No more thus brooding o’er yon heap,
With av’rice, painful vigils keep;
Still unenjoy’d the present store,
Still endless sighs are breath’d for more. 
Oh! quit the shadow, catch the prize,
Which not all India’s treasure buys! 
  To purchase heav’n has gold the power? 
Can gold remove the mortal hour? 
In life, can love be bought with gold? 
Are friendship’s pleasures to be sold? 
No—­all that’s worth a wish—­a thought,
Fair virtue gives unbrib’d, unbought. 
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let nobler views engage thy mind. 
  With science tread the wondrous way,
Or learn the muses’ moral lay;
In social hours indulge thy soul,
Where mirth and temp’rance mix the bowl;
To virtuous love resign thy breast,
And be, by blessing beauty—­blest. 
  Thus taste the feast, by nature spread,
Ere youth, and all its joys are fled;
Come, taste with me the balm of life,
Secure from pomp, and wealth, and strife. 
I boast whate’er for man was meant,
In health, and Stella, and content;
And scorn! oh! let that scorn be thine! 
Mere things of clay that dig the mine.

STELLA IN MOURNING.

When lately Stella’s form display’d
The beauties of the gay brocade,
The nymphs, who found their pow’r decline,
Proclaim’d her not so fair as fine. 
“Fate! snatch away the bright disguise,
And let the goddess trust her eyes.” 
Thus blindly pray’d the fretful fair,
And fate malicious heard the pray’r;
But, brighten’d by the sable dress,
As virtue rises in distress,
Since Stella still extends her reign,
Ah! how shall envy sooth her pain? 
  Th’ adoring youth and envious fair,
Henceforth, shall form one common prayer: 
And love and hate, alike, implore
The skies—­“That Stella mourn no more.”

TO STELLA.

Not the soft sighs of vernal gales,
The fragrance of the flow’ry vales,
The murmurs of the crystal rill,
The vocal grove, the verdant hill;
Not all their charms, though all unite,
Can touch my bosom with delight.

Not all the gems on India’s shore,
Not all Peru’s unbounded store,
Not all the power, nor all the fame,
That heroes, kings, or poets claim;
Nor knowledge, which the learn’d approve;
To form one wish my soul can move.

Yet nature’s charms allure my eyes,
And knowledge, wealth, and fame I prize;
Fame, wealth, and knowledge I obtain,
Nor seek I nature’s charms in vain;
In lovely Stella all combine;
And, lovely Stella! thou art mine.

VERSES,
WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN, TO WHOM A LADY HAD GIVEN A SPRIG
OF MYRTLE [a].