His wife fon, with care and pain,
Search'd all nature's frame in vain;
For a while, moft anxious, he

Search'd it round, but found not thee;
Beauty own'd she knew thee not,
Plenty had thy name forgot,
Mufic only did aver,

Once you came and danc'd with her.

All the world still hunt about,

Happy he who finds thee out;
Some have dream'd thou ftill doft fit
Circled round with mirth and wit:
In a cloyfter or a pew,

Others always feck for you;
But their fearch alike is vain,
Thefe morofe, and thofe profane.

The mother only, with fond care,
Hugs her child, and finds thee there;
Kifles while afleep it lies,

And upon it feafts her eyes,
"Till the little bantling came,
Juft to lifp its mammy's name,
Then her airy hopes decay,
Like vifionary fhades, away.

Oh! then Contentment,

Since thy throne thou doft not place
In a palace, or a face:

Since thou coyly paffeft by

Pleasures, riches, harmony;

Since we cannot find thec out

With the witty, or devout;

Since I here of thee despair,

I'll aim at heav'n, and find thee there,

We are obliged for the three following original and elegant Pieces, to the Rev. Mr. PRATT, of Peterborough.

The PARTRIDGES: An ELEGY.

Written on the last Day of AUGUST,

ARD by yon copfe, that skirts the Яowery vale,

HAR

As late I walk'd to tafte th' evening breeze,

A plaintive murmur mingled in the gale,

And notes of forrow echo'd through the trees. VOL. XIV.

R

Touch'd

Touch'd by the penfive found, I nearer drew :

But my rude step increas'd the cause of pain;
Soon o'er my head the whirring Partridge flew,
Alarm'd; and with her flew an infant train.
But fhort the excurfion;-for, unus'd to play,
Feebly th' unfledg'd wings the effay could make :
The parent, fhelter'd by the clofing day,

Lodg'd her lov'd covey in a neighb'ring brake.
Her cradling pinions there fhe amply spread,
And hufh'd the affrighted family to reft;
But ftill the late alarm fuggefted dread,
And clofer to their feathery friend they prefs'd.
She, wretched parent, doom'd to various woe,
Felt all a mother's hope, a mother's care;
With grief forefaw the dawn's impending blow;
And to avert it, thus preferr'd her pray'r:
O thou! who even the fparrow doft befriend,
Whofe providence protects the harmless wren ;
Thou God of birds! thefe innocents defend
From the vile fport of unrelenting men.
For foon as dawn fhall dapple yonder skies,
The flaught'ring gunner, with the tube of fate,
While the dire dog the faithless stubble tries,
Shall perfecute our tribe with annual hate.
O may thy fun, unfann'd by cooling gale,
Parch with unufual heat th' undewy ground:
So fhall the pointer's wonted cunning fail,

So fhall the sportsman leave my babes unfound.
Then shall I fearless guide them to the mead,
Then fhall I fee with joy their plumage grow,
Then fhall I fee (fond thought!) their future breed,
And ev'ry tranfport of a parent know.

But if fome victim muft endure the dart,

And fate marks out that victim from my race,
Strike, ftrike the leaden vengeance through this heart;
Spare, fpare my babes; and I the death embrace.

To an INFANT fleeping in the Arms of its Mother.

E

Nchanting fmiler, gentle be thy reft;

The fofteft pillow is thy parent's breast; There may'ft thou fleep fecure from all alarms, And find the calmeft cradle in her arms;

Therk

There whilft the world tumultuous raves around,
While pride and meannefs, right and wrong confound,
While bluftering paffions half mankind deforin,
There may'ft thou lie unconfcious of the storm.
And oh! fweet cherub, happy is thy state,
Beyond the strange referves of future fate;
Too foon, alas; thy pleafures will be o'er,
And all that pleafes now, will please no more;
Nought equal to the prefent wilt thou know,
For pains and miferies ftrengthen as we grow :
A train of troubles croud each rifing year,
Heave the fad bofom, and extort the tear.
Soon will th' amufements of thy childhood fly,
And other trifles court thy wondering eye.-
Ah then, dear babe, enjoy the happiest hour
That youth and nature puts within thy power.
Thy heaviest forrows, now, foon find relief,
And the tears flow from nature, not from grief.
But foon as trufted from thy mother's arm,
Soon as the toy and rattle lofe their charm,
When reafon dawns upon thy opening mind,
Then wilt thou fee the fate of womankind:
Paffions will rife, and strengthen with thy age,
And fools in every shape thy heart engage;
The fluttering fop thy vanity addrefs,
This moment compliment, the next carefs:
The cautious traitor will thy glass attend,
And herds of coxcombs round thy toilet bend:
When lovers praife the lightning of thine eye,
Then, then beware-fufpect a ferpent nigh:
With prudence hear the pretty things they fay,
Nor rafhly give thy happiness away.
Oft, ere you change a modeft maiden life,
Maturely weigh the business of a wife;

"Tis better you should live through life unwed,
Than lead a villain to the bridal bed.

Perpetual curfes wait divided hearts :

Love, mutual love, the mutual blifs imparts:

And oh! what agony attends the wife

Who drags her being through continual ftrife!

Condemn'd to bathe the wretched couch with tears,
To fret, and tremble, with a thoufand fears!
Condemn'd, unthank'd, for many a year to drudge,
And dread an husband as thieves dread a judge;

A prey to every matrimonial care,

Even till fhe begs for death, to ease despair!

But Heaven on thee, foft Innocent, bestow,
A lighter burthen of terrestrial woe;
May fortune look more fmiling on thy youth,
And fenfe endear to thee the paths of truth;
Then fhalt thou well repay a mother's care,
And of thy fex be faireft of the fair.

Sweet ftate of childhood, unalloy'd by woe,
The trueft period of our blifs below:
Nature prefides the guardian of the scene,
And all is gentle, genuine, and ferene.
Soon as we leave the foft maternal breast,
"Tis all a ftruggling warfare at the best:
Farewell, a long farewell, to peace of mind;"
For woes on woes unnumber'd croud behind.

Thus the kind mother of the plumy brood,
When first fhe brings her infants to the wood,
Warms them affiduous with her fhelt'ring breaft,
And lines with whiteft wool her downy neft;
Outfpreads her pinions to their utmoft ftretch,
And curtains round each leaf within her reach:
But foon as trusted to the dangerous sky,
And for themfelves to fhift they rafhly fly,
Full many a peril in their way they meet,
And often languish for their loft retreat;
The fnare or fchool-boy every joy invade,
Their parent dies, and faddens all the shade.

Extracted from Verfes fent to a Lady on her BIRTH-DAY.

N the gay feafon of ingenuous youth,

IN

While inborn honour points the road to truth,
While the pure foul in fearch of science flies,
And the first hopes are to be lov'd and wife;
Oh may each fragrance of life's fpring be thine,
And the rich harvest of content divine;
A tafte fuperior, the fublime of mind,
All fofter feelings, delicate as kind:
Paffions obedient to the laws of fenfe,
And all the transports of benevolence.

But when the bleffings of thy morn decay,
And thou shalt reach the noon of human day;
May fober Reafon guide thy gentle heart;
Still to perform with grace the important part;

Hap

Haply thy babes fhall catch that grace of thee
(Thofe living pictures of thyfelf and me)
The modeft miniatures fhall lifp thy worth,
And often help their fire to blefs thy birth.

At laft, when Age exterior bloom decays,
And in thy forehead Time his track displays;
When Heaven with envy views my happy state,
And courts thy spirit to a nobler fate;

When Health's ripe roses on thy cheeks shall die,
And Sicknefs cloud the fummer in thine
eye,
May facred Virtue foothe thy Christian mind,
Calm in decay, and vigorous though refign'd:
Clear to their ebb may all their pleasures flow,
And fmile like evening fun-beams as they go;
Then late, long-honour'd, may thy fpirit fly,
And angels hail its welcome to the sky.

ELEGY to a Lady, who wish'd not to hear the Toll of a Bell on the Evening of the late Princess Dowager's Funeral. By J. CRADOCK.

A

ND why not hear the found of yonder bell?

Ah! why from ferious thought for ever fly?

It tolls a fober, awful, folemn knell,

A with'd-for knell to immortality.

Think not a round of folly's mad career

Can always fhield thee from reflection's power;
The young, the fond, the rich, the gay must fear,
Too long regardlefs of an awful hour.

Think not that beauteous form that now you wear,
That glow of crimfón,-thofe infpiring eyes,

Muft linger ever here—they all declare-
They fpeak aloud their kindred to the skies.

Do not the hour, the day, the month, the year,
All in their courfe expire-but all renew;
All nature shews, alas! a profpect drear
All nature fhews there's happiness in view.
Long toft in ftorms, do mariners repine,
When the glad pilot diftant land defcrys?
Ah! fee them eager trace the folid line,

See their hopes kindle as the objects rife !

And fhall my fair, with brightest hopes in store,

Not once look up beyond this barren clod;

Shall the alone her destiny deplore,

Her anchor, heav'n, and her pilot GOD?
R 3

,An