THE cruel Cælia loves and burns
In flames fhe cannot hide;
Make her, dear Thyrfis! cold returns,
Treat her with fcorn and pride.
You know the captives fhe has made
The torment of her chain;
Let her, let her, be once betray'd,
Or rack her with difdain.
See tears flow from her piercing eyes;
She bends her knee divine:
Her tears for Damon's fake despise;
Let her kneel ftill for mine.
Purfue thy conqueft, charming Youth!
Her haughty beauty vex,
Till trembling virgins learn this truth-
Men can revenge their sex.
WHO could believe that a fine needle's smart
Should from a finger pierce a virgin's heart,
That from an orifice fo very fmall
The fpirits and the vital blood fhould fall?
Strephon and Phaon, I'll be judg'd by you
If more than this has not been found too true.
From fmaller darts much greater wounds arise
When fhot by Cynthia's or by Laura's eyes.
SAM Wills had view'd Kate Bets, a smiling lass,
And for her pretty mouth admir'd her face:
Kate had lik'd Sam for nofe of Roman fize,
Not minding his complexion or his eyes.
They met Says Sam," Alas! to fay the truth
"I find myself deceiv'd by that small mouth."
"Alas!" cries Kate, "could any one suppose
"I could be fo deceiv'd by fuch a nose?
"But I henceforth fhall hold this maxim juft,
"To have experience first, and then to truft."
OFT' as I wond'ring stand a fecret doubt
Puzzles my reason and disturbs my thought,
Whether this lower world by chance does move,
Or guided by the guardian hand of Jove.
When I furvey the world's harmonious frame, 5 How Nature lives immutably the fame,
How ftated bounds and ambient fhores reftrain
The rolling furges of the briny main,
How conftant Time revolves the circling year,
How day and night alternately appear,
Then am I well convinc'd fome Secret Soul,
Some First Informing Pow'r, directs the whole,
Some Great Intelligence, who turns the spheres,
Who rules the fteady motion of the stars,
Who decks with borrow'd light the waning moon, 15
And fills with native light th' unchanging fun,
*The effay to which this poem was originally annexed was written in 1711, as a harth fatire on the Duke of Marlborough, dictated perhaps rather by party rage than truth. It is printed in Dr. King's Works, vol. II. p. 280.
Who hangs the earth amidst surrounding skies, And bids her various fruits in various seasons rife.
But foon as I reflect on human state,
How blind, how unproportion'd, is our fate,
How ill men crown'd with bleffings smoothly país
A golden circle of delightful days,
How good men bear the rugged paths of life,
Condemn'd to endless cares, to endless ftrife,
Then am I loft again; religion fails;
Then Epicurus' bolder scheme prevails,
Which thro' the void makes wand'ring atoms dance, And calls the medley world the work of Chance, Which God's eternal providence denies,
And feigns him nodding in the distant skies.
At length Rufinus' fate my doubt removes,
And God's exiftence and his juftice proves:
Nor do I longer undeceiv'd complain
The wicked flourish and triumphant reign,
Since they to fortune's heights are rais'd alone
To rush with greater ruin headlong down.
But here instruct thy bard, Pierian dame!
Whence and of whom the dire contagion came.
Alecto's breast with rage and envy glows
To fee the world poffefs'd of fweet repofe ;
Down to the dreary realms below the bends,
There fummons a cabal of fifter fiends;
Thither unnumber'd plagues direct their flight,
The curfed progeny of Hell and Night.
First Difcord rears her head, the nurse of War;
Next Famine fiercely stalks with haughty air; [breath,
Then Age fcarce drags her limbs, fcarce draws her
But tott'ring on approaches neighb'ring Death:
Here grows Disease, with inbred tortures worn;
There Envy fnarls, and others' good does mourn;
There Sorrow fighs, her robe to tatters torn;
Fear sculks behind, and trembling hides her face,
But Rashness headlong thrusts her front of brass;
Then Luxury, wealth's bane, profufely fhines,
Whilft Want attending in a cloud repines;
A train of fleepless felf tormenting cares,
Daughters of meagre Avarice, appears *,
Who as around her wither'd neck they cling
Confefs the parent hag from whence they spring:
Here ills of each malignant kind refort;
A thousand monfters guard the dreadful court.
Amidst th' infernal crowd Alecto stands,
And a deep filence awfully commands,
Then in tumultuous terms like these exprest
A paffion long had fwell'd within her breast:
"Shall we fupine permit these peaceful days
"So smooth, fo gay, fo undisturb'd, to pass?
"Shall pity melt, fhall clemency control,
"A Fury's fierce and unrelenting foul?
*This is an inftance in which Dr. King in common with fome greater poets has facrificed grammar to (even a very indifferent) rhyme.
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