Poems on Various Subjects Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1802 edition. Excerpt: ...Trifles like these, their purport if we scan, Mark in the boy, the features of the man. Watch then, ye Parents, with peculiar care, What favourite toys engage the rising heir: Learn thence what Virtues, happier than the rest, Will grace his temper most, or please it best; On these your hopes, your schemes, your prospects raise? By these instruct, and try; reprove, and praise: These Sense will aid; these Reason will improve; And what the Child has felt, the Man will love. THE LEADING-STRING. Vjuide of my wayward steps, when young desire Caught the first spark of Emulation's fire, (Whose genial power, enkindling as it ran, Rais'd Life, to Sense, to Reason, and to Man, ) Still, still my soul in memory's inmost cell, Where images most dear, most sacred dwell, With willing gratitude retains, reveres, Thy faithful service to my weakest years Oft as my thoughts recall those early days, Thy gentle aid demands my warmest praise; By thee at once directed, and sustain'd, Unhurt I rov'd, where countless dangers reign'd; Where else, each petty pebble had o'erthrown An helpless wanderer, in a world unknown. Beneath a thousand forms reflection shows Combining perils, hardships, pains, and woes: O baneful influence, every moment spread In varied terrors o'er an infant's head; Whom still, alike unconscious, unalarm'd, The plain invited, and the desert charm'd; Whose heedless foot, with equal haste had trod The fatal precipice, and flowery road; Who fondly rash, no other object knew, Than what each changing trifle set to view;--Tir'd of the present, fond of that which flies; Still prone to fall, and impotent to rife. Ev'n now I tremble at th' affecting scene: ----Be firm my Soul --What can this transport mean? Hark on mine ear some sound more awful...