THE PRAISE PHILOSOPHY. UT now let other themes our care engage, BUT For lo, with modeft, yet majestic grace, To curb imaginations lawless rage, And from within the cherifh'd heart to brace, By indolence and moping Fancy bred, And Hope and Courage brighten in their ftead, Then waken from long lethargy to life And Reason now through Number, Time, and Space, And learns, from facts compared, the laws to trace, From nature's face; Confufion disappears, In the deep windings of the grove, no more Many a long lingering year, in lonely ifle, And even where Nature loads the teeming plain Her bounty, unimproved, is deadly bane Dark woods and rankling wilds from shore to fhore, gore, Neftles each murderous and each monftrous brood, Flague lurks in every fhade, and fteams from every flood. 'Twas 'Twas from Philofophy man learn'd to tame Lo, from the echoing axe, and thundering flame, And, from the breezy main, and mountain's head, To fan their glowing charms, invite the fluttering gale. What dire neceffities on every hand Our heart, our ftrength, our fortitude require! Against this little throb of life confpire ! Sooth the fharp pang, allay the fever's fire, And brace the nerves once more, and cheer the heart, And yet a few soft nights and balmy days impart. Nor lefs to regulate man's moral frame Flee to the fhade of Academus' grove; In harmony, and the pure paffions prove How fweet the words of truth breathed from the lips of love. What cannot Art and Industry perform, When Science plans the progrefs of their toil! They smile at penury, disease, and ftorm ; And oceans from their mighty mounds recoil. When When tyrants scourge, or demagogues embroil "Tis he alone, whofe comprehenfive mind, HAPPINESS. HAPPINESS. ANT and vision are to the ear and the eye, the fame as tickling CANT is to the touch. Thofe entertainments and pleasures we moft value in life, are fuch as dupe and play the wag with the fenfes. For if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has refpect either to the understanding or the fenfe, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this fhort definition: that it is a perpetual poffeffion of being well deceived. And first, with relation to the mind or understanding, it is manifeft, what mighty advantages fiction has over truth; and the reason is just at our elbow, because imagination can build nobler fcenes, and produce more wonderful revolutions, than fortune or nature will be at expence to furnish. Nor is mankind fo much to blame in his choice thus determining him, if we confider that the debate merely lies between things paft, and things conceived: and so the question is only this; whether things that have place in the imagination, may not as properly be faid to exift, as those that are feated in the memory; which may be juftly held in the affirmative, and very much to the advantage of the former, fince this is acknowledged to be the womb of things, and the other allowed to be no more than the grave. Again, if we take the definition of happiness, and examine it with reference to the fenfes, it will be acknowledged wonderfully adapt. How fading and infipid do all objects accoft us that are not conveyed in the vehicle of delufion! how fhrunk is every thing, as it appears in the glass of nature; fo that if it were not for the affiftance of artificial mediums, falfe lights, refracting angles, varnish and tinfel; there would be a mighty level in the felicity and enjoyments of mortal men. If this were feriously confi dere |