THE ENCHANTMENT DISSOLVed.

To touch with a satiric wipe
That symbol of thy power, the pipe.
So may no blight infect thy plains,
And no unseasonable rains;

And so may smiling peace once more
Visit America's sad shore.

And then secure from all alarms

Of thundering drums and glittering arms,
Rove unconfined beneath the shade
Thy wide expanded leaves have made.
So may thy votaries increase

And fumigation never cease;

2

May Newton with renew'd delights
Perform thine odoriferous rites :
While clouds of incense, half divine,
Involve thy disappearing shrine;
And so may smoke-inhaling Bull
Be always filling, never full.

Olney, June 22, 1782.

287

W. C.

THE ENCHANTMENT DISSOLVED.

BLINDED in youth by Satan's arts,
The world to our unpractised hearts
A flattering prospect shows;

Our fancy forms a thousand schemes
Of gay delights, and golden dreams,
And undisturb'd repose.

2 Rev. J. Newton, late of Saint Mary's Woolnoth, London, but then of Olney.

288

THE ENCHANTMENT DISSOLVED.

So in the desert's dreary waste,

By magic power produced in haste
(As ancient fables say),

Castles, and groves, and music sweet,
The senses of the traveller meet,
And stop him in his way.

But while he listens with surprise,
The charm dissolves, the vision dies,
"Twas but enchanted ground:
Thus if the Lord our spirit touch,
The world, which promised us so much,
A wilderness is found.

At first we start and feel distress'd,
Convinced we never can have rest
In such a wretched place;

But He whose mercy breaks the charm
Reveals his own almighty arm,

And bids us seek his face.

Then we begin to live indeed,

When from our sin and bondage freed

By this beloved Friend;
We follow him from day to day,
Assured of grace through all the way,
And glory at the end.

FINIS.

C. Whittingham, College House, Chiswick.

1751

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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