So oft remov'd, I fcarce know whence I came; "Nor know thou grief, nor care, nor anguish more, Here end thy wand'rings, here relieve thy toil, "And plant thy virtues in a milder foil; "Chear thy meek fpirit, and forget thy tale, "Take refuge here from each oppreffing gale; Forget the wint'ry wafte,-the piercing storm, "Alas! ill fuited to thy gracious form,— "And rest with me-I much to goodnefs owe, "For heavenly bleffings lent me here below." This faid, the stretches out her hand to raise The nymph, now melting 'twixt fond love and praise ; Who thus (untinctur'd by disguise or art) Pour'd out the feelings of her grateful heart : "May the foft encrease of affection's balm "Rejoice your goodness, and my forrows calm; "May mutual love and happiness increase, "And all our future hours be hours of peace; "Connected thus by every virtuous tie, "We'll loving live, and undivided die!" Thus to each other bound in facred love, Their mutual helps their sweetest pleasures prove; Their cares divided, and their joys the fame, Confirm their union in "true friendship's" name; Thus hand in hand they meekly tread the road That leads to pureft bliss-the blifs with GOD! Thornhill. On the BUCKS of the Prefent Day. STRANGE are the fashions that prevail; The following Lines are extracted from an Old Scottish Poem which is very fcarce, and feems to have eluded the resea ch of the most industrious collectors, It is entitled, "Ane Treatife, callit the Court of Venus, devidit into four "Buikis, newlie compylit be John Rolland in Dalkeith. Im66 prentit at Edinburgh be John Ros, M.D.LXXV. "Privilegio regali." Laus Veneris. Our fra the fplene with cordiall amouris, And nocht caufles with fuperabundant For to remane into memoriall Thy name and fame in chronick and scriptour, As is the actis of the greit conquerour. My fpreitis thay feir, for dreid my hart dois quaik, Fra my febill and faint ingine to tak, ; The proverb is, gude will fould be payment, As wald the hart now to purpoise I went. Cum The poem is, upon the whole, a curious picture of the manners of the age, with that strange jumble of the Pagan Mythology and the Chriftian Religion, of which we fee fo many examples in the works of Milton. PHILALBAN, THE EPHEMERON an Letter from Dr Franklin to a Lady in France. You may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately fpent that happy day, in the delightful garden and sweet fociety of the Moulin Joly, I ftopt a little in one of our walks, and ftaid fome time behind the company. We had been fhown numberlefs fkeletons of a kind of little fly, called Ephemera, whofe fucceffive generations, we were told, were bred and expired within the day. I happened to fee a living company of them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in converfation. You know I understand all the inferior animal tongues: my too great application to the study of them is the beft excufe I can give for the little progrefs I have made in your charming language. I liftened through curiosity to the difcourfe of thefe little creatures; but as they, in their national vivacity, fpoke three or four together, I could make but little of their converfation. I found, however, by fome broken expreffions that I heard now and then, they were disputing warmly on the merit of two foreign musicians, one a coufin, the other a mufcheto*; in which difpute they spent their time,, feemingly as regardless of the fhortnefs of life, as if they had been fure of living a month. Happy people! thought I, you live certainly under a wife, just, and mild government, fince you have no public grievances to complain of, nor any fubject of contention, but the perfections or imperfections of foreign mufic. I turned my head from them to an old grey-headed one, who was fingle on another leaf, and talking to himself. Being amused with his foliloquy, I have put it down in writing, in hopes it will likewife amufe her to whom I am fo much indebted for the moft pleafing of all amufements, her delicious company and heavenly harmony. "It was," fays he, "the opinion of learned philofophers of our race, who lived and flourished long before my time, that this vaft world, the Moulin Joly, could not itself fubfift more than eighteen hours: and I think there was fome foundation for that opinion, fince, by the apparent motion of the great luminary, that gives life to all nature, and which in my time has evidently declined, confiderably towards the ocean at the end of our earth, it must Two kinds of flies fo called. then finish its course, be extinguished in the waters that furround us and leave the world in cold and darkness, neceffarily producing univerfal death and deftruction. I have lived feven of these hours, a great age, being no less than 420 minutes of time. How very few of us continue fo long! I have feen generations born, flourish and expire. My prefent friends are the children and grand children of the friends of my youth, who are now, alas! no more, and I must foon follow them; for by the course of nature, though still in health, I cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer. What now avails all my toil and labour in amaffing honeydew on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! What, the political ftruggles I have been engaged in, for the good of my compatriot inhabitants of this bufh, or my philofophical ftndies for the benefit of our race in general! for in politics (what can laws do without morals?) our prefent race of ephemera will, in a course of minutes, become corrupt, like thofe of other and older bushes, and confequently as wretched: and in philofo phy, how finall our progrefs! alas! art is long, and life is fhort. My friends would comfort me with the idea of a name, they fay I fhall leave behind me; and they tell me I have lived long enough to nature and to glory. But what will fame be to an Ephemera who no longer exifts! and what will become of all history in the eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole Moulin Joly, fhall come to its end and be buried in univerfal ruin? To me, after all my eager purfuits, no folid pleasures now remain, but the reflection of a long life fpent in meaning well, the fenfible conversation of a few good lady Ephemere, and now and then a kind fmile and a tune from the ever amiable brilliant." Intelligence refpecting Arts. COAL TAR. THE virtues of this valuable substance in preferving wood from corruption, for which the public are indebted to Lord, Dundonald, are now established by fuch a variety of decifive experiments, as can leave no room for doubt in the mind of any perfon who will take the trouble to examine them. One experiment of this kind is however fo decifive, and so easy to So oft remov'd, I scarce know whence I came; "Nor know thou grief, nor care, nor anguish more, Here end thy wand'rings, here relieve thy toil, "And plant thy virtues in a milder foil; "Chear thy meek spirit, and forget thy tale, "Take refuge here from each oppreffing gale; "Forget the wint'ry wafte,-the piercing storm, "Alas! ill fuited to thy gracious form,"And rest with me-I much to goodnefs owe, "For heavenly bleffings lent me here below." This faid, the stretches out her hand to raise The nymph, now melting 'twixt fond love and praise;" Who thus (untinctur'd by disguise or art) Pour'd out the feelings of her grateful heart: "May the foft encrease of affection's balm "Rejoice your goodness, and my forrows calm; May mutual love and happiness increase, "And all our future hours be hours of peace; "Connected thus by every virtuous tie, "We'll loving live, and undivided die !" Thus to each other bound in facred love, Their mutual helps their sweetest pleasures prove; Their cares divided, and their joys the fame, Confirm their union in "true friendship's" name; Thus hand in hand they meekly tread the road That leads to pureft blifs-the blifs with GOD! Thornhill. On the BUCKS of the Prefent Day. STRANGE are the fashions that prevail; |