SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
And over fields where scattered ^hamlets rose,
In barren 'solitary-pomp repose?
Have we not seen, at pleasure's lordly call, -. 405
The smiling long-frequented village fall?
Beheld the duteous, son, the sire decayed,
The modest matron, and the blushing maid, . .
Forced from their homes, a melancholy train,
To traverse climes beyond the western main; 410
Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around,
And Niagara stuns with thund'ring sound?
E'en nowy perhaps, as there some pilgrim strays
Through tangled forests, and through dangerous ways :
Where beasts with man divided empire claim, 415
And the brown Indian marks with murd'rous aim; .
There, while above the giddy tempest flies,
And all around distressful yells arise,
The pensive exile, bending with his woe,
To stop too fearful, and too faint to go, 420
Casts a long look where England's glories shine,
And bids his bosom sympathize with mine.
Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centres in the mind:
Why have I strayed from pleasure and repose, 425
To seek a good each government bestows ?
In every government, though terrors reign,
Though tyrant kings, or tyrant laws restrain,
How small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. 430
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find :
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.
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