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, 1125 Can answer love, and render bliss secure. While those whom love cements in holy faith, 1130 1135 1140 1145 And mingles both their graces. By degrees, -1150 1155 And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss, 1160 An elegant sufficiency, content, Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven! 1165 1170 Together down they sink in social sleep; Together freed, their gentle spirits fly 1175 To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign. SUMMER. Jam clarus occultum Andromeda pater 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 |