Thus often art or fraud prevails,
When military prowess fails.
The troops an easy passage find,
And victory follows close behind.
Friendship with ardour charged her foes,
And now the fight promiscuous grows;
But Flattery threw a poison'd dart,
And pierced the Empress to the heart.
The Virtues all around were seen
To fall in heaps about the queen.
The tyrant stripp'd the mangled fair,
She wore her spoils, assumed her air;
And, mounting next the sufferer's throne,
Claim'd the queen's titles as her own.
Ah! injured maid!' aloud I cried,
"Ah! injured maid!' the rocks replied:
But judge my griefs, and share them too,
For the sad tale pertains to you;
Judge, reader, how severe the wound,
When Friendship's foes were mine, I found;
When the sad scene of pride and guile
Was Britain's poor degenerate isle.
The Amazons, who propp'd the state,
Haply survived the general fate.
Justice to Powis House is fled,
And Yorke sustains her radiant head.
The virtue Fortitude appears
In open day at Ligonier's;
Illustrious heroine of the sky,
Who leads to vanquish or to die!
'Twas she our veterans' breasts inspired,
When Belgia's faithless sons retired:
For Tournay's treacherous towers can tell
Britannia's children greatly fell.
No partial virtue of the plain!
She roused the lions of the main :
Hence Vernon's little fleet succeeds,
And hence the generous Cornwall + bleeds,
Hence Granville' glorious!-for she smiled
On the young hero from a child.
Though in high life such virtues dwell,
They'll suit plebeian breasts as well.
Say, that the mighty and the great
Blaze like meridian suns of state;
Effulgent excellence display,
Like Halifax, in floods of day;
Our lesser orbs may pour their light,
Like the mild crescent of the night:
Though pale our beams, and small our sphere,
Still we may shine serene and clear.
Give to the judge the scarlet gown,
To martial souls the civic crown:
What then? is merit theirs alone?
Have we no worth to call our own?
Shall we not vindicate our part
In the firm breast and upright heart?
Reader, these virtues may be thine,
Though in superior light they shine.
I can't discharge great Hardwicke's trust-
True-but my soul may still be just.
And though I can't the state defend,
I'll draw the sword to serve my friend.
Two golden Virtues are behind,
Of equal import to the mind;
4 Against the combined fleets of France and Spain. * Died in a later engagement with the French fleet.
Prudence, to point out Wisdom's way,
Or to reclaim us when we stray;
Temperance, to guard the youthful heart,
When Vice and Folly throw the dart;
Each Virtue, let the world agree,
Daily resides with and me.
And when our souls in friendship join,
We'll deem the social bond divine;
Through every scene maintain our trust,
Nor e'er be timid or unjust.
That breast where Honour builds his throne,
That breast which Virtue calls her own,
Nor interest warps, nor fear appals,
When danger frowns, or lucre calls.
No! the true friend collected stands,
Fearless his heart, and pure his hands;
Let interest plead, let storms arise,
He dares be honest, though he dies.
MARRIAGE.
Inscribed to Miss
FAIREST, this vision is thy due;
I form'd the' instructive plan for you.
Slight not the rules of thoughtful age,
Your welfare actuates every page;
But ponder well my sacred theme,
And tremble while you read my dream.
Those awful words, "Till death do part,' May well alarm the youthful heart:
No after thought when once a wife;
The die is cast, and cast for life;
Yet thousands venture every day,
As some base passion leads the way,
Pert Silvia talks of wedlock scenes,
Though hardly enter'd on her teens;
Smiles on her whining spark, and hears
The sugar'd speech with raptured ears;
Impatient of a parent's rule,
She leaves her sire, and weds a fool.
Want enters at the guardless door;
And Loye is fled, to come no more.
Some few there are of sordid mould,
Who barter youth and bloom for gold;
Careless with what or whom they mate,
Their ruling passion's all for state.
But Hymen, generous, just, and kind,
Abhors the mercenary mind:
Such rebels groan beneath his rod,
For Hymen's a vindictive god;
Be joyless every night (he said),
And barren be their nuptial bed.'
Attend, my fair, to Wisdom's voice,
A better fate shall crown thy choice.
A married life, to speak the best,
Is all a lottery confess'd:'
Yet if my fair one will be wise,
I will insure my girl a prize:
Though not a prize to match thy worth;
Perhaps thy equal's not on earth.
'Tis an important point to know, There's no perfection here below. Man's an odd compound, after all, And ever has been-since the fall.
Say, that he loves you from his soul,
Still man is proud, nor brooks control;
And though a slave in Love's soft school,
In wedlock claims his right to rule.
The best, in short, has faults about him;
If few those faults, you must not flout him.
With some, indeed, you can't dispense,
As want of temper and of sense:
For when the sun deserts the skies,
And the dull winter evenings rise,
Then for a husband's social power,
To form the calm, conversive hour;
The treasures of thy breast explore,
From that rich mine to draw the ore;
Fondly each generous thought refine,
And give thy native gold to shine;
Show thee, as really thou art,
Though fair, yet fairer still at heart.
Say, when life's purple blossoms fade,
As soon they must, thou charming maid!
When in thy cheeks the roses die,
And sickness clouds that brilliant eye;
Say, when or age or pains invade,
And those dear limbs shall call for aid;
If thou art fetter'd to a fool,
Shall not his transient passion cool?
And when thy health and beauty end,
Shall thy weak mate persist a friend?
But to a man of sense, my dear,
E'en then thou lovely shalt appear;
He'll share the griefs that wound thy heart,
And weeping claim the larger part;
Though age impairs that beauteous face,
He'll prize the pearl beyond its case.
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