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 'Gainst Pleafure's treacherous joys, and Pain's embattled 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 ways
Conducted by Religion's facred rays;
Whose foul-invigorating influence

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

[rage.

And fwell th' ennobled heart with bleft benevolence.

XC.

Then alfo fhall this emblematic pile,

By magic whilom fram'd to fympathize

With all the fortunes of this changeful ifle,

Still, as my fons in fame and virtue rise,

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

The multiplying niches, fresh fupplies

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 rose majestic from her lowly fted;
While from her vivid eyes a sparkling flame
Out-beaming, with unwonted light o'erspread
That monumental pile; and as her head
To every front fhe turn'd, discover'd round
The venerable forms of heroes dead;

Who for their various merit erft 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 rife
With new-plac'd ftatues deck'd on every fide,
Her parent-breaft would fwell with gen'rous pride.
And now with her in that fequefter'd plain,
The Knight awhile constraining to abide,
She to the Fairy Youth with pleasure fain
Thofe fculptur'd chiefs did fhew, and their great lives ex-
[plain".

"Great lives explain.] I cannot forbear taking occafion from these words to make my acknowledgments to the writers of Biographia Britannica, for the pleafure and profit I have lately received from perufing the two first volumes of that useful and entertaining work, of which the monumental structure above-men

D 4

tioned,

tioned, decorated with the ftatues of great and good men, is no improper emblem. This work, which contains the lives of the moft eminent perfons, who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest ages, down to the prefent 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 honour 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 public, by fetting in the trueft and fulleft light the characters of perfons already generally, though perhaps too indiftinctly known; and retrieving 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 seen 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.

PEN.

PENS HUR S T.

INSCRIBED TO

WILLIAM PERRY, Efq;

AND

The Honourable Mrs. ELIZABETH PERRY.

G

By the late Mr. F. COVENTRY.

ENIUS of Penfhurft old!

Who faw'ft the birth of each immortal oak,

Here facred from the ftroke;

And all thy tenants of yon turrets bold,

Inspir'ft to arts or arms;

Where Sidney his Arcadian landscape drew,

Genuine from thy Doric view;

And patriot Algernon unshaken rose

Above infulting foes;

And Sacchariffa nurs'd her angel charms.

Sir Philip Sidney.

Algernon Sidney.

O fuffer

O fuffer me with fober tread

To enter on thy holy fhade;
Bid fmoothly-gliding Medway stand,
And wave his fedgy treffes bland,
A stranger let him kindly greet,

And

pour his urn beneath my feet. And see where Perry opes his door

To land me on the focial floor;

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

Where Beauty fhines, and Friendship warm,

And Honour in a female form.

With them in aged groves to walk,
And lofe my thoughts in artless talk,

I fhun the voice of Party loud,

I fhun loose Pleasure's idle crowd,
And monkish academic cell,
Where Science only feigns to dwell,
And court, where speckled Vanity
Apes her tricks in tawdry die,
And shifts each hour her tinfel hue,
Still furbelow'd in follies new.
Here Nature no diftortion wears,

Old Truth retains his filver hairs,

And