2. I took it for a fairy vision

Of some gay creatures of the element,
That in the colours of the rainbow live,
And play i' th' plighted clouds.

3. And now they throng the moonlight glade, Above-below-on every side,

Their little minim forms array'd

In all the tricksy pomp of fairy pride!

MILTON'S Comus.

4.

The palace of the sylphid queen-
Its spiral columns, gleaming bright,
Were streamers of the northern light;
Its curtain's light and lovely flush
Was of the morning's rosy blush;
And the ceiling fair, that rose aboon,
The white and feathery fleece of noon.

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

SHAKSPEARE.

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

5. Her mantle was the purple roll'd
At twilight in the west afar;
"T was tied with threads of dawning gold,
And button'd with a sparkling star.

6. Their harps are of the amber shade, That hides the blush of waking day, And every gleamy string is made

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

Of silvery moonshine's lengthen'd ray.

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

FAIRIES.

7. But she led him to the palace gate,

And call'd the sylphs who hover'd there,
And bade them fly and bring him straight
Of clouds condens'd a sable car.

8. As ever ye saw a bubble rise,

And shine with a thousand changing dyes,
Till, lessening far, through ether driven,
It mingles with the hues of heaven :"
As, at the glimpse of morning pale,
The lance-fly spreads his silken sail,
And gleams with blendings soft and bright,
Till lost in the shade of fading night :-
So rose from the earth the lovely Fay,-
So vanish'd far in heaven away!

➡dic

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

10. Swift he bestrode his fiery steed;

9. He put his acorn-helmet on;

It was plum'd of the silk of the thistle-down;
The corselet plate, that guarded his breast,
Was once the wild bees' golden vest;
His cloak, of a thousand mingled dyes,
Was form'd of the wings of butterflies;
His shield was the shell of a lady-bug queen,
Studs of gold on a ground of green;
And the quivering lance which he brandish'd bright,
Was the sting of a wasp he had slain in fight.

255

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

He bared his blade of the bent grass blue;
He drove his spurs of the cockle-seed,

And away, like a glance of thought, he flew,
To skim the heavens, and follow far
The fiery tail of the rocket-star.

DRAKE'S Culprit Fay.

FAITH.

1. True faith and reason are the soul's two eyes;
Faith evermore looks upwards and descries
Objects remote; but reason can discover
Things only near-sees nothing that's above her:
They are not matches-often disagree,
And sometimes both are clos'd, and neither see.

QUARLES.

2. Faith lights us through the dark to deity;

Whilst, without sight, we witness that she shows
More God than in his works our eyes can see,

Though none, but by those works, the Godhead knows.
SIR W. DAVENANT.

3. For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right. POPE'S Essay on Man.

4. Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death,
To break the shock blind Nature cannot shun,
And lands thought smoothly on the farther shore.
YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

5. Death's terror

peace:

the mountain faith removes, That mountain-barrier between man and "T is faith disarms destruction, and absolves From every clamorous charge the guiltless tomb. YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

6. Fond as we are, and justly fond of faith,
Reason, we grant, demands our first regard;
The mother honour'd, as the daughter dear-
Reason's the root, fair faith is but the flower.
YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

7. But faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.

MOORE'S Lalla Rookh.

FALSEHOOD-TRUTH, &c.

8. Vital principle, which keeps my heart

Firm, 'mid the pressure of a thousand ills,
Thou my life's solace and supporter art,

Mingling with bliss the bitter cup it fills.
Far in the future hath thy watcher's glance

Discover'd peace, and many a blissful spot;
While present griefs seem shadows that enhance
The opening glories of thy future lot.

MRS. S. MOWBRAY.

FALSEHOOD-TRUTH-SINCERITY

1. He is a freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves beside.

2. I cannot hide what I am: I must be

Sad when I have a cause, and smile at no man's
Jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for
No man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy,
And tend on no man's business; laugh when I
Am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

3. This, above all, to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.

257

COWPER.

SHAKSPEARE.

4. In many looks the false heart's history

Is writ, in moods, and frowns, and wrinkles strange.

SHAKSPEARE.

5. Oh, how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The rose is fair, but fairer we it deem,

For that sweet odour which doth in it live.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

258

FALSEHOOD-TRUTH, &c.

6. I think good thoughts, while others write good words,
And, like unletter'd clerks, still cry amen
To every hymn that abler spirit affords,
In polish'd form of well refined words.

7. The man of pure and simple heart
Through life disdains a double part;
He never needs the screen of lies,
His inward bosom to disguise.

8.

SHAKSPEARE.

GAY'S Fables.

What he says

You may believe, and pawn your soul upon it.

9. "Twixt truth and error there's this diff'rence known, Error is fruitful, truth is only one.

10. Dishonour waits on perfidy. The villain
Should blush to think a falsehood; 't is the crime
Of cowards.

11. Let falsehood be a stranger to thy lips.
Shame on the policy that first began
To tamper with the heart, to hide its thoughts!
And doubly shame on that inglorious tongue,
That sold its honesty, and told a lie!

SHIRLEY.

C. JOHNSON.

12. When fiction rises, pleasing to the eye,

Men will believe, because they love the lie;
But truth herself, if clouded with a frown,
Must have some solemn proof, to pass her down.

HERRICK.

13. The sages say, dame Truth delights to dwell,—
Strange mansion!-in the bottom of a well.
Questions are, then, the windlass and the rope,
That pull the grave old gentlewoman up.

HAVARD.

CHURCHILL.

DR. WOLCOT's Peter Pindar.