T' affure yet my defence, on either hand,
Like mighty forts, in equal distance stand
Two of the best and statelieft piles which e'er
Man's liberal piety of old did rear;

Where the two princes of th' Apostles' band,

My neighbours and my guards, watch and command.
My warlike guard of fhips, which farther lie,
Might be my object too, were not the eye
Stopt by the houses of that wondrous street
Which rides o'er the broad river like a fleet.
The stream's eternal fiege they fixt abide,
And the fwoln ftream's auxiliary tide,

Though both their ruin with joint power confpire;
Both to out-brave, they nothing dread but fire.
And here my Thames, though it more gentle be
Than any flood fo ftrengthen'd by the fea,
Finding by art his natural forces broke,

And bearing, captive-like, the arched yoke,
Does roar, and foam, and rage, at the difgrace,,
But recompofes ftrait, and calms his face;
Is into reverence and fubmiffion strook,

As foon as from afar he does but look.

Tow'rds the white palace, where that king does reign.
Who lays his laws and bridges o'er the main.
Amidst these louder honours of my seat,
And two vast cities, troublesomely great,
In a large various plain the country too
Opens her gentler bleffings to my view:
In me the active and the quiet mind,
By different ways, equal content may find.

If any prouder virtuofo's sense

At that part of my prospect take offence,
By which the meaner cabbins are descry'd,
of my imperial river's humbler fide-
If they call that a blemish-let them know,
God, and my godlike mistress, think not fo;
For the diftrefs'd and the afflicted lie

Moft in their care, and always in their eye.

And thou, fair river! who ftill pay'ft to me Juft homage, in thy paffage to the sea, Take here this one inftruction as thou go'stWhen thy mixt waves fhall vifit every coast; When round the world their voyage they shall make, And back to thee fome fecret channels take; Afk them what nobler fight they e'er did meet, Except thy mighty mafter's fovereign fleet, Which now triumphant o'er the main does ride, The terror of all lands, the ocean's pride. From hence his kingdoms, happy now at last, (Happy, if wife by their misfortunes past!) From hence may omens take of that success Which both their future wars and peace shall blefs. The peaceful mother on mild Thames does build; With her fon's fabricks the rough sea is fill'd.

THE

THE

COMPLAINT.

IN a deep vifion's intellectual scene,

Beneath a bower for forrow made,
Th' uncomfortable shade

Of the black yew's unlucky green,
Mixt with the mourning willow's careful grey,
Where reverend Cham cuts out his famous way,
The melancholy Cowley lay:

And loa Mufe appear'd to 's closed fight,
(The Muses oft in lands of vision play)
Body'd, array'd, and seen, by an internal light.
A golden harp with filver strings fhe bore;
A wondrous hieroglyphick robe she wore,
In which all colours and all figures were,
That nature or that fancy can create,

That art can never imitate;

And with loofe pride it wanton'd in the air.
In fuch a drefs, in fuch a well-cloath'd dream,
She us'd, of old, near fair Ifmenus' ftream,
Pindar, her Theban favourite, to meet;

A crown was on her head, and wings were on her feet.

'She touch'd him with her harp, and rais'd him from the The fhaken ftrings melodioufly refound.

"Art thou return'd at laft," faid the, "To this forfaken place and me? "Thou prodigal! who didft fo loosely waste "Of all thy youthful years the good eftate;

04

[ground;

"Art

"Art thou return'd here, to repent too late,
"And gather husks of learning up at last,
"Now the rich harvest-time of life is past,

"And winter marches on fo fast?
"But, when I meant t' adopt thee for my
"And did as learn'd a portion affign,
"As ever any of the mighty Nine

fon,

"Had to their dearest children done; "When I refolv'd t' exalt thy' anointed name, "Among the spiritual lords of peaceful fame; "Thou changeling! thou, bewitch'd with noise and fhow,

"Would't into courts and cities from me go;
"Would't fee the world abroad, and have a share
"In all the follies and the tumults there:

"Thou would'ft, førfooth, be fomething in a state,
"And bufinefs thou would'ft find, and would'ft create:
"Business! the frivolous pretence

"Of human lufts, to shake off innocence; "Bufinefs! the grave impertinence;

"Bufinefs! the thing which I of all things hate "Business! the contradiction of thy fate.

"Go, renegado ! caft up thy account, "And fee to what amount

"Thy foolish gains by quitting me:

"The fale of Knowledge, Fame, and Liberty, "The fruits of thy unlearn'd apoftacy.

<< Thou

"Thou thought'ft, if once the public ftorm were past,
"All thy remaining life should fun-shine be :
"Behold! the public ftorm is spent at last,

"The fovereign's toft at fea no more,
"And thou, with all the noble company,
"Art got at last to shore.

"But, whilft thy fellow-voyagers I fee
"All march'd up to poffefs the promis'd land,
"Thou still alone, alas! doft gaping stand

"

'Upon the naked beach, upon the barren fand!

"As a fair morning of the blessed fpring,

"After a tedious ftormy night,

"Such was the glorious entry of our king;
Enriching moisture drop'd on every thing;
"Plenty he fow'd below, and cast about him light!
"But then, alas! to thee alone,

"One of old Gideon's miracles was shown;
"For every tree and every herb around
"With pearly dew was crown'd,

"And upon all the quicken'd ground

"The fruitful feed of heaven did brooding lie,
"And nothing but the Mufe's fleece was dry.

"It did all other threats furpafs,

"When God to his own people faid

"(The men whom through long wanderings he had led)

"That he would give them ev'n a heaven of brass:
"They look'd up to that heaven in vain,

"That bounteous heaven, which God did not restrain
"Upon the most unjust to shine and rain,