Yet sages own that greatness throws
A grace on Spencer's charms;
On Hagley's verse, on Stanhope's prose,
And gilded Marlborough's arms.

For titles here their reverence ends;
In general wisdom thinks
The higher grandeur's scale ascends,
The lower nature's sinks.

On Rural Sports.

THE sun wakes jocund--- all of life, who breathe
In air, or earth, and lawn, and thicket rove,
Who swim the surface, or the deep beneath,
Swell the full chorus of delight and love.

But what are ye, who cheer the bay of hounds, Whose levelled thunder frightens morn's repose, Who drag the net, whose hook insidious wounds A writhing reptile, type of mightier woes?

I see ye come, and havoc loose the reins,

A general groan the general anguish speaks, The stately stag falls butchered on the plains, The dew of death hangs clammy on his cheeks.

Ah! see the pheasant fluttering in the brake, Green, azure, gold, but undistinguished gore! Yet spare the tenants of the silver lake!

I call in vain,-They gasp upon the shore.

▲ yet ignobler band is guarded round

With dogs of war-the spurning bull their prize; And now he bellows, humbled to the ground; And now they sprawl in howlings to the skies.

You too must feel their missile weapon's power, Whose clarion charms the midnight's sullen air; Thou the morn's harbinger, must mourn the hour *Vigil to fasts and penitence and prayer ;

Must fatal wars of human avarice wage,

For milder conflicts, love their palm design'd; Now sheath'd in steel, must rival reason's rage, Deal mutual death, and emulate mankind;

Are these your sovereign joys, creations lords?
Is death a banquet for a godlike soul?
Have rigid hearts no sympathising chords
For concord, order, for the harmonious whole?

* Shrove Tuesday.

Nor plead necessity, thou man of blood!

Heaven tempers power with mercy-Heaven

revere !

Yet slay the wolf for safety, lamb for food;
But shorten misery's pangs, and drop a tear !

AH! rather turn, and breathe this evening gale, Uninjur'd, and uninjuring Nature's peace. Come, draw best nectar from the foaming pail, Come, pen the fold, and count the flock's increase!

See pasturing heifers with the bull who wields Yet budding horns, and wounds alone the soil! Or see the panting spaniels try the fields

While bursting coveys mock his wanton toil!

Now feel the steed with youth's elastic force Spontaneous bound, yet bear thy kind controul; Nor mangle all his sinews in the course,

And fainting, staggering, lash him to the goal!

Now sweetly pensive, bending o'er the stream, Mark the gay, floating myriads, nor molest Their sports, their slumbers, but inglorious dream Of evil fled and all creation blest.

Or else, beneath thy porch, in social joy

Sit and approve thy infant's virtuous haste, Humanity's sweet tones while all employ,

To lure the wing'd domesticks to repast!

There smiling see, a fop in swelling state,
The turkey struts with valour's red pretence,
And duck row on with waddling honest gait,
And goose mistake solemnity for sense!

;

While one with front erect in simple pride
Full firmly treads, his consort waits his call;
Now deal the copious barly, waft it wide,
That each may taste the bounty meant for all.

Yon bashful songsters with retorted eye

Pursue the grain, yet wheel contracted flight, While he, the bolder sparrow, scorns to fly,

A son of freedom claiming Nature's right.

Liberal to him, yet still the wafted grain,

Choicest for those of modest worth, dispense, And blessing heaven that wakes their grateful straia, Let Heaven's best joy be thine, Benevolence!

While flocks soft bleatings, echoing high and clear,
The neigh of steeds, responsive o'er the heath,
Deep lowings sweeter melt upon thy ear
Than screams of terror and the groans of death.

Yet sounds of woe delight a giant brood:
Fly then mankind, ye young, ye helpless old
For not their fury, a consuming flood,

Distinguishes the shepherd, drowns the fold..

But loosen once thy gripe, avenging law!
Eager on man, a nobler chase they start;
Now from a brother's side a dagger draw,
Now sheath it deeper in a virgin's heart..

See as they reach ambition's purple fruits,
Their reeking hands in nation's carnage dyed!
No longer bathing in the blood of brutes,
They swim to empire in a human tide.

But see him, see the fiend that others stung,
With scorpion conscience lash himself, the last!
See festering in the bosom where they sprung
The fury passions that laid nature waste?