Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ye gentle Pow'rs, (if any such there be, And, if there be not, 'tis a sweet mistake To think there be) that day by day, unseen, Where souls, unanimous and link'd .in love, In sober converse spend the vacant hour, Hover above, and in the cup of life A cordial pour which all its bitter drowns, And gives the hasty minutes as they pass Unwonted fragrance; come and aid my song. In that clear fountain of eternal love Which flows for ay at the right hand of him, The great Incomprehensible ye serve, Dip my advent'rous pen, that nothing vile, Of the chaste eye or ear unworthy, may In this my early song be seen or heard. Sing then, my Muse, the rural Curate's steps, His modes of living, manners, and pursuits. One year the limits of thy song confine, From early spring till spring again return. Then let the bard begin, when Winter yet Powders the lawn with snow, and on our eaves Hangs the chaste icicle. Be that the time, When the tir'd sportsman lays his gun aside, Nor wages ineffectual war again On partridge race. The day St. Valentine, When maids are brisk, and at the break of day Start up, and turn their pillows, curious all To know what happy swain the fates provide A mate for life. Then follows thick discharge Of true-love knots and sonnets nicely peim'd; But, to the learned critic's eye, no verse, But prose distracted, galloping away Like yelping cur with kettle at his tail. Forgive the thought, ye maids of poesy, And be as kind as fair. Critics may laugh And yet approve; and I your pains applaud, Though short of excellence. I love the maid Who has ambition, and betrays a mind Of active and ingenious turn; who scorns Only to know what fashion and the age Require, and can do more than flirt her fan, Read novels, dance with grace, sing playhouse airs, Speak scandal, daub ...

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