Such joy, though far transcending sense,
Have pious fouls at parting hence.
On earth, and in the body plac'd,
A few, and evil years, they waste :
But when their chains are cast aside,
See the glad fcene unfolding wide,
Clap the glad wing, and tower away,
And mingle with the blaze of day.

HYMN TO CONTENTMENT.

L

OVELY, lafting peace of mind!
Sweet delight of human kind!
Heavenly born, and bred on high,
To crown the favorites of the sky
With more of happiness below,
Than victors in a triumph know!
Whither, O whither art thou fled,
To lay thy meek contented head;
What happy region doft thou please
To make the feat of calms and ease!
Ambition fearches all its sphere
Of
pomp and state, to meet thee there.
Encreasing avarice would find
Thy prefence in its gold infhrin'd.
The bold adventurer ploughs his way,
Through rocks amidst the foaming fea,
To gain thy love; and then perceives
Thou wert not in the rocks and waves.

The

The filent heart, which grief affails,

Treads foft and lonesome o'er the vales,
Sees dailies open, rivers run,

And feeks (as I have vainly done)
Amusing thought; but learns to know
That Solitude 's the nurfe of woe.
No real happiness is found

In trailing purple o'er the ground:
Or in a foul exalted high,

To range the circuit of the sky,
Converfe with ftars above, and know
All Nature in its forms below;
The reft it feeks, in feeking dies,
And doubts at laft for knowledge rife.
Lovely, lafting peace, appear!
This world itself, if thou art here,
Is once again with Eden bleft,
And man contains it in his breaft.

'Twas thus, as under fhade I ftood,

I fung my wishes to the wood,

And, loft in thought, no more perceiv'd
The branches whisper as they wav'd:
It seem'd as all the quiet place
Confefs'd the prefence of his grace.
When thus the fpoke-Go rule thy will,
Bid thy wild paffions all be still,
-Know God-and bring thy heart to know
The joys which from religion flow :
Then every grace fhall prove its guest,

And I'll be there to crown the rest.

Oh!

Oh! by yonder moffy feat,
In my hours of sweet retreat;
Might I thus my foul employ,
With fense of gratitude and joy:
Rais'd as ancient prophets were,
In heavenly vifion, praife, and prayer;
Pleafing all men, hurting none,
Pleas'd and blefs'd with God alone:
Then while the gardens take my fight,
With all the colours of delight;
While filver waters glide along,
To pleafe my ear, and court my fong:
I'll lift my voice, and tune my ftring,
And thee, great Source of Nature, fing.
The fun that walks his airy way,

To light the world, and give the day;
The moon that shines with borrow'd light;
The stars that gild the gloomy night;
The feas that roll unnumber'd waves;
The wood that spreads its fhady leaves;
The field whofe ears conceal the grain,
The yellow treasure of the plain;
All of these, and all I fee,

Should be fung, and fung by me :
They speak their Maker as they can,
But want and ask the tongue of man.
Go fearch among your idle dreams,
Your bufy or your vain extreams;
And find a life of equal blifs,
Or own the next begun in this.

THE

THE HERMIT.

FAR in a wild, unknown to public view,

From youth to age a reverend Hermit grew;
The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food. the fruits, his drink the crystal well:
Remote from men, with God he pafs'd the days,
Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.
A life fo facred, fuch ferene repofe,

Seem'd heaven itself, till one fuggestion rose;
That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey,
This fprung fome doubt of Providence's sway :
His hopes no more a certain profpect boast,
And all the tenour of his foul is loft:
So when a smooth expanfe receives impreft
Calm nature's image on its watery breast,
Down ben'd the banks, the trees depending grow,
And skies beneath with anfwering colours glow :
But if a ftone the gentle fea divide,

Swift ruffling circles curl on every fide,

And glimmering fragments of a broken fun,
Banks, trees, and skies, in thick diforder run.
To clear this doubt, to know the world by fight,
To find if books, or fwains, report it right,
(For yet by fwains alone the world he knew,
Whofe feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew)
He quits his cell; the Pilgrim-ftaff he bore,

And fix'd the fcallop in his hat before;

Then with the fun a rising journey went,
Sedate to think, and watching each event.

The morn was wasted in the pathless grafs,
And long and lonesome was the wild to pass;
But when the southern fun had warm'd the day,
A youth came pofting o'er a croffing way!
His raiment decent, his complexion fair,
And soft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair.
Then near approaching, Father, hail! ke cry'd,
And hail, my Son, the reverend Sire reply'd ;
Words follow'd words, from question answer flow'd,
And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road;
Till each with other pleas'd, and loth to part,
While in their age they differ, join in heart.
Thus ftands an aged elm in ivy bound,
Thus youthful ivy clafps an elm around.

Now funk the fun; the clofing hour of day Came onward, mantled o'er with fober grey; Nature in filence bid the world repose;

When near the road a stately palace rose:

There by the moon through ranks of trees they pafs,
Whofe verdure crown'd their floping fides of grass.
It chanc'd the noble mafter of the dome

Still made his house the wandering stranger's home:
Yet ftill the kindness, from a thirst of praise,
Prov'd the vain flourish of expensive ease.

:

The pair arrive the livery'd fervants wait;
Their lord receives them at the pompous gate.
The table groans with coftly piles of food,
And all is more than hofpitably good.

Then