Thus conscience holds our fancy fast,

With care too oft' affected; Pretending to lament the past, The present still neglected.

Yet shall the swift improving plant
With spring her leaves resume;
Nor let the example she can grant,
Descend on winter's gloom.

Loiter no more then near the tree,
Nor on the dial gaze;

If but an hour be giv'n to thee,
Act right while yet it stays.

LINES WRITTEN JULY 28TH, 1815.

Is it of intellectual powers,

Which time developes, time devours,

Which twenty years perhaps are ours,

That man is vain?

Of such the infant shows no sign,

And childhood shuns the dazzling shine,

Of knowledge bright with rays divine,

As mental pain.

Still less when passion bears the sway,
Unbridled youth brooks no delay,

He drives dull reason far away,

With scorn avow'd.

For twenty years she reigns at most,
Labour and study pay the cost;
Just to be rais'd is all our boast,

Above the crowd.

Sickness then fills th' uneasy chair, Sorrow, and loss, and strife, and care; While faith just saves us from despair,

Wishing to die.

Till the farce ends as it began,
Reason deserts the dying man,

And leaves to encounter as he can

Eternity.

ON A WATCH.

When Pleasure marks each hour that flies,
And Youth rejoyces in his prime,
It may be good, it may be wise,

To watch with care the flight of time.

But now;

when friends and hours are seen

To part, and ne'er return again;

Who would admit of a machine

To mark how few there yet remain ?

I am asked to produce some étrennes for dear Mrs. Lutwyche. Will these verses do, accompanied by a bouquet?

The charms we find Maria still possess,
Deciduous plants like these but ill express :
Your emblem in a brighter clime we see,
No season robs of flow'rs-the Orange Tree.*

* It was the fashion of her day to play at.emblems. C. J. Fox presented a bunch of grapes to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, for her emblem, with the motto Je plais jusqu'à l'ivresse.

HER LAST VERSES.

TIME, DEATH, AND H. L. P.

DEATH (loquitur).

Tell her, old Time of foot so fleet,

Once caught, she can't our strokes avoid :

H. L. P.

I know it; but when next we meet, "Twill be to see you both destroyed.

LETTERS