Miscellanies (1785) :: :: University of Virginia Library

On the fair confines of Idalia's shore.
Where Europe ends, and Asia opes her store,
Love's ancient palace rears its rev'rend head,
Whose rich foundations were by Nature laid;

107

Whose beauteous structure, Art, her rival, grac'd
With finest touches of peculiar taste.
There, all the charming neighbourhood around,
Perpetual summer paints the smiling ground.
To wave the myrtle, and to woo the rose,
The tender South is all the gale that blows;
Sun, without cloud, exerts a fostering power,
The clime to suckle in eternal flower.
Pomona triumphs o'er her burnish'd bough,
And Terra asks no profits from the plough;
Superior Nature smiles at Mortal aid,
And spurns alike the sickle and the spade.
Spontaneous harvests glad the roving sight,
And peace and plenty urge to soft delight.
Here, once again, the times of gold appear,
And every charm, but—Innocence is here;
No jarring jargon of a world at strife
Pervades the am'rous languishments of life,
But touching airs, which harmony inspires,
Trill to the softness of a thousand lyres;
A thousand lovers tune the tender voice,
And, amiably weak, defend their choice;

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The blest enthusiasts drown the sense of wrong
In the sweet chorus of th' impassion'd song.
Fresh wreaths of rose their fragrant fronts adorn,
From Flora's bosom pillag'd every morn;
Half-naked Graces near the Temple stand,
To add new converts to Love's happy land;
Or else repos'd on beds of rising flowers,
In touching silence try their various powers—
The care that melts, the tender breathing sigh,
The whisp'ring wish, the pleasure-moving eye,
The anxious hope, the tear that tells desire.
The smile of frolic, and the blush of fire.

The Autor when in France was introduced to M. de Voltaire, who requested he would turn into English verse a few lines of his Henriade. These verses underwritten were attempted in consequence.