 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
27
An EPISTLE To --- Esq.
Thou, whose warm Soul's still eager to commend
The feeble efforts of thy Rhimester Friend,
Ingenious ---, what on Cornwall's Coast
Dost thou devise? Of what new Labour boast?
High on a Clift, which e'en transcends the Flight
Of Shakespear's boldest Muse, dost thou delight
The studious Mind? Or on the subject Shore
Stray lonely, Nature's Secrets to explore?
What dost thou do? Into the Mine descend,
And view the kindred Ores their Masses blend?
Or else, in Search of Plants, excursive rove
Through the gay Mead and venerable Grove?
The feeble efforts of thy Rhimester Friend,
Ingenious ---, what on Cornwall's Coast
Dost thou devise? Of what new Labour boast?
High on a Clift, which e'en transcends the Flight
Of Shakespear's boldest Muse, dost thou delight
The studious Mind? Or on the subject Shore
Stray lonely, Nature's Secrets to explore?
What dost thou do? Into the Mine descend,
And view the kindred Ores their Masses blend?
Or else, in Search of Plants, excursive rove
Through the gay Mead and venerable Grove?
PERHAPS to Love and Gallantry inclin'd,
You now unbend and humanize the Mind
With Passions, gentle, soft, engaging, kind;
Which rise above the Pedant's dull Pretence,
And add a Grace and Elegance to Sense.
But no ---
I know you better; these can only find
A second Place in the exalted Mind.
From the vain World retir'd, you often rove,
And Court Self-Converse in the lonely Grove.
Or in the Silence of some awful Wood,
You con th'important Lesson to be good:
Descend into yourself, with Search severe,
And prune each latent evil, budding there:
Weigh ev'ry Thought; on what each Notion stands:
What Reason dictates, and your God commands.
You now unbend and humanize the Mind
With Passions, gentle, soft, engaging, kind;
28
And add a Grace and Elegance to Sense.
But no ---
I know you better; these can only find
A second Place in the exalted Mind.
From the vain World retir'd, you often rove,
And Court Self-Converse in the lonely Grove.
Or in the Silence of some awful Wood,
You con th'important Lesson to be good:
Descend into yourself, with Search severe,
And prune each latent evil, budding there:
Weigh ev'ry Thought; on what each Notion stands:
What Reason dictates, and your God commands.
| Poems on Several Occasions | |