PART I.

JUVENILE POEMS.

Consisting chiefly of

COLLEGE EXERCISES.

NOTE.

These Poems are selected from a manuscript, which appears to contain copies of Mr. PAINE's themes, as they are called, at Cambridge. These themes, written during his junior and senior' years, were submitted to a Professor for revision. Whether the copies were made before or after such revision I know not. The motto and preface to this manuscript are worthy of places in the

text.

Beside the poems selected from this manuscript, it is proposed under this division of the work, to arrange, according to time, such of Mr. PAINE's performances, while at the University, as came without exaction from his pen, or were produced by some publick solemnity.

COLLEGE EXERCISES.

PREFACE.

Maturer life, with smiling eye, will view
The imperfect scenes, which youthful fancy drew,

WHILE vernal years in swift succession roll,
And fancy's gairish prospects cheer the soul;
Beneath Mæcenas' guardian care, my muse
With panting breast her infant song pursues.

To teach the rapid moments, as they fly
Beyond the utmost ken of mortal eye,
The smile of sportive pleasure to assume,
And bid the flowers of hope unfolding bloom;
To gild with bright improvement's flattering ray;
The fond remembrance of each passing day;

To mould the heart by sentiment and truth,
And bind the olive round the brow of youth;

These were the motives, which inspired the verse,

Though neither bold, nor elegantly terse,

Though in the strains no dazzling beauties shine,

Though poesy reject each embryo line;

Yet simple numbers, unrefined by art,
Here paint the warm effusions of the heart.
The lettered bigot, with sarcastick phlegm,
And lifeless system, may the song condemn;
But let proud criticks frown, whene'er I sing,
'Tis not to them I tune my vocal string;
If my harsh notes disgust your nicer ear,
Avert your heads, ye are not forced to hear.
While I adventure on the sea of song,
Propitious learning wafts my bark along;
Yet see, at candour's throne the suppliant sues,
In the low accents of the lisping muse.

"An undevout astronomer is mad."

YOUNG.

[Written Nov. 17, 1790.]

BRIGHT is the sun beam, smiling after showers;
Sweet are the pleasures of the rural groves,
When pearls, unnumbered, deck the morning grass;
But sweeter still the joys of evening walk,
Brighter the glories of the unbounded God."

Hail, sacred eve, thy presence sweet I woo, Where pensive Solitude with rambling feet, Strays through thy dusky groves, to view the works Of heaven's high King; or, sunk in rapture's trance, With silent gratitude delights to hear

Nature's soft harp, "the musick of the spheres,"

Which chant in endless notes Jehovah's praise!

Come then, sweet nymph, thy mildest breath impart,

To swell the youthful muse's artless reed ;*

Faintly to echo, with unskilful trill,

One note of Nature's universal song.

The sun, fatigued with his diurnal course Through heaven's high summit, sunk to soft repose, The Zephyrs, loaded with the rich perfumes