STILL

SECT.

CLXII.

ON THE AMUSEMENTS OF YOUTH.

eye

wide wanders o'er the green,

as the New aims, new objects, crowd the changeful scene. Here rise the mimick works of warlike hands, There in mock fight engage the marshal'd bands; Here too the painted galley meets the view, Along the fhores exult the admiring crew, While o'er the lake it spreads its filken fails, And all its ftreamers feel the rifing gales. Nor frown, ye wife, if wifdom deign to hear, Becaufe fuch artlefs trifles meet the ear. The rofe fo loved must bud before it bloom; And yonder oak, that spreads fo wide a gloom, Beneath whofe arms the flocks and herds repose, His full-grown honours to an acorn owes. In this fair field are fown the feeds of fame, In each young bofom lives its native flame, Which through these trifles breaks with early ray, These but the dawnings of their brighter day. In peaceful councils this fhall gain renown, For that Bellona wreathes the warlike crown: He too, who gave his galley to the breeze, One day may hold the empire of the feas; And now, even now elate with fancied power, Enjoys the glories of the future hour.

Thus roll the months and years, a golden round, With peace their nights, their days with pleafure

crown'd.

04

Nature

Nature mean time, induftrious to fulfil
The dictates of her mighty Master's will,
The well-beloved task inceffant plies,
And fees the work in fair proportion rife;
Acts with new vigour on the conscious soul,
Each part enlarges, and informs the whole.
As when the ftream firft iffues from its fource,
A gentle brook it murmurs without force,
Plays through the pebbles, and with filver maze
By many a flower and bending willow ftrays,
Till with freth tributary ftores fupplied

It pours into the main a copious tide;

Thus fwells the ftream of life; while evermore
Impatient youth regards the wider fhore,
Where man's adventurous bark with fails unfurl'd
First tries the deep, and launches on the world.
Pass'd is the dawn, the boyish hours are fled,
And lo the ftripling rears his radiant head,
With front erect and brightly beaming eye,
Fresh as the ftar which gilds the ev'ning sky.
As the young plant, the favourite of fome fair,
Her early folace, and her later care,

Uprifing foft, with living verdure crown'd,
Puts forth its blooms, and fpreads its fragrance round;
Flufh'd with the gift of health, fweet rofy hue,
Thus breaks the riper ftripling on the view;
In all the pride of youth he ftands display'd,
Nor dreams that beauty bloffoms but to fade.
Bleft feafon! brightest in life's varied year,
Too foon, alas! thy verdures disappear;
Too foon thy rofes wither in the wind,
And leave the sharp unfightly thorn behind.

Mean

Mean time from violet beds and wreathed bowers
Advance the graces and the fmiling hours,
With yonder fon of hope to sport and play,
And crown the revels of his flowery May.
No more of artlefs words, which on the tongue
With untaught lifp erewhile imperfect hung;
Proud of his opening reafon, nor lefs vain
Of ftature that o'er-tops the younger train,
He glances on them with averted eye,
Admires himself, and walks fuperior by.

Now glows the bofom with more potent fires,
Teems with new projects, throbs with new defires;
Robufter fports the stripling youth employ,
And all his foul is up for manly joy.

Now to the well-replenish'd fields he hies,
Sometimes the plain, fometimes the woodland tries,
Where haunts the partridge, or the timorous hare,
And where the lapwing beats the founding air;
O'er hill, o'er dale, by lake or river toils,
And late returns exulting in his spoils:

The cheerful glass, the lengthen'd tale fucceeds,
And all the game again in fancy bleeds.
Sweet are the flumbers that from toils arife,
More sweet the blifs which innocence supplies;
Light from his couch and well refresh'd he springs,
What time the lark the lively fummons fings;
New joys invite him forth, the dewy morn,
The hound wide opening to the high-ton'd horn,
The flag unharbour'd, and the madding throng
With furious emulation borne along;

O'er the swift fteed Actæon-like he bends,
And with the masters of the chace contends.

Thus fpeeds the morn; now fits the fun on high, And a fierce luftre breaks thro' all the fky;

Parch'd are the flowers and bloffoms, all around
The panting flocks lie fcatter'd o'er the ground,
And from the reach of Phoebus' fultry fires
Imbower'd the vifionary muse retires.

Not thus the glowing youth; he on the fhore,
Where breezy waters spread their grateful store,
Forthwith difrobes, and in the midway flood
Allays the tumult of his boiling blood.
Too daring thou, thus fond the deep to brave,
Be taught the dangers of the infidious wave;
It chills, relaxes, deadly cramps affail;
Ah what shall then thy boasted art avail,
When with exhausted limbs thou ftriv'ft in vain
To reach the fhores thou never shalt regain?
Such was Ambrofio's, fuch Endymion's doom,
Oh early loft in youth's ethereal bloom!
Twin brothers they, the only lov'd remains
Of many fons that paid a mother's pains.
Ill-fated dame! to early forrows bred,
The wretched mourner of a widow'd bed,
Whofe lord the chance of battle fnatch'd away
Ere yet the double off-spring saw the day:
But now the blooming pair her hopes renew,
In these she seems again her lord to view;
Their filial piety, their rifing years
Sooth all her loffes, and affuage her tears.
'Twas on a day, the feverish heat to cool,
They fought the windings of the well-known pool,
Along whofe margin flowers were thickly spread,
And many a poplar rear'd its graceful head.

Like two fair fwans elate in youthful pride
They breast the waves, and roll the deep afide;
They sport, they tofs, now vanish, now appear,
Fate overlooks them with malignant leer.
Ambrofio now the fafer fhore had gain'd,
Endymion ftill within the flood remain'd;
Full oft the former chid his long delay,
In vain, Death challenges the destin'd prey :
Chill torture now had feiz'd on all his frame,
Ambrofio faw, he heard the fearful scream;
What doubts, what thrilling woes the youth surprise!
What boding horrors in his bofom rise!

Swift to relieve into the deep he drove;
Ah! fad requital of fraternal love!

Exhaufted, faint, Endymion round him clings,
And mars the generous aid his friendship brings.
Vain are all efforts, in th' embrace he holds,
Fate ratifies th' indiffoluble folds;

Nor can or youth find grace, or beauty fave
The tender victims from a watery grave;
At once they fink, and once again they rise,
The deep at length ingulfs the precious prize.
Hail, haplefs pair! ye names for ever dear,
Whose sad remembrance draws the painful tear;
Lov'd youths, companions of my brighter days,
Thefe mournful rites the fong of friendship pays;
So may the fong furvive when I decay,

Nor die like you, the bloffom of a day!

But fee, the fun declines, a fresher breeze Breathes on the flowers, and ruftles thro' the trees: Far in the vale, where calm retirement dwells

'Mid folitary rocks, and mofs-grown cells

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