HOW fair the profpect opens to the eye, Where Flora's pencil marks the gay-drefs' ground;

Where art and nature, emulative, vie

To scatter rival beauties all around.

What vivid colours flush yon blooming rofe,
Whofe fragrance floats upon the balmy gale!
Queen of each flow'r that summer's hand bestows,
From the fair lily to the primrose pale.

That lily blooms, in fnow-white charms array'd,
Yon lilac too, how sweet it scents the air!
The gay carnation's lively bloom's display'd,
To imitate the cheek of Jeffy fair.

The flow'ry pomp the beauteous larkspurs share,
While mix'd with roses in that fhelt'ring bower
The fragrant woodbines quiver in the air,
Diftilling fragrance on fome humbler flower.

With colours which these flow'ry tribes adorn,
Say, can the artist's boasted skill compare?
No, Nature paints the crimfon blush of morn,
And forms these flowers inimitably fair!

MISS H. FALCONAR.

SECT.

As

THE SOFA

Sing the Sofa. I who lately fang

Truth, Hope, and Charity, and touch'd with awe The folemn chords, and with a trembling hand, Escap'd with pain from that advent'rous flight, Now feek repose upon an humbler theme; The theme though humble, yet august and proud Th' occafion-for the Fair commands the song. Time was, when clothing fumptuous or for ufe, Save their own painted skins, our fires had none. yet black breeches were not; fattin smooth, Or velvet foft, or plush with fhaggy pile : The hardy chief upon the rugged rock Wah'd by the fea, or on the grav'ly bank, Thrown up by wintry torrents roaring loud, Fearless of wrong, repos'd his weary strength. Thofe barb'rous ages past, fucceeded next The birth-day of invention, weak at first, Dull in defign, and clumsy to perform. Joint-ftools were then created; on three legs Upborn they flood. Three legs upholding firm A maffy flab, in fashion fquare or round. On fuch a ftool immortal Alfred fat, And fway'd the fceptre of his infant realms; And fuch in ancient halls and manfions drear May ftill be feen, but perforated fore

* A lady, fond of blank verfe, demanded a poem of that kind rom the author, and gave him the Safa for a subject.

And

And drill'd in holes the solid oak is found,
By worms voracious eating through and through.
At length a generation more refin'd

Improv'd the fimple plan; made three legs four,
Gave them a twisted form vermicular,

And o'er the feat with plenteous wadding stuff'
Induc'd a fplendid cover green and blue,
Yellow and red, of tapestry richly wrought
And woven clofe, or needle-work fublime.
There might ye see the piony spread wide,
The full-blown rose, the shepherd and his lass,
Lap-dog and lambkin with black staring eyes,
And parrots with twin,cherries in their beak.

Now came the cane from India, fmooth and bright
With nature's varnish; fever'd into stripes
That interlaced each other, these supplied
Of texture firm a lattice work, that brac'd
The new machine, and it became a chair.
But restless was the chair; the back erect
Distress'd the weary loins that felt no ease ;
The flipp'ry feat betray'd the fliding part
That prefs'd it, and the feet hung dangling down,
Anxious in vain to find the distant floor.
Thefe for the rich the rest, whom fate had plac'd
In modeft mediocrity, content

With bafe materials, fat on well-tann'd hides
Obdurate and unyielding, glaffy smooth,.

With here and there a tuft of crimfon

Or fcarlet crewel in the cushion fixt,

yarn,

If cushion might be call'd, what harder feem'd
Than the firm oak of which the frame was form'd.

In Albion's happy ifle. The umber stood
Pond'rous, and fixt by its own maffy weight.
But elbows ftill were wanting; these, some say,
An Alderman of Cripplegate contriv'd,

And fome ascribe th' invention to a priest
Burly and big, and ftudious of his ease.
But rude at first, and not with easy slope
Receding wide, they prefs'd against the ribs,
And bruis'd the fide, and elevated high
Taught the rais'd fhoulders to invade the ears.
Long time elaps'd or e'er our rugged fires
Complain'd, though incommodiously pent in,
And ill at ease behind. The Ladies firft
'Gan murmur, as became the fofter sex.
Ingenious fancy, never better pleas'd

Than when employ'd t' accommodate the fair,
Heard the fweet moan with pity, and devis'd
The foft fettee; one elbow at each end,
And in the midft an elbow, it receiv'd,
United yet divided, twain at once.

So fit two kings of Brentford on the throne;
And fo two citizens who take the air

Close pack'd and finiling in a chaife and one.
But relaxation of the languid frame,
By foft recumbency of outftretch'd limbs,
Was blifs referv'd for happier days. So flow
The growth of what is excellent, fo hard
T'attain perfection in this nether world.
Thus firft neceffity invented ftools,
Convenience next fuggefted elbow chairs,
And luxury th' accomplish'd Sofa laft.

The

The nurse fleeps fweetly, hir'd to watch the fick Whom fnoring fhe disturbs. As fweetly he Who quits the coach-box at the midnight hour To fleep within the carriage more fecure, His legs depending at the open door. Sweet fleep enjoys the curate in his desk, The tedious rector drawling o'er his head, And sweet the clerk below: but neither sleep Of lazy nurse, who fnores the fick man dead, Nor his who quits the box at midnight hour To flumber in the carriage more fecure, Nor fleep enjoy'd by curate in his desk, Nor yet the dozings of the clerk are sweet, Compar'd with the repose the Sofa yields.

COWPER.

SECT.

CXLV.

A WALK IN THE COUNTRY; AND A DESCRIPTION

Он

OF THE SCENE.

OH may I live exempted (while I live

Guiltless of pamper'd appetite obfcene)
From pangs arthritic that infeft the toe
Of libertine excefs. The Sofa fuits
The gouty limb, 'tis true: but gouty limb,
Though on a Sofa, may I never feel:

For I have lov'd the rural walk through lanes
Of graffy swarth close cropp'd by nibbling sheep,
And fkirted thick with intertexture firm

Of thorny boughs: have lov'd the rural walk

O'er