Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought, Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move, In Nature's school, by her soft maxims taught, That separate rights are lost in mutual love. INSCRIPTION FOR AN ICE-HOUSE. STRANGER, approach! within this iron door Thrice locked and bolted, this rude arch beneath That vaults with ponderous stone the cell; confined By man, the great magician, who controuls Fire, earth and air, and genii of the storm, And bends the most remote and opposite things To do him service and perform his will,— A giant sits; stern Winter; here he piles, Like fettered Sampson when his might was spent In puny feats to glad the festive halls Of Gaza's wealthy sons; or he who sat Midst laughing girls submiss, and patient twirled The slender spindle in his sinewy grasp; The rugged power, fair Pleasure's minister, Exerts his art to deck the genial board; Congeals the melting peach, the nectarine smooth, Burnished and glowing from the sunny wall: Darts sudden frost into the crimson veins Of the moist berry; moulds the sugared hail : AN AUTUMNAL THOUGHT: 1795. 'Tis past! we breathe! assuaged at length The flames that drank our vital strength! Smote with intolerable heat No more our throbbing temples beat. How clear the sky, how pure the air, The heavens how bright, the earth how fair! The bosom cool, the spirits light, Active the day, and calm the night! But O, the swiftly shortening day! Low in the west the sinking ray ! With rapid pace advancing still " 'The morning hoar, the evening chill," The falling leaf, the fading year, And Winter ambushed in the rear! Thus, when the fervid Passions cool, Exults, in conscious worth elate, Then, then declines the' unsteady flame, Disease, slow mining, saps the frame; Cold damps of age around are shed, That chill the heart, and cloud the head. The failing spirits prompt no more, The curtain drops, life's day is o'er. |