Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

ADDRESS TO POVERTY.

O vitæ tutæ facultas,
Obscuræ, augustæque lares, O munera nondum
Intellecta Deum. Lucan.

ALAS! want! thou Goddess of consumptive hue,
If thou deign to haunt me still in view;
It still thy presence must my steps attend,
At least continue, as thou art, my friend.
When wide example bids me be unjust,
False to my word, or faithless to my trust;
Bid me the painful error, counsel'd, see,
And shun the world to find repose in thee!
When vice to wealth would turn my partial eye.
Or interest shut my ear to sorrow's cry;.
Or leading custom would my reason bend
My foe to flatter, or desert my friend;
Present, kind Poverty. thy temper'd shield,
And bear me off, unvanquish'd, from the field!
If giddy fortune should return again,
With all her idle, restless. wanton train:
Her magic glass should false ambition hold,
Or avarice bid me put my trust in gold;.
To my relief, thou virtuous goddess, haste,
And with thee bring thy smiling daughters chaste,
Health, Liberty, and Wisdom; sisters bright!
Whose charms can make the worst condition light;
Beneath the hardest fate'the mind can cheer,
Can heal affliction and disarm despair:
In chains, in torments, 'pleasure can bequeath,
And dress in smiles the tyrant brow of death.