CHORUS.

Hence guilty joys, distastes, furmizes,
Hence false tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, furprizes;

Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine :
Purest love's unwasting treasure,
Conftant faith, fair hope, long leifure;
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure;
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.

Y

40

ODE ON SOLITUDE.V

Written when the Author was about Twelve Years old.

H

APPY the man, whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

In his own ground...

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks fupply him with attire,
Whose trees in fummer yield him shade,

In winter fire.

Blest, who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide foft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day.

Sound fleep by night; study and ease,

Together mix'd; sweet recreation; And innocence, which most does please

With meditation.

G3

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Thus

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown,
Thus unlamented let me die,
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

20

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

I.

VITAL spark of heavenly flame!

Quit, oh quit this mortal frame :
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,

Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.

II.

Hark! they whisper; Angels say,
Sifter Spirit, come away.

What is this absorbs me quite ?
Steals my senses, shuts my fight,

Drowns my spirits, draws my breath ?
Tell me, my Soul, can this be Death ?

III.

The world recedes; it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
With founds feraphic ring:
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy Victory?

O Death! where is thy Sting?

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" Si quid novisti rectius iftis,

" Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum."

HOR.

* Mr. Pope told me himself, that the "Essay on " Criticism" was indeed written in 1707, though faid 1709 by mistake. J. RICHARDSON. THE Poem is in one book, but divided into three principal parts or members. The first [to ver. 201.] gives rules for the Study of the Art of Criticism; the second [from thence to ver. 560.] exposes the Caufes of wrong Judgment; and the third [from thence to the end] marks out the Morals of the Critic. When the Reader hath well confidered the whole, and hath observed the regularity of the plan, the masterly conduct of the several parts, the penetration into Nature, and the compass of learning so confpicuous throughout, he should then be told that it was the work of an Author who had not attained the twentieth year of his age. A very learned Critic has shewn, that Horace had the fame attention to method in his Art of Poetry.

CONTENTS

OF THE

ESSAY ON CRITICISM.

PART I.

INTRODUCTION. NTRODUCTION. That 'tis as great a fault to judge

ill, as to write ill, and a more dangerous one to the

public, ver. 1.

That a true Taste is as rare to be found as a true Genius, ver. 9 to 18.

That most men are born with some Taste, but spoil'd

by false Education, ver. 19 to 25.

The multitude of Critics and causes of them, ver. 26 to 45.

That we are to study our own Taste, and know the limits of it, ver. 46 to 67.

Nature the beft guide of judgment, ver. 68 to 87. Improved by Art and Rules, which are but methodized Nature, ver. 88.

Rules derived from the practice of the Ancient Poets,

ver. 88. to 110.

That therefore the Ancients are necessary to be studied by a Critic, particularly Homer and Virgil, ver. 120 to 138.

Of Licences, and the use of them by the Ancients, ver.

140 to 180.

Reverence due to the Ancients, and praise of them, ver. 181, &c.

PART