Select Poetry.

Otago Witness, Issue 554, 12 July 1862, Page 7

Select Poetry.

BEAUTY. A RECENTLY BEOOVERED FRAGMENT Off CHABLBS James Fox's Poetry. Where the loveliest expression to features is join'd, By Nature's most delicate pencil design'd ; Where blushes unbidden, and smiles without art, Speak the softness and feeling that dwell in the heart ; Where in manners enchanting no blemish we trace, But the soul keeps the promise we had from the face ;— Sure Philosophy. Keason and Coldness must prove Defences unequal to shield us from Love. Then tell me, mysterious enchan tress, oh tell. By what wonderful art, by what majjic.il spell, 3»ly heart is so fenced, that for once I am wise, And gaze without rapture on Ainoret's eyes ; That my wishes, winch never were bounded before, Are here bounded by friendship, and ask for no more 1 Is't llea&on 1 No, that my whole life will belie, For who so at variance as lleason and I ! Is't Ambition that nils up each chink of my heart, Nor allows any softer sensation a part ? Oh, no ! for in this all the world must agree One folly was never sufficient for me. Is my mind by distress too intensely employ'd, By pleasure relax'd, or by vanity cloy'd } For alike in this only enjoyment and pain Both slacken the springs of those nerves which they

strain. That I've felt each, reverse that from fortune can

flow, That I've tasted each bliss that the happiest knoAV, Has still been the Avhimsical fate of my life, Where Anguish and Joy have boen ever at strife. But tho' versed in th' extremes both of pleasure and

pain, I am still but too ready to feel them again. If, then, for this once in my life I am free, And escape from a snare might catch wiser than

me, J Tis that beauty alone but imperfectly charms, For tho' brightness may dazzle, 'tis kindness that

Avarms ; As on suns in the winter Avith pleasure Aye gaze, But feel not their warmth tho' their splendour we

praise — So Beauty our just admiration may claim, But Love, aud Love only, the heart can inflame.