VI.

Thither, ye guardian powers (if such there are, Deputed from the sky

To watch o'er human-kind with friendly care,) Thither, ye gentle spirits, fly!

If goodness like your own can move Your conftant zeal, your tenderest love, For ever wait on this accomplish'd fair! Shield her from every ruder breath of air. Nor let invading fickness come

To blaft thofe beauties in their bloom. May no misguided choice, no hapless doom, Disturb the heaven of her fair life

With clouds of grief, or fhowers of melting tears;
Let harsh unkindness, and ungenerous ftrife,
Repining difcontent, and boding fears,

With every shape of woe, be driven away
Like ghofts prohibited the day.

Let Peace o'er her his dovelike wings display,
And fmiling joys crown all her blissful years!

то

то

MR. CONSTANTINE,

ON HIS

PAINTING S.

WHILE o'er the cloth thy happy pencil ftrays,

And the pleas'd eye its artful course furveys,

Behold the magick power of fhade and light!
A new creation opens to our fight.

Here tufted groves rife boldly to the sky,

There fpacious lawns more diftant charm the eye;
The crystal lakes in borrow'd tinctures shine,
And misty hills the fair horizon join,
Loft in the azure borders of the day,

Like founds remote that die in air away.
The peopled profpect various pleafure yields,
Sheep grace the hills, and herds or fwains the fields;
Harmonious order o'er the whole prefides,

And Nature crowns the work, which Judgment guides.

Nor with less skill difplay'd by thee appear
The different products of the fertile year;
While fruits with imitated ripeness glow,
And fudden flowers beneath thy pencil blow.
Such, and fo various, thy extenfive hand,
Oft in fufpence the pleas'd fpectators stand,

Doubt.

Doubtful to chufe, and fearing ftill to err,
When to thyself they would thyfelf prefer.
So when the rival gods at Athens strove,
By wondrous works their power divine to prove,
As Neptune's trident ftrook the teeming earth,
Here the proud horse upstarted to his birth;
And there, as Pallas blefs'd the fruitful scene,
The spreading olive rear'd its stately green;
In dumb furprize the gazing crouds were loft,
Nor knew on which to fix their wonder moft.

That bears Urania from our eager eyes ;

Deaf to our call, the billows waft her o'er,

With speed obfequious to a distant shore ;

A prize more rich than Spain's whole fleets could boaft
From fam'd Peru, or Chili's golden coast!
There the glad natives, on the crouded strand,
With wonder fee the matchlefs stranger land;
Transplanted glories in her features fmile,
And a new dawn of beauty gilds their isle.

Se

So from the fea when Venus rose serene, And by the nymphs and tritons first was seen, The watery world beheld, with pleas'd fuprize, O'er its wide waste new tracks of light arife; The winds were hush'd, the floods forgot to move, And nature own'd th' aufpicious Queen of Love.

Henceforth no more the Cyprian ifle be nam'd, Though for th' abode of that bright goddess fam'd; Jamaica's happier groves, conceal'd fo long Through ages paft, are now the poets fong. The Graces there, and Virtues fix their throne ; Urania makes th' adopted land her own.

The Mufe, with her in thought tranfported, fees The opening scene, the bloomy plants and trees, By brighter skies rais'd to a nobler birth, And fruits deny'd to Europe's colder earth. At her approach, like courtiers doubly gay To grace the pomp of fome lov'd prince's day, The gladden'd foil in all its plenty fhines,

New spreads its branching palms, and new adorns its pines;

With gifts prepares the shining guest to meet,

And pours its verdant offerings at her feet.

As in the fields with pleasure the appears,

Smiles on the labourers, and their labours cheers,
The luscious canes with fweeter juices flow,

The melons ripen, and the citrons blow,
The golden orange takes a richer dye,

And flaves forget their toil, while she is by.

Not

Not Ceres' felf more bleffings could display,
When through the earth fhe took her wandering way,
Far from her native coast, and all around

Diffus'd ripe harvests through the teeming ground.

Mean while our drooping vales deserted mourn, Till happy years bring on her wish'd return; New honours then, Urania, fhall be thine, And Britain fhall again the world outshine.

So when of late our fun was veil'd from fight In dark eclipfe, and loft in fudden night, A fhivering cold each heart with horror thrill'd, The birds forfook the fkies, the herds the field; But when the conquering orb, with one bright ray, Broke through the gloom, and reinthron'd the day, The herds reviv'd, the birds renew'd their strains, Unusual transports rais'd the chearful swains, And joy returning echo'd through the plains.

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THE