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E rofes, bow your lovely heads, Nor boaft your damask hue ; For, fee, yon fpotlefs lily spreads Her charms to rival you.

So, in each beauteous female breast,
Does envy's paflion dwell;

Each lovely nymph, of charms poffefs'd,
Endeavours to excel.

Ah! foolish maids, behold your doom
In yonder faded flower;

For, what is beauty's fofteft bloom?

The triumph of an hour!

N

SECT.

Miss H. FALCONER.

CXIX.

ON FASHION

FASHION, more fickle than the breeze,

As this is up, and that is down,

In various forms attempts to please
The humours of th' inconftant Town.

In fable veft fhe now appears,

And now in fnowy robes is feen;

So

So different is the hue fhe wears,
She moves the rainbow's changeful queen.

Courted by every breaft, fhe flies

From gay to grave,

from grave to gay;

She roves at large, and freely cries,

Let Fashion gild each varying day.

MISS H. FALCONAR.

SE C T.

CXX.

POEM:

NIGHT; A SATIRICAL

ADDRESSED TO MR. LLOYD.

WHEN foes infult, and prudent friends dispense,

In pity's ftrains, the worst of infolence,

Oft with thee, Lloyd, I fteal an hour from grief,
And in thy focial converse find * relief.
The mind, of folitude impatient grown,
Loves any forrows rather than her own.
Let flaves to business, bodies without foul,
Important blanks in Nature's mighty roll,
Solemnize nonfense in the Day's broad glare;
We Night prefer, which heals or hides our care.
Rogues juftified and by fuccess made bold,
Dull fools and coxcombs fanctified by † gold,
Freely may bask in Fortune's partial ray,
And fpread their feathers op'ning to the day;

THOMSON.

* A friend, a book, the focial hours secure, And mark them down for wisdom. + The term fan&tified here, taken in connection with the word juftified in the former line, means no more than countenanced or

emboldened.

L 3

But

But thread-bare * Merit dares not fhew the head,
Till vain Profperity retires to bed.

Misfortunes, like the owl, avoid the light;
The fons of Care are always fons of Night.

The wretch, bred up in Method's drowsy school, Whose merit only is to err by rule;

Who ne'er thro' heat of blood was tripping caught,
Nor guilty deem'd of one eccentric thought;
Whofe foul directed to no use is seen,

Unless to move the body's dull machine;
Which, clock work like, with the fame equal pace
Still travels on thro' life's infipid space;

Turns up his eyes, to think that there should be,
Among God's creatures, two fuch things as † we;
Then for his night-cap calls, and thanks the pow'rs
Which kindly gave him grace to keep good hours.

Good hours!-Fine words-but was it ever feet That all men could agree in what they mean? Florio, who many years a course hath run In downright oppofition to the Sun, Expatiates on good hours, their cause defends With as much vigour as our prudent friends. Th' uncertain term no fettled notion brings, But still in diff'rent mouths means diff'rent things. Each takes the phrase in his own private view, With Prudence it is ten, with Florio two. Go on, ye fools, who talk for talking fake, Without diftinguishing diftinctions make;

→ True merit may be neglected, while worthlefs fools profper and become rich: but let it ever be remembered,

Greatness alone in virtue's understood;

None's truly great, but he who's truly good.

+ A body and foul.

Shine forth in native folly, native pride,
Make yourselves rules to all the world befide.
Reafon, collected in herself, difdains

The flavish yoke of arbitrary chains;
Steady and true, each circumstance fhe weighs,
Nor to bare words inglorious tribute pays.
Men of fenfe live exempt from vulgar awe,
And Reason to herself alone is * law.
That freedom fhe enjoys with lib'ral mind,
Which fhe as freely grants to all mankind.
No idol titled name her rev'rence stirs,
No hour fhe blindly to the rest prefers;
All are alike, if they're alike employ'd,
And all are good, if † virtuously enjoy'd.
Let the fage Doctor (think him one we know)
With fcraps of ancient learning overflow,
In all the dignity of wig declare

The fatal confequence of midnight air,
How damps and vapours, as it were by stealth,
Undermine life, and fap the walls of health:
For me let Galen moulder on the shelf,
I'll live, and be physician to myself.
Whilft foul is join'd to body, whether Fate
Allot a longer or a fhorter date,

* The laws of Reason, however difregarded and fet at nought by the gay and thoughtless part of mankind, are properly attended to and esteemed by the fober and difcerning few, as truly falutary, rational and important.

This is the judgment of Reason; but, alas! what have the candidates for pleasure and diffipation in high life, to do with either Reafon or its dictates? Nothing, unless it be to abuse the one, and laugh at the other.So much for rational irrationals. L4

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I'll make them live as brother should with brother,
And keep them in good humour with each other.
The fureft road to health, fay what they will,
Is never to suppose we shall be * ill.

Most of thofe evils we poor mortals know,
From doctors and imagination flow.

Hence to old women with your boafted rules,
Stale traps, and only facred now to fools!
As well may fons of phyfic hope to find
One medicine, as one † hour, for all mankind.
If Rupert after ten is out of bed,

The fool next morning can't hold up his head.
What reason this which me to bed must call,
Whofe head (thank Heaven!) never aches at all
In diff'rent courfes diff'rent tempers run,

He hates the Moon, I ficken at the Sun.
Wound up at twelve at noon, his clock goes right:
Mine better goes, wound up at twelve at night.
Then in Oblivion's grateful cup I drown
The galling fneer, the fupercilious frown,
The ftrange referve, the proud affected state
Of upftart knaves grown rich, and fools grown great..
No more that abject wretch disturbs my rest,
Who meanly overlooks a friend diftreft.
Purblind to Poverty the worldling goes,

And scarce fees rags an inch beyond his nofe;

*This is the language, and too much influences the practice of the giddy multitude in the prefent day, however derogatory and repugnant to right reason and discretion.

+ However fpecious this method of reafoning may appear, it can be no just defence or encouragement for keeping (what are generally ftiled) bad hours.

But

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