VERSES fent to a LADY with VOLTAIRE'S TEMPLE of TASTE.

I'

N these gay scenes by glowing Fancy wrought,

See Genius bright'ning thro' the veil of Thought! Each finish'd draught at once improves and warms, Each feature breathes, and every picture charms; The happy pencil long inured to please Joins ftrength with tafte, and elegance with eafe.

MARK in yon Temple's beamy domes reclin'd,
What forms all beauteous ftrike th' enraptur'd mind,
The train whom Nature lent fuperior fire,

Who ftole her air, her accent, and her lyre;
Who bid her form in breathing marble glow,
Who pour'd her transports, and who felt her woe,
Here rife, as Judgment points the road to Fame,
To jufter manners, and a nobler aim :

Thought nicely-true the copious plan reviews,
And Fancy's hand supplies enlivening hues ;
Warm from the tints the fwelling Figures rife,
And Life's blue beam illumes the speaking eyes;

No roughned dash betrays th' unequal part,
Nor fhade ungraceful points the veil of art;
But Hope all-radiant foars to worlds of light.
While Judgment's temperate hand directs the flight,
Calm Senfe and Wisdom take their turn to rule,
And Reason's piercing eye o'erlooks the foul.

HERE Boileau marks the living draught refin'd,
The flame of Genius burfting o'er his mind *;
Yet just to worth, attends the melting strains
Whose music ftream'd along Britannia's plains;
He marks the ruby'd lip that breathes perfume,
The cheek where beauty spreads her genial bloom,
The throng that flutters round th' illumin'd hall,
The Satyr's venom'd fhaft, that drops with gall;
Then knows fuperior wit, though near the throne,
And hails the Bard whofe fkill furpafs'd his own t.

SEE mighty Dacier foars in nobler lays‡.
Each lawrel'd Ancient crowns her head with bays,

е

* It is generally allowed, that imagination was not the predominant faculty which characterized the writings of Boileau. He is therefore represented here as having attained that point in which he was principally deficient.

A

Rape of the Lock is judged by the beft Critics to have been wrote in an higher taste than the Lutrin.

See mighty Dacier &c.] This Lady's name is not mentioned by Voltaire in his Temple of Tafte, though I confess, I cannot fee with what rea

+ And bails the Bard, &c.] The fon fhe is omitted. It is true, in

deed,

A tow'ring Genius! whofe exalted name
Employs the tongue, and fwells the trump of Fame,
From Man, proud tyrant, with refiftless force
She fnatch'd the rein, and whirl'd it in the course;
With eagle-speed pursued th' expected prey,
Then caught and bore the glorious prize away.
Here through Reflection's clearer glass display'd
She marks the mingling ftreaks of light and shade,
Obferves defects, by cool experience taught,
And blames with reafon, or approves with thought.

WHAT need I Voiture's easier task recite,
Whose work contracted beams with faultlefs wit;
Or paint Racine whofe chaft'ned strain improves,
Or Molliere, fporting with the Smiles and Loves;
Fontaine, whofe wit from Nature's fund was stole,
Or bold Corneille who ftorms, and tears the foul.

LOST in the radiance of diffolving light,
Ten thousand beauties opening on my sight,
My fainting muse deserts th’ unequal theme
Pleased with fome gentler note, and humbler name;

deed, that she is rather a tranflator than an original writer. Few readers however of fenfibility will perufe her tranflation and remarks on the Iliad, or on Ariftotle's Art of Poetry, with

She

out discovering in both the force of an exact judgment, joined to that feeling of poetic beauty which is fo often found to predominate in this amiable fex.

She feels, (the glowing traits confusedly feen)
The heat too piercing, and the ray too keen.

THUS in fome fields where Art and Nature join, (Such are thy gardens Stowe, and Seaton*, thine Where from yon mount, a plan by Taste design'd, Reflects an image of the Master's mind ;) Where'er I look the blufh of Beauty glows, The foreft brightens, or the garden blows; Groves, ftreams, and trees their chequer'd pride difplay, And melting mufic fteals the foul away.

'Tis your's each work of genius to review, Who know false beauties, and admire the true; You bleft by nature with superior skill,

An eye to mark them, and an heart to feel,
A foul illumed by Reason's gentle rays,

Serene, not strong, and bright without a blaze;
Intent to know, and yet polite to please,

Who read with judgement, and who write with ease,
Ev'n mine, a bashful muse untaught and young,
That sports, not warbles in the tuneful throng,
Waked by this theme can ftrike the trembling ftrings,
And feebly flutters with unequal wings;

Q 2

* Such are thy gardens &c. or Seaton thine] An elegant country feat,

So

which belongs to a Gentleman near Aberdeen,

So fome pale flower reclines its drooping head,
And lies unseen, neglected in the fhade,

Yet touch'd with lightning by the blaze of noon,
Unfolds its leaves, and bloffoms in the fun.

A TOWN ECLOGUE*.

F"

IR'D with the rage that warms a Coxcomb's mind, When curls are awkward, or the fair unkind; When fpurn'd and kick'd by all the tinfel throng, Or, still more dreadful, when a patch is wrong; Poor Florio late deplor'd his mighty woe, With all the fury of an angry beau.

ALONE, and mufing on the wrongs of fate
Fix'd deep in thought the gloomy Heroe fat ;
One hand his cane fuftain'd, (of magic power ;)
One twirl'd his box, but dropt it on the floor :
'Twas then within the gilded covering hid
Thy Form Belinda started from the lid.

* The incidents mentioned in this piece are wholly fictitious. The Author intended to paint the ridi

Paint,

culous in characters, but not to appropriate the ridicule to particular perfons.