Thro' every turn of this inconstant state,
Preferve my temper equal and fedate;
Be my religion fuch as taught by thee,
Alike from pride and fuperftition free."
Liform my judgment, rectify my will,
Confirm my reafon, and my paffions ftill.
To gain thy favour be my only end,
And to that scope my every action tend.
Amid the pleasures of a profperous ftate,
Whofe flattering charms too oft the mind elate;
Still may I think to whom the joys I owe,
And bless the bounteous hand from whence they flow.
Or if an adverfe fortune be my share,
Let not it's terrors tempt me to despair ;
But bravely arm'd, a steady faith maintain,
And own all best which thy decrees ordain...
On thy Almighty Providence depend,
The best protector and the fureft friend.
Thus on life's ftage, may I my part maintain,
And at my exit thy applauses gain.
When thy pale herald fummon's me away,
Support me in that great catastrophe:
In that last conflict guard me from alarms,
And take my foul expiring to thy arms!
MR. HERVEY'S CONTEMPLATIONS ON.
THIS Author has been careful to imitate Dr. Young in the harmony of his numbers, and the pon five flow of his verfe: In the following lines there is fomething. extremely picturesque.
Should man be vain at this dread midnight hour,. When filence reigns, the heav'n and earth would join this awful gloom
Should lift his foul on contemplation's wing,.
Sedate and folemn as the clofing day;
Howe'er his focial hours each eve are chear'd
With harmless pleasures, let each night, array'd'
In her dark fable habit, toll the bell
That wakes reflection; ferious thoughts infpires.
Say, can the foul, which hovers o'er the tomb
Each dreadful moment, choose a part more wife,
Than ftealing from the giddy crowd each eve,
From the gay round of folly, to reflect
On life's fhort date, its nearness to the grave ?
How foon eternity begins, how val
The debt he has to cancel, 'ere her peace
Is fign'd in heav'n, which mercy fcarce can fign E
Her guilt how weighty-and how weak her power
When he takes leave of his Queen and Children, before he enters the Field of Battle.
I fee, I feel thy anguish, nor my foul Has never known the prevalence of love, E'er prov'd a father's fondnefs as this hour Nor, when moft' ardent to affert my fame, Was once my heart infenfible to thee. How had it ftain'd the honours of my name To hefitate a moment, and fufpend My country's fate, till fhameful life, preferr'& By my inglorious colleague; left no choice But what in me were infamy to shun !Not virtue to accept.. Then deem no more, That of thy love regardless, or thy tears, I hafte, uncall'd, to death; the voice of fate, The gods, my fame, my country, bids me bleed. -Oh! thou dear mourner! Wherefore ftreams afreff That flood of woe? Why heaves with fighs renew'd That tender breast ?. Leonidas must fall.
Alas far heavier mifery impends
O'er thee and thefe, if foften'd by thy tears
I fhamefully refuse to yield that breath
Which justice, glory, liberty and Heaven,
Claim for my country, for my fons and thee;
Think on my long unalter'd love; reflect
On my paternal fondnefs; has my heart
E'er known a pause of love or pious care?
Now shall that care, that tenderness be prov'd'
Most warm and faithful. When thy husband dies
For Lacedemon's fafety, thou wilt share,
Thou and thy children, the diffusive good:
Should I thus, fingled from the rest of men,
Alone intrufted by th' immortal gods
With power to fave a people; fhould my foul.
Defert that facred caufe: Thee, too, I yield
To forrow, and to fhame; for thou must weep.
With Lacedemon; must with her sustain
Thy painful portion of oppreffion's weight.
Thy fons behold, now worthy of their names,
And Spartan birth, their growing bloom muft pine:
In fhame and bondage, and their youthful hearts
Beat at the found of Liberty no more.
On their own virtue and their father's fame,
When he the Spartan freedom hath confirm'd
Before the world, illuftrious fhall they rife,
Their country's bulwark and their mother's joy..
Mifs Whately's Poems are rational, foft, and harmoni aus. The poem entitled, "The Pleafures of Contemplation," is extremely picturesque, and contains feveral beautiful images and allufions entirely new. Thus it opens:
Queen of the Halcyon breaft, and heav'n-ward eye,
Sweet Contemplation, with thy ray benign,
Light my lone paffage thro' this vale of life,
And raise the fiege of Care! this filent hour
To thee is facred; when the ftar of eve,
Like Dian's Virgins trembling ere they bathe,
Shoots o'er th' Hefperian wave its quivering ray.
All Nature joins to fill my lab'ring breast
With high fenfations: aweful filence reigns
Above, around; the founding winds no more
Wild thro' the fluctuating forest fly
With gut impetuous; Zephyr fcarcely breathes
Upon the trembling foliage; flocks and herds,,
Retir'd beneath the friendly fhade, repofe,
Fann'd by Oblivion's wing
—— From the smooth lake,
On whose still bofom fleeps the tall tree's fhade,
The moon's foft rays reflected mildly shine..
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