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And blended form, with artful ftrife,

The strength and harmony of life.

The golden mean.

He that holds faft the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,
Imbitt'ring all his state.

The tallest pines feel moft the pow'r
Of wintry blaft; the loftieft tow'r
Comes heavieft to the ground.

The bolts that fpare the mountain's fide,
His cloud-capt eminen e divide;

And spread the ruin round.

Moderate views and aims recommended.

With passions unruffled, untainted with pride, By reafon my life let me fquare:

The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied; And the rest are but folly and care.

How vainly, through infinite trouble and strife,
The many their labours employ!

Since all that is truly delightful in life,
Is what all, if they please, may enjoy.

Attachment to life.

The tree of deepest root is found

Leaft willing ftill to quit the ground: 'Twas therefore faid, by ancient fages,

That love of life increas'd with

So much, that in our later stages,

years,

When pains grow fharp, and fickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.

Virtue's addrefs to Pleasure *.

Vaft happiness enjoy thy gay allies!

A youth of follies, an old age of cares; Young yet enervate, old yet never wife,

Vice wastes their vigour, and their mind impairs. Vain, idle, delicate, in thoughtless ease,

Referving woes for age, their prime they spend; All wretched, hopeless, in the evil days,

With forrow to the verge of life they tend. Griev'd with the prefent, of the past afham'd,

They live and are defpis'd; they die, nor more are nam'd.

SECTION Y.

Verfes in which found correfponds to fignification.

Smooth and rough verfe.

Soft is the ftrain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in fmoother numbers flows.
But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.

Slow motion imitated.

When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move flow.

Swift and eafy motion.

Not fo when swift Camilla fcours the plain,

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Felling trees in a wood.

Loud founds the axe, redoubling ftrokes on ftrokes; On all fides round the foreft hurls her oaks

*Senfual pleasure.

Headlong. Deep echoing groan the thickets brown; Then rustling, crackling, crafhing, thunder down.

Sound of a Bow-ftring.

-The ftring let fly

Twang'd short and sharp, like the fhrill swallow's cry.

The Pheasant.

See! from the brake the whirring pheasant springs,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings.

Scylla and Charybdis.

Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with ftorms.
When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves,
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves.

Boiferous and gentle founds.

Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring winds tempeftuous rage reftrain:
Within, the waves in fofter murmurs glide;
And ships fecure without their haulfers ride.

Laborious and impetuous motion.
With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone:
The huge round ftone resulting, with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and fmokes along the
ground.

Regular and flow movement.

First march the heavy mules fecurely flow;

O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go.

Motion flow and difficult.

A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong;

That, like a wounded fnake, drags its flow length along.

A rock torn from the brow of a mountain.

Still gath'ring force, it fmokes, and urg'd amain, Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain.

Extent and violence of the waves.

The waves behind impel the waves before,
Wide-rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the fhore.
Penfive numbers.

In those deep folitudes, and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-penfive Contemplation dwells,
And ever-mufing Melancholy reigns.

Battle.

-Arms on armour clashing bray'd Horrible difcord; and the madding wheels Of brazen fury rag'd.

Sound imitating reluctance.

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleafing anxious being e'er refign'd;
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor caft one longing, ling'ring look behind?

SECTION VI.

Paragraphs of greater length.

Connubial affection.

The love that cheers life's latest stage,
Proof against sickness and old age,
Preferv'd by virtue from declenfion,
Becomes not weary of attention:
But lives, when that exterior grace,
Which firft infpir'd the flame, decays.

'Tis gentle, delicate, and kind,
To faults compafsionate, or blind;
And will with fympathy endure
Those evils it would gladly cure.
But angry, coarfe, and harsh exprefsion,
Shows love to be a mere profession;
Proves that the heart is none of his,
Or foon expels him if it is.

Swarms of flying infects.

Thick in
yon ftream of light, a thousand ways,
Upward and downward, thwarting and convolv'd
The quiv'ring nations fport; till, tempeft-wing'd,
Fierce winter sweeps them from the face of day.
Ev'n fo, luxurious men, unheeding, pafs
An idle fummer life, in Fortune's fhine,
A feafon's glitter! Thus they flutter on,
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice;
Till, blown away by Death, Oblivion comes
Behind, and ftrikes them from the book of life.

Beneficence its ern reward.

My fortune (for I'll mention all,

And more than you dare tell) is fmall;
Yet ev'ry friend partakes my ftore,
And Want goes fmiling from my door.
Will forty fhillings warm the breaft
Of worth or induftry diftrefs'd?
This fum I cheerfully impart;,
'Tis fourfcore pleasures to my heart:
And you may make, by means like these,
Five talents ten, whene'er you please.
'Tis true, my little purfe grows light;
But then I fleep fo fweet at night!

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