Bill.

Off, to due distance, half ye stalking train!
Blots of a title, your low tastes profane !
No dull, cold, mouther shares the actor's plea,
Rightly to seem, is transiently, to be.

How Shall this goal be reach'd, that, seen moft

nigh,
Still glides more distant from th' advancing eye?
Like the sky's sea-dipt arch, heaven's fancied

bound,
For ever fail'd to, and, yet, never found.
How shall trac'd practice hit th' untrodden way?
Where life is travellid out, in arts to stray.

Arduous the task, and asks a climbing brain;

a
A head for judgment, and a heart for pain:
É'er fense impress'd, reflects adopted forms,
And changeful nature shakes, with borrow'd

storms:
E'er ductile genius turns, as passions wind,
And bends, to fancy's curve, the pliant mind.

Mark, when th' expanding seed, from earth's moist

bed, Starting, at nature's call, prepares to spread; . First, the prone root breaks downward, thence

afcend
Shot stems, whose joints collateral boughs extend:
Twigs, from those boughs, lend leaves, each leaf

contains
Side-less'ning stalks, transvers’d by fibry veins.
So, from injected thought, shoots passion's growth;
No sprout fpontaneous, no chance child, of Iloth:
IDEA lends it ROOT firm, on touch'd minds,
Fancy, (swift planter !) first, th’ impression binds.
Shap's in conception's mould, nature's prompt

'

skill
Bids subject nerves obey th' inspiring will:
Strung to obsequious bend, the musc'ly frane
Stamps the shown image. — Pleasure, pity thame,

1

Anger, grief, terror, catch th' adaptive spring,
While the eye darts it! and the accents ring
See arte Thort path! — 'tis easy to be

found,
Winding, delightful, thro' the mazy round!
Tempt the try'dikill, to no sole proof confin'd;
Shift the short shadowings, o'er your figur'd

inind
Mournful, recall fome friend's lainentei fate:
Sad, on each feature, hangs the mind's feld weight:
Seek you strong sense of Joy! Looks, first, im-

part-
Then, the nerv'd stricture bounds it from the heart:
Does rage inflame ? No visage can conceal,
What the mark'd muscle bids the spirit feel:
Still, as the nerves constrain, the looks obey,
And what the look enjoins, the nerves display:
Mutual their aid, reciprocal their strain,
Will but commanding, face, and nerves explain,
Lightning and thunder, fo concurring, strike,
One their joint origin, tho' form'd unlike:
So, to the look, th' attentive nerves reply,
As, from the flash, succeeding thunders fly:
'Tis cause, and consequence; nor flows more grace
From beauty's smile, than the touch'd actor's face,
Poize the rule's practice; turn it o'er and o'er;
Nor think it tedious, tho' conceiv'd before:
'Tis but, to Look, and Will -- Th'imprinted eye
Moves the strung muscles, and the limbs comply:
Gesture is meaning's Ape -- grave, furious, gay,

,
Changeful, as cloud-form'd i hapes, when winds

make

way; Imag'd conception, first, but face inflames; Then, the mien paints it, and the tone proclaims.

Is there, who doubts an art, thus briefly

shown? Call out proof's pow'r, and make that art his

Bill.

Bid him, with mournful brow, swell sounds of joy,
Half the mock'd fenfe th' unbracing nerves de.

stroy :
Tun'd to the tea ful eye's retentive woe,
Rapture's check'd phrase shalt quench its fiery

glow:
Painfully plaintful, cach flat note shall die,
And his look's anguilh, give his words the lie.
Next, while loft (miles restrain his voic'd eslay
Bid angry sounds give Rage its thund’ring way;
Vainly, mouth'd menace swells th' attempted

d

storm,

Kind, as consent, th' unfrightning accents form:
While his look frou n'd not, sense coud found but

sweet;
No nerve, concurring, help'd th’unsinew'd heat.
But had his eyes th' impatient fire display'd,
Each note had snatch'd it, and each step convey’d:
Thus, one plain practice paints whole nature

right,
And all her changeful pictures move delight.

Is there, who loves not Joy? - There, then,

begin,
Search the foul-pleasing passion's power, within;
Find your Smile's force, before some faithful

Glass,
Heedful, to let no faint impression pass:
There, to touch'd gladness, thought-form'd features

train,
Till each crisp'd fibre feels tli' enrapt’ring strain:
Then (stretch'd), behold your op'ning forehead

rise,

Back’ning, in boastful sense of sparkling eyes.
Broadly majestical your breast expands,
Brac'd your press'd joints -- neck, knee, feet, shoul-

ders, hands,
Treading on air, each step new foul displays,
Your limbs all lighten, and your looks all blaze:

Then,

Then, speak — joy answers ; every found its own:

,
Musick, and rapture, mix'd, in transport's tone!

Bill.

Fall, from this height (ah! 'tis but fortune's

road!)
Down, to deep sense of sorrow's pungent goad;
Damp your loose features into thought's distress,
Fade fancy's gloss, to dim - ey'd wretchedness;
The sad look fick’ning, strait the spirits break,
Unbending nerves grief's lax impresion take:
Faint hangs the clouded eye

short steps drag

flow,
And every heedless gesture bends with woe:
Now, to the heart-touch'd sense, the voice com-

plains,
And fighing pityers catch th' infectious pains.

Say, should some flak’ner of the passion's

care,
Form'd for gay, flights, and struggling from de-

spair;
Bow'd, from his native bent, to doubt's new part
Find Fear's cold cast assign'd a fearless heart?
What could he do! Where house th' intrusive

guest.
Let his Eye lodge him— 't will prepare his breast.
From the soul's optic shoots th' admitted shape,
Nor lets one tim'rous wavering itart escape.
Fear is elusive forrow, shunning pain :
Active = yet, stop'd—it dims the doubtful brain;
Spirit snatch'd inward, ftagnating, by dread,
Slow, thro' the limbs, crawls cold, the living lead:
Form'd to the look, that moulds th' assumner's

face,
His joints catch trembling's life's moist-strings

unbrace;
This road, and that, th’alarmful passion tries,
Haits, in the motion flutters, in the eyes;
Checks the clipt accent's hesitative way,
And, on th'evasive muscles, hangs delay.

Anger

Anger is pride provok’d, (so felt, so known)
Strange! its stage influence is fo faintly, shown!
Yet, with what absent sense of all its flame
See we rage meek fire cold — and fury tame!
Bid the face, red’ning, warm'd idea take,
Strait, the soul's wild fires all obstruction break.
Stung, by inflicted thought's imagin'd pain,
Hard heave the muscles, rolling eyeballs strain:
'Twixt the clos'd teeth, indignantly, supprest,
Or, storm - like, loud, out-pours th' unguarded

breast :
Slack’ning, exclaiming, swift, flow, restless chan-

ge,
Wings the voic'd tempest, in its whirlwind range;
Quick turns and startings, face, and air, deform;
And thick, short, breathings paint the infelt

storm.

Nor sea, nor life, eternal Tempest sweeps,
Hufh'd calms succeed it, and the thunder sleeps:
Such, the soft, filent tide, that foods the mind,
To mov'd Compassion's pain-touch'd warmth, in

clin'd:
Aidful idea springs to pitied woe,
Thence, every quiv'ring sinew learns to glow:
Back, from the panting bosom, to the eye,
Kind, figh-wing'd dews in soft sensation, fly:
So, from earth's op'ning breaft in flow'r drefs'a

May
Steams the fipt fragrance, to the sun's felt ray;
Lightly fustain'd, to morn's faint clasp it clings,
Yet, oft (let go) falls back — oft, upward, springs:
So learn, – to steal foft pity's copied grace;
Languor's moist cloud marks, first, the inournful

face;
Then, hope's kind tension warms the musc'ly

mien, Dragg'd diff'rent ways, contending contrasts lean;

Clash'd