Anger, grief, terror, catch th' adaptive spring,
While the eye darts it! and the accents ring..

See art's fhort path! - 'tis eafy to be
found,

Winding, delightful, thro' the mazy round!
Tempt the try'd fkill, to no fole proof confin'd;
Shift the fhort fhadowings, o'er your figur'd

mind

Mournful, recall fome friend's lamented fate:

Sad, on each feature, hangs the mind's feld weight:
Seek you ftrong fenfe of Joy! Looks, firft, im-
part-

Then, the nerv'd ftricture bounds it from the heart
Does rage inflame? No vifage can conceal,
What the mark'd mufcle bids the spirit feel:
Still, as the nerves conftrain, the looks obey,
And what the look enjoins, the nerves display:
Mutual their aid, reciprocal their strain,
Will but commanding, face, and nerves explain.
Light'ning and thunder, fo concurring, strike,
One their joint origin, tho' form'd unlike:
So, to the look, th' attentive nerves reply,
As, from the flafh, fucceeding thunders fly.
'Tis caufe, and confequence; nor flows more grace
From beauty's fmile, 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 ftrung muscles, and the limbs comply:
Gesture is meaning's Ape- grave, furious, gay,
Changeful, as cloud-form'd fhapes, when winds
make way;

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

Is there, who doubts an art, thus briefly

fhown?

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

Own:

Bid him, with mournful brow, fwell founds of joy, Half the mock'd fenfe th' 'unbracing nerves deftroy:

Tun'd to the tea ful eye's retentive woe,

Rapture's check'd phrafe fhalt quench its fiery
glow:

Painfully plaintful, each flat note fhall die,
And his look's anguil h, give his words the lie.
Next, while foft fimiles restrain his voic'd eflay
Bid angry founds give Rage its thund'ring way;
Vainly, mouth'd menace fwells th' attempted
ftorm,

Kind, as confent, th' unfright'ning accents form:
While his look frown'd not, fenfe cou'd found but
fweet;

No nerve, concurring, help'd th' unfinew'd heat.
But had his eyes th' impatient fire display'd,
Each note had fnatch'd it, and each ftep convey'd:
Thus, one plain practice paints whole nature
right,

And all her changeful pictures move delight.

Is there, who loves not Joy?

begin,

There, then,

Search the foul- pleafing paffion's power, within;
Find your Smile's force, before fome faithful

Glafs,

Heedful, to let no faint impreffion pafs:

There, to touch'd gladnefs, thought-form'd features train,

'Till each crifp'd fibre feels th' enrapt'ring ftrain:
Then (ftretch'd), behold your op'ning forehead
rife,

Back'ning, in boastful sense of sparkling eyes.
Broadly majeftical your breaft expands,

Brac'd your prefs'd joints neck, knee, feet, fhoul-
ders, hands,

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

Bill.

Then,

1

bill.

Then, speak-joy answers; every found its own;
Mufick, and rapture, mix'd, in tranfport's tone!

>

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

Down, to deep fenfe of forrow's pungent goad;
Damp your loofe features into thought's diftress,
Fade fancy's glofs, to dim-ey'd wretchedness;
The fad look fick'ning, ftrait the spirits break,
Unbending nerves grief's lax impreffion take:
Faint hangs the clouded eye fhort steps drag

flow,

And every heedlefs gefture bends with woe:
Now, to the heart-touch'd fenfe, the voice com-
plains,

And fighing pityers catch th' infectious pains.

Say, fhould fome flak'ner of the paffion's

care,

Form'd for gay flights, and ftruggling from de-
fpair;

Bow'd, from his native bent, to doubt's new part
Find Fear's cold caft affign'd a fearless heart?
What could he do! Where houfe th' intrufive
gueft,

Let his Eye lodge him-'twill prepare his breast.
From the foul's optic fhoots th' admitted fhape,
Nor lets one tim'rous wavering ftart escape.
Fear is elufive forrow, fhunning pain:

Active yet, ftop'd-it dims the doubtful brain;
Spirit fnatch'd inward, ftagnating, by dread,
Slow, thro' the limbs, crawls cold, the living lead:
Form'd to the look, that moulds th' affumer's
face,

'His joints catch tremblings life's moist strings

unbrace;

This road, and that, th'alarmful paffion tries,
Halts, in the motion-flutters, in the eyes;
Checks the clipt accent's hefitative way,
And, on th' evasive muscles, hangs delay.

Anger

Bill.

and fury tame!

Anger is pride provok'd, (so felt, so known) Strange! its ftage influence is fo faintly, fhown! Yet, with what absent sense of all its flame

See we rage meek

Bid the face, red'ning, warm'd idea take,
Strait, the foul's wild fires all obftruction break.
Stung, by inflicted thought's imagin'd pain,
Hard heave the mufcles, rolling eyeballs ftrain:
'Twixt the clos'd teeth, indignantly, fuppreft,
Or, ftorm-like, loud, out-pours th' unguarded
breaft:

Slack'ning, exclaiming, fwift, flow, reftlefs chan-
ge,

Wings the voic'd tempeft, in its whirlwind range;
Quick turns and ftartings, face, and air, deform;
And thick, fhort, breathings paint the infelt
ftorm.

Nor fea, nor life, eternal Tempeft fweeps,
Hufh'd calms fucceed it, and the thunder fleeps:
Such, the foft, filent tide, that floods the mind,
To mov'd Compaffion's pain-touch'd warmth, in
clin'd:

Aidful idea springs to pitied woe,

Thence, every quiv'ring finew learns to glow:
Back, from the panting bofom, to the eye,
Kind, figh-wing'd dews in foft fenfation, fly:
So, from earth's op'ning breaft in flow'r-dress'd
May

Steams the fipt fragrance, to the fun's felt ray;
Lightly fuftain'd, to morn's faint clafp it clings,
Yet, oft (let go) falls back-oft, upward, fprings:
So learn, to fteal foft pity's copied grace;
Languor's moift cloud marks, firft, the mournful

face;

Then, hope's kind tenfion warms the mufc'ly

mien,

Dragg'd diff'rent ways, contending contrafts lean;

Clafh'd

Hill. Clafh'd looks, 'gainst movements, paint internal

fight

'Twixt the heart's anguifh, and the help's delight: Then, touch'd attention's hark'ning hufh creeps round:

And breathless mouths devour th' expected found.

Nature loves change — Cold night fucceeds to

morn:

And pity's dark'ning oppofite is fcorn:
Far be this brown- ftretch'd arrogance of air,
From mifery's doomful claim, in fons of care
Ah! minds (too apt) turn but the look within,
We find prides image, there, as fure, as fin!
Yet, with fuch bias, rolls man's will from right,
That fearch, first, mifles, what is moft in fight:
Elfe, how unneedful, to defcribe a rage,

No player wants power to feel - but on the ftage.

Cautious (life's fpeaking picture) wear that.
ftain,

Rightly to fhow, be thine but not retain!
Scorn is calm, carelefs, anger, flagg'd of wing,
Brufh'd fenfe of harmlefs wrong, too weak to fting
Safe in fufpended power, eas'd warmth difclaims
Exertion and, with flack remifsnefs, flames:

Now fmiles

-

now frowns yet, both, with eye ferene,

While half- ftrung nerves play fprings of painless

Spleen.

amazement ought

Clofe following fcorn

to rife;

Angels feel wonder, men fhould dare defpife!
Born to mistakes, and erring out life's fpan,
Man as if heaven were his

Man.

looks down on

Say, then, what wonder is trace its taught caufet
Mark its true features, and make known its laws:
Wonder is curious doubt, Will's check'd retreat,
Shrinking from danger, it prepares to meet: