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CONSCIENCE.

THE mind, that broods o'er guilty woes,
Is like the scorpion girt by fire,
In circle narrowing as it glows,
The flames around their captive close,
Till inly search'd by thousand throes,
And madd'ning in her ire,

One sad and sole relief she knows,
The sting she nourish'd for her foes,
Whose venom never yet was vain,
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,
And darts into her desperate brain.
So do the dark in soul expire,
Or live like scorpion girt by fire;

So writhes the mind remorse hath riven,
Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,

Around it flame, within it death!

THE RURAL MAID.

BYRON.

WHAT happiness the rural maid attends,
In cheerful labour while each day she spends!
She gratefully receives what heaven has sent,
And, rich in poverty, enjoys content.

(Such happiness, and such unblemish'd fame,
Ne'er glad the bosom of the courtly dame :)
She never feels the spleen's imagined pains,
Nor melancholy stagnates in her veins;
She never loses life in thoughtless ease,
Nor on the velvet couch invites disease;
Her home-spun dress in simple neatness lies,
And for no glaring equipage she sighs:
Her reputation, which is all her boast,
In a malicious visit ne'er was lost,
No midnight masquerade her beauty wears,
And health, not paint, the fading bloom repairs.

GAY.

GOING TO CHURCH.

SOME go to church just for a walk,
Some go there to laugh and talk,
Some go there the time to spend,
Some go there to meet a friend,
Some go to learn the parson's name,
Some go there to wound his fame,
Some go there for speculation,
Some go
Some go there to doze and nod,
But few go there to worship God.

there for observation,

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ANON.

CONTENTMENT.

CONTENTMENT, parent of delight,
So much a stranger to our sight,
Say, goddess, in what happy place,
Mortals behold thy blooming face;
Thy gracious auspices impart,
And for thy temple choose my heart.
They whom thou deignest to inspire,
Thy science learn, to bound desire;
By happy alchymy of mind,
They turn to pleasure all they find.

GREEN.

A NEGATIVE CHARACTER.

WITH every pleasing, every prudent part,
Say, "what can Chloe want?"-she wants a heart.
She speaks, behaves, and acts just as she ought;
But never, never reach'd one generous thought.
Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
Content to dwell in decencies for ever.

So very reasonable, so unmoved,

As never yet to love, or to be loved.

POPE.

THE LANDSCAPE.

EVER charming, ever new,

When will the landscape tire the view?
The fountains fall, the rivers flow,
The woody valleys, warm and low,
The windy summit, wild and high,
Roughly rushing on the sky!

The pleasant seat, the ruin'd tower,
The naked rock, the shady bower,
The town and village, dome and farm,
Each gave each a double charm,
As pearls upon an Ethiop's arm.

DYER.

SOLITUDE.

It was in this lone valley she would charm
The ling'ring noon, where flowers a couch had
strewn ;

Her cheek reclining, and her snowy arm
On hillock by the palm-tree half o'ergrown:
And aye that volume on her lap is thrown,
Which every heart of human mould endears;

With Shakspeare's self she speaks and smiles alone,
And no intruding visitation fears,

To shame th' unconscious laugh, or stop her sweetest

tears.

CAMPBELL.

RAILLERY.

ABOVE all things raillery decline,
Nature but few does for that task design:
"Tis in the ablest hands a dangerous tool,
But never fails to wound the meddling fool;

For all must grant it needs no common art
To keep men patient when we make them smart,
No wit alone, nor humour's self will do.

Without good nature, and much prudence too,
To judge aright of persons, place, and time;
For taste decrees what's low, and what's sublime;
And what might charm to-day, or o'er a glass,
Perhaps at court, or next day, would not pass.
STILLINGFLEET.

POLITENESS.

STUDY, with care, politeness, that must teach
The modish forms of gesture and of speech:
In vain formality with matron mien,
And pertness apes with her familiar grin:
They against nature for applauses strain,
Distort themselves, and give all others pain:
She moves with easy though with measured pace,
And shows no part of study but the grace.

STILLINGFLEET.

་་།

PASSING AWAY.

'Passing away is written on the world, and all the world contains."

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It is written on the trees

As their young leaves glist'ning play; And on the brighter things than thesePassing away."

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It is written on the brow

Where the spirit's ardent ray
Lives, burns, and triumphs now-
"Passing away."

It is written on the heart-
Alas! that there decay

Should claim from love a part!
"Passing away.”

Friends, friends! oh! shall we meet
Where the spoiler finds no prey,
Where lovely things and sweet
Pass not away?

Shall we know each other's eyes,
With the thoughts that in them lay,
When they meet beneath the skies
Which pass away?

Oh! if this may be so,

Speed, speed, thou closing day!
How blest, from earth's vain show,

To pass away.

MRS. HEMANS.

THE GIFT OF A BIBLE.

BEHOLD that Book,-o'er which, from ancient time, Sad penitence hath pour'd the prayerful breath, And meek devotion bow'd with joy sublime,

And Nature arm'd her for the strife of death, And trembling Hope renew'd her wreath divine, And Faith an anchor gain'd:-that holy Book is thine.

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