ase to murmur while he tunes his lyre.

Next shou'd appear great _Dryden's_ lofty muse,
For who would _Dryden's_ polish'd verse refuse?
His lips were moisten'd in _Parnassus'_ spring,
And _Phoebus_ taught his _laureat_ son to sing.
How long did _Virgil_ untranslated moan,
His beauties fading, and his flights unknown;
Till _Dryden_ rose, and, in exalted strain,
Re-sang the fortune of the god-like man?
Again the _Trojan_ prince with dire delight,
Dreadful in arms, demands the ling'ring fight:
Again _Camilla_ glows with martial fire,
Drives armies back, and makes all _Troy_ retire.
With more than native lustre _Virgil_ shines,
And gains sublimer heights in _Dryden's_ lines.

The gentle _Watts_, who strings his silver lyre
To sacred odes, and heav'n's all-ruling fire;
Who scorns th' applause of the licentious stage,
And mounts yon sparkling worlds with hallow'd rage,
Compels my thoughts to wing the heav'nly road,
And wafts my soul, exulting, to my God;
No fabled _Nine_ harmonious bard! inspire
Thy raptur'd breast with such seraphic fire;
But prompting _Angels_ warm thy boundless rage,
Direct thy thoughts, and animate thy page.
Blest man! for spotless sanctity rever'd,
Lov'd by the good, and by the guilty fear'd;
Blest man! from gay delusive scenes remov'd,
Thy Maker loving, by thy Maker lov'd;
To God thou tun'st thy consecrated lays,
Nor meanly blush to sing _Jehovah's_ praise.
Oh! did, like thee, each laurel'd bard delight,
To paint _Religion_ in her native light,
Not then with _Plays_ the lab'ring' press would groan,
Nor _Vice_ defy the _Pulpit_ and the _Throne_;
No impious rhymer charm a vicious age,
Nor prostrate _Virtue_ groan beneath their rage:
But themes divine in lofty numbers rise,
Fill the wide earth, and echo through the skies.

These for _Delight_;--for _Profit_ I would read,
The labour'd volumes of the learned dead:
Sagacious _Locke_, by Providence design'd
T' exalt, instruct, and rectify the mind.
Th' unconquerable _Sage_,[A] whom virtue fir'd,
And from the tyrant's lawless rage retir'd,
When victor _Caesar_ freed unhappy _Rome_,
From _Pompey's_ chains, to substitute his own.
_Longinius_, _Livy_, fam'd _Thucydides_,
_Quintillian_, _Plato_ and _Demosthenes_,
Persuasive _Tully_, and _Corduba's Sage_,[B]