280 INVITATION TO THE REDBREAST. Then, soon as the swell of the buds Bespeaks the renewal of spring, Fly hence, if thou wilt, to the woods, Or where it shall please thee to sing: And shouldst thou, compell'd by a frost, Come again to my window or door, Doubt not an affectionate host, Only pay as thou paid'st me before. Thus music must needs be confess'd Unchangeable friendship and love? And who on the globe can be found, Save your generation and ours, That can be delighted by sound, Or boasts any musical powers? ODE ON THE DEATH OF A LADY, WHO LIVED ONE HUNDRED YEARS, AND A (PAGE 120.) NCIENT dame, how wide and vast To a race like ours appears, Rounded to an orb at last, We, the herd of human kind, Frailer and of feebler powers; We, to narrow bounds confined, Death's delicious banquet-we Perish even from the womb, Swifter than a shadow flee, Nourish'd but to feed the tomb. Seeds of merciless disease Lurk in all that we enjoy ; Some that waste us by degrees, Some that suddenly destroy. 282 ON THE DEATH OF A LADY. And, if life o'erleap the bourn Fast as moons can wax and wane If a few (to few 'tis given), Lingering on this earthly stage, Wherefore live they, but to see Oft was seen, in ages past, All that we with wonder.view; Often shall be to the last; Earth produces nothing new. Should propitious Heaven design Life for us as calmly spent, Though but half the length of thine. RECIPROCAL KINDNESS THE PRI A MARY LAW OF NATURE. (PAGE 127.) NDROCLES, from his injured lord, in dread Of instant death, to Libya's desert fled. Tired with his toilsome flight, and parch'd with heat, He spied at length a cavern's cool retreat; 284 RECIPROCAL KINDNESS. Nor he disdains the dole, though unprepared, Mute with astonishment, the assembly gaze: |