In every speech persuasive wisdom flow'd,
In every act refulgent virtue glow'd:
Sufpended faction ceas'd from rage and strife,
To hear his eloquence, and praife his life.
Refiftlefs merit fix'd the Senate's choice,
Who hail'd him Speaker with united voice.
Illuftrious age! how bright thy glories fhone,
When HANMER fill'd the chair-and ANNE the throne!
Then when dark arts obfcur'd each fierce debate,
When mutual frauds perplex'd the maze of state,
The moderator firmly mild appear'd→

Beheld with love-with veneration heard.

This task perform'd-he fought no gainful post,
Nor wish'd to glitter at his country's coft;
Strict on the right he fix'd his ftedfaft eye,
With temperate zeal and wife anxiety;
Nor e'er from Virtue's paths was lur'd afide,
To pluck the flow'rs of pleasure, or of pride.
Her gifts defpis'd, Corruption blush'd and fled,
And fame pursued him where Conviction led.

Age call'd, at length, his active mind to reft,
With honour fated, and with cares oppreft;
To letter'd ease retir'd and honeft mirth,
To rural grandeur and domestick worth:
Delighted ftill to please mankind, or mend,
The patriot's fire yet sparkled in the friend.
Calm Confcience then, his former life survey'd,
And recollected toils endear'd the fhade,
Till Nature call'd him to the general doom,
And Virtue's forrow dignified his tomb.

Το

B

To MISS HICKMA N*,

Playing on the Spinnet.

RIGHT Stella, form'd for univerfal reign,

Too well you know to keep the flaves you gain; When in your eyes refiftless lightnings play, Aw'd into love our conquer'd hearts obey, And yield reluctant to defpotick fway: But when your mufick fooths the raging pain, We bid propitious heav'n prolong your reign, We bless the tyrant, and we hug the chain. When old Timotheus ftruck the vocal string, Ambition's fury fir'd the Grecian king: Unbounded projects lab'ring in his mind, He pants for room in one poor world confin'd. Thus wak'd to rage, by mufick's dreadful pow'r He bids the fword deftroy, the flame devour. Had Stella's gentle touches mov'd the lyre, Soon had the monarch felt a nobler fire: No more delighted with destructive war, Ambitious only now to please the fair; Refign'd his thirst of empire to her charms, And found a thousand worlds in Stella's arms,

}

*Thefe Lines, which have been communicated by Dr. Turton, fon to Mrs. Turton, the Lady to whom they are addressed by her maiden name of Hickman, must have been written at least as early as the year 1734, as that was the year of her marriage: at how much earlier a period of Dr. Johnfon's life they may have been written, is not known,

PARA

PARAPHRASE of PROVERBS, Chap, VI. Verses 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

TU

"Go to the Ant thou Sluggard *."

URN on the prudent ant thy heedlefs eyes,
Obferve her labours, fluggard, and be wife:
No ftern command, no monitory voice
Prefcribes her duties, or directs her choice;
Yet, timely provident, fhe haftes away,
To fnatch the bleffings of the plenteous day;
When fruitful fummer loads the teeming plain,
She crops the harveft, and fhe ftores the grain.

How long shall floth ufurp thy useless hours,
Unnerve thy vigour, and enchain thy pow'rs?
While artful shades thy downy couch inclose,
And foft folicitation courts repose.

Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight,
Year chafes year with unremitted flight,
Till want now following, fraudulent and flow,
Shall spring to seize thee like an ambush'd foe.

HORACE, Lib. IV. Ode VII. TRANSLATED.

HE fnow diffolv'd, no more is seen,

TH

The fields and woods, behold! are green.

The changing year renews the plain,

The rivers know their banks again,

* In Mrs. Williams's Mifcellanies, but now printed from the original in Dr. Johnson's own hand-writing

The

The fprightly nymph and naked grace
The mazy dance together trace.
The changing year's fucceffive plan
Proclaims mortality to man.

Rough winter's blasts to spring give way,
Spring yields to fummer's fovereign ray;
Then summer finks in autumn's reign,
And winter chills the world again :
Her loffes foon the moon fupplies,
But wretched man, when once he lies
Where Priam and his fons are laid,
Is nought but afhes and a shade.

Who knows if Jove, who counts our score,
Will tofs us in a morning more?
What with your friend you nobly share
At least you rescue from your heir.
Not you Torquatus, boaft of Rome,
When Minos once has fix'd your doom,
Or eloquence, or fplendid birth,
Or virtue, fhall reftore to earth.
Hippolytus, unjustly flain,

Diana calls to life in vain ;

Nor can the might of Thefeus rend

The chains of hell that hold his friend.

On feeing a BUST of Mrs. MONTAGUE.

HAD this fair figure which this frame displays,

Adorn'd in Roman time the brightest days,

In every dome, in every facred place,

Her ftatue would have breath'd an added grace,
And on its bafis would have been enroll'd,
"This is Minerva, caft in Virtue's mould."

The following TRANSLATIONS, PARODIES, and BURLESQUE VERSES, most of them extempore, are taken from ANECDOTES of Dr. JOHNSON, lately publifhed by Mrs. Piozzi.

ANACREON, ODE IX.

LOVELY courier of the sky,

Whence and whither doft thou fly?
Scatt'ring, as thy pinions play,
Liquid fragrance all the way:
Is it bufinefs? is it love?

Tell, me, tell me, gentle dove.

Soft Anacreon's vows I bear,
Vows to Myrtale the fair;

Grac'd