Let the WORLD talk, my Friend; that WORLD we know
Which calls us guilty, cannot make us so.
Unaw'd by numbers, follow Nature's plan,
Affert the rights, or quit the name of man.
Confider well, weigh strictly right and wrong;
Refolve not quick, but once refolv'd be ftrong.
In fpite of Dulnefs, and in spite of Wit,
If to thyself, thou canst thyself acquit,
Rather ftand up affur'd with confcious pride
Alone, than err with millions on thy fide.
HEN CUPID first instructs his darts to fly From the fly corner of fome cookmaid's eye,
The ftripling raw, just enter'd in his teens, Receives the wound, and wonders what it means; His heart, like dripping, melts, and new defire Within him ftirs, each time the ftirs the fire; Trembling and blushing he the fair one views, And fain would fpeak, but can't---without a MUSE.
So to the facred mount he takes his way, Prunes his young wings, and tunes his infant lay, His oaten reed to rural ditties frames,
To flocks and rocks, to hills and rills proclaims,
In fimpleft notes, and all unpolish'd ftrains,
The loves of nymphs, and eke the loves of swains.
Clad, as your nymphs were always clad of yore, In ruftic weeds---a cook-maid now no more
Beneath an aged oak LARDELLA lies-
Green mofs her couch; her canopy the fkies:-
From aromatic fhrubs the roguish gale
Steals young perfumes, and wafts them thro' the vale
The youth, turn'd fwain, and fkill'd in ruftic lays
Faft by her fide his am'rous defcant plays.
Herds lowe, Flocks bleat, Pies chatter, Rayen
scream,
And the full chorus dies a-down the ftream.
The streams, with mufic freighted, as they pass,
Prefent the fair LARDELLA with a glass,
-And ZEPHYR, to compleat the love-fick plan,
Waves his light wings, and ferves her for a fan.
But when maturer Judgment takes the lead,
These childish toys on Reafon's altar bleed;
Form'd after fome great man, whofe name breeds
Whose ev'ry sentence Fashion makes a law,
Who on mere credit his vain trophies rears,
And founds his merit on our fervile fears
Then we difcard the workings of the heart,
And nature's banish'd by mechanic art;
Then deeply read, our reading must be fhewn;
Vain is that knowledge which remains unknown.
Then OSTENTATION marches to our aid,
And letter'd PRIDE ftalks forth, in full parade;
Beneath their care behold the work refine,
Pointed each fentence, polifh'd ev'ry line.
Trifles are dignified, and taught to wear
The robes of Antients with a Modern air,
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