IV. The linnet enchants us the bushes among; Though cheap the musician, yet sweet is the song; We catch the soft warbling in air as it floats, Our water is drawn from the clearest of springs, VI. From our culture yon garden its ornament finds, And we catch at the hint for improving our To live to some purpose we constantly try, VII. Since such are the joys that Simplicity yields, We may well be content with our woods and our fields: How useless to us then, ye great, were your wealth, When without it we purchase both pleasure and health! [They retire into the cottage. Scene-A rural entertainment. VI. That peace I'll preserve then, as pure as was giv❜n, And taste in my bosom an earnest of Heav'n; And sixty may flourish as gay as sixteen. And when long I the burden of life shall have Euphe. Thus sweetly pass the hours of rural ease! Here life is bliss, and pleasures truly please! Past. With joy we view the dangers we have past, Assur'd we've found felicity at last. Flor. Esteem none happy by their outward All have their portion of allotted care. FLORELLA, EUPHELIA, CLEORA, LAURINDA, PAS- To stem impetuous Passion's furious tide, TORELLA. FLORELLA (sings.) I. While Beauty and Pleasure are now in their And Folly and Fashion expect our whole time, Though the vain and the gay may allure us To curb the insolence of prosp'rous Pride, Cleora. List'ning to you, my heart can never cease To rev'rence Virtue, and to sigh for peace. Flor. Know, e'en Urania, that accomplish'd fair [care, Whose goodness makes her Heaven's peculiar Though born to all that affluence can bestow, Has felt the deep reverse of human wo: de-Yet meek in grief, and patient in distress, She knew the hand that wounds has pow'r to bless.. Yet let not their flatt'ry our prudence beguile; cay, Nor listen to all that deceivers can say. III. 'How the tints of the rose and the jasmine's perfume! The eglantine's fragrance, the lilac's gay bloom, For that neither is sweet when Florella is by.' I sigh not for beauty, nor languish for wealth, Then, richer than kings and as happy as they, V. When age shall steal on me, and youth is no more, And the moralist Time shakes his glass at my What charm in lost beauty or wealth should I Grateful she bows, for what is left her still, Enter URANIA, SYLVIA, ELIZA. What time has taught me, and experience, By thee instructed still my views shall rise, shown, No polish'd phrase my artless speech will grace, Those squander'd hours, that time can ne'er re store. Ura. Euphelia sighs for flatt'ry, dress, and The common sources these of female wo! As when a soul irradiates and inspires : In that best art-the art of living well. rest: All other faults may take a higher aim, way, In pow'r superior, or in splendour gay! Inform'd by thee, no more vain man shall find The charm of flatt'ry taint Euphelia's mind: Nor stop at any mark beneath the skies. Urania. In fair Laurinda's uninstructed mind, The want of culture, not of sense, we find; Whene'er you sought the good, or shunn'd the ill, 'Twas more from temper than from principle: Your random life to no just rules reduc'd, "Twas chance the virtue or the vice produc'd: The casual goodness Impulse has to boast, Like morning dews, or transient show'rs is lost; While Heav'n-taught Virtue pours her constant tide, Like streams by living fountains still supply'd. Be wisdom still, though late, your earnest care, The gift of grace divine is free to all; And when, advanc'd in years, matur'd in sense, Think not with farther care you may dispense, turn Lau. O that important Time could back re[mourn! Those misspent hours whose loss I deeply Accept, just Heav'n, my penitence sincere, My heartfelt anguish, and my fervent pray'r! Ura. I pity Pastorella's hapless fate, By nature gentle, gen'rous, mild, and great; One false propension all her pow'rs confin'd, And chain'd her finer faculties of mind; Yet ev'ry virtue might have flourish'd there, With early culture and maternal care. If good we plant not, vice will fill the place, And rankest weeds the richest soils deface. Learn, how ungovern'd thoughts the mind pervert, And to disease all nourishment convert. From sickly thoughts with quick abhorrence | From thee I'll learn to judge and act aright, start, And rule the fancy if you'd rule the heart: For ever rising should his aims be found. And long, with thee, to tread the paths of truth. rules An art which Nature teaches-not the schools. Thus conq'ring Sevigne the heart obtains, While Dacier only admiration gains. Know, fair aspirer, could you even hope, Less to adorn than to amend the mind: I bend, Thou best adviser, and thou truest friend! Humility with Knowledge to unite : Ura. Florella shines adorn'd with every grace, Past. O sacred Friendship! O exalted state! The choicest bounty of indulgent fate! Ura. Let woman then her real good discern, And her true int'rests of Urania learn: As some fair violet, loveliest of the glade, Sheds its mild fragrance on the lonely shade, Withdraws its modest head from public sight, Nor courts the sun, nor seeks the glare of light; Should some rude hand profanely dare intrude, And bear its beauties from its native wood, Expos'd abroad its languid colours fly, Its form decays, and all its odours die So woman, born to dignify retreat, Unknown to flourish, and unseen be great, To give domestic life its sweetest charm, With softness polish, and with virtue warm, Fearful of Fame, unwilling to be known, Should seek but Heaven's applauses and her own; Hers be the task to seek the lonely cell Euph. With added grace she pleads Religion's cause, Who from her life her virtuous lesson draws. Ura. In vain, ye fair! from place to place you brought us here, Adore his goodness, and his will revere; Ura. In its true light this transient life re- This is a state of trial, not reward. Though rough the passage, peaceful is the port, ODE TO CHARITY. TO BE PERFORMED BY THE CHARACTERS OF THE PIECE. འ.. O CHARITY, divinely wise, Thou meek-ey'd daughter of the skies! From the pure fountain of eternal light, Where fair, immutable, and ever bright, The beatific vision shines, Descend from radiant realms above, Oh deign to make thy lov'd abode below! Though sweeter strains adorn'd my tongue Yet if this hard unfeeling heart of mine Though my prophetic spirit knew For there the God of Peace for ever reigns, STORIES FOR PERSONS OF THE MIDDLE RANKS. ADVERTISEMENT. THESE Stories, which were first published, among a great number of others, in the Cheap Re pository, under the signature Z, are here presented to the reader, much enlarged and improved. Such of them as are comprised in this volume being adapted to persons in a superior station to those which are contained in a former edition, and it was thought better to separate and class them accordingly. A brief account of the institution here referred to, will be given in a subsequent place. THE HISTORY OF MR. FANTOM. THE NEW FASHIONED PHILOSOPHER, AND HIS MAN WILLIAM. MR. FANTOM was a retail trader in the city 1 and vain, ambitious and dissatisfied. As almost of London. As he had no turn to any expensive every book was new to him, he fell into the comvices, he was reckoned a sober decent man, but mon error of those who begin to read late in life he was covetous and proud, selfish and conceit--that of thinking that what he did not know ed. As soon as he got forward in the world, his himself, was equally new to others; and he vanity began to display itself, though not in the was apt to fancy that he and the author he was ordinary method, that of making a figure and reading were the only two people in the world living away; but still he was tormented with a who knew any thing. This book led to the longing desire to draw public notice, and to dis- grand discovery; he had now found what his tinguish himself. He felt a general sense of heart panted after-a way to distinguish himself. discontent at what he was, with a general am- To start out a full grown philosopher at once, bition to be something which he was not; but to be wise without education, to dispute without this desire had not yet turned itself to any par- learning, and to make proselytes without arguticular object. It was not by his money he ment, was a short cut to fame, which well suitcould hope to be distinguished, for half his ed his vanity and his ignorance. He rejoiced acquaintance had more, and a man must be rich that he had been so clever as to examine for indeed to be noted for his riches in London. himself, pitied his friends who took things upon Mr. Fantom's mind was a prey to his vain ima- trust, and was resolved to assert the freedom of ginations. He despised all those little acts of his own mind. To a man fond of bold novelkindness and charity which every man is called ties and daring paradoxes, solid argument would to perform every day; and while he was contriv-be flat, and truth would be dull, merely because ing grand schemes, which lay quite out of his reach, he neglected the ordinary duties of life, which lay directly before him. Selfishness was his governing principle. He fancied he was lost in the mass of general society and the usual means of attaching importance to insignificance occurred to him; that of getting into clubs and societies. To be connected with a party would at least make him known to that party, be it ever so low and contemptible; and this local importance it is which draws off vain minds from those scenes of general usefulness, in whcih, though they are of more value, they are of less distinction. About this time he got hold of a famous little book written by the NEW PHILOSOPHER, whose pestilent doctrines have gone about seeking whom they may destroy; these doctrines found a ready entrance into Mr. Fantom's mind; a mind at once shallow and inquisitive, speculative | it is not new. Mr. Fantom believed, not in proportion to the strength of the evidence, but to the impudence of the assertion. The tramppling on holy ground with dirty shoes, the smearing the sanctuary with filth and mire, the calling prophets and apostles by the most scurrilous names was new, and dashing, and dazzling. Mr. Fantom, now being set free from the chains of slavery and superstition, was resolved to show his zeal in the usual way, by trying to free others; but it would have hurt his vanity had he known that he was the convert of a man who had written only for the vulgar, who had invented nothing, no, not even one idea of original wickedness; but who had stooped to rake up out of the kennel of infidelity, all the loathsome dregs and offal dirt, which politer unbelievers had thrown away as too gross and of fensive for the better bred readers. Mr. Fantom, who considered that a philoso 120 |