Delightful scenes! how do ye charm

My eye, and all my bosom warm

With love of simple, rural life,

Where tumult, hurry, care and strife,

Are aliens all, nor dare invade

A dwelling founded by the aid,

Of Him, who rules Earth, Sea and Air,

And Knows each Being’s proper sphere.

  For such the +Roman Chief Resign’d,

(As far below his mighty mind,)

The idle pageantries of state,

And chose to live obscurely great;

Hence he obtain’d a deathless name,

Superior far, to that loud fame,

Which great exploits had render’d just,

When Carthage’ pow’r he laid in dust;

The Conquest gain’d, the Triumph o’er,

Envy his laurels basely tore;

He saw her aim, nor would he tempt

A change from which no man’s exempt

But sought the Muses in the Shade,

Invoking Pallas’ heav’nly aid;

Wisdom approv’d her Hero’s plan,

And taught him truth’s divine to

  To you my Friends! is Kindly giv’n

A spot which makes of earth a heav’n

Here Nature bids all beauties meet,

To grace her fav’rite Sweet-Retreat

You now like Scipio, are plac’d

Where Virtue, Science, Wit, and Taste

Will wait your call, and gild each day

When other pleasures fade away:

Wealth cannot be insur’d one hour

And still more transient oft is Pow’r

To prove this Truth, survey yon Plain

Where Pow’r and Grandeur fix’d their reign

There Carthage rear’d her mighty head

And Kept a trembling World in dread

No stately ruin now remains,

To pay the weary Trav’ler’s pains;

The grand ascent, where Byrsa stood,

Mahomet’s Sons to bad and good

Deny access, with haughty air,

A visionary ISaint lying there.

The sacred Fare is swept away,

And ev’ry beauty felt decay;

Lo! there the mighty Structure rose,

Deriding Time, deriding Foes;

Mistaken hope! ’tis now a den

Of scorpions, snakes and °savage men

  How soon this Peoples race was run

The blackest crimes each rising sun,

Survey’d within their guilty wall,

And doubtless, caus’d their rapid Fall;

That Faith which marks the noble mind,

And forms the Good of Human-Kind,

They broke with ev’ry neighb’ring State,

And grew at length, the dread and hate

Of Friend and Foe: Long Wars insu’d,

The Hero arm’d, but Death pursu’d

Him and his race, if Heav’n with-held

Their hope of Conquest in the field;

Then to appease their angry God,

Whole Hecatombs of Infant-blood

The Senate order’d to be shed,

The knife was rais’d the Angel b_?_

Such Crimes high Heav’n indignant

Subversive of its sacred Law;

And arm’d with pow’r the Roman State

To close at once, their hapless fate.

  Enough!   Those woes are ever [past]

To the dear Circle let me haste,

And lose the retrospective sigh,

When Friends I truly love, are nigh

Live, and enjoy, ye happy Pair!

Your Sweet-Retreat, and wholesome []

Smile on this Spot, Almighty Pow’r

And guard them from one anxious [hour]

Let ev’ry blessing on them wait;

And grant their days a distant da[te]

Till [tho] at length, their lives resume

To give them bliss in worlds to come