Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Parnassian Spring.

The LOVER's PURSUIT.

IN life's fair morn, awak'd by nobler fires,
The gen'rous school-boy knows no loose desires :
Fir'd by the virtues of each ancient sage,
To trace their paths his earliest thoughts engage :
To form his manners on their god-like scheme,
Soars his high aim, till Interest steps between,
With icy arms his great designs controul,
And blast those hopes which glow'd within his soul :
Her poison'd shafts do wound where'er she flies,
That scenes, once shrunk from, now delight his eyes,
O, sacred Truth ! thus wretched is thy fate,
Each rising year to see thy falling state !
Falling, indeed ! when Vice assumes thy veil,
And throws thy semblance o'er each artful tale.
When young Amator ought the fair to move,
With artless zeal to listen to his love,
With conscious honour deem'd his suit to press,
And urg'd his meaning by a fair address ;
Proud to rehearse the passion of his youth,
To his first flame unshaken, pleads his truth.
Unshook by Time ! "Yes, Time can't steal away,
Her charms will flourish most in life's decay."
" And what those charms (cries Interest) will they weigh?
Her worldly honour's pois'd with nicest care,
And in their scale, as nothing, weighs the fair.
" And nothing worth ! fond youth, unmask," she said;
* See there, at distance, a far richer maid ;
Superior far, who deigns to court you more,
With charms will please, as they increase your store.
Here ceas'd the spectre,-self-reprov'd he stood.
Pursues her counsel, prudent, wise and good ;
And happier gone, no murmur e'er shall rise
From her whose heart thy meanness can despise
Can soar above those things you fondly view,
And with composure take her last adieu.