these tears, thou dear departed friend.

Oh, gone for ever; take this long adieu;
And sleep in peace, next thy lov'd Montague.
To strew fresh laurels, let the task be mine,
A frequent pilgrim, at thy sacred shrine ;
Mine with true sighs thy absence to bemoan,
And grave with faithful epitaphs thy stone.
If e'er from me thy lov'd memorial part,
May shame afflict this alienated heart;
Of thee forgetful if I form a song,
My lyre be broken, and untun'd my tongue.
My grief be doubled from thy image free,
And mirth a torment, unchastis'd by thee.

Oft let me range the gloomy aisles alone,
Sad luxury! to vulgar minds unknown,
Along the walls where speaking marbles show
What worthies form the hallow'd mould below;
Proud names, who once the reins of empire held;
In arms who triumph'd; or in arts excell'd;
Chiefs, grac'd with scars, and prodigal of blood;
Stern patriots, who for sacred freedom stood;
Just men, by whom impartial laws were given;
And saints who taught, and led, the way to heaven
Ne'er to these chambers, where the mighty rest,
Since their foundation, came a nobler guest;
Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss convey'd
A fairer spirit or more welcome shade.

In what new region, to the just assign'd,
What new employments please th' unbodied mind?
A winged Virtue, through th' ethereal sky,
From world to world unwearied does he fly?
Or curious trace the long laborious maze

Of Heaven's decrees, where wondering angels gaze
Does he delight to hear bold seraphs tell
How Michael battled, and the dragon fell;
Or, mix'd with milder cherubim, to glow
In hymns of love, not ill essay'd below?
Or dost thou warn poor mortals left behind,
A task well suited to thy gentle mind?
Oh! if sometimes thy spotless form descend:
To me thy aid, thou guardian genius, lend!
When rage misguides me, or when fear alarms,
When pain distresses, or when pleasure charms,
In silent whisperings purer thoughts impart,
And turn from ill, a frail and feeble heart;
Lead through the paths thy virtue trod before,
Till bliss shall join, nor death can part us more.
That awful form, which, so the Heavens decree
Must still be lov'd and still deplor'd by me;
In nightly visions seldom fails to rise,

Or, rous'd by Fancy, meets my waking eyes
If business calls, or crowded courts invite,

Th' unblemish'd statesman seems to strike my sight

If in the stage I seek to sooth my care,

I meet his soul which breathes in Cato there;

If pensive to the rural shades I rove,

His shape o'ertakes me in the lonely grove;
"Twas there of just and good he reason'd strong,
Clear'd some great truth, or rais'd some serious song:
There patient show'd us the wise course to steer,
A candid censor, and a friend severe;
There taught us how to live; and (oh! too high
The price for knowledge) taught us how to die.

Thou Hill, whose brow the antique structures

grace,

Rear'd by bold chiefs of Warwick's noble race,
Why, once so lov'd, whene'er thy bower appears,
O'er my dim eyeballs glance the sudden tears
How sweet were once thy prospects fresh and fair
[Thy sloping walks, and unpolluted air!

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