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Loofe to the wind their airy garments flew,
Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew;
Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,
Where light difports in ever-mingling dies,
While ev'ry beam new tranfient colours flings,
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.
Amid the circle, on the gilded maft,
Superior by the head, was Ariel plac'd;

His purple pinions op'ning to the fun,
He rais'd his azure wand, and thus begun.

Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear,
Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves, and Damons hear!
Ye know the spheres and various tasks affign'd,
By laws eternal, to th' aerial kind.

Some in the fields of pureft Æther play,

And bask and whiten in the blaze of day.

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Others on earth o'er humane race prefide,
Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:
Of these the chief the care of nations own,
And guard with arms divine the British throne.
Our humbler province is to tend the fair;
Not a lefs pleafing, tho' less glorious care.
To fave the powder from too rude a gale,
Nor let th' imprifon'd effences exhale,

To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs,
To steal from rainbows e're they drop in show'rs
A brighter wash; to curl their waving hairs,.
Aflift their blushes, and inspire their airs;
Nay oft', in dreams, invention we bestow,
To change a flounce, or add a furbelo.

This day, black omens threat the brightest fair: That e'er deferv'd a watchful spirit's care;

Some dire difafter, or by force, or flight;

But what, or where, the fates have wrapt in night..
Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,
Or fome frail China jar receive a flaw,

Or ftain her honour, or her new brocade,
Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade,
Or lofe her heart, or necklace, at a ball;
Or whether heav'n has doom'd that Shock muft fall.

Hafte

Hafte then ye fpirits! to your charge repair;
The flutt'ring, fan be Zephyretta's care;
The drops to thee, Brillante, we confign;.
And Momentilla, let the watch be thine;
Do thou, Crifpiffa, tend her fav'rite lock;
Ariel himself fhall be the guard of Shock.
To fifty chofen Sylphs, of special note,
We truft, th' important charge, the petticoat:
Oft' have we known that fev'nfold fence to fail,
Tho' ftiff with hoops, and arm'd with ribs of whale..
Form a ftrong line about the filver bound,
And guard the wide circumference around..
Whatever fpirit, careless of his charge,
His poft neglects, or leaves the fair at large,
Shall feel sharp vengeance foon o'ertake his fins,.
Be ftop'd in vials, or transfixt with pins;
Or plung'd in lakes of bitter washes lie,.
Or wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye:
Gums and Pomatums fhall his flight reftrain,
While clog'd he beats his filken wings in vain;
Or alom-ftypticks with contracting pow'r
Shrink his thin effence like a rivell'd flow'r:
Or as Ixion fix'd, the wretch fhall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling mill,

In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,
And tremble at the fea that froaths below!

He fpoke; the fpirits from the fails defcend;
Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend,
Some thrid the mazy ringlets of her hair,
Some hang upon the pendants of her ear;
With beating hearts the dire event they wait,
Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.

THE

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Where Thames with pride furveys his rifing tow'rs,
There ftands a structure of majestic frame,
Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.
Here Britain's statesmen oft' the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrant's, and of nymphs at home;
Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Doft fometimes counsel take-and fometimes tea.
Hither the heroes and the nymphs refort,
To taste a while the pleafures of a court;
In various talk th' inftructive hours they past,

Who gave the ball, or paid the vifit laft:

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