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Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend :
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink :
Each has his share; and who would more obtain,
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is Heaven's first law; and this confess'd,
Some are, and must be greater than the rest;
More rich, more wise: but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess,

If all are equal in their happiness:

But mutual wants this happiness increase,
All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing,
Bliss is the same in subject or in king;
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend :
Heaven breathes through every member of the whole
One common blessing as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts, if each alike possess'd,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men Happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those;
But Heaven's just balance equal will appear,
While those are placed in hope, and these in fear;

Not present good or ill the joy or curse,
But future views of better or of worse.
Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know, all the good that individuals find,

Or God and nature meant to mere mankind,
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.

SWEETNESS.

AN ODE.

BY MR. ROBERTSON.

Or damask cheeks and radiant eyes,

Let other poets tell;

Within the bosom of the fair

Superior beauties dwell.

There all the sprightly powers of wit,

In blithe assemblage play;

There every social virtue sheds

Its intellectual ray,

But as the sun's refulgent light
Heaven's wide expanse refines ;
With sovereign lustre through the soul
Celestial sweetness shines.

This mental beam dilates the heart,
And sparkles in the face;

It harmonizes every thought,

And heightens every trace.

One glimpse can soothe the troubled breast, The heaving sigh restrain;

Can make the bed of sickness please,

And stop the sense of pain.

Its power can charm the savage heart,
The tyrant's pity move;

To smiles convert the wildest rage,

And melt the soul to love.

When sweetness beams upon the throne,

In majesty benign,

The awful splendours of a crown

With milder lustre shine.

In scenes of poverty and woe,
Where melancholy dwells,
The influence of this living ray
The dreary gloom dispels.

Thus, when the blooming spring returns, To cheer the mournful plains,

Through earth and air, with genial warmth,

Ethereal mildness reigns.

Beneath its bright auspicious beam
No boisterous passions rise;
Moroseness quits the peaceful scene,

And baleful discord flies.

A thousand nameless beauties spring,
A thousand virtues glow:

A smiling train of joys appear,
And endless blessings flow.

Unbounded Charity displays
Her sympathising charms;

And Friendship's pure seraphic flame
The generous bosom warms.

Almighty Love exerts his power,
And spreads with secret art
A soft sensation through the frame,
A transport through the heart.

Nor shall the storms of age, which cloud Each gleam of sensual joy,

And blast the gaudy flow'ret's pride,

These blest effects destroy.

When that fair form shall sink in years,

And all those graces fly;

The beauty of thy heavenly mind
Shall length of days defy.

CONJUGAL FELICITY.

FROM THOMSON'S SEASONS.

O HAPPY they! the happiest of their kind!
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
"Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

Attuning all their passions into love:

Where friendship full exerts her softest power,

Perfect esteem, enliven'd by desire

Ineffable, and sympathy of soul:

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, With boundless confidence: for naught but love Can answer love, and render bliss secure.

-What is the world to them,

Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all,
Who in each other clasp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish:

Something than beauty dearer, should they look

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