Obferve yon twitt'ring flock, my gentle maid,

Obferve, and read the wondrous ways of heav'n!
With us through fummer's genial reign they stay'd,
And food and lodging to their wants were giv❜n.

But now, through facred prefcience, well they know
The near approach of elemental strife;

The bluftry tempeft, and the chilling fnow,
With every want and scourge of tender life!

Thus taught, they meditate a speedy flight;
For this ev'n now they prune their vig'rous wing;
For this confult, advife, prepare, excite,

And prove their strength in many an airy ring.

No forrow loads their breaft, or fwells their eye,
To quit their friendly haunts, or native home;
Nor fear they, launching on the boundless sky,
In fearch of future fettlements to roam.

They feel a pow'r, an impulfe all divine!

That warns them hence; they feel it, and obey; To this direction all their cares refign,

Unknown their deftin'd stage, unmark'd their way!

Well fare your flight! ye mild domestic race!

Oh! for your wings to travel with the fun!

Health brace your nerves, and Zephyrs aid your pace, 'Till your long voyage happily be done!

See

See, Delia, on my roof your guests to-day;
To-morrow on my roof your guests no more!
Ere yet 'tis night, with hafte they wing away,,
To-morrow lands them on fore safer shore.

How just the moral in this scene convey'd!

And what without a moral would we read?
Then mark what Damon tells his gentle maid,
And with his leffon regifter the deed.

'Tis thus life's chearful feafons roll away;
Thus threats the winter of inclement age;
Our time of action but a summer's day;
And earth's frail orb the fadly-varied stage!
And does no pow'r its friendly aid dispense,
Nor give us tidings of some happier clime?
Find we no guide in gracious Providence
Beyond the stroke of death, the verge of time?

Yes, yes, the facred oracles we hear,

That point the path to realms of endless day;
That bid our hearts, nor death, nor anguish fear,
This future tranfport, that to life the way.

Then let us timely for our flight prepare,
And form the foul for her divine abode;

Obey the call, and trust the Leader's care
To bring us fafe through Virtue's paths to God.

VOL. V.

F

Let

Let no fond love for earth exact a figh,

No doubts divert our fteady steps afide; Nor let us long to live, nor dread to die;

Heav'n is our Hope, and Providence our Guide,

A

WRITTEN APRIL, 1749.

T length the winter's furly blafts are o'er; Array'd in fmiles the lovely fpring returns: Health to the breeze unbars the screaming door And every breast with heat celestial burns.

Again the daifies peep, the violets blow;
Again the tenants of the leafy grove,
Forgot the patt❜ring hail, the driving fnow,
Refume the lay to melody and love.

And fee, my Delia, fee o'er yonder stream,
Where on the funny bank the lambkins play;
Alike attracted to th' enliv'ning gleam,

The ftranger-swallows take their wonted way.

Welcome, ye gentle tribe, your sports pursue,
Welcome again to Delia, and to me:
Your peaceful councils on my roof renew,
And plan your fettlements from danger free.

No

No tempeft on my fhed its fury pours,
My frugal hearth no noxious blaft fupples;
Go, wand'rers, go, repair your footy bow'rs,
Think, on no hoftile roof my ehimnies rife.

Again I'll listen to your grave debates,

I'll think I hear your various maxims told, Your numbers, leaders, policies, and states, Your limits fettled, and your tribes enroll❜d.

I'll think I hear you tell of diftant lands,

What infect-nations rife from Egypt's mud,
What painted fwarms fubfift on Libya's fands,
What mild Euphrates yields, and Ganges' flood.

Thrice happy race! whom Nature's call invites
To travel o'er her realms with active wing,
To taste her choiceft ftores, her beft delights,
The fummer's radiance, and the fweets of fpring:

While we are doom'd to bear the reftlefs change
Of shifting feasons, vapours dank, or dry,
Forbid, like you, to milder climes to range,
When wintry clouds deform the troubled fky

But know the period to your joys affign'd!
Know ruin hovers o'er this earthly ball;
Certain as fate, and fudden as the wind,
Its fecret adamantine props fhall fall.

Yet when your fhort-liv'd fummers fhine no more,
My patient mind, fworn foe to vice's way,
Suftain'd on lighter wings than yours, fhall foar
To fairer realms beneath a brighter ray;

To plains etherial, and Elyfian bowers,
Where wintry storms no rude access obtain,
Where blafts no light'ning, and no thunder low'rs,
But fpring and joy unchang'd for ever reign.

KKKKKKKKKKKK

**

VALENTINE's

BY THE

DAY.

SAME.

HE tuneful choir in amorous strains

T'Accoft their feather'd loves,

While each fond mate with equal pains

The tender fuit approves,

With chearful hop from spray to spray

They sport along the meads;

In focial blifs together stray,

Where love or fancy leads.

Through spring's gay scenes each happy pair |
Their fluttering joys purfue;

Its various charms and produce share,

For ever kind and true.

The