Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/101

And not content her form divine to view,
Dares search her inmost soul by torture too.
In vain the artful goddess would escape,
By changing colour, and by shifting shape,
Discovered still, through all her mazes chafed,
Her deepest secrets are disclosed at last.
 Ye sacred Muses! who my soul inspire
With true devotion, and with fame's desire; 190
From earliest youth, though stern and adverse fate
Has chained me distant from your sacred seat;
Yet on that seat may every power divine
Propitious smile, and bid your glory shine
O'er all the earth, and, as from Athens, rise
Till your immortal splendors fill the skies.
 But while sage learning claims the student's care,
More gay assemblies call the gay and fair.
At once the shining street moves all alive;
Chair urges chair, and chaises chaises drive; 200
Where aukward fops the glittering beaux envy;
Olivia sickens at Belinda's eye;
Artful coquets alluring glances wield,
And rakes expect the coyest prudes to yield.
 If churches are not sanctuaries found,
But beaux will sigh, and beauty's glances wound;