Ogilvie.

Divinely beauteous, whofe rich plumage gleam'd

Gay to the dazzling fun: beyond the race
Of mortals fair, beyond the human fize
Rais'd, with fuperior dignity fhe trod;
And feem'd a Goddess from celeftial climes
To man defcending, that her lenient hand
Might point the path to Happiness. Her head
A crown encircled: o'er her limbs a robe
Floated in eafy majefty; a ftar

Beam'd from her brow; and on her arm the bore
A polish'd mirror, where the forms of things
Reflected, with transcendant luftre flam'd.
Age in the glafs beheld its wrinkled front
Smooth as the cheek of Hebe. Beauty fhone
With angel-radiance; and Deformity,
(Had fhrunk Deformity been there,) had vy'd
With Helen ftruggling in the arms of Love
Sweetly reluctant. Such the Goddess fhone.

Not long fhe trod the plain, when gathering
round

The rural tribe, yet innocent, beheld

Her form with wonder; eyed her purple plumes,
Her crown, her stature, and her magic glafs,
Curious, amaz'd, delighted. - But when near
She held the mirror up, and f'how'd the face
That glow'd celestial, foft as fancy paints
Bright Venus orient from the filver wave;
The throng obfequious to the powerful charm
Purfued her step, nor knew that all the scene
Was falfe and hollow; nor behind the veil
Difcern'd Temptation; till fhe led them on,
Where, rob'd in vivid green, a meadow spread
Its velvet mantle to the fun. All-wild
They rufh'd along, till in the fecret fnares
Spread o'er the fmiling lawn, their flippery feet
Befet, the Fiend fecured them as her

prey.

Loft then at once were all the native charms Of tender Innocence; the heart no more

1

Ogilvie. Whisper'd its dictates to the fimple tongue;
But fmooth Deceit, familiar in the robe

Of Virtue, then first taught the gentle smile
To veil the rankling thought. Caught in the net
Of Vice, debilitating Sloth unnerved

Each manly effort; and Corruption, fure

As fome dark Miner, fapp'd the mounds of Truth,
And gave the throng to wanton o'er the mead,
Enlarg'd, and fcreen'd from fight the powerful
chains

Unfelt, that held them in the Tyrant's power.

Now mark, (thus ferious fpoke the hoary fire, *)
How vain the boast of Reason, that prefumes.
Its powers adequate to difclofe the truths
Reveal'd by Wisdom.

faw'ft

To themselves thou

Yon tribes abandon'd, free to chafe their path
On Nature's common, as the judging mind
Approv'd or cenfur'd from impartial view.
Whence then by Paifion's lawless arms fubdu'd
Thus unrefifting fall they? Why reprefs'd
Before Temptation's guileful glance, fubfides
The voice of Reafon? His deep-fearching eye
Had feen the fraud of yon deceitful glafs,
Had warn'd the throng to fhun th' infidious share,
Had kept them innocent, didft thou defcribe
His fphere with truth. - But how this leading

Guide

Shields the firm thought from Pleafure's gilded lure,
Thou feeft; unequal to the tafk, he fhrinks.
Back from the field, or yielding takes the fide
Of Paffion, or faint-whispering, if his voice
Difluades from peril; yet its found unheard
Amid the tumult of the madning mind
Neglected dies; as, when the thunder roars,
The gentle murmur of the purling rill
Strikes not retentive on the thrilling ear.

Since

*) The genius of Contemplation

Since then unfit from fmooth Temptation's fmile, Ogilvie. To fave its Votaries, in the trying hour Decoy'd by Pleafure; fince his feeble glance Difcerns not Vice behind the mantling veil Of borrowed charms; or dimly feen, his voice Detains not from the chace: Is Reafon then Thus weak, to nobler works adequate, bold To fearch th' Eternal in his work, or known In Truth's ftrait path to guide the reftive mind, When fway'd by Fancy in his choice, or dup'd By Paffion in his purfuit? Let thy thought Weigh the full proof, and pondering judge the whole.

Hay

hayley.

Hayley.

(William Hayley, vor einigen vierzig Jahren in der Grafschaft Suffer geboren, hat unter den jezt lebenden engs lischen Dichtern, vornehmlich in der didaktischen Gattung den meisten Ruhm erworben, und verdient denselben durch die edeln Gesinnungen, den geläuterten Geschmack, die ins teressanten Charakterisirungen, und die angenehme Schreibs art, wodurch alle seine Gedichte belebt sind. Die besten dars unter gehören in die zweite Klaffe von Lehrgedichten, scientis fischen und technischen Inhalts, und werden unten vorkommen. Hier nur von seinem Gedichte, The Triumphs of Temper, in sechs Gesängen, welches zuerst einzeln im J. 1781. gr. 4. und hernach im fünften Bande feiner 1785 in 6 Oktav: bånde gesammelten Poems and Plays, abgedruckt wurde. Er suchte in diesem Gedichte Erzählung, Allegorie und Lehrpoes fie mit einander in Ein Ganzes von neuer Art zu verbinden, und das Glück der gefeßten Seelenstimmung und einer festen, ruhigen Besonnenheit in dem Charakter, und einer sehr eins fach angelegten Geschichte Serena's zu schildern. Und so ift sein Gedicht, gleich seinen übrigen, mehr beschreibend als didaktisch geworden, und interessirt die Phantasie mehr, als das Herz. Folgende Stelle schließt die im dritten Gefange enthaltne Erzählung von einem Traumgesichte, worin Sere: na von ihrem Schußgeist zu den Wohnungen des Mißvers gnügens, und vornehmlich zum Aufenthalte des Spleen, oder der Milzsucht, geführt wird.)

THE TRIUMPHS OF TEMPER.

Canto III, v. 499 S.

,,But hafte we now" (the heavenly Leader cries)

To where this penal world's laft wonder lies!"< She spoke; and led the Nymph thro deeper dells, Low-murmuring vaults, and horror-breathing cells. And now they pass a perforated cage,

Where rancorous spectres without number rage.

» Avert

Avert thine eye!" (the heavenly spirit faid)
Nor view thefe abject tribes of envious dead!
"Who pin'd to hear the voice of Truth proclaim
A Sifter'sbeauty, or a Brother's fame!

Tho' crown'd with all, Profperity imparts, „High in their various ranks, and several arts; Yet, meanly funk by Envy's base controul, "They died in that confumption of the foul; "And here, thro' bars that twisted Adders mak ,,And the long volumes of th' envenom'd Snake, O'er this dark road they dart an anxious eye, Still envying every Fiend, that flutters by. ,,Pafs! and regard them not!" Th' attentive Maid

"

"

In filent tremor the beheft obey'd.

This dungeon croft, her weary feet she drags
Thro' winding caverns, and o'er icy crags:
Soul-chilling damps in the dark passage reign,
Which iffues on a vaft and dreary plain;
Fann'd by no breezes, with no verdure crown'd;
The black horizon is its only bound.
And now advancing, in a drizzly mist,
Thro' fullen Phantoms, hating to exift,
BERENA fpies, high o'er his fubjects plac'd,
The ghaftly Tyrant of the gloomy wafte.
Murmuring he fits upon a rocking stone,
Th' unstable base of his ill-founded throne:
Hideous his face, and horrible his frame,
Mifanthropy the grisly Monster's name!
Him to fierce Pride, with raging paffion fore,
The frowning Gorgon, Disappointment, bore;
On earth detefted, and by heaven abhorr'd,
Of this drear wild he reigns the moody lord.
Few are the subjects of his waste domain,
And scarce a Female in his frightful train,
Except one changing corps of ancient Frudes:
Reluctant here the prying band intrudes.
Each, who in earth, behind her artful fan,
Feign'd coarse averfion to the creature Man,