Bur happy they, the happiest of their kind,

Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend ! 1115

"T is not the coarser tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their passions into love;

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Can answer love, and render bliss secure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To bless himself, from sordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, consume his nights and days:
Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love
Is wild desire, fierce as the suns they feel;
Let eastern tyrants, from the light of Heaven
Seclude their bosom-slaves, meanly possess'd
Of a mere lifeless, violated form:

While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal transport, free as Nature live,
Disdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all?
Who in each other clasp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumined face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven!
Meantime a smiling offspring rises round,

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And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human blossom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm,
The father's lustre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an assiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe the' enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
O speak the joy! ye, whom the sudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,

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And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss,
All various Nature pressing on the heart:

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An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labour, useful life,

Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and consenting Spring
Sheds her own rosy garland on their heads :
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love,

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Together down they sink in social sleep;

Together freed, their gentle spirits fly

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To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

SUMMER.

Jam clarus occultum Andromeda pater
Ostendit ignem : jam Procyon furit,
Et stella vesani Leonis,

Sole dies referente siccos.

Jam pastor umbras, cum grege languido, kivumque fessus quærit, et horridi

Dumeta Silvani: caretque

Ripa vayis taciturna ventis.

HORATII Carm. lib. iii. od. xxix. 17

TO THE

SIR,

RIGHT HONOURABLE MR. DODINGTON,

ONE OF THE LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY'S TREASURY, ETC.

It is not my purpose, in this address, to run into the common tract of dedicators, and attempt a panegyric which would prove ungrateful to you, too arduous for me. and superfluous with regard to the world. To you it would prove ungrateful, since there is a certain generous delicacy in men of the most distinguished merit, disposing them to avoid those praises they so powerfully attract. And when I consider that a character in which the virtues, the graces, and the muses join their influence, as much exceeds the expression of the most elegant and judicious pen, as the finished beauty does the representation of the pencil, I have the best reasons for declining such an arduous undertaking. As, indeed, it would be superfluous in itself; for what reader need to be told of those great abilities in the management of public affairs, and those amiable accomplishments in private life, which you so eminently possess? The general voice is loud in the praise of so many virtues, though posterity alone will do them justice. But may you, Sir, live long to illustrate your own fame by your own actions, and by them be transmitted to future times as the British Mæcenas !

Your example has recommended poetry with the greatest grace to the admiration of those who are engaged in the