A num'rous progeny divine,
Confess'd the honours of their line;
But in a little daughter fair,

Was centred more than half their care
For heav'n, to gratulate her birth,
Gave signs of future joy to earth;
White was the robe this infant wore,
And Chastity the name she bore.

As now the maid in stature grew
(A flow'r just op'ning to the view),
Oft through her native lawns she stray'd,
And wrestling with the lambkins play'd;
Her looks diffusive sweets bequeath'd,
The breeze grew purer as she breath'd;
The morn her radiant blush assum'd,
The spring with earlier fragrance bloom'd;
And nature yearly took delight,
Like her, to dress the world in white.
But when her rising form was seen
To reach the crisis of fifteen ;
Her parents up the mountain's head,
With anxious step their darling led;
By turns they snatch'd her to their breast,
And thus the fears of age express'd.
O joyful cause of many a care!
O daughter, too divinely fair!
Yon world, on this important day,
Demands thee to a dang'rous way;
A painful journey all must go,

Whose doubted period none can know;
Whose due direction who can find,
Where reason 's mute, and sense is blind
Ah, what unequal leaders these,
Through such a wide perplexing maze!
Then mark the warnings of the wise,
And learn, what love and years advise.

Far to the right thy prospect bend,
Where yonder tow'ring hills ascend;
Lo, there the arduous path 's in view,
Which Virtue and her sons pursue;
With toil o'er less'ning earth they rise,
And gain, and gain upon the skies.
Narrow's the way her children tread,
No walk for pleasure smoothly spread;
But rough, and difficult, and steep,
Painful to climb, and hard to keep.

Fruits immature those lands dispense,
A food indelicate to sense,

Of taste unpleasant; yet from those
Pure health, with cheerful vigour flows;
And strength, unfeeling of decay,
Throughout the long laborious way.
Hence, as they scale that heav'nly road,
Each limb is lighten'd of its load;
From earth refining still they go,
And leave the mortal weight below;
Then spreads the strait, the doubtful clears,
And smooth the rugged path appears :
For custom turns fatigue to ease,
And, taught by Virtue, pain can please.
At length, the toilsome journey o'er,
And near the bright, celestial shore,
A gulf, black, fearful, and profound,
Appears, of either world the bound.
Through darkness, leading up to light,
Sense backward shrinks, and shuns the sight;
For there the transitory train

Of time, and form, and care, and pain,
And matter's gross, incumb'ring mass,
Man's late associates, cannot pass;
But, sinking, quit th' immortal charge,
And leave the wond'ring soul at large:
Lightly she wings her obvious way,
And mingles with eternal day.

Thither, thither wing thy speed,
Though pleasure charm, or pain impede;
To such th' all-bounteous Pow'r has giv'n,
For present earth, a future heav'n;
For trivial loss, unmeasur'd gain,
And endless bliss, for transient pain;
Then fear, ah! fear to turn thy sight
Where yonder flow'ry fields invite;
Wide on the left the path-way bends,
And with pernicious ease descends;
There, sweet to sense, and fair to show,
New-planted Edens seem to blow;
Trees that delicious poison bear,
For death is vegetable there.

Hence is the frame of health unbrac'd,
Each sinew slack'ning at the taste;
The soul to passion yields her throne,
And sees with organs not her own;

While, like the slumb'rer in the night,
Pleas'd with the shadowy dream of light
Before her alienated eyes,

The scenes of fairy-land arise;
The puppet-world's amusing show,
Dipt in the gaily-colour'd bow;

Sceptres, and wreaths, and glitt'ring things,
The toys of infants, and of kings;
That tempt along the baneful plain,
Th' idly wise, and lightly vain;
Till, verging on the gulfy shore,
Sudden they sink, and rise no more.

But list to what thy fates declare,
Though thou art woman, frail as fair,
If once thy sliding foot should stray,
Once quit yon heav'n-appointed way,
For thee, lost maid, for thee alone,
Nor pray'rs shall plead, nor tears atone;
Reproach, scorn, infamy, and hate,
On thy returning steps shall wait;
Thy form be loath'd by ev'ry eye,
And ev'ry foot thy presence fly.

Thus, arm'd with words of potent sound.
Like guardian-angels plac'd around,
A charm by truth-divinely cast,
Forward our young advent'rer pass'd.
Forth from her sacred eyelids sent,
Like morn, fore-running radiance went ;
While Honour, handmaid late assign'd,
Upheld her lucid train behind.
Awe-struck, the much-admiring crowd,
Before the virgin vision bow'd;
Gaz'd with an ever-new delight,

And caught fresh virtue at the sight;
For not of earth's unequal frame,

They deem'd the heav'n-compounded dame.
If matter, sure the most refin'd,

High-wrought, and temper'd into mind,
Some darling daughter of the day,
And body'd by her native ray.

Where'er she passes, thousands bend.
And thousands, where she moves, attend;
Her ways observant eyes confess,
Her steps pursuing praises bless;
While to the elevated maid,
Oblations, as to heav'n, are paid.

'Twas on an ever-blithsome day, The jovial birth of lovely May,

When genial warmth, no more suppress'd,
Now melts the frost in ev'ry breast;
The cheek with secret flushing dyes,
And looks kind things from chastest eyes;
The sun with healthier visage glows,
Aside his clouded kerchief throws;
And dances up th' ethereal plain,
Where late he us'd to climb with pain;
While nature, as from bonds set free,
Springs out, and gives a loose to glee.
And now, for momentary rest,
The nymph her travell'd step repress'd :
Just turn'd to view the stage attain'd,
And glory'd in the height she gain'd.

Outstretch'd before her wide survey,
The realms of sweet perdition lay;
And pity touch'd her soul with woe,
To see a world so lost below;

When straight the breeze began to breathe
Airs, gently wafted from beneath;

That bore commission'd witchcraft thence,
And reach'd her sympathy of sense;
No sounds of discord, that disclose
A people sunk and lost in woes;
But, as of present good possess'd,
The very triumph of the bless'd.
The maid in wrapt attention hung,
While thus approaching syrens sung:
Hither, fairest, hither haste,
Brightest beauty, come and taste,
What the pow'rs of bliss unfold,
Joys, too mighty to be told;

In thy lap, disdaining measure,
Nature empties all her treasure;
Fairest, dost thou yet delay?
Brightest beauty, come away.

List not, when the froward chide,

Sons of pedantry and pride:

Age and envy will advise

E'en against the joy they prize.

Come, in pleasure's balmy bowl,
Slake the thirstings of thy soul.
Fairest, dost thou yet delay?
Brightest beauty, come away.'

So sung the syrens, as of yore,
Upon the false Ausonian shore;
And, O for that preventing chain,
That bound Ulysses on the main ;
That so our fair-one might withstand
The covert ruin, now at hand.

The song her charm'd attention drew,
When now the tempters stood in view;
Curiosity, with prying eyes,

And hands of busy, bold emprise ;
Like Hermes, feather'd were her feet,
And, like fore-running fancy, fleet.
By search untaught, by toil untir'd,
To novelty she still aspir❜d.
Tasteless of ev'ry good possess'd,
And but in expectation bless'd.

With her, associate, Pleasure came,
Gay Pleasure, frolic-loving dame;
Her mien, all swimming in delight,
Her beauties, half-reveal'd to sight.

Loose flow'd her garments from the ground And caught the kissing winds around.

As erst Medusa's looks were known
To turn beholders into stone;

A dire reversion here they felt,

And in the eye of Pleasure melt.

Her glance with sweet persuasion charm'd
Unnerv'd the strong, the steel disarm'd;
No safety e'en the flying find,

Who, vent'rous, look but once behind.
Thus was the much-admiring maid,
While distant, more than half betray'd.
With smiles, and adulation bland,

They join'd her side, and seiz'd her hand:
Their touch envenom'd sweets instill'd,
Her frame with new pulsations thrill'd;
While, half consenting, half denying,
Reluctant now, and now complying;
Amidst a war of hopes and fears,
Of trembling wishes, smiling tears,
Still down, and down, the winning pair
Compell'd the struggling, yielding fair.

As when some stately vessel, bound
To bless Arabia's distant ground,
Borne from her courses, haply lights
Where Barca's flow'ry clime invites ;