The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository Part 129

Propt on an amber cloud, one seem'd to stand, While o'er his breast his radiant pinions fold: A glitt'ring spear supports his better hand, His blazing helmet flames with plumy gold!

I hear him say, "Why pour thy mournful strain?

Why feed with bitter grief thy woe-fraught mind, Why pants thy heart with visionary pain?

Why give thy tresses to the ruffled wind?

No more let strains of hopeless sorrow flow;"-- He spoke, my father burst upon my eyes!

"For me no more unlock the source of woe,"

In strains divine my honour'd parent cries.

"For I am seated in the realms of light, Where founts of bliss from joys perennial play; Where suns of glory purify the sight, And the soul triumphs in eternal day!

Raise thy low thoughts to images above, And hail the form you ought not to deplore, Lodg'd in the bosom of your maker's love; And learn from heav'nly precept to adore.

Frail child, no more let tears impearl thine eye, Nor rending groans lament thy glorious fire; Since wisdom tells you, that we all must die, Tho' born to flourish with celestial fire!

Be these thy precepts; learn from hence, no more To bid the stream of erring sorrow flow: Exalt thy eyes; you realms of light explore, And aim to bloom where truths celestial glow!"

Corrected thus--I humbly bow'd my head: Thrice round his breast his flaming jav'lin flies; His radiant path eternal glories spread; He mounts the air, and seeks the opening skies.

HUMANITY's POWER.

How delightful the season of May, When zephyrs come sailing along!

The meadows how cheerful and gay!

How sweet is the Nightingale's song!

The grove fragrant odours exhale When refresh'd by the still drooping show'r, And sweet is the eglantine gale, But sweeter Humanity's Power.

When Summer, refulgent array'd, Darts fiercely his vertical beam, How welcome the tremulous shade!

How refres.h.i.+ng the chrystaline stream!

The breezes soft transports bestow, As they glide o'er the jessamine flower, But more grateful the plasures which flow, From gentle Humanity's Power.

What can charm like Autumn's bright ray, When the fields their rich treasures resign?

Or what greater beauty display Than the smooth polish'd fruit of the vine?

Is there ought like the morning can please?

Or the smile of the sun setting hour?

Yes, far more engaging than these, Are the beams of Humanity's Power.

More mild than the calm vernal scene, More grateful than Summer retreats; More engaging than Autumn serene, When nature her promise completes: More gentle than zephyrs soft wind, And more sweet than the jessamine flow'r, Are the joys of the tranquiliz'd mind, Which glows with Humanity's Power.

ASPIRATION Over the Tomb of an Amiable Friend.

If honour, prudence, piety combin'd, A n.o.ble nature, and an humble mind, Esteem'd whilst living, claim, while dead, a tear, The Muse is justified who pays it here.

For, O, if all which virtue ever gave Could save her vot'ries from th' insatiate grave, Whom here I mourn had now in this sad hour Been an existent instance of her pow'r.

Existent instance!--mount above the pole Dull Muse, and trace the disembodied soul, Who, haply now, exulting in its doom, Views, with a smile, the disappointed tomb.

What tho' its tent, beneath a fateful sky p.r.o.ne in the dust, by death subverted, lie, Itself, escap'd above the stormy bow, Securely views the ruin spread below.

So when an earthquake shakes this trembling ball, And the high rocks in pond'rous thunders fall, Tho' not her nest the devastations spare The Eagle still exults sublime in air!

NEW-YORK: _+Printed by THOMAS BURLING, Jun. No. 115, Cherry-street+-- where +Subscriptions+ for this +Magazine+ (at 6s. per quarter) will be gratefully received--And at No. 33, +Oliver-Street+._

_UTILE DULCI._

THE NEW-YORK WEEKLY MAGAZINE; or, Miscellaneous Repository.

+Vol. II.+] +Wednesday, February 22, 1797.+ [+No. 86.+

MAN'S DANGER AND SECURITY IN YOUTH.

In that period of life too often characterised by forward presumption and headlong pursuit, self-conceit is the great source of these dangers to which men are exposed; and it is peculiarly unfortunate, that the age which stands most in need of the counsel of the wise, should be the most p.r.o.ne to contemn it. Confident in the opinions which they adopt, and in the measures which they pursue, the bliss which youth aim at, is, in their opinion fully apparent. It is not the danger of mistake, but the failure of success, which they dread. Activity to seize, not sagacity to discern, is the only requisite which they value.

The whole state of nature is now become a scene of delusion to the sensual mind. Hardly any thing is what it appears to be: and what flatters most is always farthest from reality. There are voices which sing around us, but whose strains allure to ruin. There is a banquet spread where poison is in every dish. There is a couch which invites us to repose, but to slumber upon it is death. Sobriety should temper unwary ardour; Modesty check rash presumption; Wisdom be the offspring of reflection now, rather than the bitter fruit of experience hereafter.

DECEIT.

That darkness of character, where we can see no heart, those foldings of art, through which no native affection is allowed to penetrate, present an object unamiable in every season of life, but particularly odious in youth. If at an age when the heart is warm, when the emotions are strong, and when nature is expected to shew itself free and open, we can already smile and deceive, what is to be expected, when we shall be longer hackneyed in the ways of men, when interest shall have compleated the obduration of our hearts, and experience shall have improved us in all the arts of guile!

Dissimulation in youth is the forerunner of perfidy in old age: its first appearance is the fatal omen of growing depravity and future shame. It degrades parts and learning, obscures the l.u.s.tre of every accomplishment, and sinks us into contempt with G.o.d and man. The path of falsehood is a perplexing maze. After the first departure from sincerity, it is not in our power to stop. One artifice unavoidably leads on to another: till, as the intricacy of the labyrinth increases, we are left entangled in our own snare.

Deceit discovers a little mind, which stops at temporary expedients, without rising to comprehensive views of conduct. It betrays a dastardly spirit. It is the resource of one who wants courage to avow his designs, or to rest upon himself. To set out in the world with no other principle than a crafty attention to interest, betokens one who is destined for creeping through the inferior walks of life. He may be fortunate, he cannot be happy; the eye of a good man will weep at his error: he cannot taste the sweets of confidential friends.h.i.+p, and his evening of life will be embittered by universal contempt.

DUTY OF OLD AGE.

A material part of the duty of the aged consists in studying to be useful to the race who are to succeed them. Here opens to them an extensive field, in which they may so employ themselves as considerably to advance the happiness of mankind. To them it belongs to impart to the young the fruit of their long experience; to instruct them in the proper conduct, and to warn them of the various dangers of life; by wise counsel to temper their precipitate ardour, and both by precept and example to form them to piety and virtue.

It never appears with greater dignity, than when tempered with mildness and enlivened with good humour; it then acts as a guide and a patron of youth.

Religion, displayed in such a character, strikes the beholders, as at once amiable and venerable. They revere its power, when they see it adding so much grace to the decays of nature, and shedding so pleasing a l.u.s.tre over the evening of life. The young wish to tread in the same steps, and to arrive at the close of their days with equal honour.