Massachusetts Spy And Worcester Advertiser

[For the Massachusetts Spy.]

FRIENDSHIP.

Friendship! to all, the source of earthly bliss!
Sweet'ner of life! how much to thee we owe!

How are thy votaries comforted, in this
Their pilgrimage, through scenes of joy and wo,
By thy sweet smile: How is the victim—
pain'd
With many ills to which this life is heir—
Sooth'd by thy presence, when thou once hast deign'd
His plaint to hear, and his affliction share.

Though some can boast that fortune has be-
stow'd
On them her favours with a partial hand;
And fill'd their cups till they have overflow'd
With all that fame or riches can command,

Yet these must feel within their breast a void,
And find this earth a dreary gloomy waste,
If thy sweet smiles are not by them enjoy'd,
And nectar'd draughts presented to their taste.

When tempests rage, and sorrow's troubled sea
Heaves its dark waves, and disappointments rend,
The anxious breast, if to thy arms I flee,
I rest secure-I find, within a friend,
What wealth ne'er purchas'd, what has been deny'd
To Kings and Princes, cloth'd with regal power,
What pomp and splendour never have supplied—
A sovereign balsam in affliction's hour.

J.K.Z.