Or the pied daisy smile below the ling,
They shall new charms, at thy command disclose,
And none shall miss the myrtle or the rose. 
The wiry moss, that whitens all the hill,
Shall live a beauty by thy matchless skill;
Gale from the bog shall yield Arabian balm,
And the gray willow give a golden palm. 
   “I see thee smiling in the pictured room,
Now breathing beauty, now reviving bloom;
There, each immortal name ’tis thine to give,
To graceless forms, and bid the lumber live. 
Should’st thou coarse boors or gloomy martyrs see,
These shall thy Guidos, these thy Teniers be;
There shalt thou Raphael’s saints and angels trace,
There make for Rubens and for Reynolds place,
And all the pride of art shall find, in her disgrace. 
   “Delight of either sex? thy reign commence;
With balmy sweetness soothe the weary sense,
And to the sickening soul thy cheering aid dispense. 
Queen of the mind! thy golden age begin;
In mortal bosoms varnish shame and sin;
Let all be fair without, let all be calm within.” 
   The vision fled, the happy mother rose,
Kiss’d the fair infant, smiled at all her foes,
And flattery made her name:  —­her reign began. 
Her own dear sex she ruled, then vanquished man: 
A smiling friend, to every class she spoke,
Assumed their manners, and their habits took;
Her, for her humble mien, the modest loved;
Her cheerful looks the light and gay approved: 
The just beheld her, firm:  the valiant, brave: 
Her mirth the free, her silence pleased the grave: 
Zeal heard her voice, and, as he preach’d aloud,
Well pleased he caught her whispers from the crowd,
(Those whispers, soothing-sweet to every ear,
Which some refuse to pay, but none to hear): 
Shame fled her presence, at her gentle strain,
Care softly smiled, and Guilt forgot its pain: 
The wretched thought, the happy found, her true,
The learn’d confess’d that she her merits knew: 
The rich—­could they a constant friend condemn? 
The poor believed—­for who should flatter them? 
  Thus on her name though all disgrace attend,
In every creature she beholds a friend.

1807

“Reflections”. 
Upon the subject —

Quid juvat errores, mersa jam puppe, fateri? 
Quid lacrymae delicta juvant commissa secutae? 
                       CLAUDIAN, in Eutropium.

What avails it, when shipwreck’d, that error appears? 
Are the crimes we commit wash’d away by our tears?

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When all the fiercer passions cease
(The glory and disgrace of youth): 
When the deluded soul in peace,
Can listen to the voice of truth: 
When we are taught in whom to trust,
And how to spare, to spend, to give,
(Our prudence kind, our pity just),
’Tis then we rightly learn to live.