Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Parnassian Spring
On FRIENDSHIP.

Let holy Friendship be my theme,
O! muse its pure pleasures sing;
Where the heart burns with mutual flame:
What joys from such connexions spring
Yet thro' life's dubious maze we find
But few who real Friendship know,
Whom sympathy and passion bind,
Whose hearts with mutual ardour glow.

Friendship illiberal acts disdain,
Unmixt and pure are all its joys;
For flattery is its surest bane,
And base ingratitude destroys.

Ingratitude (the blackest crime)
O'er love and friendship holds her reign,
And damps the real joy, sublime,
Which few can feel--but all can feign.

'Tis thee, sincerity, we find
The earliest passion of our youth,
T' improve the heart and win the mind
To ways of sentiment and truth.

When fell misfortune darks the hour,
Friendship her lenient smiles bestow
'Tis then her sympathizing pow'r
Will share and mitigate our woe.

Where Friendship's undisguis'd and free,
And link'd by virtue, honor, love,
And bound by mutual sympathy,
We emulate the joys above.

The heart with tenderness still glows,
United by the gen'rous bands;
Participates our joys and woes,
And with philanthropy expands.

How blest is he in whom we find
A heart where social virtue moves;
And in whose fervent, gen'rous mind
Dwells kindness and FRATERNAL LOVE.

LORENZO.