The Mirror Of Literature, Amusement, And Instruction

ly they thus essayed to soothe and please-- Alas! that thoughts so gross man's noblest powers should seize.

But, bowed beneath the cross, see! prostrate fall The mummeries that long enthralled our isle; So perish error! and wide over all Let reason, truth, religion ever smile: And let not man, vain, impious man defile The spark heaven lighted in the human breast; Let no enthusiastic rage, no sophist's wile Lull the poor victim into careless rest, Since the pure gospel page can teach him to be blest.

Weak, trifling man, O! come and ponder here Upon the nothingness of human things-- How vain, how very vain doth then appear The city's hum, the pomp and pride of kings; All that from wealth, power, grandeur, beauty springs, Alike must fade, die, perish, be forgot; E'en he whose feeble hand now strikes the strings Soon, soon within the silent grave must rot-- Yet Nature's still the same, though we see, we hear her not.

J. HORNER.

_Wilsill, near Pateley Bridge, Sept.