ON SEEING MRS. ** PERFORM IN THE CHARACTER

OF **

To you, bright fair, the nine address their lays, And tune my feeble voice to sing thy praise; The heartfelt power of every charm divineWho can withstand their all-commanding shine? See how she moves along with every grace, While soul-brought tears steal down each shining face.

-

1 From The Citizen of the World, 1762. — The Chinese philosopher remarks that the favorite method of writing for the stage is the composition of panegyrics on the performers; and thus gives his instructions for a flaunting copy of newspaper verses: "In these, nature and the actor may be set to run races, the player always coming off victorious; or nature may mistake him for herself; or old Shakspeare may put on his winding-sheet and pay him a visit; or the tuneful nine may strike up their harps in his praise; or should it happen to be an actress — Venus, the beauteous queen of love, and the naked graces, are ever in waiting! The lady must be herself a goddess bred and boru; she must-but you shall have a specimen of one of these poems, which may convey a more precise idea."

She speaks-'tis rapture all, and nameless bliss ;
Ye gods! what transport e'er compar'd to this?
As when, in Paphian groves, the queen of love
With fond complaint address'd the listening Jove -
'Twas joy and endless blisses all around,

And rocks forgot their hardness at the sound!
Then first, at last, even Jove was taken in ;

And felt her charms, without disguise, within.

ON THE

DEATH OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE

YE muses, pour the pitying tear
For Pollio snatch'd away;

Oh! had he liv'd another year

He had not died to-day.

Oh! were he born to bless mankind

In virtuous times of yore,

Heroes themselves had fallen behind

Whene'er he went before.

From The Citizen of the World, 1762. - The Chinese philosopher comments on the lavish expenditure of "the pastoral or elegy, the monody or apotheosis," when men of distinction die; condemns the use of premeditated flattery; and unfolds the "secret of flattering the worthless, and yet of preserving a safe conscience."-This second burlesque elegy, as it is called in the table of contents, is on the model before described.

How sad the groves and plains appear,

And sympathetic sheep;

Even pitying hills would drop a tear

If hills could learn to weep.

His bounty in exalted strain

Each bard might well display,

Since none implor'd relief in vain-
That went reliev'd away.

And hark! I hear the tuneful throng

His obsequies forbid;

He still shall live, shall live as long

As ever dead man did.

TRANSLATION OF A SOUTH-AMERICAN ODE.1

In all my Enna's beauties bless'd,

Amid profusion still I pine;

For though she gives me up her breast,
Its panting tenant is not mine.

From The Citizen of the World, 1762. - The Chinese philosopher relates a conversation which turned upon love. The opinions were various, but chiefly in favor of its beneficial influence. The philosopher, to keep up the dispute, affirmed it to be merely a name, and "no way more natural than taking snuff or chewing opium." A female orator insisted that it was a natural and universal passion; that it had "flourished in the coldest as well as in the warmest regions- even in the sultry wilds of southern America." She then recited, in proof, her South-American ode.