but posterity has done him justice, and assigned him an honorable rank among those of our Poets who are more distinguished by excellence than by bulk. ECLOGUE I. CLOGU SELIM; OR, THE SHEPHERD's MORAL. SCENE, A VALLEY NEAR BAGDAT. TIME, THE MORNING. YE Persian maids! attend your poet's lays, And hear how shepherds pass their golden days. Not all are blest, whom Fortune's hand sustains With wealth in courts; nor all that haunt the plains: Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell; "Tis virtue makes the bliss where'er we dwell. Thus Selim sung, by sacred Truth inspir'd; Nor praise, but such as Truth bestow'd, desir'd: Wise in himself, his meaning songs convey'd Informing morals to the shepherd maid; Or taught the swains that surest bliss to find, What groves nor streams bestow, a virtuous mind. When sweet and blushing, like a virgin bride, The radiant morn resum'd her orient pride; When wanton gales along the vallies play, Breathe on each flower, and bear their sweets away; By Tigris' wandring waves he sat, and sung This useful lesson for the fair and young. Ye Persian dames, he said, to you belong, Well may they please, the morals of my song: No fairer maids, I trust, than you are found, Grac'd with soft arts, the peopled world around! |