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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 ease 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 young leaves about her ears,
And fill'd her with a thousand fears,

Left the rude blaft should snap 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 treafure there

A gift to his expecting fair,

Climb'd like a fquirrel to his dray,

And bore the worthless 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 fhape,

An earthquake may be bid to spare

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

2

A COMPARISON.

THE lapfe of time and rivers is the fame,
Both speed their journey with a restless fiream,
The filent pace with which they steal away,

No wealth can bribe, no pray'rs persuade 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 strikes at length the musing heart;
Streams never flow in vain; where streams 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

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Silent and chafte fhe fteals along

Far from the world's gay bufy throng,

With gentle yet prevailing force

Intent upon her deftin'd course,

Graceful and useful all she does,

Bleffing and bleft where'er fhe goes,
Pure-bofom'd as that wat'ry glass,
And heav'n reflected in her face.

VERSES, fuppofed to be written by ALEXANDER SELKIRK, during his folitary Abode in the Island of JUAN FERNANDEZ.

I.

I AM monarch of all I furvey,

My right there is none to difpute, From the centre all round to the fea,

I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

Oh folitude! where are the charms

That fages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place.

VGL. I.

X

I am

II.

I am out of humanity's reach,
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the fweet mufic of speech,
I ftart at the found of my own.

The beafts that roam over the plain,
My form with indifference fee,
They are fo unacquainted with man,

Their tamenefs is fhocking to me.

III.

Society, friendship, and love,

Divinely bestow'd upon man,

Oh had I the wings of a dove,
How foon wou'd I tafte you again!

My forrows I then might affuage
In the ways of religion and truth,
Might learn from the wifdom of age,
And be cheer'd by the fallies of youth,

IV. Religion !

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