Jam reparat rifus, jam furgit gratiâ visûs,
Jam promit cultu, mirac'la latentia vultu.
Pigmina jam mifcet, quo plus fua purpura glifcet,
Et geminans bellis fplendet magè fulgor ocellis.
Stant Lemures muti, Nymphæ intentique faluti,
Hic figit zonam, capiti, locat ille coronam,
Hæc manicis formam, plicis dat et altera normam;
Et tibi vel Betty, tibi vel nitidiffima Letty!
Gloria factorum temerè conceditur horum.

HEALTH. AN ECLOGUE.

OW early fhepherds o'er the meadow pafs,

NOW

And print long footsteps in the glittering grafs;

The cows neglectful of their pasture stand,

By turns obfequious to the milker's hand.

When Damon foftly trod the fhaven lawn,
Damon a youth from city cares withdrawn;
Long was the pleasing walk he wander'd through,
A cover'd arbour clos'd the diftant view;

There refts the youth, and, while the feather'd throng
Raise their wild mufic, thus contrives a fong.

Here, wafted o'er by mild Etefian air,

Thou country Goddefs, beauteous Health! repair;
Here let my breaft through quivering trees inhale
Thy rofy bleffings with the morning gale.
What are the fields, or flowers, or all I fee?
Ah! tastelefs all, if not enjoy'd with thee.
Joy to my foul! I feel the Goddess nigh,
The face of nature cheers as well as I;

O'er

O'er the flat green refreshing breezes run,

The fmiling daizies blow beneath the fun,
The brooks run purling down with filver waves,
The planted lanes rejoice with dancing leaves,
The chirping birds from all the compass rove
To tempt the tuneful echoes of the grove:
High funny fummits, deeply-fhaded dales,
Thick moffy banks, and flowery winding vales.
With various profpect gratify the fight,

And fcatter fix'd attention in delight.

Come, country goddess, come; nor thou fuffice,
But bring thy mountain-fifter, Exercife.
Call'd by thy lovely voice, the turns her pace,
Her winding horn proclaims the finifh'd chace;
She mounts the rocks, the fkims the level plain,
Dogs, hawks, and horses, croud her early train.
Her hardy face repels the tanning wind,
And lines and meshes loosely float behind.
All these as means of toil the feeble see,

But thefe are helps to pleasure join'd with thee.
Let Slath lie foftening till high noon in down,
Or lolling fan her in the fultry town,

Unnerv'd with reft; and turn her own disease,
Or fofter others in luxurious cafe :

I mount the courfer, call the deep-mouth'd hounds,
The fox unkennel'd flies to covert grounds;

I lead where ftags through tangled thickets tread,
And shake the faplings with their branching head;
I make the faulcons wing their airy way,
And foar to feize, or stooping ftrike their prey;

Το

To fnare the fish, I fix the luring bait ;
To wound the fowl, I load the gun with fate.
'Tis thus through change of exercise I range,
And ftrength and pleasure rife from every change.
Here, beauteous Health, for all the year remain ;
When the next comes, I'll charm thee thus again.
Oh come, thou Goddess of my rural fong,
And bring thy daughter, calm Content, along;
Dame of the ruddy cheek and laughing eye,
From whofe bright prefence clouds of forrow fly:
For her I mow my walks, I plat my bowers,
Clip my low hedges, and support my flowers;
To welcome her, this fummer-feat I dreft,
And here I court her when she comes to reft;
When the from exercife to learned ease

Shall change again, and teach the change to please.
Now friends converfing my foft hours refine,
And Tully's Tufculum revives in mine:
Now to grave books I bid the mind retreat,
And fuch as make me rather good than great.
Or o'er the works of easy fancy rove,
Where flutes and innocence amuse the grove :
The native Bard, that on Sicilian plains
First-fung the lowly manners of the fwains ;
Or Maro's Mufe, that in the fairest light
Paints rural profpects and the charms of fight
These soft amusements bring Content along,
And fancy, void of forrow, turns to song.

Here, beauteous Health, for all the year remain;
When the next comes, I'll charm thee thus again.

THE FLIES. AN ECLOGUE.

WHEN in the river cows for coolness ftand,

And sheep for breezes feek the lofty land,

A youth, whom Æsop taught that every tree,
Each bird and infect, spoke as well as he;
Walk'd calmly mufing in a fhady way,
Where flowering hawthorns broke the funny ray,
And thus inftructs his moral pen to draw
A fcene that obvious in the field he faw.

Near a low ditch, where fhallow waters meet,
Which never learn'd to glide with liquid feet;
Whofe Naiads never prattle as they play,
But screen'd with hedges flumber out the day,
There ftands aflender fern's afpiring fhade,
Whose answering branches regularly laid
Put forth their anfwering boughs, and proudly sifa
Three ftories upward, in the nether skies.

For fhelter here, to fhun the noon-day heat,
An airy nation of the Flies retreat;
Some in foft airs their filken pinions ply,
And fome from bough to bough delighted fly,
Some rife, and circling light to perch again;
A pleafing murmur hums along the plain.
So, when a ftage invites to pageant shows,
(If great and small arc like) appear the beaux ;
In boxes fome with fpruce pretenfion fit,
Some change from feat. to feat within the pit,

Some

Some roam the fcenes, or turning ceafe to roam;
Preluding mufic fills the lofty dome.

When thus a Fly (if what a Ely can fay
Deferves attention) rais'd the rural lay.

Where late Amintor made a nymph a bride,
Joyful I flew by young Favonia's fide,
Who, mindlefs of the feafting, went to fip
The balmy pleasure of the fhepherd's lip,
I faw the Wanton, where I ftoop'd to fup,
And half refolv'd to drown me in a cup;
Till, brush'd by careless hands, the foar'd above::
Ceafe, Beauty, ceafe to vex a tender love.

Thus ends the youth, the buzzing meadow rung,
And thus the rival of his mufic fung.

When funs by thoufands fhone on orbs of dew,
I wafted foft with Zephyretta flew ;

Saw the clean pail, and fought the milky chear,
While little Daphne feiz'd my roving Dear.
Wretch that I was! I might have warn'd the dame,
Yet fate indulging as the danger came.

But the kind huntress left her free to foar:
Ah! guard, ye lovers, guard a mistress more.
Thus from the fern, whofe high projecting arms
The fleeting nation bent with dufky fwarms,
The fwains their love in eafy mufic breathe,
When tongues and tumult ftun the field beneath.
Black ants in teams come darkening all the road,
Some call to march, and fome to lift the load;
They ftrain, they labour with inceffant pains,
Prefs'd by the cumbrous weight of fingle grains.

The