How oft the laughing brow of joy

A sickening heart conceals! And through the cloister's deep recess

Invading sorrow steals.

In vain through beauty, fortune, wit,

The fugitive we trace;
It dwells not in the faithless smile

That brightens Clodio's face.

Perhaps the joy to these denied,

The heart in friendship finds : Ah! dear delusion, gay conceit

Of visionary minds.

Howe'er our varying notions rove,

Yet all agree in one,
To place its being in some state

At distance from our own.

O blind to each indulgent aim

Of Power supremely wise, Who fancy Happiness in aught,

The hand of Heaven denies !

Vain are alike the joys we seek,

And vain what we possess, Unless harmonious Reason tunes

The passions into peace.

'To temper'd wishes, just desires,

Is happiness confined,
And, deaf to Folly's call, attends

The music of the mind.

WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT

IN A

THUNDER STORM.

BY THE SAME.

Let coward Guilt, with pallid Fear,

To sheltering caverns-fly,
And justly dread the vengeful fate

That thunders through the sky,

Protected by that Hand, whose law

The threatening storms obey, Intrepid Virtue smiles secure,

As in the blaze of day.

In the thick cloud's tremendous gloom,

The lightuing's lurid glare,
It views the same all-gracious Power

That breathes the vernal air,

Through nature's ever-varying scene,

By different ways pursued, The one eternal end of Heav'n

Is universal good:

With like beneficent effect

O'er flaming ether glows,
As when it tunes the linnet's voice,

Or blushes in the rose.

By Reason taught to scorn those fears

That vulgar minds molest, Let no fantastic terrors break

My dear Narcissa's rest.

Thy life may all the tenderest care

Of Providence defend; And delegated angels round

Their guardian wings extend.

When, through creation's vast expanse,

The last dread thunders roll, Uutune the concord of the spheres,

And shake the rising soul :

Unmov'd mayst thou the final storm

Of jarring worlds survey, That ushers in the glad serene

Of everlasting day.

THE EVENING WALK.

BY THE SAME.

How sweet the calm of this sequester'd shore,

Where ebbing waters musically roll; And solitude and silent eve restore

The philosophic temper of the soul,

The sighing gale, whose murmurs lull to rest

The busy tumult of declining day,
To synipathetic quiet soothes the breast,

And ev'ry wild emotion dies away.

Farewell, the objects of diurnal care,

Your task be ended with the setting sun ; Let all be undisturb’d vacation here,

While o'er yon wave ascends the peaceful moon.

What beauteous visions o'er the soften'd heart

In this still moment all their charms diffuse, Serener joys and brighter hopes impart,

And cheer the soul with more than miortal views!

Here faithful Mem'ry wakens all her pow'rs,

She bids her fair ideal forms ascend,
And quick to every gladden'd thought restores
The social virtue and the absent friend.

Come, *******, come, and with me share,

The sober pleasures of this solemn scene; While no rude tempest clouds the ruffled air,

But all, like thee, is smiling and serene.

Come, while the cool, the solitary hours

Each foolish care and giddy wish control, With all thy soft persuasion's wonted powrs,

Beyond the stars transport my listening soul.

Oft, when the earth detain'd by empty show,

Thy voice has taught the trifler how to rise! Taught her to look with scorn on things below,

And seek her better portion in the skies.

Come, and the sacred eloquence repeat:

The world shall vanish at its gentle sound, Angelic forms shall visit this retreat,

And opening heaven diffuse its glories roand.

CONTEMPLATION.

BY THE SAME.

WHILE soft through water, earth, and air,

The vernal spirits rove,
From noisy joys, and giddy crowds,

To rural scenes remove.