III.

Our mutual bond of faith and truth,

No time fhall difengage,

Those bleffings of our early youth,

Shall cheer our latest age:

IV.

While innocence without difguife,

And conftancy fincere,

Shall fill the circles of thofe eyes,

And mine can read them there :

V.

Thofe ills that wait on all below,

Shall ne'er be felt by me,

Or gently felt, and only fo,

As being fhar'd with thee.

VI.

When light'nings flash among the trees,
Or kites are hov'ring near,

I fear left thee alone they feize,

And know no other fear.

VII.

'Tis then I feel myself a wife,

And prefs thy wedded fide,

Refolv'd an union form'd for life,

Death never fhall divide.

VIII.

But oh! if fickle and unchafte

(Forgive a tranfient thought)

Thou could become unkind at last,

And scorn thy prefent lot,

IX.

No need of light'nings from on high,

Or kites with cruel beak,

Denied th' endearments of thine eye

This widow'd heart would break.

X.

Thus fang the sweet sequester'd bird

Soft as the paffing wind,

And I recorded what I heard,

A leffon for mankind.

AFA BL E.

A raven while with gloffy breast,

Her new-laid eggs fhe fondly prefs'd,
And on her wicker-work high mounted

Her chickens prematurely counted,
(A fault philofophers might blame
If quite exempted from the fame)
Enjoy'd at eafe the genial day,
'Twas April as the bumkins fay,
The legislature call'd it May.

But fuddenly a wind as high

As ever swept a winter sky,

Shook the

leaves about her ears,

young

And fill'd her with a thousand fears,

Left the rude blaft fhould fnap the bough,

And spread her golden hopes below.

But juft at eve the blowing weather,

And all her fears were hufh'd together: And now, quoth poor unthinking Ralph, 'Tis over, and the brood is fafe;

(For

(For ravens though as birds of omen,

They teach both conj'rers and old women

To tell us what is to befall,

Can't prophefy themselves, at all.)

The morning came, when neighbour Hodge, Who long had mark'd her airy lodge,

And deftin'd all the treasure there

A gift to his expecting fair,

Climb'd like a squirrel to his dray,

And bore the worthlefs prize away.

MOR A L.

'Tis providence alone fecures

In every change, both mine and your's:

Safety confifts not in escape

From dangers of a frightful shape,

An earthquake may be bid to spare

The man that's ftrangled by a hair.
Fate steals along with filent tread,
Found oft'neft in what least we dread,
Frowns in the ftorm with angry brow,
But in the funfhine ftrikes the blow. -

A

COMPARISON.

THE lapfe of time and rivers is the fame,
Both fpeed their journey with a restless stream,
The filent pace with which they steal away,
No wealth can bribe, no pray'rs perfuade to stay,
Alike irrevocable both when past,

And a wide ocean fwallows both at laft.

Though each resemble each in ev'ry part,

A difference ftrikes at length the mufing heart;
Streams never flow in vain; where ftreams abound,
How laughs the land with various plenty crown'd!
But time that should enrich the nobler mind,
Neglected, leaves a dreary wafte behind.

ANOTHER.

Addeffed to a YOUNG LADY.

SWEET ftream that winds through yonder glade,

Apt emblem of a virtuous maid

Silent