96
THE TRIUMPHS
As Venus on her son's enlighen'd face,
Shed richer charms, and more attractive grace,
When issuing forth from the dissolving cloud,
His bright form burst on the admiring crowd:
So kind Sophrosyne, unseen, supplies
A livelier radiance to Serena's eyes;
And, ere she speaks, to captivate her sire,
Touches her lips with patriotic fire.
It chanc'd, that toss'd upon a vacant chair,
A volume of that wit lay near the fair,
Whose value, try'd by Fashion's varying touch,
Once rose too high, and now is sunk too much;
The book, which Fortune plac'd within her reach,
Contain'd, O Chesterfield, the liberal speech
In which thy spirit, like an Attic sage,
Strove to defend the violated stage
From fetters basely forg'd by ministerial rage.
From this the nymph her useful lesson took,
And thus began, reclining on the book:—
"If on this noble lord we may rely,
Scandal is but a speck on Freedom's eye;
Shed richer charms, and more attractive grace,
When issuing forth from the dissolving cloud,
His bright form burst on the admiring crowd:
So kind Sophrosyne, unseen, supplies
A livelier radiance to Serena's eyes;
And, ere she speaks, to captivate her sire,
Touches her lips with patriotic fire.
It chanc'd, that toss'd upon a vacant chair,
A volume of that wit lay near the fair,
Whose value, try'd by Fashion's varying touch,
Once rose too high, and now is sunk too much;
The book, which Fortune plac'd within her reach,
Contain'd, O Chesterfield, the liberal speech
In which thy spirit, like an Attic sage,
Strove to defend the violated stage
From fetters basely forg'd by ministerial rage.
From this the nymph her useful lesson took,
And thus began, reclining on the book:—
"If on this noble lord we may rely,
Scandal is but a speck on Freedom's eye;
