Her tender pupils for the various war,
Which Vice and Folly fhall upon them wage,
As on the perilous march of life they fare
With prudent lore fore-arming every age
'GainftPleafure'streacherous joys,and Pain's embattled rage.
LXXXIX.

Then shall my youthful fons, to Wisdom led
By fair example and ingenuous praise,
With willing feet the paths of Duty tread;
Through the world's intricate or rugged way's
Conducted by Religion's facred rays;
Whose foul-invigorating influence

Shall purge their minds from all impure allays
Of fordid selfishness and brutal sense,

And fwell th' ennobled heart with bleft benevolence.
XC.

Then alfo fhall this emblematick pile,

By magick whilom fram'd to fympathize

With all the fortunes of this changeful isle,

Still, as my fons in fame and virtue rise,

Grow with their growth, and to th' applauding skies
It's radiant cross up-lift; the while, to grace

The multiplying niches, fresh supplies

Of worthies fhall fucceed, with equal pace

Aye following their fires in virtue's glorious race.

XCI. Fir'd

XCI.

Fir'd with th' idea of her future fame
She rofe majestick from her lowly sted;
While from her vivid eyes a sparkling flame
Out-beaming, with unwonted light o'erfpread
That monumental pile; and as her head
To every front she turn'd, discover'd round
The venerable forms of heroes dead;

Who for their various merit erst renown'd,
In this bright fane of glory fhrines of honour found.
XCII.

On these that royal dame her ravish'd eyes
Would often feaft; and ever as she spy'd

Forth from the ground the length'ning structure rise
With new-plac'd ftatues deck'd on every fide,
Her parent-breast would fwell with gen'rous pride.
And now with her in that fequefter'd plain,
The Knight a while conftraining to abide,

She to the Fairy Youth with pleasure fain

Those sculptur'dchiefs did fhew, and their great lives explain.||

Great lives explain.] I cannot forbear taking occafion from these words to make my acknowledgments to the writers of Biographia Britannica, for the pleasure and profit I have lately received from perufing the two first volumes of that ufeful and entertaining work, of which the monumental ftructure above mentioned, decorated with the ftatues of great

and

and good men, is no improper emblem. This work, which contains the lives of the most eminent perfons, who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest ages, down to the present time, appears to me, as far as it has hitherto gone, to be executed with great spirit, accuracy, and judgment; and deferves, in my opinion, to be encouraged by all, who have at heart the boncar of their country, and that of their particular families and friends; and who can any ways affift the ingenious and laborious authors, to render as perfect as poffible, a defign fo apparently calculated to ferve the publick, by Jetting in the trueft and fulleft light the characters of perfons already generally, though perhaps too indiftinctly known; and reviving from obfcurity and oblivion, examples of private and retired merit, which, though lefs glaring and oftentatious than the former, are not, however, of a lefs extenfive or lefs beneficial influence. To thofe, who may happen not to have feen this repofitory of British glory, I cannot give a better idea of it, than in the following lines of Virgil:

Hic manus ob patriam pugnando vulnera paffi ;
Quique facerdotes cafti, dum vita manebat;
Quique pii vates & Phabo digna locuti;
Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artes;
Quique fui memores alios fecere merendo.

Virg. Æn. L. 6.

The End of the FIRST CANTO.

VOL. IV.

D

PEN

PENSHURST.

INSCRIBED TO

WILLIAM PERRY, Esq;

AND

The Honble Mrs. ELIZABETH PERRY.

By the late Mr. F. COVENTRY.

ENIUS of Penfhurft old!

GE

Who faw'ft the birth of each immortal oak,

Here facred from the stroke;

And all thy tenants of yon turrets bold,

Infpir'ft to arts or arms;

*

Where Sidney his Arcadian landscape drew,

Genuine from thy Doric view;

And patriot † Algernon unshaken rofe

Above infulting foes;

And Sacchariffa nurs'd her angel charms:

O fuffer

Sir Philip Sidney. † Algernon Sidney.

To land me on the focial floor;

Nor does the heiress of these shades deny
To bend her bright majestic eye,

Where Beauty shines, and Friendship warm,
And Honour in a female form.

With them in aged groves to walk,

And lose my thoughts in artless talk,
I fhun the voice of Party loud,
I fhun loose Pleafure's idle croud,
And monkish academic cell,
Where Science only feigns to dwell,
And court, where fpeckled Vanity
Apes her tricks in tawdry dye,

And shifts each hour her tinsel hue,
Still furbelow'd in follies new.
Here Nature no diftortion wears,
Old Truth retains his filver hairs,
And Chastity her matron step,
And purple Health her rofy lip.
Ah! on the virgin's gentle brow
How Innocence delights to glow !