Then take him not to where the gay refort,

Where mirth and pleafure hold their feftive

court;

For he no more will join the giddy throng,
In dance, in laughter, revelry, or fong:
And ah! though mufic fooths the mind,
forbear,

Heedlefs, to found the well-known plain-
tive air;

For that with magic power will quickly
raife,

Full many a scene of far, far happier days.
How, now devoted, must the fuff 'rer mourn,
Thofe days, now paft, and never to return.
But far remov'd from healthful folly's noife,
If fome lov'd friend fhall read, with footh-
ing voice,

The pleafing poem, or eventful tale,
Truft one experienc'd, that ne'er fails a-
while,

The lingering hours of fickness to beguile.

า

(1) YE

TO MY CHILDREN

plains, where three-fold harvests prefs the ground,

Ye climes, where genial gales inceffant

fwell,

Where art and nature shed profufely round
Their rival wonders-Italy, farewell.

Still may thy year in furest splendour shine!

Its icy darts in vain may Winter throw! (2) To thee, a parent, fifter, I confign,

And wing'd with health, I woo thy gales to blow.

(3) Yet pleas'd, Helvetia's rugged brows I fee,

And through their craggy steeps delighted roam;

Pleas'd with a people, honeft, brave, and free,

While every step conducts me nearer

(1) We quitted Italy in August 1793, and passed into Swifferland over the mountain of St Gothard.-The third crop of corn was already standing in Lombardy.

(2) We left Lady Spencer and lady Belsborough at the baths of Lucca, intending to país the winter at Naples.

(3) The contrast between Swifferland and the Milanefe appeared very ftriking. The Milanefe were infefted with a band of robbers that caufed us fome alarm, and obliged us to ufe fome precautions; but from the moment we entered the mountains of Swifferland, we travelled without fear, and felt perfectly fecure. Death is the punishment of robbery; this punishment, however, very rarely occurs; at Laufanne there had been but one execution in filteen years.

(4) On the 9th we embarked upon the Laggo Maggiore, at the little town of Sifto, Situate where the Tefmo runs out of the lake. In the courfe of two days navigation we particularly admired the ftriking and coloffal statue of St Charles Boromeo (with its pedeftal 100 feet from the ground.) The beautiful Boromean iflands, and the shores of the lake, are interfperfed with towns and woods, and crowned with a diftant view of the Alps. On the evening of the 10th we landed at Magadino, one of the three Cifalpine bailiages belonging to Swifferland; and as the air was too noxious for us to venture to fleep there, we fent our horfes to conduct us to Belinzona, a pretty town in the midst of high mountains, under the jurifdiction of three of the Swifs cantons, Switz, Underwald, and Uri. From hence (after having prepared horses, chairs, and guides, and having our carriagees

On the rude mountain's barren breast he His humble board the holy man prepares, rofe,

In Po's broad wave now hurries to be loft.

His fhores, neat huts and verdant pastures fill,

And hills, where woods of pine the form
defy;

While fcorning vegetation, higher fill,
Rife the bare rocks coeval with the sky.
Upon his banks, a favour'd spot I found,
Where fhade and beauty tempted to re-
pofe;

Within a grove, by mountains circled round,
By rocks o'erhung, my ruftic feat I chose.
Advancing thence, by gentle pace and flow,
Unconscious of the way my footsteps
preft,

Sudden, fupported by the hills below,

(5) St Gothard's funimit rofe above the

reft.

And fimple food, and wholefome lore

bestows,

Extols the treasures that his mountain bears,

And paints the perils of impending fnows.

For while bleak Winter numbs with chilling hand

(7) Where frequent croffes mark the traveller's fate

In flow preceffion moves the merchant band,

And filent bends, where tott'ring ruins

wait.

Yet mid thofe ridges, 'mid that drifted fnow,

Can Nature deign her wonders to dif

play;

Here Adularia fhines with vivid glow;
And gems of chrystal sparkle to the day.
Here too, the hoary mountain's brow to

carriages taken in pieces) we fet out in the evening of the 12th to enter the mountain, and afcended gradually by a road which nearly followed the course of the Tefino.-The 'Tefino takes its rife not far from the fummit of St Gothard, and joins the Po near Pavia. (5) St Gothard itself arifes from the top of feveral other high mountains. Some have given 17,800 feet of perpendicular height from the level of the fea; but general Plyffer, who completed the celebrated model of that part of Swifferland furrounding Lucerne, makes it only 9075 feet above the Mediterranean.

(6) There is a fmall convent at the top of the mountain, where two monks refide: and who are obliged to receive and entertain the poor traveller that paffes this way. Padre Lorenzo had lived there for 20 years, and feemed a fenfible and benevolent man. They have a large diary and make excellent cheese; five fmall lakes, which are at the top of the mountain fupply them with fifh. The monks are capuchins, and belong to a convent at Milan.

(7) When any lives have been loft by the falls of fnow, a small cross is erected.

(8) The Reufs unites with the Aar, beyond the lake of Constance, and with them falls into the Rhine.

(9) The Rhine, the Rhone, the Aar, the Tefino, and the Reufs, all rife in the mountain of St Gothard.

(10) The valley of Urfera is celebrated for its fertility and verdure, and the placid

manner.

Fair runs the ftreamlet o'er the pafture green,

Its margin gay, with flocks and cattle fpread; Embowering trees the peaceful village fcreen,

And guard from fnow each dwelling's jutting shed.

Sweet vale! whose bofom, waftes and cliffs furround,

Let me awhile thy friendly fhelter share, Emblem of life! where fome bright hours are found

Amid the darkest, dreariest years of care.

Delv'd thro' the rock, the facred paffage bends;

And beauteous horror strikes the dazzled fight;

Beneath the pendent bridge the stream defcends,

Calm- 'till it rumables o'er the frowning

Here rocks and woods its narrow waves inclofe,

And there its fpreading bofom opens ide.

And hail the chapel! hail the platform wild!

Where Tell directed the avenging dart, With well-ftrung arm, that first preferv'd his child,

Then wing'd the arrow to the tyrant's heart.

Across the lake, and deep embower'd in wood,

Behold another hallow'd chapel stands, Where three Swifs heroes lawlets force withstood,

And ftamp'd the freedom of their native
land.

Their liberty requir'd no rites uncouth,
No blood demanded, and no flaves en-

chain'd;

manner in which the Reufs runs through it. It was formerly woody, but the peafants believe that their forefts were deftroyed by a magician. The green pastures and placid appearance of the valley form a beautiful contraft with the rocks and precipices which furround it.

(11) The circumstance alluded to pleafed me very much, though I faw it not in St Gothard, but in the mountains of Bern. At evening, a flock of goats returned to the market-place of the little town of Interlacken; immediately cach goat went to its peculiar cottage, the children of which came out to welcome and carefs their little comrade. The Rems des Vaches, fung by the Swifs cowherds, is a fimple melody, intermixed with the cry which they ufe to call the cows together.

(12) The domeftic fociety and fimple gaiety of moft parts of Swifferland, exift in fpite of the inroads of ftrangers; indeed it feems impoffible not to feck rather to join in their happy amufements than to wish to introduce the diffipation of other countrics among them

As ev'ry planet, in a cloudlefs night,
Distributes one unfully'd blaze of light,
Yet, brought by Herfchel's wond'rous mir-
Its faults and beauties undifguis'd appear:
So characters, contemplated from far,
Appear unípotted as the evening ftar;
But when acquaintance our inquiry aids,
The features magnify, the luftre fades,
And reafon's telescope difcovers foon
Spots in the Sun, and marfhes in the Moon,
As infects, by the microscope defcry'd,
Enlarg'd appear,
and fprawlin glitt'ring

So riches can ideal greatnefs bring,
And add importance to a little thing;
Can give expansion to life's narrow span,
And elevate a reptile to a man.

The magic lantern, in a dextrous hand, Performs more wonders than a wizzard's wand,

And can the foul, like fuperftition, blind,

The thatch-roof'd cot 'mid the wood-fkirt- That magic lantern of the human mind.

A love fick damfel long had figh'd in
vain;

When all her çares could no relief obtain,
At midnight hour, fhe, undifcover'd, crept
Into the chamber where her darling flept;