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And the darling fair one prize, Though our paffion she despise? What impels us to pursue,

Tell me, LovE-Oh, tell me true?
"HOPE'tis HOPE, the God replies,
Soothes your pangs, and heals your fighs,
HOPE, the parent of defire,

Fans the flame which charms infpire.
If the paffion be fincere,
If my laws the swain revere,
Pleafure's all-enlivening train,

Court his breaft, nor court in vain;
Friendship first, with look ferene,
Fond Affection's gentle mien:
Honour with a steady eye,
Elegant fimplicity:

Sympathy, that measure keeps,

Smiles, with joy, with anguifh weeps!
"Thefe allure the captive fwain,
And shall well reward his pain,
If the object of his heart,
Hear the vow, and ease the smart,

"If falfe fhepherds deck my fhrine,
And implore my gifts divine,
Anxious doubt, and fretful Spleen;
Jealoufy of haggard mein;
Joys, that vanish, ere obtain'd,
Honour, with furmifes ftain'd,
Idle Hopes and Transports vain
Still delude-yet still detain!

"Ah, then, youth, if beauty's charm,
Should thy gentle breaft alarm,
Let thy heart's affection prove,
Ever faithful to thy love;
So, perhaps, at last, the fair
May attend thy votive pray'r,
Bid thee ceafe to breathe the figh,
And reward thy conftancy,"

Come then, Love-come gentle boy,
Lead thy votary to joy;
Teach my charmer to beguile,
All my forrows with a smile,
Let a mutual flame impart,
Blifs fupreme to either heart;
And her praife while I rehearse,
Fondnefs thall infpire the verfe:
Fragrant wreathes our hands fhall twine,
Love, to decorate thy fhrine;
Where the lily and the rofe
Shall their bloomy fweets difclofe;
And the flowereis which we bring
Flourish with eternal fpring.

We may join the festive throng,
Sweep the lyre, and tune the fong,
When the hymene al train,
Bearing each a filken chain,
Now retreat, and now advance,
As they form the my thie dance;
Or beneath the spangled skies,
While the moon her light fupplies;
Or beneath the woodbine fhade,
Which no mortal dares invade;
If his animated breaft,

Be not with thy favours bleft.

Come then, Love, my fuit fucceed;
Honour's wreathe thall be thy meed;
And the fun forget to glow,
And the waters cease to flow,
Ere, with Chloe's fondnefs bleft,
Fallehood fhould polefs my breast-

No-my charmer I'll adore, 'Till earthly joys delight no more.

VERSES

E.

Written by the late EARL OF CHESTERFIELD, over a fideboard, at Sir William Stanhope's, Twickenham.

ET focial mirth with gentle manners join,

LET ford by laughter, uninflam'd by wine;
Let reafon unimpair'd exert its powers,

But let gay fancy ftrew the way with flowers.
Far hence the wag's and witling's fcurril jeft,
Whofe noife and nonfenfe shock the decent guest -
True wit and humour fuch low helps decline,
Nor will the graces owe their charms to wine.
Fools fly to drink, in native dullness funk:
In vain-they're ten times greater fools when
drunk.

Thus free from riot, innocently gay,
We'll neither with, nor fear our final day,

On feeing Mifs M. STAGELDOIR dance,
and play WILLIAM in ROSINA,
PORN'D with each attractive grace,
When we beheld you firit advance,
The loves directed every pace,

And led you through the mazy dance,
Thus when in woman's gay attire,
Sweet Stageldoir, you tread the itage,
Each fwain with instant love you fire,
And every beauteous nymph with rage,
But when, in William's humble guise,
We view your unaffected ease,
And fimpler airs delight our eyes,
And all your ruftic graces please:
Each bofom different paffions move;
Some magic charm around us plays:
The female heart begins to love,
And all the man with envy gaze.
Birmingham, July 7, 1783.

WHY

VIATOR,

A SACRED HYMN. HY, thou afflicted spirit why Art thou caft down with care? Why will thy melancholy thoughts Confign thee to defpair?

Cannot this goodly world fo gay,

Nor all that it contains,
The flowery fields, the radiant fkies,
Solace and foothe thy pains?
Cannot the toils of active life,

Thy bufy thoughts engage?
Nor yet the cheartul haunts of men
Thy rifing griefs affuage?
Or is thy fenfe of joy effac'd?

Are all thy wishes fled?
Thy hopes and thy defires extinct?
And thine affections dead?

Yet, gentle fpirit, I would not

Upon thy griets intrude:

Nor lift the facred veil that hides
Thy foft follicitude.

Poor

Poor, drooping fpirit, I will not

Kebike thee, nor reprove; But I would pour into thy wounds, The balm of heavenly love.

Olift thy voice to heaven, and breathe

To heaven thy fervent prayer: God will relieve thy fore distress, And fave thee from defpair.

Think not that God neglects thy cry:

He thine afflictions knows;
And tries thy vigour and thy faith,

And proves thee with thy woes.
O ftrive then with thyfelf, and ftill
Right valiantly contend:
Thy fufferings cannot laft for age;
Thy griefs will have an end.
Obferve the days that thou haft liv'd,
How very thort they feem!
The shadow of a flying cloud!
Or recollected dream.

So will the future portion be

Of thy remaining life:

Strive then with holy zeal, and God
Shall blefs thy pious ftrife.
He will thy forrow mitigate,
And wipe away thy tears:
And he will heal thy painful wounds,
And banish all thy tears.
Amid the filence of the grave,

Far from alarming woes,
The weary heart thall ceafe to beat
In undisturb'd repofe.
But what a glorious recompenfe,
Awaits thee in the fky?
There on a throne of gold fhalt thou
Exalted be on high.

Thy robes of fnowy white shall shine,
Pure as the noontide light:"
And flowery fields of happiness,
Rife on thy ravish'd fight.
Strengthen'd, and prov'd, and purified,
By all thy fufferings here,

On wings, thou thalt afcend and fly
Beyond the starry sphere.

The minifter of heaven fhalt thou,
Thy growing powers employ,
And execute his will, and fhare
The fullness of his joy.

O then endure a little while,

And wrestle with thy woes:

To heaven lift up thy foul, from heaven
Thy confolation flows.

Fearless and refolute perform

The talk to thee affign'd:

Grieve not; but, like an heir of heaven,
Be active and refign'd.

Gold, precious gold with fiercest flames,
Is in the furnace try'd:

And is from earthly mixture most
Severely purified:

And then it shines a diadem

Upon a princes brow.

The fineft fpirits must be prov'd,
And fortified with woe.

W. R.

THE DOOM OF OPPRESSION.
AN INSCRIPTION.

TRANGER! fhould compulfive need
Thy folitary journey lead

By that defolated rock

Shatter'd by the frequent fhock
Of thunder pealing from the iky,
Charg'd with vengeance from on high,
Tread not near that fhaggy mound
With tangling brakes and hemlock crown'd:
And chiefly at decline of day,
Turn thee, ftranger, turn away.

Ever at the difmal hour,
When the clouds of midnight low'r,
All amid th' incumbent gloom,
Rifing from th' unhallow'd tomb,
A fpirit with heart-rending wail,
Loads the melancholy gale:
And, in the agonies of pain,
Shakes an unrelenting chain.
Furioufly with hideous fcreams,
Girt with flames and livid gleams,
Fiends in their vindictive ire
Scourge him with a fcourge of fire.
For the fell oppreflor's doom
Overtakes him in the tomb!

What avail'd his treafur'd gain?
What avail'd his wide domain?
For, of fear'd and rugged heart,
Never would his hand impart,
From his overflowing store,
A fcant pittance to the poor.
Nor alone his wealth with-held;
But by avarice impeil'd,
Drove the widow and her child
To weep and wander in the wild:
Reft them of their humble lot:
Drove them from their lowly cot:

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Pity my child," the mother cry'd; Unpity'd child and mother died. But the fell oppreffor's doom Overtakes him in the tomb. Tortur'd while he liv'd with care, Driven by demons to defpair, By the difmal midnight shade, In this wild horrific glade, Furious he unfheath'd the fword, And his ruthless bofom gor'd. There he lay, unown'd, unblest, Save that pious trav❜lers caft On his bleach'd, unbury'd bones, Scanty earth and gather'd stones, Till that fhapeless mound arofe The memorial of his woes.

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LITERARY REVIEW.

ARTICLE I.

OBSERVATIONS on the River Wye, and feveral Parts of South Wales, &c. relative chiefly to picturefque Beauty, made in the Summer of the Year 1770 near Lymington. 8vo. London. Blamire. her productions; and to learn the manners of men; their different polities, and modes of life.

By William Gilpin, M. A. Vicar of Boldre, THE ingenious writer who has favoured the public with this work, is well known in the literary world, and will acquire additional reputation from thefe obfervations. They are divided into eleven fections, and are infcribed to Mr. Mafon, who feveral years ago commended fome obfervations which Mr. Gilpin had made on the lakes and mountains of the northern parts of this ifland. Thefe, as he informs us, would have been published fome time fince, if the expences of engraving and printing had not worn too terrible an afpect. Mr. Gray, we are told, made almost the fame little tour, in the very year that our author made it, and paid him fome very handfome compliments on perufing thefe obfervations, which were fhewn him in a very rough and unfinished state. Thefe commendations, and the advice of friends," among whom Mr. Mafon feems to claim a confpicuous place, Mr. Gilpin fays, were a ftronger inducement for him to publish his work, than any expectation, which he could form of approbation from the literary world.

Thefe obfervations, however, the author might have ventured to fend forth from the prefs, even without applying to his friends for counfel. Such references, indeed, are feldom of real fervice, as the favourable opinion which is thus extorted can rarely be trufted; and who could be fo cruel, or fo daring, as to tell a writer that his work was unfit for publication? In the prefent inftance, we think with Mr. Mafon, that it would have been a lofs to the lovers of defcriptive painting, if this performance had been withheld from the public.

Mr. Gilpin thus opens his firft fection: "We travel for various purpofes; to explore the culture of foils; to view the curiofities of art; to furvey the beauties of nature; to fearch for

"The following little work propofes a new object of purfuit; that of not barely examining the face of a country; but of examining it by the rules of picturefque beauty: that of not merely defcribing; but of adapting the defcription of natural fcenery to the principles of artificial landscape; and of opening the fources of thofe pleasures, which are derived from the comparison

"Obfervations of this kind, through the vehicle of defcription, have the better chance of being founded in truth; as they are not the offspring of theory; but are taken warm from the scenes of nature as they arise.”

Our author has adhered with fidelity to the rules which he here laid down, and the whole of the tour proves him to be a polite scholar, a man of a refined and elegant tafte, and a nice and accurate obferver of the beauties of nature's variegated scenes.

Mr. G. took his courfe along the Wallingford road, through Oxford to Gloucefter. Down the river Wye, through Persfield, Chepstow, and Monmouth. Through part of South Wales, acrofs the Bristol Channel, through Newbury and Reading, to Hounflow heath, where the journey began.

The plates, which are about fifteen in number, are etched from drawings, which, Mr. Gilpin tells us, were haftily sketched, and under many difadvantages. They are only intended to give fome idea of the general effect of a scene; but in no degree, to mark the feveral picturefque and ornamental particulars, of which it is compofed.

The obfervations on the various decorations that ornament the scenes on the river Wye, breathe all the correct knowledge of a mafter, with all the fire and imagination of an Amateur;

and

and indeed the whole work will prove a fource of entertainment to men of tafte, and of utility to painters.

"The Wye takes its rife near the fummit of Plinlimmon; and dividing the counties of Radnor and Brecknoc, paffes through Herefordshire. From thence becoming a fecond boundary, between Monmouth, and Gloucefterfhire, it falls into the Severn, a little below Chepftow. To this place from Rofs, which is a courfe of near 40 miles, it flows in a gentle, uninterrupted ftream; and adorns, through its various reaches, a fucceffion of the moft picturefque fcenes.

"The beauty of thefe fcenes arifes chiefly from two circumftances-the lofty banks of the river, and its mazy courfe; both which are accurately obferved by the poet, when he defcribes the Wye, as ecchoing through its winding bounds. It could not well eccho, unless its banks were lofty.

"From these two circumftances the views it exhibits, are of the most elegant kind of perfpective; free from the formality of lines.

"Every view on a river, thus circumftanced is compofed of four grand parts; the area, which is the river itfelf; the two fide fcreens, which are the oppofite banks, and mark the perspective; and the front-fcreen which points out the winding of the river.

"If the Wye ran, like a Dutch canal, between parallel banks, there could be no front-fcreen: the two fide-fcreens, in that fituation, would lengthen to a point.

"If a road were under the circumstance of a river winding like the Wye, the effect would be the fame. But this is rarely the cafe. The road purfues the irregularity of the country. It climbs the hill; and finks into the valley: and this irregularity gives the views it exhibits a different character.

"But the views on the Wye, though compofed only of thefe fimple parts, are yet infinitely varied.

"They are varied, firft, by the con

traft of the fcreens. Sometimes one of the fide-fcreens is elevated; fometimes the other; and fometimes the front. Or both the fide-fcreens may be lofty; and the front either high, or low.

Again, they are varied by the folding of the fide-fcreens over each other; and hiding more or lefs of the front. When none of the front is discovered, the folding-fide either winds round, like an amphitheatre +, or it becomes a long reach of perfpective.

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Thefe fimple variations admit ftill further variety from becoming complex. One of the fides may be compounded of various parts; while the other remains fimple: or both may be compounded; and the front fimple: or the front alone may be compounded.

"Befides thefe fources of variety, there are other circumftances, which, under the name of ornaments, ftill further increafe them. Plain banks will admit all the variations we have yet mentioned: but when this plainnefs is adorned, a thousand other varieties arife.

"The ornaments of the Wye may be ranged under four heads-groundwood-rocks-and buildings.

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The ground, of which the banks of the Wye confifts (and which hath thus far been confidered only in its general effect) affords every variety which ground is capable of receiving; from the steepest precipice to the flatteft meadow. This variety appears in the line formed by the fummits of the banks; in the fwellings, and excavations of their declivities; and in the unequal furfaces of the lower grounds.

"In many places alfo the ground is broken; which adds new fources of variety. By broken ground, we mean only fuch ground, as hath loft its turf, and discovers the naked foil. Often you fee a gravelly earth fhivering from the hills, and fhelving down their fides in the form of water-falls: or perhaps you fee dry, ftony channels, guttering down precipices; the rough beds of temporary torrents. And fometimes fo trifling a caufe, as the rubbing of Theep

*Pleas'd Vaga echoes thro' its winding bounds,
And Rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds.

Pope's Eth. Ep.

+ The word amphitheatre, ftrictly speaking, is a complete inclosure: but, I believe, it is commonly accepted, as here, for any circular piece of architecture, though it do not wind entirely round.

fheep against the fides of little banks, or hillocks, will often occafion very beautiful breaks.

"The colour too of the broken foil is a great fource of variety; the yellow, or the red oker; the afhy grey; the black earth; or the marley blue. And the intermixtures of thefe with patches of verdure, blooming heath, and other vegetable tints, ftill increafe that variety.

"Nor let the faftidious reader think, thefe remarks defcend too much into detail. Were an extenfive distance defcribed, a foreft-fcene, a fea-coaft view, a vaft femi-circular range of broken mountains, or fome other grand difplay of nature, it would be trifling to mark thefe minute circumftances. But here the hill around exhibits little, except fore-grounds; and it is neceffary, where we have no diftances, to be more exact in finishing objects at hand.

"The next great ornament on the banks of the Wye, are its woods. In this country there are many works carried on by fire; and the woods being maintained for their ufe, are periodically cut down. As the larger trees are generally left, a kind of alternacy takes place: what is this year a thicket, may the next be an open grove. The woods themselves poffefs little beauty, and lefs grandeur; yet, as we confider them as the ornamental, not as the effential parts, of a fcene, the eye muft not examine them with exactness; but compound for a general effect.

"One circumftance attending this alternacy is pleafing. Many of the furnaces on the banks of the river confume charcoal, which is manufactured on the fpot; and the fmoke which is frequently feen iffuing from the fides of the hills and fpreading its thin veil over a part of them, beautifully breaks their lines, and unites them with the sky.

"The chief deficiency, in point of wood, is of large trees on the edge of the water; which, clumped here and there, would diverfify the hills, as the eye paffes them; and remove that heavinefs, which always, in fome degree (though here as little as poffible) arifes from the continuity of ground. They

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would alfo give diftance to the more removed parts; which, in a scene like this, would have peculiar advantage: for as we have here fo little distance, we wish to make the most of what we have.-But 'trees immediately on the foreground cannot be suffered in these fcenes as they would obftruct the navigation of the river.

The rocks, which are continually ftarting through the woods, produce another ornament on the banks of the Wye. The rock, as all other objects, though more than all, receives its chief beauty from contraft. Some objects are beautiful in themfelves. The eye is pleafed with the tuftings of a tree: it is amufed with purfuing the eddying ftream; or it refts with delight on the fhattered arches of a Gothic ruin. Such objects, independent of compofition, are beautiful in themfelves. But the rock, bleak, naked, and unadorned, feems fcarcely to deferve a place among them. Tmt it with moffes, and lychens of various hues, and you give it a degree of beauty. Adorn it with fhrubs, and hanging herbage, and you ftill make it more picturefque. Connect it with wood, and water, and broken ground, and you make it in the highest degree interefting. Its colour and its form are fo accommodating, that it generally blends into one of the most beautiful appendages of landfcape.

"Different kinds of rocks have different degrees of beauty. Those on the Wye, which are of a greyish colour, are, in general, fimple and grand; rarely formal or fantastic. Sometimes they project in those beautiful square maffes, yet broken and fhattered in every line, which is the characteristic of the moft majestic fpecies of rock. Sometimes they flant obliquely from the eye in fhelving diagonal ftrata: and fometimes they appear in large maffes of fmooth ftone, detached from each other, and half buried in the foil. Rocks of this latter kind are the most lumpish, and the leaft picturefque.

"The various buildings, which arife every where on the banks of the Wye, form the last of its ornaments; abbeys, caftles, villages, fpires, forges, mills,

and

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