Enthusiasts! check your reveries, Ye cannot always pluck at ease

From Pleasure's cornucopia;

Ye cannot alter Nature's plan,

Change to a perfect being Man,

Nor England to Utopia.

Plunge in the busy current-stem

The tide of errors ye condemn,

And fill life's active uses;

Begin reform yourselves, and live

To prove that Honesty may thrive

Unaided by abuses.

TO A LADY.

[On giving the writer a little bronze Cupid from Pompeii.]

THANKS for thy little God of Love,

Dug from Pompeii-whose fate 'tis,

Henceforth to be install'd above

My household Lares and Penates.

Oh! could its lips of bronze unclose,
How sad a tale might they recall!
How thrill us with th' appalling woes
Of the doom'd City's burial!

Perchance, on that benighted day
This tiny imp the table graced

Of one whose mansion might display

The choicest stores of classic taste.

Of some one whose convivial board

With all embellishments was deck'd, While her rich cabinets outpour'd

A constant feast of Intellect.

Of one who, tho' she ne'er declined
In social chat to bear a part,

Loved more to fill her house and mind
With letter'd lore, and varied art.-

Of one who thus could give delight
To guests of every mental hue,

Whether unlearn'd or erudite,

Methinks thy new abode is one

Thou wilt not, Cupid! disapprove,

For all my married life has run

A lengthen'd course of constant love.

Prompt me, thou type of higher hope!
To spread that love from me and mine,
Until, in its ascending scope,

It soar to social and divine.

So, little Elf! shalt thou be eyed

With double favour by thine owner,

Both as a tutelary guide,

And a memorial of thy donor.

THE CHARMS OF LIFE.

WHAT hath life to charm us? Flowers

Whose sweet lips have ever sung

Carols from the fields and bowers,

In perfume's universal tongue. Choral fairies bright and merry!

Hark! I hear your silver bells,

Chiming from the tufted dells A May-day welcome-hey down derry!

Hark again! those jocund calls

Are Echo's voice, who loves to mock

The laughter of the waterfalls

That leap for joy from rock to rock.