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"What pity! that fo delicate a form, "By Beauty kindled, where enlivening Sense, "And more than vulgar Goodness, seem to dwell, "Should be devoted to the rude embrace 240

"Of fome indecent clown! She looks, methinks, "Of old Acafto's line, and to my mind "Recalls that patron of my happy life,

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"From whom my liberal fortune took its rife, "Now to the dust gone down, his houses, lands, "And once fair-spreading family, dissolv’d. ""Tis faid that in fome lone obfcure retreat, "Urg'd by remembrance fad, and decent pride, "Far from those scenes which knew their better days, "His aged widow and his daughter live, 250 "Whom yet my fruitlefs fearch could never find. "Romantic wish! would this the daughter were!" When, ftri&t inquiring, from herself he found She was the fame, the daughter of his friend, Of bountiful Acafto, who can speak

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The mingled paffions that furpris'd his heart,
And thro' his nerves in fhivering transport ran?
Then blaz'd his fmother'd flame, avow'd, and bold,
And as he view'd her, ardent, o'er and o'er,
Love, Gratitude, and Pity, wept at once,
Confus'd, and frightened at his fudden tears,
Her rifing beautics flufh'd a higher bloom,
As thus Palemon, paffionate and just,
Pour'd out the pious rapture of his foul.

"And art thou, then, Acafto's dear remains? 265 "She, whom my restless gratitude has fought "So long in vain? O heavens! the very fame, "The foftened image of my noble friend; "Alive his every look, his every feature, "More elegantly touch'd. Sweeter than Spring, 270 "Thou fole surviving bloffom from the root "That nourish'd up my fortune! Say, ah where, "In what fequeftered defert haft thou drawn "The kindeft afpect of delighted Heaven! "Into fuch beauty spread, and blown fo fair, 275 "Tho' poverty's cold wind, and crushing rain, "Beat keen and heavy on thy tender years? "O let me now into a richer foil

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"Transplant thee fafe! where vernal funs and showers "Diffuse their warmeft, largest influence, "And of my garden be the pride and joy! "Ill it befits thee, oh it ill befits

"Acafto's daughter, his whose open stores,

"Tho' vaft, were little to his ampler heart,

"The father of a country, thus to pick

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"The very refuse of those harvest-fields, "Which from his bounteous friendship I enjoy. "Then throw that fhameful pittance from thy hand, "But ill apply'd to such a rugged task ;

"The fields, the mafter, all, my Fair! are thine,290 "If to the various bleflings which thy house "Has on me lavish'd, thou wilt add that blifs, "That dearest blifs, the power of bleffing thee!"

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Here ceas'd the youth; yet ftill his fpeaking eye
Exprefs'd the facred triumph of his soul,
With confcious virtue, gratitude, and love,
Above the vulgar joy divinely rais'd.
Nor waited he reply. Won by the charm
Of goodness irrefiftible, and all

In fweet diforder loft, fhe blufh'd confent.
The news immediate to her mother brought,

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While, pierc'd with anxious thought, she pin'd away The lonely moments for Lavinia's fate;

Amaz'd, and scarce believing what she heard,

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Joy feiz'd her withered veins, and one bright gleam
Of fetting life fhone on her evening hours;
Not lefs enraptured than the happy pair,
Who flourish'd long in tender blifs, and rear'd
A numerous offspring, lovely like themselves,
And good, the grace of all the country round. 310
Defeating oft' the labours of the year,

The fultry South collects a potent blast.
At first the groves are scarcely feen to ftir

Their trembling tops, and a ftill murmur runs
Along the foft-inclining fields of corn:
But as the aërial tempeft fuller fwells,
And in one mighty stream, invifible,
Immenfe, the whole excited atmosphere
Impetuous rushes o'er the founding world :
Strain'd to the root the stooping forest pours
A rustling shower of yet untimely leaves;
High-beat, the circling mountains eddy in

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From the bare wild the diffipated storm,
And fend it in a torrent down the vale.
Expos'd and naked to its utmost rage,
Thro' all the fea of harvest rolling round,
The billowy plain floats wide, nor can evade,
Tho' pliant to the blast, its seizing force,

Or whirl'd in air, or into vacant chaff

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Shook wafte: and fometimes, too, a burst of rain, 330
Swept from the black horizon, broad defcends
In one continuous flood. Still over-head
The mingling tempeft weaves its gloom, and still
The deluge deepens, till the fields around
Lie funk and flatted in the fordid wave.
Sudden the ditches fwell, the meadows fwim.
Red from the hills innumerable ftreams
Tumultuous roar, and high above its banks
The river lift, before whose rushing tide

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Herds, flocks and harvests, cottages and fwains, 340
Roll mingled down; all that the winds had spar'd
In one wild moment ruin'd; the big hopes
And well-earn'd treasures of the painful year.
Fled to fome eminence, the husbandman,
Helpless, beholds the miserable wreck
Driving along; his drowning ox at once.
Defcending, with his labours fcattered round,
He fees; and inftant o'er his shivering thought
Comes Winter unprovided, and a train
Of clamant children dear.

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Ye Mafters! then 350

Be mindful of the rough laborious hand
That finks you foft in elegance and ease;
Be mindful of thofe limbs, in ruffet clad,
Whofe toil to yours is warmth and graceful pride;
And, oh! be mindful of that fparing board
Which covers yours with luxury profuse,
Makes your glass sparkle and your sense rejoice!
Nor cruelly demand what the deep rains
And all-involving winds have fwept away.

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Here the rude clamour of the sportsman's joy, 360 The gun faft-thundering, and the winded horn, Would tempt the Muse to fing the rural game; How in his mid-career the spaniel, struck Stiff by the tainted gale, with open nose, Outftretch'd, and finely fenfible, draws full, Fearful, and cautious, on the latent prey: As in the fun the circling covey bask

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Their varied plumes, and, watchful every way,
Thro' the rough ftubble turn the fecret eye,
Caught in the meshy fnare, in vain they beat
Their idle wings, entangled more and more;
Nor on the furges of the boundless air,
Tho' borne triumphant, are they fafe; the gun,
Glanc'd juft and fudden from the fowler's eye,
O'ertakes their founding pinions, and again, 375
Immediate, brings them from the towering wing,
Dead to the ground, or drives them wide difpers'd,
Wounded, and wheeling various, down the wind.

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