Mere forms the fool implicit sway,
Which witlings with contempt survey,
Blind folly no defect can see,

Half wisdom views but one degree; /30
The wise remoter uses reach,

Which judgment and experience teach.

Whoever would be pleas'd, and please,
Must do what others do with ease.
Great precept undefin❜d by rule,
And only learn'd in custom's school;
To no peculiar form confin'd,.

It spreads through all the human kind;
Beauty and wit and worth supplies,
Yet graceful in the good and wise. 146
Rich with this gift and none be side,
In fashion's stream how many glide?
Secure from every mental woe,
From treach'rous friend or open
From social sympathy that shares
The public loss or private cares ;
Whether the barb'rous foe invade,
Or merit pine in fortune's shade.

Hence gentle Anna ever gay, The same to-morrow as to-day.

foe

e;

150

σ

Save where perchance, when others weep,

Her cheek the decent sorrow steep ;]

Save when perhaps a melting tale,

O'er every tender breast prevail.

The good, the bad, the great, the small,
She likes, she loves, she honors all.
And yet if sland'rous malice blame,
Patient she yields a sister's fame.
Alike if satire or if praise,

She says whate'er the circle says;

160

Implicit does whate'er we do,
Without one point or wish in view,
Sure test of others, faithful glass

Through which the various phantoms pass,
Wide blank, unfeeling when alone,

No care, no joy, no thought her own.

Not thus succeeds the peerless dame,
Who looks, and talks, and acts for fame;
Intent, so wide her cares extend,
To make the universe her friend.
Now with the gay in frolic shines,
Now reasons deep with deep divines.
With courtiers now extols the great,
With patriots sighs o'er Britain's fate.
Now breathes with zealots holy fires,
Now melts in less refin'd desires.

Doom'd to exceed in each degree,
Too wise, too weak, too proud, too free,
Too various for one single word,

While every talent nature grants,

The high sublime of deep absurd.

180

Just serves to shew how much she wants.

The virtues of our sex and thine:

Her hand restrains the widow's tears,

Her sense informs, and sooths and cheers; Yet like an angel in disguise,

She shines but to some favor'd eyes;

Nor is the distant herd allow'd

To view the radiance through the cloud. 1.199

But thine is every winning art,

Thine is the friendly honest heart :
And should the gen'rous spirit flow,
Beyond where prudence fears to go;
Such sallies are of nobler kind,
Than virtues of a narrow mind.

EPISTLE XV.

ΤΟ Α

YOUNG LADY

OF THIRTEEN.

BY WILLIAM MELMOTH, ESQ;

WHILE yet no amorous youths around thee bow,
Nor flattering verse conveys the faithless vow;
To graver notes will Sappho's soul attend,
And ere she hear the lover, hear the friend?

10

Let maids less bless'd employ their meaner arts To reign proud tyrants o'er unnumber'd hearts; May Sappho learn, for nobler triumphs born, Those little conquests of her sex to scorn. To form thy bosom to each generous deed; To plant thy mind with every useful seed; Be these thy arts: nor spare the grateful toil, Where Nature's hand has bless'd the happy soil. So shalt thou know, with pleasing skill, to blend The lovely mistress, and instructive friend : So shalt thou know, when unrelenting Time Shall spoil those charms yet opening to their prime,

To ease the loss of Beauty's transient flower,
While reason keeps what rapture gave before.
And oh while Wit, fair dawning, spreads its ray,
Serenely rising to a glorious day,

To hail the growing lustre oft be mine,
Thou early favorite of the sacred Nine !

29

And shall the Muse with blameless boast pretend,
In Youth's gay bloom that Sappho call'd me friend:
That urg'd by me she shunn'd the dangerous way,
Where heedless maids in endless error stray;
That scorning soon her sex's idler art,

Fair Praise inspir'd and Virtue warm'd her heart;
That fond to reach the distant paths of Fame,
I taught her infant genius where to aim ? 30
Thus when the feather'd choir first tempt the sky,
And all unskill'd their feeble pinions try,

Th' experienc'd sire prescribes th'adventurous height,"
Guides the young wing, and pleas'd attends the flight.