Terras, fi tamen impia Non tangenda rates tranfiliunt vada. Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit Audax Iapeti genus per vetitum nefas: Ignem fraude malâ gentibus intulit. Poft ignem ætheriâ domo Subductum, macies et nova febrium Terris incubuit cohors; Semotique prius tarda neceffitas Leti corripuit gradum. Expertus vacuum Dædalus aëra Pennis non homini datis : Perrupit Acheronta Herculeus labor. Nil mortalibus arduum eft: Cœlum ipfum petimus ftultitiâ; neque Per noftrum patimur fcelus Iracunda JOVEM ponere fulmina. If skittish mules may climb their fide, Columbus thus, of Japheth sprung, From virtue's fimple fons convey'd The fire, whose name would taint my fong. Hence the fhrunk fhank, and carious bone, Accelerate Nature's flow decay; And Death, no longer hobbling on, His ancient crutches flings away. Montgolfier thus thro' vacant air, To wildest flights wild man aspires: Here Paine would scale th' eternal walls; And there, as Franklin points his wires, Difarm'd th' indignant lightning falls. F WITH rapid wing our fairest years move on: I figh, my MYRA, as again I fing Our fairest years move on with rapid wing, Till all the loveliness of life is gone. Few are our joys, and fleeting; ere they fly, Seize their brief grace! Not diftant is the date (Trust me, dear maid) when even thy bloom shall die, Or fcathed by chance, or chafed by hurrying fate: Too foon that "eye's blue languish" will expire; And mute too foon will fleep that tuneful tongue, On whose soft founds entranced attention hung, As with its melody it fhamed the lyre. Then, ah! my MYRA, ere those charms decay, Give them to love: Even now they haste away! SONG. 1. SAY, fond lover, is thy mind By the gentle Muse refin'd? Haft thou skill to strike the lyre With thine own APOLLO's fire ?— Think not fo the maid to move; Hopeless is a Poet's love: Rich and high-born dotards tear From thine arms the venal fair. II. Haply health's unborrow'd hues O'er thy cheek their bloom diffuse; And thy graceful limbs outvie Phidian forms in fymmetry : Ah! To Albion's fordid train Youth and beauty fue in vain : Rich and high-born dotards tear From thine arms the venal fair. |