The poetical works of James Thomson

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA

SAN OiEGO

3730

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THE

POETICAL WORKS

OF

JAMES THOMSON

^

N i' \v York

Hurst (isf Company

Publishers

CONTENTS.

rAOB

'iVE Srabovb —

Spring 7

Summe 89

Autum • 86

Winter 123

LiBERTT —

Ancient and Modern Italy compared 157

Greece 170

Rome 184

Britain 201

Tlie Prospect 235

Castle of Indolence 254

Miscellaneous —

A Poetical Epistle to Sir William Bennet, Bart., of

Grubbat 302

Lisy's parting witli her Cat 302

Psalm CIV. paraphrased 304

On a Country Life 307

On Happiness 310

Verses on receiving a Flower from his Mistress 314

A.n Elegy on Parting 315

To Seraphma 816

On the Hoop 316

On May 317

The Morning in the Country 317

Lines on Marlfifieid 818

On Beeu»v 319

An Elegy upon James Therburn 322

On the Death of his Mother 8S«

CONTENTS.

To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton 325

A Paraphrase on the latter part of the Sixth Chapter

of St. Matthew 331

The Hiippy Man 338

The Incomparable Soporific Doctor 333

Hymn on Solitude 333

Britannia 335

On the Death of Mr. Aikman 343

On Mrs. Mendez' Birthday 345

On the Report that a Wooden Bridge was to be built

at Westminster 345

To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales 346

To the Memory of the Right Hon. Lord Talbot 347

On bolus's Harp 356

Hymn to God's Power 357

A Complaint on the Miseries of Life 358

To the Rev. Patrick Murdoch 350

Epitaph on Miss Stanley 360

Stanzas 361

Pastorals —

A Pasto;v>i betwixt David, Thirsis, and the Angel Ga-
briel, upon the Birth of our Savior 362

A Pastoral between Thirsis and Corydon, upon the
Death of Damon, by whom is meant Mr. W.
Riddell 364

A Pastoral Entertainment 366

Bongs —

ANuptialSong 367

To Her I Love 368

To the God of Pond Desiii; 369

The Lover's Fate 369

To the Nightingale 370

To Myra 370

Song.' 371

Amanda —

To Love 372

To Amanda 373

Verses addressed to Amanda 873

CONTENTS.

lO the Same 374

To Fortune 374

Come, Gentle God 375

nONQS IN THE MaSQUE OP ALFRED —

To Peace 875

To Alfred 376

Sweet Valley, Say 376

From those Eternal Regions 377

Contentment 377

Rule, Britanaia 878

Pbologces and Epilogues —

Epilogue to "Agamemnon " .... 379

Prologue to Mallet's " Mustupha" 379

Prologue to " Tancred and Sigismunda " 380

Epilogue to " Tancred and Sigismunda " 881

THOMSON'S POETICAL WORKS

THE SEASONS.

SPRING.

DEDICATION , •
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE COUNTESS OF HERTFORD.

MADAM, — I have always observed that, in addresses of
this nature, the general taste of the world demands ingenious
turns of wit, and disguised artful periods, instead of an
open sincerity of sentiment flowing in a plain expression. From
what secret impatience of the juslest praise, wlieii bestowed on
others, tbis often proceeds, rather timn a pretended delicacy, is
beyond my purpose here to inquire . But us nothing is more for-
eign to the disposition of a soul sincerely pleased witii the con-
templation of what is beautiful, and excellent, than wit and turn ;
I have too much respect for your ladyship's character, either to
touch it in that gay, trifling manner, or venture on a particular de-
tail of those truly amiable qualities of whichil is composed. A
mind exalted, pure, and elegant, a heart overflowing with
humanity, and tlie whole train of virtues thence derived, that
give a pleasing spirit to conversation, an engaging simplicity
to the manners, and form the life to harmony, are rather to be
felt, and silently admired, than expressed. I have attempted,
in the following poem, to paint some of the most lender l)€au-
ties and delicate appearances of Nature ; how much in vain,
your ladyship's taste will, I am afraid, but too soon discover :
yet would it still be a much easier task to find expression for
all that variety of color, form, and fragrance, which enrich the
Season I describe, than to speak the many nameless graces and

♦ The prose dedications were afterward suppressed, and
poetical addrcMea substituted, as io the next.

8 SPRING.

native riches of mind capable so mucli nt oiice to relish solitude,
and adorn society. To whom then could these sheets be more
properly iiiscril)ed than to you, madum, whose influence in
the world cjiu give them the protection they want, while your
fine imagiualioii, and intimate acquaiutauce with rural nature,
will reconmicud them with the greatest advantage to your fav-
orable uolice ? Happy I if I can hit any of those images, and
correspondent sentiments, your calm evening walks, in the
most delightful retirement, have oft inspired. 1 could add,
too, that as this poem grew up under your encouragement, it
has therefore a natural claim to j our patronage. Should yon
read it with approbation, its m-.:sic6htill nut droop ; and should
it have the good fortune to deserve your smiles, its roses shall
not wither. But where the subject is bo tempting, lest I begin
my poem before the Dedication is ended, I here break short,
and beg leave to subscribe myself, witli the highest respect,
madam, your most obedient, humble servant.

James Thomson.

Argument. — The subject proposed — Inscribed to the Counteai
of Hertford — The Season is described as it affects the various
parts of Nature, ascending from the lower to the higher ;
and mixed with digressicnis arising from th(; subject — Its in-
fluence on inanimate matter, on vegetables, on brute animals,
and last on man ; concluding with a dissuasive from the wild
and irregular passion of love opposed to that of a pure and
happy kind.

Come, gentle Spring, ethereal mildness, come ;
And from the bosom of your dropping cloud,
While music wakes arotxnd, veiled in a shower
Of shadowing roses, on our plains descend.

O Hertford,* fitted or to shine in courts
With unaffected grace, or walk the plain
With innocence and meditation joined
In soft assemblage, listen to my song.
Which thy own Season paints ; when Nature all
Is blooming and benevolent, like thee.

And see where surly Winter passes off,
Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts :
His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill,
The shattered forest, and the ravished vale ;
While softer gales succeed, at whose kind touch,

* Afterwards Duchess of Somerset. She died in 1754.

spJiWG. %

Dissolving snows in livid torrents lost,

The mountains lift their green heads to the sky.

As yet the trembling year is unconfirmed.
And "VVinter oft at eve resumes the breeze,
Clnlls the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets
Deform the day delightless ; so that scarce
The bittern knows his time with bill ingulfed
To shake the sounding marsh ; or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o'er the heath.
And sing their wild notes to the listening waste.

At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun.
And the bright Bull receives him. Then no more
The expansive atmosphere is cramped with cold ;
liut, full of life and vivifying soul,
Lifts the light clouds sublime, and spreads them thiOt
Fleecy, and white, o'er all surrounding heaven.

Forth fly the tepid airs ; and unconfined,
Unbinding earth, the moving softness strays.
Joyous, the impatient husbandman perceives
Kelenting Nature, and his lusty steers
Drives from their stalls to where the well-used plow
Lies in the furrow, loosened from the frost.
There, unrefnsing, to the harnessed yoke
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil,
Cheered by the simple song and soaring lark.
Meanwhile, incumbent o'er the shining share
The master leans, removes the obstructing clay.
Winds the whole work, and sidelong lays the glebe.

White, through the neighboring fields the sower
stalks.
With raeasui'ed step ; and, liberal, throws the graia
Into the faitliful bosom of the ground :
The harrow follows harsh, and sliuls the scene.

Be gracious. Heaven ! for now laborious man
lias done liis part. Yc fostering breezes, blow !
Ve softening dews, ye tend(!r sliowers, descend I
And temper all, thou world-reviving sun,
Intf) the perfect year ! Nor ye who live
In luxury uiid eas(!, in poni]) and j)ride,
Think, these lost themes unworthy of your ear :

10 SPUING.

Such themes as these the rural Maro sung

To wide-imperial Rome, in the full height

Of elegance and taste, by Greece refined.

In ancient times, the sacred plow employed

The kings and awful fathers of mankind :

And some, with whom compared your insect tribes

Are but the beings of a summer's day.

Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm

Of mighty war, then with victorious hand,

Disdaining little delicacies, seized

The plow, and greatly independent scorned

All the vile stores corruption can bestow.

Ye generous Britons, venerate the plow !
And o'er your hills and long withdrawing vales
Let Autumn spread his treasures to the sun,
Luxuriant and unbounded ! As the sea,
Far through his azure turbulent domain,
Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores
Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports,
So with superior boon may your rich soil,
Exuberant, Nature's better blessings pour
O'er every land, the naked nations clothe,
And be the exhaustless granary of a world !

Nor only through the lenient air this change,
Delicious, breathes : the penetrative sun,
His force deep-darting to the dark retreat
Of vegetation, sets the steaming power
At large, to wander o'er the verdant earth,
In various hues ; but chiefly thee, gay green I
Thou smiling Nature's universal robe !
United light and shade ! where the sight dwe^u.
W ith growing strength, and ever new delight.

From the moist meadow to the withered hill,
Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs ;
And swells, and deepens, to the cherished eye.
Tlic hawthorn whitens ; and the juicy groves
I'ut forth their buds, unfolding by degrees.
Till the wlioh; leafy forest stands displayed,
In full luxuriance, to the sighing gales ;
Where the deer rustle through the twining brake,

SPRING. 11

A.n(l the birds sing concealed. At once, arrayed

In all the colors of the flushing year

By Nature's swift and secret-working hand,

The garden glows, and tills the liberal air

With lavished fragrance ; while the promised fruit

Lies yet a little embryo, unperceived.

Within its crimson folds. Now from the town,

Buried in smoke, and sleep, and noisome damps.

Oft let me wander o'er the dewy iields.

Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling

drops
From the bent bush, as through the verdant maze
Of sweet-brier hedges, I pursue my walk ;
Or taste the smell of dairy ; or ascend
Some eminence, Augusta,* in thy plains,
And see the country, far diffused around,
One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms : where the raptured eye
Hurries from joy to joy ; and, hid beneath
The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies.

If, brushed from Russian wilds, a cutting gale
Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings
The clammy mildew ; or, dry-blowing, breathe
Untimely frost — before whose baleful blast
The full-blown SjU'ing through all her foliage shrinks
Joyless and dead, a wide-deiected waste.
For oft, engendered by the hazy north,
Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp
Keen in the poisoned breeze ; and wasteful eat,
Through buds and bark, into the blackened core
Their eager way. A feeble race ! yet oft
The sacred sons of vengeance ! on whose course
Corrosive famine waits, and kills the year.
To check this plague, the skillful farmer <thaff
And blazing straw before liis orchard burns —
Till, all involved in smoke, the latent foe
Frf)m every cranny suffocated falls :
Or scatter o'er the bloorrus the j)ungent dust

•London

t» SPUING.

Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe ;
Or, when the envenomed leaf begins to curl,
With sprinkled water drowns them in their nest •*
Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill.
The little trooping birds unwisely scares.

Be patient, swam.s ; these crtiel-seeming winds
Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep, repressed.
Those deepening clouds on clouds, surcharged witl;

rain,
That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne.
In endless train, would quench the summer blaze.
And, cheerless, drown the crude unripened year.

The north-east spends his rage, he now shut up
Within his iron cave — the effusive soutli
Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent
At first a dusky wreath they seem to rise,
Scarce staining ether ; but by fast degrees,
In heaps on heaps, the doubling vapor sails
Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep.
Sits on the horizon round a settled gloom :
Not such as wintry storms on mortals shed,
Oppressing life ; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The wish of Nature. Gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm ; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves
Of aspen tall. The uncurling floods, diffused
In glassy breadth, seem through delusive lapse
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all.
And pleasing expectation. Herds and Hocks
Drop the dry sprig, and, mute-imploriTig, eye
The fallen verdure. Hushed in short suspense,
The plumy people streak their wings with oil.
To throw the lucid moisture tric^kling off ;
And wait the approaching sign to strike, at once
Into tlie general choir. Even mountains, vales,
And forests seem, impatient, to demand
The promised sweetness. Man sujyerior walks

SPRIN^G. ll

Amid the glad creation, musing praise,

And looking lively gratitude. At last,

The clouds consign their treasures to the fields ;

And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool

Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow,

In large effusion, o'er the freshened world.

The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard,

By such as wander through the forest walks.

Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves.

But who can hold the shade, while heaven descend!

In universal bounty, shedding herbs.

And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap f

Swift fancy fired anticipates their growth ;

And, while the milky nutriment distills.

Beholds the kindling country color round.

Thus all day long the full-distended clouds
Indulge their genial stores, and well-showered earth
Is deep enriched with vegetable life ;
Till, in the western sky, the downward sun
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush
Of broken clouds, gay shifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes
The illumined mountain ; through the forest streams ;
Shakes on the floods ; and in a yellow mist,
Far smoking o'er the interminable plain.
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems,
.Mi»ist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around.
Full swells the woods ; their every music wakes,
-Mixed in wild concert, with the warbling brooks
Increaseil, the distant bleatiiigs of the hills.
And hollow lows responsive from the vales,
Whence blending all the sweetened zephyr spiungs.
.M(;antiine, refracted from yon eastern cloud,
iiestriding eartli, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots uj) immense ; and every hue unfolds.
In fair proportion running from the red
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds
I'^orm, fronting on the sun, thy show(!ry prism;
,\. ll to the sage-instructed eye unfold

14 SPUING.

The various twine of light, by thee disclosed
From the white mingling maze. Not so the swain.
He wondering views the bright enchantment bend.
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory ; but amazed
Beholds the amusive arch before him fly,
Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds,
A softened shade ; and saturated earth
Awaits the morning-beam, to give to light,
Raised through ten thousand diflFerent plastic cube».
The balmy treasures of the former day.

Then spring the living herbs profusely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanist to number up their tribes :
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,
In silent search ; or through the forest, rank
With what the dull incurious weeds account.
Bursts his blind way ; or climbs the mountain-rock,
Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow.
W^ith such a liberal hand has Nature flung
Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds,
Innumerous mixed them with the nursing mold.
The moistening current, and prolific rain.

But who their virtues can declare ? who pierce,
With vision pure, into these secret stores
Of health, and life, and joy ? the food of man.
While yet he lived in innocence, and told
A length of golden years, unfleshed in blood ;
A stranger to the savage arts of life.
Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease —
The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world.

The first fresh dawn then waked the gladdened race
Of uncorruptod man, nor blushed to see
The sluggard sleep l)eneath its sacred beam ;
For their light slumbers gentle fumed away.
And up they rose as vigorous as the sun.
Or to th(! culture of the willins^'- glebe,
Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock.
Meantime the song went round ; and dance and sport,
Wisdom and friendly talk, successive stole

SPRING. Id

Their hours away : while in the rosy vale

Love breathed his infant sighs, from anguish free.

And full replete with bliss ; save the sweet pain,

That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more.

Nor yet injurious act, nor surly deed,

Was known among those happy sons of heaven \

For reason and benevolence were law.

Harmonious Nature too looked smiling on.

Clear shone the skies, cooled with eternal gales.

And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun

Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds

Dropped fatness down ; as o'er the swelling mead,

The herds and flocks, commixing, ])layed secure.

This when, emergent from the gloomy wood.

The glaring lion saw, his horrid heart

Was raeekened, and he joined his sullen joy ;

For music held the Avhole in perfect peace :

Soft sighed the flute ; the tender voice was heard.

Warbling the varied heart ; the woodlands round

Applied their quire ; and winds and waters flowed

In consonance. Such were those prime of days.

But now those white unblemished minutes, whence
The fabling poets took their golden age,
Are found no more atnid these iron times,
These dregs of life ! Now the distem])oied mind
Has lost that concord of harmonious powers.
Which forms the soul of happiness ; and all
Is off the poise within : the passions all
Have burst their bounds ; and reason half extinct,
Or impotent, or else approving, sees
The foul disorder. Senseless and deformed,
Conclusive anger storms at large ; or, pale
And silent, settles into fell revenge.
Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full,
Weak and unmanly, loosens every power.
Even love itself is bitterness of soul,
A pensive anguish pining at the heart ;
Or, sunk to sordid interest, feels no more

H SPRING.

That noble wish, that never cloyed desire.

Which, selfish joy disdaining, seeks alone

To bless the dearer object of its flame.

Hope sickens with extravagance ; and grief,

Of life impatient, into madness swells,

Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours.

These, and a thousand mixed emotions more,

From ever-changing views of good and ill,

Formed infinitely various, vex the mind

With endless storm ; whence, deeply rankling, grows

The partial thought, listless unconcern,

Cold, and averting from our neighbor's good ;

Then dark disgust, and hatred, winding wiles.

Coward deceit, and rufiian violence.

At last, extinct each social feeling, fell

And joyless inhumanity pervades

And petrifies the heart. Nature disturbed

Is deemed, vindictive, to have changed her course.

Hence, in old dusky time, a deluge came :
When the deep-cleft disparting orb, that arched
The central waters round, impetuous rushed.
With universal burst, into the gulf,
And o'er the high-piled hills of fractured earth
Wide-dashed the waves, in undulation vast ;
Till, from the center to the streaming clouds,
A shoreless ocean tumbled round the globe.

The Seasons since have, with severer sway.
Oppressed a broken world : the Winter keen
Shook forth his waste of snows ; and Summer shot
His pestilential heats. Great Spring, before.
Greened all the year ; and the fruits and blossonig

blushed,
In social sweetness, on the self-same bough.
Pure was the temperate air ; an even calm
Perpetual reigned, save what the zephyrs bland
Breathed o'er the blue expanse : for then nor storms
Were taught to blow, nor hurricanes to rage ;
Sound slept the waters ; no sulphurous glooms
Swelled in the sky, and sent the lightning forth :
While sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs.

SPRI/sTG. 17

Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life.

But now, of turbid elements the sport,

From clear to cloudy tossed, from hot to cold,

And dry to moist, with inward-eating change.

Our drooping days are dwindled down to naught,

Their period finished ere 'tis well begun.

And yet the wholesome herb neglected dies ;
Though with the pure exhilarating soul
Of nutriment, and health, and vital powers,
Beyond the search of art, 'tis copious blest.
For, with hot ravin fired, ensanguined man
[s now become the lion of the plain.
And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold
Fierce drags the bleating prey, ne'er drunk her milk.
Nor wore her warming fieece ; nor has the steer.
At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs.
E'er plowed for him. They too are tempered high.
With hunger stung and wild necessity ;
Nor lodges pity in their shaggy breast.
But man, whom Nature formed of milder clay.
With every kind emotion in his heart,
And taught alone to Aveep — while from her lap
She pours ten thousand delicacies, herbs.
And fruits, as numerous as the drops of rain
Or beams that gave them birth — shall he, fair form !
Who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heaven,
E'er stoop to mingle with the prowling herd.
And dip his tongue in gore? The beast of prey.
Blood-stained, deserves to bleed ; but you, ye flocks,
What have ye done? ye peaceful ))e()})le, what.
To merit death ? you, who have given us milk
In luscious streams, and lent us your own coat
Agninst the Winter's cold ? And \\w. plain ox,
Tliat harmless, honest, guileless animal.
In what has he oflFended? he, whose toil.
Patient and ever-ready, clothes the land
With all the pomp of liarvest — shall he bleed,
And struggling i^roaii heni^ath the cruel hand
Even of the clown h(! feeds ? and that, perhaps,
To swell the riot of the autumnal feast,

18 SPRING.

Won by his labor ? Thus the feeling heart
Would tenderly suggest ; but 'tis enough,
In this late age, adventurous, to have touched
Light on the numbers of the Samian sage.*
High Heaven forbids the bold presumptuous strain,
Whose wisest will has fixed us in a state
That must not yet to pure perfection rise :
Besides, who knows, how raised to higher life,
From stage to stage, the vital scale ascends ?

Now, when the first foul torrent of the brooks,
Swelled with the vernal rains, is ebbed away —
And, whitening, down their mossy-tinctured stream
Descends the billowy foam — now is the time,
While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile.
To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly,
The rod fine-tapering with elastic spring.
Snatched from the hoary steed the floating line,
And all thy slender watery stores, prepare.
But let not on thy hook the tortured worm.
Convulsive, twist in agonizing folds ;
Which, by rapacious hunger swallowed deep,
Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast
Of the Aveak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch,
Harsh pain and horror to the tender hand.

When, with his lively ray, the potent sun
Has pierced the streams, and roused the finny race,
Then, issuing cheerful, to thy sport repair ;
Chief should the western breezes curling play.
And light o'er ether bear the shadowy clouds.
High to their fount, this day, amid the hills,
And woodlands warbling round, trace up the brooks ;
The next, pursue their rocky-channeled maze.
Down to the river, in whose ample wave
Their little naiads love to sport at large.
Just in the dubious point, where with the pool
Is mixed the trembling stream, or where it boils
Around the stone, or from the hollowed bank
Reverted plays in undulating flow,

•Pythagoras.

SPRING 1ft

There throw, nice-judging, the delusive fly ;
And, as you lead it round in artful curve,
With eye attentive mark the springing game.
Straight as above the surface of the flood
They wanton rise, or urged by hunger ^eap,
Then fix, with gentle twitch, barbed hook ;
Some liglitly tossing to the grassy bank,
And to the shelving shore slow-dragging some,
With various hand proportioned to their force.
If yet too young, and easily deceived,
A worthless prey scarce bends your pliant rod,
Him, piteous of his youth, and the short space
He has enjoyed the vital light of heaven,
Soft disengage, and back into the stream
The speckled infant throw. But should you lure
From his dark haunts, beneath the tangled roots
Of pendant trees, the monarch of the brook,
Behooves you then to ply your finest art.
Long time he, following cautious, scans the fly ;
And oft attempts to seize it, but as oft
The dimpled water speaks his jealous fear.
At last, while o'er the shaded sun
Passes a cloud, he desperate takes the death,
With sullen plunge. At once he darts along,
Deep-struck, and runs out all the lengthened line ;
Then seeks the furthest ooze, the sheltering weed.
The caverned bank, his old secure abode ;
And flies aloft, and flounces round the pool,
Indignant of the guile. With yielding hand,
That feels him still, yet to his furious course
Gives way, you, now retiring, following now
Across the stream, exhaust his idle rage ;
Till, floating broad u])(>n his breathless side,
And to his fate abandoned, to the shore
You gayly drag your unresisting prize.

Thus pass the temperate hours : but when the sun
Shakes from his noonday throne the scattering clouds,
Even shooting listless languor through the deeps,
Then seek the b.ink where flowering elders crowd,
Wheru scattered wild the lilv of the vale

20 SPRING.

Its balmy essence breathes, where cowslips hang

The dewy head, where purple violets lurk,

With all the lowly children of the shade ;

Or lie reclined beneath yon spreading ash

Hung o'er the steep, whence borne on liquid wing

The sounding culver * shoots ; or where the hawk

High in tlie beetling cliff his eyrie builds.

There let the classic j^age thy fancy lead

Through rural scenes, such as the Mantuan swain

Paints in the matchless harmony of song ;

Or catch thyself the landscape, gliding swift

Athwart imagination's vivid eye ;

Or, by the vocal woods and waters lulled,

And lost in lonely musing, in a dream.

Confused, of careless solitude, where mix

Ten thousand wandering images of things,

Soothe every gust of passion mto peace —

All but the swellings of the softened heart,

That waken, not disturb, the tranquil mind.

Behold, yon breathing prospect bids the muse
Throw all her beauty forth. But who can paint
Like Nature ? Can imagination boast,
Amid its gay creation, hues Hke hers ?
Or can it mix them with that matchless skill,
And lose them in each other, as appears
In every bud that blows ? If fancy, then.
Unequal fails beneath the pleasing task;
Ah, what shall language do? ah, where find words
Tinged with so many colors ; and whose power,
To life approaching, may perfume my lays
With that fine oil, those aromatic gales.
That inexhaustive flow continual round ?

Yet, though successless, will the toil delight.
Come then, ye virgins and ye youths whose hearts
Have felt the raptures of refining love ;
And thou, Amanda, come, pride of my song 1
Formed by the Graces, loveliness itself !

* The old uame of the pigeon, still uppliad to the bouse dove
la D«VMa.

SPAfNG. 21

Come "w^ith those downcast eyes, sedate and sweet.
Those looks demure, that deeply pierce the soul —
Wherw, with the light of thoughtful reason mixed>
Shines, lively fancy, and the feeling heart :
O comb. ! and while the rosy-footed May
Steals blushing on, together let us tread
The mornxng dews, and gather in their prime
Fresh-bloomi.ig flowers, to grace thy b- aided hair,
And thy lovod bosom that improves tiioir sweets.

See, where the winding vale its lavish stores,
Irriguous, spreads. See, how the lily drinks
Tiie latent rill, jc«rce oozing through the grass.
Of growth luxuriant ; or the humid bank,
In fair profusion, decks. Long let us walk,
Where the breeze olows from yon extended field
Of blossomed beaud, Arabia cannot boast
A fuller gale of joy ;han, liberal, thence
Breathes through t^e sense, and takes the ravished

soul.
Nor is the mead unworthy of thy foot,
Full of fresh verdure, and unnumbered flowers,
The negligence of Nature, wide and wild ;
Where, undisguised by mimic Art, she spreads
Unbounded beauty to the roving eye.
Here their delicious task the fervent bees.
In swarming millions, tend : around, athwart,
Through the soft air the busy nations fly.
Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube
Suck its pure essence, its etiiereal soul ;
And oft, with bolder wing, they soaring dare
The purple heath, or where i\\(\ wild-thyme grows,
And yellow load them willi the luscious spoil.

At length the finished garden to the view
Its vistas opens, and its alleys green.
Snatched through the verdant maze, the hui-rit^d eyr
Distracted wanders : now the bowery walk
Of covert close, wliere scarce a sj)ock of day
Falls on the leii-^thened gloom, protracted sw<,'epH
Now tneets tlie bcuiding sky ; the river now
Diinplmir alo;)!:, t!ie breezy-ruffled lake.

S3 SPRING.

The forest darkening round, the glittering spire,

The ethereal mountain, and the distant main.

But why so far excursive ? when at hand.

Along these blushing borders, bright with dew,

And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers.

Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace :

Throws out the snowdrop and the crocus first ;

The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue.

And polyanthus of unnumbered dyes ;

The yellow wallflower, stained with iron brown ;

And lavish stock that scents the garden round ;

From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed,

Anemones ; auriculas, enriched

With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves ;

And full ranunculas, of glowing red,

Then comes the tulip-race, where beauty plays

Her idle freaks : from family diffused

To family, as flies the father-dust,

The varied colors run ; and, while they break

On the charmed eye, the exulting florist marks,

With secret pride, the wonders of his hand.

No gradual bloom is wanting ; from the bud.

First-born of Spring, to Summer's musky tribes ;

Nor hyacinths, of purest virgin white.

Low bent, and blushing inward ; nor jonquils,

Of potent fragrance ; nor narcissus fair,

As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still ;

Nor broad carnations ; nor gay-spotted pinks ;

Nor, showered from every bush, the damask-rose.

Infinite numbeis, delicacies, smells,

With hues on hues expression cannot paint,

The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom.

Hail ! Source of Being ! Universal Soul
Of heaven and earth ! Essential Presence, hail !
To Thee I bend the knee ; to Thee my thoughts,
Continual, climb ; who, with a master-hand,
Hast the great whole into perfection touched.
By Thee the various vegetative tribes.
Wrapt in a filmy net, and clad with leaves.
Draw the live ether, and imbibe the dew.

SPR/NG.

By rhee disposed into congenial soils,

Stands each attractive plant, and sucks, and swells

The juicy tide ; a twining mass of tubes.

At Thy command the vernal sun awakes

Tlie torpid sap, detruded to the root

By ^vintry winds, that now in fluent dance

And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads

All this innumerous-colored scene of things.

As rising from the vegetable world
My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend,
My panting muse ; and hark, how loud the woodi
Invite you forth iu all your gayest trim.
Lend me your song, ye nightingales ! oh pour
The mazy-running soul of melody
Into my varied verse ! while I deduce
From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings,
The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme
Unknown to fame — the passion of the groves.

When first the soul of love is sent abroad.
Warm through the vital air, and on the heart
Harmonious seizes, the gay troops begin,
In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing ;
And try again the long-forgotten strain.
At first faint warbled. But no sooner grows
The soft infusion prevalent, and wide,
Than, all alive, at once their joy o'erflows
In music unconfined. Up springs the lark.
Shrill-voiced and loud, the messenger of mom :
Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings
Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts
Calls up the tuneful nations. Every copse
Deep-tangled, tree irregular, and bush
Bending with dewy moisture, o'er the heads
Of the coy choristers that lodge within.
Are prodigal of harmony. The thrush
And woodhirk, o'er the kind-contending throng
Superior heard, run tliroiigli tlie sweetest length
Of notes ; when listening Pliilomela deigns
'I'o let them joy, and jturposes, in thought
Elate, to make her night excel their day.

84 SPUING.

The blackbird whistles from the thorny brake ^
The mellow bullfinch answers from the grove ;
Nor are the linnets, o'er the flowering furze
Poured out profusely, silent : joined to these
In numerous songsters, in the freshening shade
Of new-sprung leaves, their modulations mix
]N[ellifluou8. The jay, the rookj the daw.
And each harsh pipe, discordant heard alone,
Aid the full concert ; while the stockdove breathei
A melancholy murmur through the whole.

'Tis love creates their m«lody, and all
This waste of music is the voice of love ;
That even to birds and beasts the tender arts
Of pleasing teaches. Hence the glossy kind
Try every M'inning way inventive love
Can dictate, and in courtship to their mates
Pour forth their little souls. First, wide around,
^V^ith distant awe, in airy rings they rove.
Endeavoring by a thousand tricks to catch
The cunning, conscious, half-averted glance
Of their regardless charmer. Should she seem,
Softening, the least approvance to bestow.
Their colors burnish, and by hope inspired,
They brisk advance ; then, on a sudden struck.
Retire disordered ; then again approach ;
In fond rotation spread the spotted wing.
And shiver every feather with desire.

Connubial leagues agreed, to the deep woodi
They haste away, all as their fancy leads.
Pleasure, or food, or secret safety prompts ;
That Nature's great command may be obeyed,
Nor all the sweet sensations they perceive
Indulged in vain. Some to the holly-hedge
Nestling repair, and to the thicket some ;
Some to tlie rude protection of the thorn
Commit their feeble offspring. The cleft tree
Offers its kind concealment to a few,
Their food its insects, and its moss their nests.
Others, apart, far in the grassy dale,
Or roughening waste, their humble texture weavi^

SPRING. 25

But most in woodland solitudes delight,

In unfrequented glooms, or shaggy banks,

Sleep, and divided by a babbling brook,

Whose murmurs soothe them all the live-long day.

When by kind duty fixed. Among the roots

Of hazel, pendent o'er the plaintive stream,

They frame the first foundation of their domes ;

Dry sprigs of trees, in artful fabric laid.

And bound with clay together. Now 'tis naught

J>ut restless hurry through the busy air.

Beat by unnumbered wings. The swallow sweeps

The slimy pool, to build his hanging house

Intent. And often, from the careless back

Of herds and flocks, a thousand tugging bills

Pluck hair and wool ; and oft, when unobserved,

Steal from the barn a straw : till soft and warm,

Clean, and complete, their habitation grows.

As thus the patient dam assiduous sits.
Not to be tempted from her tender task,
Or by sharp hunger, or by smooth delight.
Though the whole loosened Spring around her blowa
Iler sympathizing lover takes his stand
High on the opponent bank, and ceaseless sings
The tedious time away ; or else supplies
Her 1)1 ace a moment, while she sudden flits
To pick the scanty meal. The appointed time
With pious toil fulfilled, the callow young.
Warmed and expanded into perfect life,
Their brittle bondage break, and come to light ;
A helpless family, demanding food
With constant clamor. Oh, v hat passions then,
What melting sentiments of kindly care.
On the new parents seize ! Away tliey fly,
Affectionate, and undesiriiig bear
The most delicious morsel to their young ;
Which equally distributed, agnin
The search begins. Even so a gentle pair,
By fortune; sunk, ])ut roniicd of generous mold,
And charmed with cares beyond the vulgar breast,
In some lone cot, amid the distant woods,

%J SPRING.

Sustained alone by providential Heaven,
Oft, as they weeping eye their infant train,
Check their own appetites and give tliom all.

Nor toil alone they scorn : exalting love,
By the great Father of the Spring inspired.
Gives instant courage to the fearful race,
And to the simple art. With stealthy wing.
Should some rude foot their woody haunts molest
Amid a neighboring bush they silent drop.
And whirring thence, as if alarmed, deceive
The unfeeling school-boy. Hence, around the head.
Of wandering swain, the white-winged plover wheels
Her sounding flight, and then directly on
In long excursion skims the level lawn.
To tempt him from her nest. The wild duck, henca
O'er the rough moss, and o'er the trackless waste
The heath-hen flutters, pious fraud ! to lead
The hot pui'suing spaniel far astray.

Be not the muse ashamed, here to bemoan
Her brothers of the grove, by tyrant man
Inhuman caught, and in the narrow cage
From liberty confined, and boundless air.
Dull are the pretty slaves, their plumage dull.
Ragged, and all its brightening luster lost ;
Nor is that sprightly wildness in their notes,
Which, clear and vigorous, warbles from the bf>ech
Oh then, ye friends of love and love-taught song>
Spare the soft tribes, this barbarous art forbear I
If on your bosom innocence can win.
Music engage, or piety pursuade.

But let not chief the nightingale lament
Her ruined care, too delicately framed
To brook the harsh confinement of the cage.
Oft when, returning with her loaded bill,
The astonished mother finds a vacant nest.
By the hard hand of unrelenting clowns
Robbed, to the ground the vain provision fall# ,
Her pinions ruffle, and, low-drooping, scarce
Can hear the mourner to the poplar shade,
Where all abandoned to despair she sings

SPRUNG. 27

Her sorrows throngh the night ; and, on the bough

Sole-sitting, Btill at every dying fall

Takes up again her lamentable strain

Of winding woe, till wiae around the woods

Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound.

But now the feathered youth their former bounds,
Ardent, disdain ; and, weighing oft their wings,
Demand the free possession of the sky :
This one glad office more, and then dissolves
Parental love at once, now needless grown i
Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain.
Tis on some evening, sunny, grateful, mild.
When naught but balm is breathing through the

woods
With yellow luster bright, that the new tribes
Visit the spacious heavens, and look abroad
On nature's common, far as they can see
Or wing their range and pasture. O'er the boughs
Dancing about, still at the giddy verge
Their resolution fails — their pinions still,
In loose libration stretched, to trust the void
Trembling refuse — till down before them fly
The parent-guides, and chide, exhort, command,
Or push them off. The surging air receives
The plumy burden ; and their self-taught wings
Winnow the waving element. On ground
Alighted, bolder up again they lead,
Further and further on, the lengthening flight ;
Till, vanished every fear, and every power
Roused into life and action, light in air
The acquitted parents see their soaring race,
And, once rejoicing, never know them more.

High from the summit of a craggy cliff,
Hung o'er the deep, such as amazing frowns
On utmost Kilda's shore, whose lonely race
Resign the setting sun to Indian worlds.
The royal eagle draws his vigorous young ;
Strong-pounced, and ardent with j^aternal fire.
Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own,
Ue drives them from his fort, the towering seat.

dS SPRING.

For ages, of his empire ; which, in peace,
Unstained he holds, while many a league to sea
He wings his course, and preys in distant isles.

Should I my steps turn to the rural seat,
Whose lofty elms and venerable oaks
Invite the rook, who high amid the boughs,
In early Spring, his airy city builds,
And ceaseless caws amusive — there, well -pleased,
I might the various polity survey
Of the mixed household kind. The careful hen
Calls all her chirping family around.
Fed and defended by the fearless cock ;
Whose breast with ardor flames, as on he walks
Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond,
The finely-checkered duck, bef-ore her train
Rows garrulous. The stately-sailing swan
Gives out her snowy plumage to the gale ;
And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet
Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier-isle,
Protective of his young. The turkey nigh.
Loud-threatening, reddens ; while the peacock

spreads
His every-colored glory to the sun.
And swims in radiant majesty along.
O'er the whole homely scene, the cooing dove
Flies thick in amorous chase, and wanton rolls
The glancing eye, and turns the changeful neck.

While thus the gentle tenants of the shade
Indulge their purer loves, tlie rougher world
Of brutes, below, rush furious into flame
And fierce desire. Through all his lusty veins
The bull, deep-scorched, the raging passion feels.
Of pasture sick, and negligent of food.
Scarce seen, he wad s among the yellow broom,
While o'er his ample sides the rambling sprays
Luxuriant shoot ; or through the mazy wood
Dejected wander; , nor th^' enticing bud
Crops, though it presses on his careless sense.
And oft, in jealous maddening fancy wrapt,
Ho seeks the fight ; and idly-butting, feignf

flis rival gored in every knotty tnink.
Him should he meet, the bellowing war begini :
Their eyes flash fury ; to the hollowed earth,
Whence the sand flies, they mutter bloody deeds,
And groaning deep the impetuous battle mix ;
While the fair Innfer, balmy-breatliing, near,
Stands kindling up their rage. The trembling steed
With this hot impulse seized in every nerve,
Nor heeds the rein, nor hears the sounding thong ;
Blows are not felt ; but, tossing high his head,
And by the well-known joy to distant plains
Attracted strong, all wild he bursts away ;
O'er rocks, and woods, and craggy mountains flies ;
And, neighing, on the aerial summit takes
The exciting gale ; then, deep-descending, cleaves
The headlong torrents foaming down the hills.
Even where the m;idness of the straightened stream
Turns in black eddies round — such is the force
With which his frantic heart and sinews swell.

Nor undelighted by the boundless Spring
Are the broad monsters of the foaming deep :
From the deep ooze and gelid cavern roused,
They flounce and tumble in un wieldly joy.
Dire were the strain, and dissonant, to sing
The cruel raptures of the savage kind ;
How, by this flame their native wrath sublimed.
They roam, amid the fury of their heart.
The far-resounding waste in fiercer bands.
And growl their horrid loves. But this, the theme
I sing, enraptured, to the British fair.
Forbids ; and leads me to the mountain-brow,
Where sits the shepherd on tlie grassy turf.
Inhaling, healthful, the descending sun.
Around him feeds his many-bleating flock.
Of various cadence, and liis sportive lambs.
This way and that convolved, in friskful glee,
Their frolics play. And now tlu; sprightly race
Invites them forth ; wlien swift, the signal given,
They start away, and sweep tlui massy mouiul
That runs around the hill ; the rampart once

» SPRING.

Of iron war, in ancient barbarous times,

WTien disunited Britain ever bled,

Lost in eternal broil : ere yet she grew

To this deep-laid indissoluble state,

Where wealth and commerce lift their golden heads ;

And, o'er our labors, liberty and law

Impartial watch — the wonder of the world !

What is this mighty breath, ye curious, say,
That, in a powerful language, felt not heard.
Instructs the fowls of heaven ; and through theif

breast
These arts of love diffuses ? What, but God ?
Inspiring God ! who, boundless spirit all,
And unremitting energy, pervades,
Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole.
He ceaseless works alone, and yet alone
Seems not to work ; with such perfection framed
Is this complex stupendous scheme of things.
But, though concealed, to every purer eye
The informing Author in his works appears :
Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes.
The smiling God is seen ; while water, earth,
And air attest his bounty — which exalts
The brute creation to this finer thought,
And annual melts their undesigning hearts
Profusely thus in tenderness and joy.

Still let my song a nobler note assume,
And sing the infusive force of Spring on man ;
When heaven and earth, as if contending, vie
To raise his being, and serene his soul.
Can he forbear to join the general smile
Of Nature ? Can fierce passions vex his breast,
While every gale is peace, and every grove
Is melody ? Hence ! from the bounteous walks
Of flowing Spring, ye sordid sons of earth.
Hard, and unfeeling of another's woe,
Or only lavish to yourselves ; away !
I)Ut come, ye generous minds, in whose wide thought,
Of all his works, Creative Bounty burns
With warmest beam ; and on your open front

SPRING. A

And liberal eye sits, from his dark retreat

Inviting modest want. Nor till invoked

Can restless goodness wait : your active search

Leaves no cold wintry corner unexplored ;

Like silent-working heaven, surprising oft

The lonely heart with unexpected good.

For you the roving spirit of the wind

Blows Spring abroad ; for you the teeming clouda

Descend in gladsome plenty o'er the world ;

And the sun sheds his kindest rays for you.

Ye flower of human race ! In these green days,

Reviving sickness lifts her languid liead ;

Life flows afresh ; and young-eyed health exalts

The whole creation round. Contentment walks

The sunny glade, and feels an inward bliss

Spring o'er his mind, beyond the power of kings

To purchase. Pure serenity apace

Induces thought, and contemplation still.

By swift degrees the love of nature works,

And warms the bosom ; till at last, sublimed

To rapture and enthusiastic heat.

We feel the present Deity, and taste

The joy of God to see a hai)py world !

These are the sacred feelings of thy heart,
Thy heart informed by reason's purer ray,
O Lyttleton, the friend ! thy passions thus
And meditations vary, as at large,
Courting tlic muse, through Hagley Park you stray ;
Thy British Tempe ! There along the dale.
With woods o'er-hutig, and shagged with mossy rocks
Whence on each liand the gusliing waters play,
And down tlie rougli cascade white-dashing fall.
Or gleam in lengthened vista through tlie trees.
You silent steal ; or sit beneath tlie shade
Of solemn oaks, that tuft tlie swelling mounts
'i'hrown graceful round by Nature's (careless hand,
And pensive listen to the variou>< voice
Of ruling jxsace : the herds, the fl(>(;ks, the birds,
'J'lic liollow-wliispering l)reeze, the |)laint of rills,
That, purling down amid the twisted rootb

bd SPUING.

Which creep around, their dewy murmurs shake

On the soothed ear. From these abstracted oft.

You wander through the philosophic world ;

Where in bright train continual wonders rise,

Or to the curious or the pious eye.

And oft, conducted by historic truth,

You tread the long extent of backward time :

Planning, with warm benevolence of mind.

And honest zeal unwarped by party-rage,

Britannia's weal ; how from the venal gulf

To raise her virtue, and her arts revive.

Or, turning thence thy view, these graver thought*

The muses charm ; while, with sure taste refined,

You draw the inspiring breath of ancient song,

Till nobly rises, emulous, thy own.

Perhaps thy loved Lucinda shares thy walk,

With soul to thine attuned. Then Nature all

Wears to the lover's eye a look of love ;

And all the tumult of a guilty world.

Tossed by ungenerous passioDs, sinks away.

The tender heart is animated peace ;

And as it pours its copious treasures forth.

In varied converse, softening every theme.

You, frequent-pausing, turn, and from her eyes,

Where meekened sense, and amiable grace.

And lively sweetness dwell, enraptured drink

That nameless spirit of ethereal joy.

Inimitable happiness ! which love

Alone bestows, and on a favored few.

Meantime you gain the height, from whose fair broH

The bursting prospect spreads immense around ;

And snatched o'er hill and dale, and wood and lawn,

And v(!rdant field, and darkening heath between,

And villages embosomed soft in trees,

And spiry towns by surging columns marked

Of household smoke, your eye excursive roams ;

Wide-stretching from the hall, in whose kind haunt

The hospitable genius lingers still.

To where the broken landseaj)e, by degrees

Ascending, roughens into viyjid liills —

SPRING. 3$

O'er which the Cambrian mountains, like far clouds
That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise.

Flushed by the spirit of the genial year,
Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom
SJioots, less and less, the live carnation round ;
Her lips blush deeper sweets ; she breathes of youth ;
The shining moisture swells into her eyes
In brighter flow ; her wishing bosom heaves
With palpitations wild ; kind tumults seize
Her veins, and all her yielding soul is love.
From the keen gaze her lover turns away.
Full of the dear ecstatic power, and sick
With sighing languishment. Ah then, ye fair!
Be greatly cautious of your sliding hearts :
Dare not the infectious sigh ; the pleading look,
Downcast and low, in meek submission dressed,
But full of guile. Let not the fervent tongue,
Prompt to deceive, with adulation smooth,
Gain on your purposed will. Nor in the bower.
Where woodbines flaunt and roses shed a couch.
While evening draws her crimson curtains round,
Trust your soft minutes with betraying man.

And lot the aspiring youth beware of love,
Of the smooth glance beware ; for 'tis too late,
When on his heart the torrent softness pours.
Then wisdom prostrate lies, and fading fame
Dissolves in air away ; while the fond soul,
W^rapt in gay visions of unreal bliss,
Still paints the illusive form, the kindling grace,
The enticing smile, the modest-seeming eye,
Beneath whose Ix-nutcous beams, belying heaven,
Lurk searchless cunning, cruelty, and death :
And still, false-waibling in his cheated ear,
Her siren voice, enchanting, draws jiim on
To guileful shores, and meads of fatal joy.

Even present, in the very lap of love
Inglorious laid — while music; flows around,
I*erfurues, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours -
Airrxl the roses, ti(!r(!e repr'ntance rears
Her snaky crest : a quick-veturning panej

54 SPR/ATG.

Shoots through the conscious heart ; where honof

still
And great design, against the oppressive load
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave.

But absent, what fantastic woes, aroused,
Rage in each thought, by restless musing fed,
Chill the warm cheek, and blast the bloom of life 1
Neglected fortune flies ; and, sliding swift,
Prone into ruin fall his scorned affairs.
'Tis naught but gloom around. The darkened sun
Loses his light. The rosy-bosomed Spring
To weeping fancy pines ; and yon bright arch,
Contracted, bends into a dusky vault.
All nature fades extinct ; and she alone
Heard, felt, and seen, possesses every thought.
Fills every sense, and pants in every vein.
Books are but formal dullness, tedious friends ;
And sad amid the social band he sits,
Lonely and unattentive. From the tongue
The unfinished period falls : while, borne away
On swelling thought, his wafted spirit fiies
To the vain bosom of his distant fair ;
And leaves the semblance of a lover, fixed
In melancholy site, with head declined,
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,
Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs
To glimmering shades and sympathetic glooms.
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling stream,
Romantic, hangs ; there through the pensive dusk
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation lost.
Indulging all to love ; or on the bank
Thrown, amid drooping lilies, swells the breeze
With sighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in soft anguish he consumes the day ;
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon
Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east,
Enlightened by degrees, and in her train
Leads on the gentle hours ; then forth he walks
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam.
With softened soul, and wooes the bird of eve

SPRING. 88

To mingle woes with his ; or, while the world

And all the sons of care lie hushed in sleep,

Associates with the midnight shadows drear ;

And, sighing to the lonely taper, })ours

Hia idly-tortured heart into the page

Meant for the moving messenger of love —

Where rapture burns on rapture, every line

With rising frenzy fired. But if on bed

Delirious flung, sleep from his pillow flies.

All night he tosses, nor the balmy power

In any posture finds ; till the gray morn

Lifts her pale luster on the paler wretch,

Exanimate by love : and then perhaps

Exhausted nature sinks a while to rest,

Still interrupted by distracted dreams,

That o'er the sick imagination rise

And in black colors paint the mimic scene.

Oft with the enchantress of his soul he talks .

Sometimes in crowds distressed ; or if retired

To secret-winding flower-inwoven bowers.

Far from the dull impertinence of man,

Just as he, incredulous, his endless cares,

Begins to lose in blind oblivious love.

Snatched from her yielded hand, he knows not how,

Through forests huge, and long untraveled heaths

With desolation brown, he wanders waste.

In night and tempest wrapt : or shrinks, aghast.

Back from the bending precipice ; or wades

The turbid stream below, and strives to reach

The further shore, where succorless and sad

She with extended arms his aid implores,

But strives in vain : borne by the outrageous flood

To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave.

Or whelmed beneath the boiling eddy sinks.

These are the charming agonies of love,
Whose misery deliglits. Hut through the heart
Should jealousy its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful misery no more.
But agony unmixed, incessant gall.
Corroding every thought, aji<l blasting all

II SPHrNG.

Love's paradise. Ye fairy prospects, then,

Ye beds of roses, and ye bowers of joy,

Farewell ! Ye gleamings of departed peace,

Shine out your last ! the yellow-tinging plague

Internal vision taints, and in a night

Of livid gloom imagination wraps.

Ah ! then, instead of love-enlivened cheeks

Of sunny features, and of ardent eyes

With flowing rapture bright, dark looks succee-i.

Suff'ised and glaring with untender fire ;

A clouded aspect, and a burning cheek,

Where the whole poiisoned soul malignant sits.

And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears

Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views

Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms

For which he melts in fondness, eat him up

With fervent anguish, and consuming rage.

In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,

Deceitful pride, and resolution frail,

Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours,

Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought ;

Her first endearments, twining round the soul,

With all the witchcraft of insnaring love.

Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew ,

Flames through the nerves, and boils along the veins

While anxious doubt distracts the tortured heart :

For even the sad assurance of his fears

Were peace to what he feels. Thus the warm youth.

Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds.

Through flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life

Of fevered rapture, or of cruel care ;

His brightest flames extinguished all, and all

His lively moments running down to waste.

But happy they ! the happiest of their kind I
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend*
'Tis not the coarser tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself.
Attuning all their passions into love j

SPHtNO. «

Where friendship full-exerts her softest power

Perfect esteem enlivened by desire

Ineffable, and sympathy of soul ;

Thought meeting thougiit, and will preventing will,

With boundless confidence : for naught but love

Can answer love, and render bliss secure.

he^ him, ungenerous, who, alone intent

To bless himself, from sordid parents buys

The loathing virgin, in eternal care,

Well merited, consume his nights and days ;

Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love

Is wild desire, tierce as the suns they feel ;

Let eastern tyrants from the light of heaven

Seclude their bosom slaves, meanly possessed

Of a mere lifeless, violated form :

While those whom love cements in holy faith,

And equal transport, free as Nature live,

Disdaining fear. What is the world to them,

Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all !

Who in each other clasp whatever fair

High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish ;

Something than beauty dearer, should they look

Or on the mind, or mind-illumined face —

Truth, goodness, honor, harmony, and love,

The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven.

Meantime a smiling offspring rises round.

And mingles both their graces. By degrees.

The human blossom blows ; and every day,

Soft as it rolls along, shows some new charm.

The father's luster and the mother's bloom.

Then infant reason grows apace, and calls

For the kind hand of an assiduous care.

Delightful task ! to rear tlie tender thought,

To teach the young i<iea how to shoot.

To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind.

To breathe the enliv(!ning spirit, and to fix

The generous purjiose in the glowing breast.

Oh speak the joy ! ye whom the sudden tear

Surprises often, wliile you look around,

And nothing strikes your eye but sights of bliss,

M SUMMER.

All various Nature pressing on the heart ;

An elegant sufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books.
Ease and alternate labor, useful life.
Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven.
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love ;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thui^
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy ; and consenting Spring
Sheds her own rosy garland on their iieads :
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild ;
When after the long vernal day of life,
Enamored more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love.
Together down they sink in social sleep ;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly
To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

{No more teas vrritten.)

SUMMER

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MR. DODINGTON, ONE OP THl
LORDS OP HIS majesty's TREASURY, ETC.

Sir, — It is not my purpose, in this address, to run into the
common tract of dedicators, and attempt a panegyric which
would prove ungrateful to you, too arduous for me, and super-
fluous with regard to the world. To you it would prove un-
grateful, since there is a certain generous delicacy in men of
the most distinguished merit, disposing them to avoid those
praises they so powerfully attract. And when I consider that
a character, in which the Virtues, the Graces, and the Muses
join their influence, as much exceeds the expression of the
most elegant and judicious pen, as the finished beauty does the
representation of the pencil, 1 have the best reason for declin-
ing an arduous undertaking. As, indeed, it would be super-
fluous in itself ; for wliat reachu' need be told of those great
abilities in the management of j)ublic affairs, and those amiable
iiccomplishments in j)rivate life, which you so eminently pos-
sess. The general voice is loud in the praise of so many

SUMMER. 89

virtaes, though posterity alone will do them justice. But may
you, sir, live long to illustrate your own fame by your own
actions, and by them be transmitted to future times as the
British Maecenas !

Your example has recommended poetry, with the greatest
grace, to the admiration of those who ure engaged in llie
highest and most active scenes of life: and this, though con-
fessedly the least considerable of those exalted qualities that
dignify your character, must be particularly pleasing to one,
whose" only hope of being introduced to your regard is througlj
the recommendation of an art in which you are a master
But I forget what I have been declaring above, and r.iust
therefore turn my eyes to the following sheets. I am not
ignorant that, when offered to your perusal, they are put into
the hands of one of the finest, and consequently the most
indulgent judges of the age : but as there is no mediocrity in
poetry, so should there be no limit to its ambition. I vniure
directly on the trial of my fame. If what I here present you
has any merit to gain your approbation, I am not afraid of its
success ; and if it fails of your notice, I give it up to its just
fate. Tliis advantage at least I secure to myself, an occasion
of thus publicly declaring that I am, with the profoundest
veneration, sir, your most devoted, humble servant,

James Thomson,

Argument. — The subject proposed— Invocation — Address to
Mr. Dodington — An introductory reflection on the motion
of the heavenly bodies ; whence the succession of the tSca
sons — As the face of Nature in tiiis season is almost uniform,
the progress of the poem is a description of a summer's day
— The dawn — Sunrisiug — Hymn to the sun — F(jrenoon —
Summer insects described — Hay-making — Sheep-shearing —
Noon-day — A wood-land retreat — Group of herds and flocks
—A solemn grove : how it affects a contemplative mind —
A cataract, and rude .scene — View of Summer in the torrid
zone — Storm of thunder and lightning— A tale— The storm
over, a .serene afternoon— Bathing — Hour of walking —
Transition to the prospect of a rich well cultivated country,
which introduces a panegyric on Great Britain — Sunset —
Evening — Night — Summer' meteors — A comet — The whole
concluding with the praise of philosophy.

From brightening fields of ether fair disclosed,

Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,

In pride of youth, an<l felt through Nature's depth

lie comes attended by the sultry liours,

And ever-fanning breezes, on his way ;

While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring

II SUMMER.

Averts her blushing face ; aud earth, and skies,
All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me haste into the raid-wood shade,
Where scarce a sunbeam wanders through the gioom {
And on the dark green grass, beside the brink
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large.
And sing the glories of the circling year.

Come, inspiration ! from thy hermit seat,
i5y mortal seldom found : may fancy dare,
From thy fixed serious eye, and raptured glance
Shot out surrounding Heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of soul.

And thou, my youthful muse's early friend.
In whom the human graces all unite ;
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart ;
Genius and wisdom ; the gay social sense,
By decency chastised ; goodness and wit.
In seldom -meeting harmony combined ;
Unblemished honor, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, liberty, and man :
O Dodington ! attend my rural song.
Stoop to my theme, inspirit every line.
And teach me to deserve thy just applause.

With what an awful world-revolving power
Were first the unwieldly planets launched along
The illimitable void ! thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years.
That oft has swept the toiling race of men
And all their labored monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchless, in their course ;
To the kind-tempered change of night and day,
And of the Seasons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful : such the All-perfect Hand
That poised, impels, and rules the steady whole.

When now no more the alternate Twins are fire^
And Cancer reddens with the solar blaze,
Short is the doubtful em})ire of the night ;
And soon, obsei-vant of approaching day.

SUMMER. a

Tho meek-eyed morn appears, mother of dews,
At tirst faint gleaming in the dappled east —
Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow,
And, from before the luster of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quickened stey
Brown night retires. Young day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide.
The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top,
Swell on the sight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, through the dust, the smoking currents shine ;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, awkward ; while along the forest glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early passenger. Music awakes,
The native voice of undisserabled joy ;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Roused by the cock, the soon-clad shepherd leaves
His mossy cottage, where with peace he dwells ;
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.

Falsely luxurious, will not man awake ;
And, springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,
To meditation due and sacred song ?
For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise ?
To lie in dead oblivion, losing half
The fleeting moments of too short a life ;
Total extinction of the enlightened soul !
Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Wildered, and tossing through distempered dreams I
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than Nature craves ; when every muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly-devious morning- walk ?

l^ut yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The lessening chjud,
I'he kindling azure, and the tnountaii/;; brow
Illumed with fluid gold, his near a])proacK
i{(.f,,Lrun <^lad. Lo ! now apparent all,
.-•/»i4ni the ucw-origivi aar^b^ "•"! colored air,

4d SUMMER.

He looks in boundless majesty abroad ;

And sheds the shining day, that burnished playt

On rocks, and hilk, and towers, and wandering

streams,
High-gleaming from 6.far. Prime cheerer, light 1
Of all material beings, first and best !
Efflux divine \ Nature's resplendent robe !
Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt
In unessential gloom ; and thou, O sun !
Soul of surrounding vorlds ! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker i may I sing of thee ?
'Tis by thy secret, strong, attractive force,
As with a chain indissoluble bound,
Thy system rolls entire ; from the far bourn
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years, to Mercury, whose disk
Can scarce be caught by philosophic eye.
Lost in the near effulgence of thy blaze.

Informer of the planetary train !
Without whose quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life —
How many forms of being wait on thee !
Inhaling spirit ; from the unfettered mind.
By thee sublimed, down to the daily race.
The mixing myriads of thy setting beam.

The vegetable world is also thine,
Parent of Seasons ! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as through thy vast domain.
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road.
In the world-rejoicing state, it moves sublime.
Meantime, the expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or send grateful up
A common hymn ; while, round thy beaming car,
High-seen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rosy-fingered hours.
The zephyrs floating loose, the timely rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews,
And softened into joy the surly storms.

SUMMER. 43

These in successive turn, with lavish hand,
Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower,
Herbs, flowers, and fruits ; till, kindling at thy touch,
From land to land is flushed the vernal year.

Nor to the surface of enlivened earth,
Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods,
Her liberal tresses, is thy force confined —
But, to the bowel ed cavern darting deep,
The mineral kinds confess thy mighty })Ower.
Effulgent, hence the veiny marble shines ;
Hence labor draws his tools ; hence burnished war
Gleamp on the day ; the nobler works of j^eace
Hence bless mankind ; and generous commerce binds
The round of nations in a golden chain.

The unfruitful rock itself, impregned by thee,
In dark retirement forms the lucid stone.
The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays.
Collected light, compact ; that, polished bright.
And all its native luster let abroad.
Dares, as it sparkles on the fair one's breast,
With vain ambition emulate her eyes.
At thee, the ruby lights its deepening glow,
And with a waving radiance inward flames.
From thee the sapphire, solid ether, takes
Its hue cerulean ; and, of eviMiing tinct.
The purple-streaming amethyst is thine.
With thy own smile the yellow tojir^: burns ;
Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring,
When first she gives it to the southern gale,
Than the green emerald shows. But, all combined.
Thick through the whitening opal play thy beams ;
Or, flying several from its surface, form
A trembling variance of revolving hues.
As the sight varies in the ga/cr's hand.

The very dead creation, from thy touch.
Assumes a mimic life. By thee refined,
Fn brighter mazes the reliicent stream
riays o'or the mead. The precipice abrupt.
I'lojijcting horror on the l)lackened flood,
■if tens Ht tl y return. The desert joys

44 SUMMER.

Wildly, through all his melancholy bounds.
Rude ruins glitter ; and the briny deep,
Seen from some pointed promontory's top.
Far to the blue horizon's utmost verge,
Restless, reflects a floating gleam. But this,
And all the much-transported muse can sing.
Are to thy beauty, dignity, and use.
Unequal far ; great delegated source
Of light, and life, and grace, and joy below !

How shall I then attempt to sing of Him,
Who, Light Himself ! in uncreated light
Invested deep, dwells awfully retired
From mortal eye, or angel's purer ken ;
Whose single smile has, from the first of time.
Filled, overflowing, all those lamps of heaven.
That beam forever through the boundless sky :
But, should he hide his face, the astonished sun.
And all the extinguished stars, would loosening reel
Wide from their spheres, and chaos come again.

And yet was every faltering tongue of man,
Almighty Father ! silent in thy praise.
Thy works themselves would raise a general voice ;
Even in the depth of solitary woods,
By human foot untrod, proclaim thy power ;
And to the choir celestial Thee resound.
The eternal cause, support, and end of all !

To me be Nature's volume broad-displayed ;
And to peruse its all instructing page.
Or, haply catching inspiration thence,
Some easy passage, raptured to translate.
My sole delight ; as through the falling glooms
Pensive I stray, or with the rising dawn
On fancy's eagle-wing excursive soar.

Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent sun
Melts into limpid air the high-raised clouds,
And morning fogs, that hovered round the hills
In party-colored bands ; till wide unveiled
The face of Nature shines, from where earth scemg,
Far-stretched around, to meet the bending sphere.

Half in a bluslr of clustering roses lost.

SUMMER. 41

Dew-dropping coolness to the shade retires,
There on the verdent turf, or ilowery bed,
By gelid founts and careless rills to muse ;
While tyrant heat, dispreading through the sky.
With rapid sway, his burning influence darts
On man, and beast, and herb, and tepid stream.

Who can unpitying see the flowery race.
Shed by the morn, their new-flushed bloom resign.
Before the parching beam ? So fade the fair.
When fevers revel through their azure veins.
But one, the lofty follower of the sun.
Sad. when he sits, shuts up her yellow leaves,
Drooping all night ; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamored bosom to his ray.

Home, from his morning task, the swain retreats ;
His flock before him stepping to the fold :
While the full-uddered mother lows around
The cheerful cottage, then expecting food,
The food of innocence and health ! The daw.
The rook, and magpie, to the gray-grown oaks
(That the calm village in their verdant arms,
Sheltering, embrace) direct their lazy flight ;
Where on the mingling boughs they sit embowered,
All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise.
Faint, underneath, the household fowls convene ;
And, in a corner of the buzzing shade,
The housedog, with the vacant greyhound, lies,
Outstretched and sleepy. In his slumbers one
Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults
O'er hill and dale ; till, wakened by the wasp.
They starting snap. Nor shall the muse disdain
To let the little noisy suinnier-race
Live in her lay, and flutter througli her song.
Not mean though sinijde : to the sun allied.
From him they draw their animating fire.

Waked by his warmer ray, the reptile young
Come wini^cd aljroad ; by the light air upborne,
Lighter, and full of soul. From every chink,
And secret corner, wiiere they 8l('[)t away
The wintry storms — or rising from their tombs,

40 SUMMER.

To higher life — by myriads, forth at onc6,

Swarming they pour ; of all the varied hue*

Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose.

Ten thousand forms ! ten thousand different tribes I

People the blaze. To sunny waters some

By fatal instinct fly ; where on the pool

They, sportive, wheel ; or, sailing down the stream,

n.re snatched immediate by the quick-eyed trout,

Or darting salmon. Through the greenwood glade

Some love to stray ; there lodged, amused, and fed,

In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make

The meads their choice, and visit every flower,

And every latent herb : for the sweet task,

To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap,

In what soft beds, their young yet undisclosed,

Employs their tender care. Some to the house,

The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight ;

Sip round the pail, or taste the curdling cheese :

Oft, inadvertent, from the milky stream

They meet their fate ; or, weltering in the bowl,

With powerless wings around them wrapt, expire.

But chief to heedless flies the window proves
A constant death ; where, gloomily retired.
The villain spidei- lives, cunning and fierce.
Mixture abhorred ! Amid a mangled heap
Of carcasses, in eager watch he sits,
O'erlooking all his waving snares around.
Near the dire cell the dreadless wanderer oft
Passes ; as oft the ruflian shows his front.
The prey at last insnared, he dreadful darts.
With rapid glide, along the leaning line ;
And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs,
Strikes Ijackward, grimly pleased : the fluttering wing,
And shriller sound, declare extreme distress,
And ask the helj>ing hospitable hand.

Resounds the living surface of the ground :
Nor undellglitful is the ceaseless hum,
'J'o him who muses through the woods at noon ;
Or drowsy shepherd, as he lies re(;lined,
With half-sl"'* eyes, beneath the floating shade

SUMMER Vt

Of willows gray, close-crowding o'er the I rook.

Gradual, from these what numerous kinds descend.

Evading even the microscopic eye !

Full nature swarms with life ; one inondrous mass

Of animals, or atoms organized,

Waiting the vital breath, when Parent-Heaven

Shall bid his spirit blow. The hoary fen

In putrid streams, emits the living cloud

Of pestilence. Through subterranean cells,

Where searching sunbeams scarce can find a way,

Pvarth animated heaves. The flowery leaf

Wants not its soft inhabitants. Secure,

Within its winding citadel, the stone

Holds multitudes. But chief the forest-boughs,

That dance unnumbered to the playful breeze,

The downy orchard, and the melting pulp

Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed

Of evanescent insects. Where the pool

Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible

Amid the floating verdure millions stray.

Each liquid too, whether it pierces, soothes,

Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste,

With various forms abounds. Nor is the stream

Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air,

Though one transparent vacancy it seems.

Void of their unseen people. These, concealed

By the kind art of forming Heaven, escape

The grosser eye of man : for, if the worlds

In worlds inclosed should on his senses burst.

From cates ambrosial, and the nectared bowl,

He would abliorrent turn ; and in dead night,

AVhen silence sleeps o'er all, be stunned with noise

Let no presuming impious railer tax
Creative Wisdom, as if aught was formed
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind ?
As if upon a full proportioned dome,
On swelling columns heaved* the pride of art I

m SUMMER.

A critic-fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads

An inch around, with blind presumption bold.

Should dare to tax the structure of the whole.

And lives the man whose universal eye

Has swept at once the unbounded scheme of things,

Marked their dependence so, and firm accord,

As with unfaltering accent to conclude

That this availeth naught ? Has any seen

The mighty chain of beings, lessening down

From infinite Perfection to the brink

Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss !

From which astonished thought, recoiling, turns ?

Till then, alone let zealous praise ascend.

And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power,

Whose wisdom shines as lovely on our minds,

As on our smiling eyes his servant-sun.

Thick in yon stream of light, a thousand ways.
Upward and downward, thwarting and convolved.
The quivering nations sport ; till, tempest- winged.
Fierce Winter sweeps them from the face of day.
Even so luxurious men, unheeding, pass
An idle summer life in fortune's shine,
A season's glitter ! thus they flutter on
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice ;
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes
Behind, and strikes them from the book of life.

Now swarms the village o'er the joyful mead :
The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil.
Healthful and strong ; full as the summer rose
Blown by prevailing suns, the ruddy maid.
Half naked, swelling on the sight, and all
Her kindled graces burning o'er her cheek.
Even stooping age is here ; and infant hands
Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load
O'ercharged, amid the kind oppression roll.
Wide flies the tedded grain ; all in a row
Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field,
They spread their breathing harvest to tlie sun.
That throws refreshful round a rural smell ;
Or, as they rake the green-appearing groimd,

SUMMER. 41

And drive the dusky wave along the mead,
The russet haycock rises thick behind,
In order gay : while heard from dale to dale,
Waking the breeze, resounds the blended voice
Of happy labor, love, and social glee.
Or rushing thence, in one diffusive band,
They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog
Compelled, to where the mazy-running brook
Forms a deep pool ; this bank abrupt and high,
And that, fair-spreading in a pebbled shore.
Urged to the giddy brink, much is the toil.
The clamor much, of men, and boys, and dogs,
Ere the soft fearful people to the flood
Commit their woolly sides. And oft the swain,
On some impatient seizing, hurls them in :
Emboldened then, nor hesitating more.
Fast, fast they plunge amid the flashing wave.
And panting labor to the furthest shore.
Repeated this, till deep the well-washed fleece
Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt
The trout is banished by the sordid stream,
Heavy and dripping, to the breezy brow
Slow move the harmless race ; where, as they spread
Their swelling treasures to the sunny ray.
Inly disturbed and wondering what this wild
Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints
The country fill — and, tossed from rock to rock.
Incessant bleatings run around the hills.
At last, of snowy white, the gathered flocks
Are in the wattled pen innumerous pressed.
Head above head ; and ranged in lusty rows
The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding sheers.
The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores,
With all her gay-drest maids attending round.
One, cliief, in gracious dignity enthroned,
Shines o'er the rest, the pastoral queen, and rays
Her smiles, sweet-beaming, on her sliepherd-king ;
While the glad circle round them yiekl their souls
To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
Meantime, their joyous task goes on apace :

4

«d SUMMER,

Some mingling stir the melted tar, and some.
Deep on the new-shorn vagrant's heaving side.
To stamp his master's cipher ready stand ;
Others tne unwilling wether drag along ;
And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy
Holds by the twisted horns the indignant ram.
Behold where bound, and of its robe bereft,
By needy man, that all-depending lord,
How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies 1
What softness in its melancholy face,
What dumb complaining innocence appears I
Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife
Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you waved ;
No, 'tis the tender swain's well-guided shears,
Who having now, to pay his annual care,
Borrowed your fleece, to you a cumbrous load,
Will send you bounding to your hills again,

A simple scene ! yet hence Britannia sees
Her solid grandeur rise : hence she commands,
The exalted stores of every brighter clime.
The treasures of the sun without his rage ;
Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts,
Wide glows her land ; her dreadful thunder hence
Rides o'er the waves sublime, and now, even now,
Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast ;
Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world.

'Tis raging noon ; and, vertical, the sun
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays.
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye
Can sweep a dazzling deluge reigns ; and all
From pole to pole, is undistinguished blaze.
In vain the sight, dejected to the gi'ouiid,
Stoops for relief ; thence hot-ascending steam*
And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root
Of vegetation parched, the cleaving fields
And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose,
Blast fancy's bloom, and wither even the soul.
Echo no more returns the cheerful sound
(^)f sharpening scythe ; the mower, sinking, heap*
D'or him the humid hay, with flowers ])cr^un(»edj

And scarce a chirping grasshopper is heard
Through the dumb mead. Distressful nature pants.
The very streams look languid from afar ;
Or, through the unsheltered glade, impatient, seem
To hurl into the covert of the grove.

All-conquering heat, oh intermit thy wrath I
And on my throbbing temples potent thus
Beam not so fierce ! Incessant still you flow,
And still another fervent flood succeeds,
Poured on the head profuse. In vain I sigh,
And restless turn, and look around for night :
Night is far off ; and hotter hours appoaoh.
Thrice happy he ! who on the sunless side
Of a romantic mountain, forest-crowned.
Beneath the whole collected shade reclines ;
Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine- wrought,
And fresh bedewed with ever-sprouting streams,
Sits coolly calm, while all the world without.
Unsatisfied, and sick, tosses in noon.
Emblem instructive of the virtuous man,
Who keeps his tempered mind serene, and pure.
And every passion aptly harmonized,
Amid a jaiTing world with vice inflamed.

Welcome, ye shades ! ye bowery thickets, hail ?
Ye lofty pines ! ye venerablo oaks !
Y'j ashes wild, resounding o'Gr the steep !
D<"Jieious is your shelter to the soul.
As to the hunted hart Ipy sallying spring,
O" stream full-flowin /, tliathis swelling sideB
Laves, as lie floats au^ng the herbaged brink.
Cool, through the nerves, your pleasing comfort glides J
The heart beats glad ; the fiesli expanded eye
And ear r<isunie their watch ; the sinews knit ;
And life shoots swift through uU the lightened limbu

Around the adjoining brook that purls alc%:g
The vocal grove, now frettini^ o'er a rock,
Now scarcely moving tliroiigli a reedy pov''^
Now starting to a sudth-n stream, anc? nov
(ifutly diffused into a li:i"j>i(i ).!:iin,
A various group the herdn I'-i ^-^ck^ ^' jv^^^m*^

n SUMMER.

Rural confusion ! On the grassy bank
Some ruminating lie ; while others stand
Half in the flood, and often bending sip
The circling surface. In the middle droops
The strong laborious ox, of honest front.
Which incomposed he shakes ; and from his sides
The troublous insects lashes with his tail,
Returning still. Amid his subjects safe,
Slumbers the monarch-swain ; his careless arm
Thrown round his head, on downy moss sustained ;
Here laid his scrip, with wholesome viands filled ;
There, listening every noise, his watchful dog.

Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight
Of angry gadflies fasten on the herd ;
That startling scatters from the shallow brook,
In search of lavish stream. Tossing the foam,
They scorn the keeper's voice, and scour the plain
Through all the bright severity of noon ;
While, from their laboring breasts, a hollow moan
Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills.

Oft in this season too the horse, provoked,
While his big sinews full of spirits swell,
Trembling with vigor, in the heat of blood.
Springs the high fence ; and, o'er the field effused,
Darts on the gloomy flood, with steadfast eye.
And heart estranged to fear : his nervous chest.
Luxuriant and erect, the seat of strength !
Bears down the opposing stream ; quenchless his

thirst.
He takes the river at redoubled draughts ;
And with wide nostrils, snorting, skims the wave.

Still let me pierce into the midnight depth
Of yonder grove, of wildest, largest growth ;
That, forming high in air a woodland choir.
Nods o'er the mount beneath. At every step,
Solemn and slow, the shadows blacker fall,
And all is awful listening gloom around.

These are the haunts of meditation, these
The scenes where ancient bards the inspiring breatb,
Ecstatic, felt ; and, from this world retired,

SUMMED. 8t

Conversed with angels, and immortal forma,

On gracious errands bent : to save the fall

Of virtue struggling on ihe brink of vice ;

In waking whispers, and repeated dreams,

To hint pure thought, and warn the favored soul

For future trials fated to prepare ;

To prompt the poet, who devoted gives

Hi? muse to better themes ; to soothe the pangs

Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breast

(Backward to mingle in detested war,

But foremost when engaged) to turn the death ;

And numberless such offices of love,

Daily and nightly, zealous to perform.

Shook sudden from the bosom of the sky,
A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk,
Or stalk majestic on. Deep-roused, I feel
A sacred terror, a severe delight.
Creep through my mortal frame ; and thus, me

thinks,
A voice, than human more, the abstracted ear
Of fancy strikes : " Be not of us afraid,
Poor kindred man ! thy fellow-creatures, we
From the same Parent-Power our beings drew —
The same our Lord, and laws, and great pursuit.
Once some of us, like thee, through stormy life
Toiled, tempest-beaten, ere we could attain
This holy calm, this harmony of mind.
Where purity and peace immingle charms.
Then fear not us ; but with responsive song,
Amid these dim recesses, undisturbed
By noisy folly and discordant vice,
Of Nature sing with us, and Nature's God.
Here frequent, at the visionary hour.
When musing midniglit reigns or silent noon,
Angelic harps are in full concert heard,
And voices chanting from the wood-crowned hill.
The deei»ening dale, or inmost sylvan glade ;
A privilege Ix-stowed by us, alone,
On contenij»lation, or the hallowed ear
Of poet, swelling to seraphic strain."

M SUMMEIt.

Art thou, Stanley,* of that sacred band ?
A-las, for us too soon ! — Though raised above
The reach of human pain, above the flight
Of human joy, yet, with a mingled ray
Of sadly pleased remembrance, must tliou feel
A mother's love, a mother's tender woe ;
Who seeks thee still in many a former scene,
Seeks thy fair form, thy lovely beaming eyes.
Thy pleasing converse, by gay lively sense
Inspired — where mortal wisdom mildly shone
Without the toil of art, and virtue glowed
In all her smiles, without forbidding pride.
But, O thou best of parents ! wipe thy tears ;
Or rather to Parental Nature pay
The tears of grateful joy — who for a while
Lent thee this younger self, this opening bloom
Of thy enlightened mind and gentle worth.
Believe the muse : the wintry blast of death
Kills not the buds of virtue ; no, they spread
Beneath the heavenly beam of brighter suns,
Through endless ages, into higher powers.

Thus up the mount, in airy vision rapt,
I stray, regardless whither ; till the sound
Of a near fall of water every sense
Wakes from the charm of thought : swift-shrinking

back,
I check my steps, and view the broken scene.
Smooth to the shelving brink a copious flood
Rolls fair, and placid ; where collected all.
In one im})etuou8 torrent, down the steeji
It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round.
At first, an azure sheet, it rushes broad ;
Then whitening by degrees as prone it falls,
And from the loud-resounding rocks below
Dashed in a cloud of foam, it sends aloft
A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless sliower.
Nor can the tortured wave here find rejiose :
But, raging still amid the shaggy rocks,

♦ A young lady, well known to the author, who died at thf
8^e of eichtecn. in the year 1730.

SUMMliR. S»

; . >v flashes o'er the scattered fragments, now
VsUint, the hollowed channel rapid darts ;
And falling fast from gradual slope to slope,
With wild infracted course, and lessened roar.
It gains a safer bed, and steals, at last,
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

Invited from the cliff, to whose dark brow
lie clings, the steep-ascending eagle soars.
With upward pinions, through the flood of day ;
And, giving full his bosom to the blaze.
Gains on the sun ; while all the tuneful race,
Smit by afflictive noon, disordered droop,
Deep in the thicket ; or, from bower to bower
Responsive, force an interrupted strain.
The stockdove only through the forest coos.
Mournfully hoarse ; oft ceasing from his plaint,
Short interval of weary Avoe ! again
The sad idea of his murdered mate,
Struck from his side by savage fowler's guile,
Across his fancy comes ; and then resounds
A louder song of sorrow through the grove.

Beside the dewy border let me sit,
All in the freshness of the humid air :
There on that hollowed rock, grotesque and wild.
An ample chair moss-lined, and over head
By flowering umbrage shaded ; where the bee
Strays diligent, and with tlie extracted balm
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh.

Now while I taste the sweetness of the shade,
While Nature lies around deep lulled in noon.
Now come, bold fancy, s}>reaa a daring flight,
And view the wond(M•^s of the torrid zone —
Climes unrelenting ! with whose rage compared.
Yon blaze iw feeble, and yon skies are cool.

See, how at once the bright-effulgent sun,
Rising dir(;ct, swift chases from the sky
The short-lived twilight ; and with ardent blaze
Looks gayly fierce throiigli all tlu' dazzling air :
He mounts his thrones ; but kind before him sendn,
Issuing from out the portals of the morn,

M SUMMER,

The general breeze,* to mitigate his fire,
And oreathe refreshment on a fainting world.
Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown

ed,
And barbarous wealth, that see, each circling year,
Returning suns and double seasons f pass :
)locks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,
That on the high equator ridgy rise.
Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays ;
Majestic woods of every vigorous green.
Stage above stage, high waving o'er the hills,
Or to the far horizon wide diffused,
A boundless deep immensity of shade.
Here lofty trees, to ancient song unknown,
The noble sons of potent heat and floods
Prone-rushing from the clouds, rear high to heaven
Their thorny stems, and broad aix)und them throw
Meridian gloom. Here, in eternal prime,
Unnumbered fruits of keen delicious taste
And vital spirit, drink amid the cliffs.
And burning sands that bank the shrubby vales.
Redoubled day ; yet in their rugged coats
A friendly juice to cool its rage contain.

Bear me, Pomona ! to thy citron groves ;
To where the lemon and the piercing lime.
With the deep orange, glowing through the green,
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclined
Beneath the spreading tamarind, that shakes,
Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit.
Deep in the night the massy locust sheds,
Quench my hot limbs ; or lead me through the maze,
Embowering endless, of the Indian fig ;
Or thrown at gayer ease, on some fair brow,

* Whicl) blows constantly between the tropics from the east,
or the collateral points, the north-east and south-east : caused
by the pressure of the rarefied air on that before it, according
to the diurnal motion of the sun from east to west.

f In all climates between the tropics, the sun, as he passes
and repasses in his annual motion, is twice a year vertical,
which produces this effect.

SUMMER. 8

Let me beheld, by breezy murmurs cooled,
Broad o'er ray head the verdant cedar wave,
And high palmettos lift their graceful shade.
Oh ! stretched amid these orchards of the sun.
Give me to drain tlie cocoa's milky bowl,
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine ;
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice
Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs
Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorned ;
Nor, creeping through the woods, the gelid race
Of berries. Oft in humble station dwells
Unboastful worth, above fastidious pomp.
Witness, thou best ananas, thou the pride
Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er
The poet imaged in the golden age :
Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat.
Spread thy ambrosial stores, and feast with Jove !

From these the prospect varies. Plains immense
Lie stretched below, interminable meads.
And vast savannas, where th(i Avandering eye,
Unfixed, is in a verdant ocean lost.
Another Flora there, of bolder hues
And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride,
Plays o'er the fields, and showers with sudden hand
Exuberant Spring : for oft these valleys shift
Their green embroiclered robe to fiery brown.
And swift to green again, as scorching suns.
Or streaming dews aiid torrent rains, y)revail.
Along these lonely regions, where, retired
From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells
In awful solitude, and naught is seen
But the wild herds that own no master's stall,
Prodigious rivers roll their fattening seas ;
On whose luxuriant herbage, half-concealed,
Ijike a fallen cedar, far difftised his train,
C'ased in green scales, the crocodile extends.
The flood disparts : Ix'hold ! in plaited mail,
Behemoth* rears his head. Glanced from his side,

The Jiippopotamus, or river-horse.

58 SUMMER.

The darted steel in idle shivers flies :
He fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills ;
Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze.

Peaceful, beneath primeval trees that cast
Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream,
And where the Ganges rolls his sacred wave,
Or 'mid the central depth of blackening woods
High-raised in solemn theater around.
Leans the huge elephant ; wisest of brutes !
O truly wise I with gentle might endowed.
Though powerful, not destructive. Here he sees
Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth.
And empires rise and fall ; i-egardless he
Of what the never-resting race of men
Project : thrice happy ! could he 'scape their guile,
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps ;
Or with the towery grandeur swell their state.
The pride of kings ! or else his strength pervert,
And bid him rage amid the mortal fray.
Astonished at the madness of mankind.

Wide o'er the winding umbrage of the floods,
Like vivid blossoms glowing from afar,
Thick-swarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand,
That with a sportive vanity has decked
The plumy nations, there her gayest hues
Profusely pours. But, if she bids them shine.
Arrayed in all the beauteous beams of day.
Yet frugal still, she humbles them in song.*
Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent
Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions cast
A boundless radiance waving on the sun,
While Philomel is ours ; while in our shades,
Through the soft silence of the listening night.
The sober-suited songstress trills her lay.

*In all the regions of tlie torrid zone, the birds, though more
beautiful in their plumage, are observed to be lees raelodioiia
than ours

SUMMER. Sk

But come, my muse, the desert-barrier burst,
A wild expanse of lifeless sand and sky ;
And, swifter than the toiling caravan,
Shoot o'er the vale of Sennaar, ardent climb
The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds
Of jealous Abyssinia boldly pierce.
Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask
Of social commerce comest to rob their wealth ;
No holy fury thou, blaspheming heaven,
With consecrated steel to stab their peace.
And through the land, yet red from civil wounds
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome.
Thou, like the harmless bee, mayst freely range
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers,
From jasmine grove to grove ; mayst wander gay.
Through palmy shades nd aromatic w'oods.
That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills.
And up the more than Alpi le mountains wave.
There on the breezy summit, spreading fair
For many a league ; or on stupendous rocks,
That from the sun-redoubling valley lift,
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops ;
Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rise ;
And gardens smile around, and cultured fields ;
And fountains gush ; and careless herds and flocks
Securely stray ; a world wathin itself.
Disdaining all assault : there let me draw
Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales.
Profusely breathing from the spicy groves,
Ami vales of fragrance ; there at distance hear
Tiie roaring fl<K)ds, and cataracts, that sweep
From dis(imbowel(;(i earth the virgin gold ;
And o'er the varied Ian(l.scaj)e, restless, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind.
A l;ind of wonders ! which the sun still eyes
Willi ray direct, as of the lovely realm
KiiiunoriHl, and delighting there to dwell

ifinv changed the scene ! In blazing height of noon
Tlif sun, oppressed, is plunged in thickest gloom ;
Slill horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,

60 ^UMMEH.

Of strnggling night and day malignant mixed.
For to the hot equator crowding fast,
Where, highly rarefied, the yielding air
Admits their stream, incessant vapors roll,
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heaped ;
Or whirled tempestuous by the gusty wind,
Or silent borne along, heavy and slow,
With the big stores of steaming oceans charged.
Meantime, amid these up()er seas, condensed
Around the cold aerial mountain's brow
And by conflicting winds together dashed.
The thunder holds his black tremendous throne ;
From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage ;
Till, in the furious elemental war
Dissolved, the whole precipitated mass
Unbroken floods and solid torrents pour.

The treasures these, hid from the bounded search
Of ancient knowledge ; whence, with annual pomp,
Rich king of floods ! o'erflows the swelling Nile.
From his two springs, in Gojam's sunny realm,
Pure-welling out, he through the lucid lake
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream.
There, by the Naiads nursed, he spoils away
His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles
That with unfading verdure smile around.
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks ;
And gathering many a flood, and copious fed
With all the mellowed treasures of the sky,
Winds in progressive majesty along :
Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze ;
Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts
Now life-deserted sand ; (ill, glad to quit
The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks.
From thundering steep to steep, he pours his urn,
And Fgypt joys beneath the spreading wave.

His brother Niger too, and all the floods
In which the full-formed maids of Afric lave
Their jetty limbs ; and all that from the tract
Of woody mountains stretched through gorgeous Ind
Fall on Corraandel's coast, or Malabar \

SUMMEM, t\

FromMenam^s * orient stream, that nightly shines
With insect-^amps, to where Aurora sheds
On Indus' smiling banks the rosy shower ;
All, at this bounteous season, ope their urns,
And pour untoiling harvest o'er the land.

Nor less thy world, Columbus, drinks, refreshed
The lavish moisture of the melting year.
Wide o'er his isles, the branching Orinoque
Rolls a brown deluge ; and the native drives
To dw'll aloft on life-sufficing trees —
At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms.
Swelled by a thousand streams, impetuous hurled
From all the roaring Andes, huge descends
The mighty Orellana.f Scarce the Muse
Dares stretch her wing n'er 'his enormous mass
Of rushing water ; scarce she dares attempt
The sea-like Plata ; to whose dread expanse.
Continuous depth, and wondrous length of courie,
Our floods are rills. With unabated for-„e,
In silent dignity they sweep along ;
And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wi^e
And fruitful deserts — worlds of solitude,
Where the sun smiles and Seasons teem in vain.
Unseen and unenjoyed. Forsaking these,
0''^r people<l plains they fair diffusive flow,
And many a nation feed, and circle safe.
In their soft bosom, many a lia})py isle ;
The soat of blameless Pan, yet undisturbed
By Christian crimes and Euro])e's ciuel sons.
Thus pouring on they ])roudlv seek the deep,
Whose vanquished tide, recoiling from the shock.
Yields to the liquid weight of half the glo]>e ;
And o(;eans trembles for his green domiiin.

lint what avails this wondrous waste of wealth,
This gay profusion of luxurious bliss,

* Tho riv-T tliul runs tliroii^^li Siain ; on wiiosi' hunks a vust
multitiidf ot tlioHc insects called fire-flies make a beau^'Cy'
appeuiance in Ih'; iiiglil.

♦ The river of tlie Amazona.

9» SUMMER,

This pomp of Nature ? what their balmy meads,
Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain ?
By vagrant birds dispersed, and wafting winds.
What their unplanted fruits ? what the cool drafts
The ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health,
Their forests yield ? their toiling insects what.
Their silky pride, and vegetable robes?
Ah ,' what avail their fatal treasures, hid
Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth,
Golconda's gems, and sad Potosi's mines ?
Where dwelt the gentlest children of the sun I
What all that Afric's golden rivers roll.
Her odorous woods, and shining ivory stores?
Ill-fated race ! the softening arts of peace.
Whate'erthe humanizing muses teach ;
The godlike wisdom of the tempered breast ;
Progressive truth, the })atient force of thought ;
Investigation calm, whose silent powers
Command the world ; the light that leads to heaven
Kind equal rule, the government of laws,
And ail-protecting freedom, which alone
Sustains the name and dignity of man :
These are not theirs. The parent-sun himself
Seems o'er this world of slaves to tyrannize ;
And with oppressive ray, the roseate bloom
Of beauty blasting, gives the gloomy hue,
And feature gross ; or worse, to ruthless deeds,.
Mad jealousy, blind rage, and fell revenge,
Their fervid spirit fires. Love dwells not there r
The soft regards, the tenderness of life.
The heart-shed tear, the ineffable delight
Of sweet humanity : these court the })eam
Of milder climes ; in selfish fierce desire,
And the wild fury of voluj)tuous sense,
There lost. The very brute creation there
This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire.
Lo ! the green serpent, from his dark abode
Which even imagination fears to tread,
At noon forth-issuing, gathers up his tram
In orbs immense, then, darting out anew,

Seeks the refreshing fount, by which diffused,

He throws his folds ; and while, with threateninic

tongue
And deathf ul jaws erect, the monster curls
His flaming crest, all other thirst appalled,
Or shivering flies, or checked at distance stands.
Nor dares approach. But still more direful he,
The small close-lurking minister of fate.
Whose high-concocted venom through the veins
A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift
The vital current. Formed to humble man.
This child of vengeful Nature ! There, sublimed
To fearless lust of blood, the savage race
Roam, licensed by the shading hour of guilt.
And foul misdeed, when the pure day has shut
His sacred eye. The tiger, darting fierce.
Impetuous on the prey his glance has doomed ;
The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er
With many a spot, the beauty of the waste ;
And, scorning all fhe taming arts of man,
The keen hyena, fellest of the fell :
Those, rushing from the inhospitable woods
Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles.
That verdant rise amid the Libyan wild,
Innumerous glare around tlieir shaggy king.
Majestic, stalking o'er the printed sand ;
And, with imperious and repeated roars,
Demand their fated food. The fearful flocks
Crowd near the guardian swain ; the nobler herdi
Where round their lordly bull, in rural ease,
They ruminating lie, with horror hear
The coming rage. '^I'lu; awakened village starts ;
And to her fluttering breast the mother strains
Her tiioughtlcss infant. From the pirate's den,
(Jr slern Morocco's tyrant fang, escajjed.
The wrclcli hair-wishcs for his bonds again;
While, uproar all, the wildernL'ss resounds.
From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile.
Unhaj){)y he ! who from tin; first of joys,
Society, cut off, is left ah/uu

-A

64 SUMMkR.

Amid this world of death. Day after day,

Sad on the jutting eminence he sits,

And views the main that ever toils below ;

Still fondly forming in the furthest verge,

Where the round ether mixes with the wave,

Ships, dim-discovered, dropping from the cloud*

At evening, to the setting sun he turns

A mournful eye, and down his dying heart

Sinks helpless ; while the wonted roar is up,

And hiss continual through the tedious night.

Yet here, even here, into these black abodes

Of monsters, unappalled, from stooping Rome,

And guilty Caesar, Liberty retired.

Her Cato following through Numidian wilds ;

Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains.

And all the green delights Ausonia pours —

When for them she must bend the servile knee,

And fawning take the splendid robber's boon.

Nor stop the terrors of those regions here,
Commissioned demons oft, angels of wrath.
Let loose the raging elements. Breathed hot
From all the boundless furnace of the sky,
And the wide glittering waste of burning sand,
A suffocating wind the pilgrim smites
With instant death. Patient of thirst and toil.
Son of the desert ! even the camel feels.
Shot through his withered heart, the fiery blast.
Or from the black-red etlxr, bursting broad.
Sallies the sudden whirlwind. Straight the sande
Commoved around, in gathering eddies play ;
Nearer and nearer still they darkening come ;
Till, with the general all-involving storm
Swept up, the whole continuous wilds arise ;
And by their noonday fount dejected thrown.
Or sunk at night in sad disastrous sleep.
Beneath descending hills, the cai'avan
Is buried deep. In Cairo's crowded streets
The impatient merchant, wondering, waits in vaitt
And Me(!ca saddens at the long delay.

But chief at sea, whose every flexible way*

SUMMER, ift

Obeys the blast, the aerial tumult swella.

lu the dread ocean, undulating wide,

Beneath the radiant line that girts the globe.

The circling Typhon,* whirled from point to point.

Exhausting all the rage of all the sky

And the dire Ecnephia,* reign. Amid the heavens,

Falsely serene, deep in a cloudy f speck

Compressed, the mighty tempest brooding dwells :

Of no regard, save to the skillful eye,

Fiery and foul, the small prognostic hangs

Aloft, or on promontory's brow

Musters its force. A faint deceitful calm,

A fluttering gale, the demon sends before.

To tempt the spreading sail. Then down at ono«^

Precipitant, descends a mingled mass

Of roaring winds, and flame, and rushing floods.

In wild amazement fixed the sailor stands.

Art is too slow. By rapid fate oppressed.

His broad- winged vessel drinks the whelming tide,

Hid in the bosom of the black abyss.

With such mad seas the daring Gama fought,

For many a day, and many a dreadful night.

Incessant, laboring round the stormy Cape ;

By bold ambition led, and bolder thirst

Of gold. For tlien, from ancient gloom, emerged

The rising world of trade : the genius, then,

Of navigation, that in hopeless sloth

Had slumbered on the vast Atlantic deep

For idle ages, starting, heard at last

The Lusitanian Prince ; who, heaven-inspired,

To love of useful glory roused mankind.

And in unbounded commerce mixed the world.

Increasing still the tf.rrors of these storms,
His jaws horrific armed with threefold fate,
lIi.TC! dwells the direful shark. Lured by the scent
(>f steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death,

*'r>l)liou and Eciiepliia, riuiufs of particular .storms or
hurricanes, kuown only between tlie tropics.

f ("ailed hy Bailors the Ox eye, being iu uppearauce at first no
biggei.

6

((6 SUMMER.

Behold ! he rushing cuts the briny flood,
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along ;
And from the partners of that cruel trade,
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons,
Demands his share of prey — demands themselves.
The stormy fates descend : one death involves
Tyrants and slaves ; when straight, their mangled

limbs
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple seas
With gore, and riots in the vengeful meal.

When o'er this world, by equinoctial rains
Flooded immense, looks out the joyless sun,
And draws the copious steam ; from swampy fens,
Where putrefaction into life ferments,
And b'-eathes destructive myriads ; or from woods.
Impenetrable shades, recesses foul,
In vapors rank And blue corruption wrapt,
Whose gloomy horrors yet no desperate foot
Has ever daix-d to pierce — then, wasteful, forth
Walks the dire power of nestiient disease.
A thousand hideous fiends her course attend,
Sick nature blasting, and to heartless woe,
And feeble desolation, casting down
The towering hopes and all the oride of man.
Such as, of late, Carthagena quencned
The British fire. You, gallant Vernon, saw
The miserable scene ; you, pitying, saw
To infant-weakness sunk the warrior's arm :
Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form.
The lip pale-quivering, and the beaniless eye
No more with ardor bright ; you heard the groau*
Of agonizing sliips, frv)m shui-e to shore ;
Heard, niglitly plunged amid tlie sullen waves,
The frequent corse — while on each other fixed,
In sad presage, the blank assistants seemed,
Silent, to ask, whom Fate would next demand.

What need I mention those inclement skies
Where, frequent o'er the sickening city, plaguev
The fiercest child of Nemesis divine,
iJescends ? From Ethiopia's poisoned woods.

SUMMER. VI

From stifled Cairo's filth, and fetid fields

With locust-armieg putrefying * heaped,

This great destroyer sprung. Her awful rage

The brutes escape Man is her destined prey,

Intemperate man ! and o'er his guilty domcB

She draw a close incumbent cloud of death ;

Uninterrupted by the living winds,

Forbid to blow a wholesome breeze ; and stained

With many a mixture by the sun, suffused,

Of angry aspect. Princely wisdom, then.

Dejects his watchful eye ; and from the hand

Of feeble justice, ineffectual, drop

The sword and balance : mute the voice of joy,

And hushed the clamor of the busy world.

Empty the streets, with uncouth verdure clad ;

Into the worst of deserts sudden turned

The cheerful haunt of men — unless escaped

From the doomed house, where matchless horrof

reigns.
Shut up by barbarous fear, the smitten wretch.
With frenzy wild, breaks loose, and, loud to heaven
Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns,
Inhuman and unwise. The sullen door.
Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge
Fearing to turn, abhors society.
Dependents, friends, relations, love himself,
Savaged by woe, forget the tender tie,
The sweet engagement of the feeling heart.
Jiut vain their selfish care : the circling sky.
The wide enlivening air is full of fate ;
And, struck by turns, in solitary pangs
They fall, unblest, untended, and unmourned.
Thus o'er the prostrate city black despair
Extends her raven wing ; while, to complete
Tiie scene of desolation, stretched ;ir(Mind,
Tnc grim guards stand, denying all retreat.
And give the Hying wretch a better death.

' 'l'h«;s(; are llie Ciiiises supposed to be llie first origin of the
iMiigue, ill Dr. Mead's eleguui hook oo tliat subject,

m SUMMER.

Much yet remains unsung : the rage intense
Of brazen-vaulted skies, of iron fields,
Where drought and TMinir.e starve the blasted year
Fired by the torch oi nouJi to tenfold rage,
The infuriate hill that shoots the pillared flame ;
And, roused within the subterranean world.
The expanding earthquake, that resistless shaken
Aspiring cities from their solid base,
And buries mountains in the flaming gulf.
But 'tis enough ; return, my vagrant muse :
A nearer scene of horror calls thee home.

Behold slow-settling o'er the lurid grove,
Unusual darkness broods ; and growing gains
The full possession of the sky, surcharged
With wrathful vapor, from the secret beds,
Where sleep the mineral generations, drawn.
Thence niter, sulphur, and the fiery spume
Of fat bitumen, steaming on the day.
With various tinctured trains of latent flame,
Pollute the sky, and in yon baleful cloud,
A reddening gloom, a magazine of fate,
Ferment ; till, by the touch ethereal roused.
The dash of clouds, or irritating war
Of fighting winds, while all is calm below,
They furious spring. A boding silence reigns,
Dread through the dun expanse ; save the dull sound
That from the mountain, previous to the storm.
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood,
And shakes the forest -leaf without a breath.
Prone, to the lowest vale, the aerial tribes
Descend : the tempest-loving raven scarce
Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze
The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens
Cast a deploring eye ; by man forsook,
Who to tlie crowded cottage hies him fast,
Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave.

'Tis listening fear, and dumb amazement all :
When to the startled eye the sudden glance
Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud ;
And following slower, in explosion vast,

SUMMER, 68

The thunder raises his tremendous voice.
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempest growls ; but as it nearer comes
And rolk its awful burden on the wind,
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds — till overhead a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide, then shuts
And opens wider, shuts and opens still
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.
Follows the loosened aggravated roar,
Enlarging, deepening, mingling, peal on peal
Crushed horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.

Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail.
Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds
Pour a whole flood ; and yet, its flame unquenched,
The unconquerable lightning struggles through.
Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls.
And fires the mountains with redoubled rage.
Black from the stroke, above, the smoldering pine
Stands a shattered trunk ; and, stretched below,
A lifeless group the blasted cattle lie :
Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look
They wore alive, and ruminating still
In fancy's eye ; and there the frowning bull.
And ox half -raised. Struck on the castled clifF,
The venerable tower and spiry fane
Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods
Start at the flash, and from their deep recess.
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake.
Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud
The repercussive roar ; with mighty crush,
Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks
Of Punmaen Maur heaped hideous to the sky,
Tumble the smitten clifl's ; and Snowdon's peak,
Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load.
Fiir-st'en, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze,
And Thule bellcnvs thi'ough her utmost isles.

Cuilt hears appalled, with deeply troubled thought
AimI yet not always on tiie guilty head
Descends the fatal Hush. Young Celadon

70 SUMMER.

And his Amelia were a matchless pair ;

With equal virtue formed, and equal grace,

The same, distinguished by their sex alone :

Hers the mild luster of the blooming morn.

And his the radiance of the risen day.

They loved : but such their guileless passion wai

As in the dawn of time informed the heart

Of innocence, and undissembling truth.

'Twas friendship heightened by the mutual wish^

The enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow,

Beamed from the mutual eye. Devoting all

To love, each was to each a dearer self ;

Supremely happy in the awakened power

Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades,

Still in harmonious intercourse they lived

The rural day, and talked the flowing heart,

Or sighed and looked unutterable things.

So passed their life, a clear united stream,

By care unruffled ; till, in evil hour,

The tempest caught them on the tender walk,

Heedless how far, and where its mazes strayed,

While, with eacli other blessed, creative love

Still bade eternal Eden smile around.

Heavy with instant fate, her bosom heaved

Unwonted sighs, and stealing oft a look

Of the big gloom, on Celadon her eye

Fell tearful, wetting her disordered cheek.

In vain assured love, and confidence

In Heaven, repressed her fear ; it grew, and shook

Her frame near dissolution. He perceived

The unequal conflict ; and, as angels look

On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed.

With love illumined high. "Fear not," he said,

" Sweet innocence I thou stranger to offense.

And inward storm ! He who yon skies involves

In frowns of darkness, ever smiles on thee

With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft

That wastes at midnight, or the undreaded hour

Of noon, flies harmless ; and that very voice

Which thunders terror through the guilty heart,

SUMMER. 71

With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine.
'Tis safety to be near thee sure, and thus
To clasp perfection ' " From his void embrace,
Mysterious Heaven ' that moment, to the ground,
A blackened corse, was struck the beauteous maid
But who can paint the lover, as he stood,
Pierced by severe amazement, hating life.
Speechless, and fixed in all the death of woe !
So, faint resemblance, on the marble tomb
The well-dissembled mourner stooping stands,
Forever silent, and forever sad.

As from the face of heaven the shattered clouds
Tumultuous rove, the interminable sky
Sublimer swells, and o'er the world expands
A purer azure. Nature, from the storm,
Shmes out afresh ; and through the lightened air
A higher luster and a clearer calm.
Diffusive, tremble ; while, as if in sign
Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy.
Set off abundant by the yellow ray,
Invests the fields, yet dropping from distress.

'Tis beauty all, and grateful song around.
Joined to the low of kine, and numerous bleat
Of flocks thick-nibbling through the clover vale.
And shall the hymn be marred by thankless man,
Most-favored ; who with voice articulate
Should lead the chorus of this lower world?
Shall he, so soon forgetful of the hand
That hushed the thunder, and serenes the sky.
Extinguished feel that spark the tempest waked,
That sense of powers exceeding far his own.
Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears ?

Cheered by the milder beam, the sprightly youth
Speeds to the well-known j)ooI, whos(^ crystal depth
A sandy bottom slujws. Awhile he stands
Gazing the inverted landscape, half afraid
To meditate the blue j)rofound below ;
Then plunges headhjng down the circling flood.
His ebon tresses and his rosy cheek
Instant emerge ; and through the obedient wave,

78 SUMMER,

At. each short breathing by his lip repelled,
With arms and legs according well, lie makes,
As humor leads, an easy-winding path ;
While, from his polished sides, a dewy light
Effuses on the pleased spectators round.

This is the purest exercise of health,
The kind refresher of the summer heats ;
Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood;
Would I weak-shivering linger on the brink.
Thus life redoubles ; and is oft preserved.
By the bold swimmer, in the swift illapse
Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs
Knit into force ; and the same Roman arm
That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth,
First learned, while tender, to subdue the wave.
Even, from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a secret sympathetic aid.

Close in the covert of an hazel copse,
Where winded into pleasing solitudes
Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon sat ;
Pensive, and pierced M-ith love's delightful pangs.
There to the stream that down the distant rocks
Hoarse-murmuring fell, and plaintive breeze that

played
Among the bending willows, falsely he
Of Musidora's cruelty complained.
She felt his flame ; but deep within her breast,
In bashful coyness, or in maiden pride,
The soft return concealed — save when it stole
In sidelong glances from her downcast eye.
Or from her swelling soul in stifled sighs.
Touched by the scene, no stranger to his vows.
He framed a melting lay, to try her heart ;
And, if an infant passion struggled there,
To call that passion forth. Thrice happy swain 1
A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate
Of mighty monarchs, then decided thine.
For, lo ! conducted by the laughing loves,
This cool retreat his Musidora sought :
Warm in her cheek the sultry season glowed ;

SUMMER. 73

And, robed in loose array, she came to bathe

Her fervent limbs in the refreshing stream.

What shall he do ? In sweet confusion lost,

And dubious flutterings, he awhile remained.

A pure ingenuous elegance of soul,

A delicate refinement known to few.

Perplexed his breast, and urged him to retire :

But love forbade. Ye prudes in virtue, say,

Say, ye severest, what would you have done ?

Meantime, this fairer nymph than ever blest

Arcadian stream, with timid eye around

The banks surveying, stripped her beauteous limba,

To taste the lucid coolness of the flood.

All ! then, not Paris on the piny top

Of Ida panted stronger, when aside

The rival goddesses the veil divine

Cast unconfinc'd, and gave him all their charms,

Than, Damon, thou ; as from the snowy leg.

And slender foot, the inverted silk she drew ;

As the soft touch dissolved the virgin zone ;

And, through the parting robe, the alternate breast

With youth wild-throbbing, on thy lawless gaze

In full luxuriance rose. But, desperate youth,

How durst thou risk the soul distracting view.

As from her naked limbs, of glowing white.

Harmonious swelled by Nature's finest hand.

In folds loose floating fell the fainter lawn,

And fair-exposed she stood — shrunk from herself.

With fancy blushing, at the doubtful breeze

Alarmed, and starting like the fearful fawn ?

'I'hen to the flood she rushed : the parted flood

Its lovely guest with closing waves received ;

And every beauty s(jftoning, every grace

Flushing anew, a mellow luster shed —

Ah shines the lily through the crystal mild.

Or as the rose amid the nioriiiiig dew,

Fresh from Aurora's hand, more sweetly glows.

While thus sh<' wantoned, now beneath liie wave

Ijiil ill-con(!( ale<i, and now with streaming locks,

riiat half embraced her in u humid veil,

74 SUMMER.

Rising again, the latent Damon drew

►Such maddening draughts of beauty to the soui,

As for awhile o'erwhelmed his raptured thought

With luxury too daring. Checked, at last.

By love's respectful modesty, he deemed

The theft profane, if ought profane to love

Can e'er be deemed, and struggling from the shade.

With headlong fury fled ; but first these lines,

Traced by his ready pencil, on the bank

With trembling hand he threw ; " Bathe on, my fair.

Yet unbeheld save by the sacred eye

Of faithful love : I go to guard thy haunt ;

To keep from thy recess each vagrant foot.

And each licentious eye," With wild surprise,

As if to marble struck, devoid of sense,

A stupid moment motionless she stood *

So stands the statue that enchants the world ;

So bending tries to veil the matchless boast,

The mingled beauties of exulting Greece.

Recovering, swift she flew to find those robes

Which blissful Edc»n knew not ; and, arrayed

In careless haste, the alarming paper snatched.

But when her Damon's well-known hand she saw.

Her terrors vanisiied, and a softer train

Of mixed emotions, hard to be described.

Her sudden bosom seized : shame void of guilt.

The charming blush of innocence, esteem

And admiration of her lover's flame,

By modesty exalted. Even a sense

Of self-approving beauty stole across

Her busy thought. At length, a tendei calm

Hushed by degrees the tumult cf hei soul \

And on the si)rea(liiig beech, that o'er the stream

Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen

Of rural lovers this confession carved,

Which soon her Damon kissed with weeping joy -

" Dear youth ! sole judge of what these verses mean,

By fortune too much favored, but by love,

Alas ! not favored less, be still as now

Discreet ; the time may come you need not fly,''

SUMMER. 75

The sun has lost his rage : his downward orb
Shoots nothing now but animating warmth,
And vital luster ; that, with various ray,
Lights up the clouds, those beauteous robes of heavei.
Incessant rolled into romantic shapes.
The dream of waking fancy ! Broad below,
Covered with ripening fruits, and swelling fast
Into the perfect year, the pregnant earth
And all her tribes rejoice. Now the soft hour
Of walking comes : for him who lonely loves
To seek the distant hills, and there converse
With Nature ; there to harmonize his lieart,
And in pathetic song to breathe around
The harmony to others. Social friends,
Attuned to happy unison of soul —
To whose exalting eye a fairer world.
Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse.
Displays its charms — whose minds are richly fraught
With philosophic stores, superior light —
And in whose breast, enthusiastic, burns
Virtue the sons of interest deem romance,
Now called abroad enjoy the falling day :
Now to the verdant Portico of woods,
To Nature's vast Lyceum forth they walk ;
By that kind School where no proud master reigns,
The full free converse of the friendly heart.
Improving and improved. Now from the world,
Sacred to sweet retirement, lovers steal,
And pour their souls in transport, which the sire
Of love approving hears, and calls it good.
Which way, Amanda, shall we bentl our course?
The choice perplexes. Wherefore should we choose *r
All is the same with thee. Say, shall we wind
Along the streams 'i or walk tlie smiling meadJ?
Or court the forest glades? or wander wild
A'nong the waving liarvests ? or ascend.
While railiant Sununcr opens all its pride.
Thy hill, delightful Shciic?* Here kt us sweep

* The old name of liichmond, ei^nifymu; in Sixou Sliiifii,,^
or Splendor.

W SUMMER.

The boundless landscape ; now the raptured eye,

Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send,

Now to the sister-hills *that skirt her plain,

To lofty Harrow now, and now to where

Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow.

In lovely contrast to this glorious view.

Calmly magnificent, then will we turn

To where the silver Thames first rural grows.

There let the feasted eye unwearied stray ;

Luxurious, there, rove through the pendant woods

That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat.

And stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks.

Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retired,

With her the pleasing partner of his heart,

The worthy Queensberry yet laments his Gay,

And polished Cornbury wooes the willing muse,f

Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames —

Fair- winding up to where the muses haunt

In Twickenham's bowers, and for their Po]>e implore

The healing god, to royal Hampton's pile.

To Clermont 8 terraced height, and Esher's groves,

Where in the sweetest solitude, embraced

By the soft windings of the silent Mole,

From courts and senates Pelham finds repose.J

Enchanting vale ! beyond whate'er the muse

Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung !

O vale of bliss ! O softly swelling hills !

On which the power of cultivation lies.

And joys to see the wonders of his toil.

Heavens ! what a goodly prospect spreads around,
Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires.
And glittering towns, and gilded streams, till all
The stretching landscape into smoke decays !
Happy Britannia ! where the Queen of Arts,
Inspiring vigor. Liberty abroad

* Highgate and Hampslcad.

f Henry, Lord Cornhury, son of the Earl of Clarendon.

t The Right Hon. Henry Pelham. who. from 1721 to 1743
held the omce of First Lord of tlic Treasury.

SUMMER. *n

Walks, unconfined, even to thy furthest cots,
And scatters plenty with unsparing hand.

Rich is thy soil, and merciful thy clime ;
Thy streams unfailing in the summer's drought ;
Unmatched thy guardian-oaks ; thy valleys float
With golden waves ; and on thy mountains flocks
Bleat numberless — while, roving round their sides,
Bellow the blackening herds in lusty droves.
Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rise unquelled
Against the mower's scythe. On every hand
Thy villas shine. Thy country teems with wealth ;
And property assures it to the swain,
Pleased, and unwearied, in his guarded toil.

Full are thy cities with the sons of art ;
And trade and joy, in every busy street,
Mingling are heard : even drudgery himself,
As at the car ho sweats, or dusty hues
The palace-stone, looks gay. Ihy crowded ports,
Where rising masts an endless prospect yield,
With labor burn, and echo to the shouts
Of hurried sailor, as he hearty waves
His last adieu, and, loosening every sheet,
Resigns the spreading vessel to the wind.

Bold, firm, and graceful, are thy generous youth.
By hardship sinewed, and by danger fired.
Scattering the nations where they go ; and first,
Or on the listed plain, or stormy seas.
Mild are thy glories too, as o'er the plans
Of thriving peaee thy thoughtful sires preside ;
In genius, and substantial IcaiMiing, high ;
F<ir every virtue, every worth, renowned :
Sincere, |>lain-hearted, hospitable, kind ;
Yet like the mustering tliun<l('r when provoked,
The dread of tyrants, and the sc^lc resource
Of those that under grim oppression groan.

Thy sons of glory many I Alfred thine,
In whom the splendor of lieroic war,
And more henjic jx-ace, wlii-n governed well.
Combine ; whose hallowed name the virtues saiut,
\\\\ his own muses luve — the; best of kings.

YB SUMMER.

With him thy Edwards and thy Henrys shine,

Names dear to fame ; the first who deep impressed

On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms,

That awes her genius still. In statesmen thou,

And patriots, fertile. Thine a steady More,

Who, with a generous though mistaken zeal.

Withstood a brutal tyrant's useful rage.

Like Cato firm, like Aristides just,

Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor —

A dauntless soul erect, who smiled on death.

Frugal and wise, a Walsingham is thine ;

A Drake, who made thee mistress of the deep.

And bore thy name in thunder round the world.

Then flamed thy spirit high : but who can speak

The numerous worthies of the maiden-reign ?

In Raleigh mark their every glory mixed ;

Raleigh, the scourge of Spain ! whose breast with all

The sage, the patriot, and the hero burned.

Nor sunk his vigor when a coward-reign

The warrior fettered, and at last resigned,

To glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe.

Then, active still and unresi rained, his mind

Explored the vast extent of ages past.

And with his prison-hours wiriched the world ;

Yet found no times, in all the long research.

So glorious, or so base, as those he proved,

In which he conquered, and in which he bled.

Nor can the muse the gallant Sidney pass,

The plume of war ! with early laurels crowned.

The lover's myrtle, and the poet's bay.

A Hampden too is thine, illustrious land,

Wise, strenuous, firm, of unsubmitting soiri,

Who stemmed the torrents of a downward age

To slavery prone, and bade thee rise again.

In all thy native pomp of freedom bold.

Bright, at his call, thy age of men effulged ;

Of men on whom late time a kindling eye

Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read.

Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew

The grave where Russell lies : whose tempered blood,

SUMMER TO

With calmest cheerfulness for thee resigned,

Stained the sad annals of a giddy reign —

Aiming at lawless power, though meanly sunk

In loose mglorious luxury. With him

His friend, the British Cassius,* fearless bled ;

Of high determined spirit, roughly brave,

By ancient learning to the enlightened love

Of ancient freedom warmed. Fair thy renown

In awful sages and in noble bards j

Soon as the light of dawning science spread

Her orient ray, and waked the muses' song.

Thine is a Bacon, hapless in his choice ;

Unfit to stand the civil storm of state,

And through the smooth barbarit}^ of courts.

With firm but pliant virtue, forward still

To urge his course. Him for the studious shade

King Nature formed, deep, compreliensive, clear.

Exact, and elegant ; in one rich soul,

Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully joined.

The great deliverer he ! who from the gloom

Of cloistered monks, and jargon-teaching schoola

Led forth the true Philosophy, there long

Held in the magic chain of words and forms.

And definitions void : he led her forth,

Daughter of heaven ! that slow-ascending still,

Investigating sure the chain of things,

With radiant finger points to heaven again.

The generous Ashley thine, the friend of man ;

Who scanned his nature with a brother's eye.

His weakness prompt to shade, to raise his aim,

To touch the finer movements of the mind.

And with the moral beauty charm the heart.

Why need I name thy Boyle, whose pious search.

Amid the dark recesses of his works

The great Creator sought? And why thy Locke,

Who made the whole internal world his own?

Let Newton, pure intelligence, whom God

'i'o mortals lent, to trace his hojuidless works.

From laws sublimely simple, speak thy fame;

•Algernon Sidney.

80 SUMMER.

In all philosophy. Fo: lofty sense,

Creative fancy, and inspection keen

Through the deep windings of tlie human heart,

Is not wild Shakespeare thine ami Nature's boast r

Is not each great, each amiable iiuise

Of classic ages- in thy Milton met ?

A genius universal as his theme,

Astonishing as chaos, as the bloom

Of blooming Eden fair, as Heaven sublime.

Nor shall my verse that elder bard forget,

The gentle Spenser, fancy's pleasing son,

Who, like a copious river, ]ioured his song

O'er all the mazes of eiuiuuited ground ;

Nor thee, his ancient master, laughing sage,

Chaucer, whose native manners-painting verse.

Well moralized, shines through the Gothic cloud

Of time and language o'er thy genius thrown.

May my song soften, as thy daughters I,
Britannia, hail ! for beauty is their own,
The feeling heart, simplicity of life,
And elegance^ and taste ; the faultless form,
Shaped by the hand of harmony ; the cheek.
Where the live crimson, through the native white
Soft-shooting, o'er the face diffuses bloom.
And every nameless grace ; the parted lip.
Like the red rosebud moist with morning dew.
Breathing delight \ and, under flowing jet,
Or sunny ringlets, or of circling brown.
The neck slight-siiaded, and the swelling breast ;
The look resistless, pierc'ng to the soul.
And by the soul informed, when dressed in love
She sits high-smiling in the conscious eye.

Island of bliss ! amid the subject seas
That thunder round thy i-ocky coast, set up,
At once the wonder, terror, and delight.
Of distant nations ; whose remotest shore
Can soon be shaken by the naval arm ;
Not to be shook thyself, but all assaults
Baffling, like thy hoar clift's the Joud sea-wave

O Thou by whose almighty nod the scale

SUMMER. 81

Of empires rises, or alternate falls,

Send forth the saving virtues round the land,

In bright patrol : white peace, and social love ;

The tender-looking charity, intent

On gentle deeds, and shedding tears through smiles \

Undaunted truth, and dignity of mind ;

Courage composed, and keen ; sound temperance,

Healthful in heart and look ; clear chastity.

With blushes reddening as she moves along.

Disordered at the deep regard she draws ;

Rough industry ; activity untired,

With copious life informed, and all awake ;

While in the radiant front, superior shines

That first paternal virtue, public zeal —

Who throws o'er all an equal wide survey,

And, ever musing on the common weal.

Still labors glorious with some great design.

Low walks the sun, and broadens by degrees.
Just o'er the verge of day. The shifting clouds
Assembled gay, a richly-gorgeous train,
In all their pomp attend his setting throne.
Air, earth, and ocean smile immense. And now
As if his weary chariot sought the bowers
Of Amphitrite and her tending nymphs,
(So Grecian fable sung) he dips his orb ;
Now half -immersed ; and now a golden curve
Gives one bright glance, then total disappears.

Forever running an enchanted round.
Passes the day, deceitful, vain, and void ;
As fleets the vision o'er the formful brain,
This moment hurrying wild the impassioned soul,
The next in nothing lost. 'Tis so to him,
Tlie dreamer of this earth, an idle blank :
A sight of horror to the cruel wretch
Who, all day long in sordid pleasure rolled.
Himself an useless load, has sqnan<lored vile.
Upon his s(;oundrel train, what might have cheered
A drooping family of modest wortli.
But to the generous still-improving mind,
That gives the hopeless heart to sing for joy,
6

82 SUMMER.

Diffusing kind beneficence around,
Boastless, as now descends the silent dew —
To him the long review of ordered life
Is inward rapture, only to be felt.

Confessed from yonder slow-extinguished clouda
All ether softening, sober evening takes
Her wonted station in the middle air ;
A thousand shadows at her beck. First this
She sends on earth , then that of deeper dye
Steals soft behind ; and then a deeper still,
In circle following circle, gathers round,
To close the face of things. A fresher gale
Begins to wave the wood, and stir the stream,
Sweeping with shadowy gust the fields of corn ;
While the quail clamors for his running mate.
Wide o'er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze,
A whitening shower of vegetable down
Amusive floats. The kind impartial care
Of nature naught disdains : thoughtful to feed
Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming year,
From field to field the feathered seeds she wings.

His folded flock secure, the shepherd home
Hies, merry-hearted ; and by turns relieves
The ruddy milkmaid of her brimming pail ;
The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart.
Unknowing what the joy-mixed anguish means,
Sincerely loves, by that best language shown
Of cordial glances and obliging deeds
Onward they pass, o'er many a panting height,
And valley sunk, and unfrequented ; where
At fall of eve the fairy people throng.
In various game and revelry to pass
The summer-night, as village-stories tell.
But far about they wander from the grave
Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urged
Against his own sad breast to lift the hand
Oi impious violence. The lonely tower
Is also shunned ; whose mournful chambers hold.
So night-struck fancy dreams, the yelling ghost

Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge,

SUMMER. n

The glow-worm lights his gem ; and through the

dark,
A moving radiance twinkles. Evening yields
The world to night ; not in her winter robe
Of massy Stygian woof, but loose arrayed
In mantle dun, A faint erroneous ray.
Glanced from the imperfect surfaces of things,
Vlings half an image on the straining eye ;
While wavering woods, and villages, and streamij
And rocks, and mountain-tops, that long retained
The ascending gleam, are all one swimming scene,
Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heaven
Thence weary vision turns ; where, leading soft
The silent hours of love, with purest ray
Sweet Venus shines ; and from her genial rise
When daylight sickens, till it springs afresh,
Unrivaled reigns, the fairest lamp of night.
As thus the effulgence tremulous I drink
With cherished gaze, the lambent lightnings shoot
Across the sky ; or horizontal dart
In wondrous shapes — by feai-ful murmuring crowds
Portentous deemed. Amid the radiant orbs
That moi"e than deck, that animate the sky,
The life-infusing suns of other worlds,
Lo ! from the dread immensity of spixce
Returning, with accelerated course.
The rushing comet to the sun descends ;
And as he sinks below the shading earth.
With awful train projected o'er the heavens,
The guilty nations tremble. But, above
Those superstitious horrors that enslave
The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, the enlightened few,
Whose go<llike minds philosophy exalts.
The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy
Divinely great : they in their powers exult.
That wondrous force of thought which mounting

spurns
This dusky spot and measures all the sky.
While from his far excursion through the wilds

84 SUMMEk.

Of barren ether, faithful to his time,

They see the blazing wonder rise anew,

In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent

To work the will of all-sustaining Love ;

From his huge vapor}^ train perhaps to shake

Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs

Through which his long ellipsis winds — perhaps

To lend new fuel to declining suns,

To light up worlds, and feed the eternal fire.

With thee, serene philosophy, with thee.
And thy bright garland, let me crown my song !
Eifusive source of evidence, and truth !
A luster shedding o'er the ennobled mind,
Stronger than summer-noon ; and pure as that
Whose mild vibrations soothe the parted soul,
New to the dawnmg of celestial day.
Hence through her nourished powers, enlarged by

thee.
She springs aloft, with elevated pride,
Above the tangling mass of low desires
That bind the fluttering crowd ; and, angel-winged,
The heights of science and of virtue gains.
Where all is calm and clear : with nature round.
Or in the starry regions, or the abyss.
To reason's and to fancy's eye displayed:
The first up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of causes and effects to Him,
Tlie world producing Essence, who alone
Possesses being ; while the last receives
The whole magnificence of heaven and earth.
And every beauty, delicate or bold,
Obvious or more remote, with livelier sense,
Diffusive painted on the rapid mind.

Tutored by thee, hence poetry exalts
Her voice to ages; and informs the page
With music, i»nage, sentiment, and thought.
Never to die ! the treasure of mankind,
Their highest h'onor, and their truest joy !

Witliout thee, what were unenlightened man?
A aavagti f'*aming through the woods and nilds,

SUMMER. 85

In quest of prey; and with the unfashioned fur

Rough-clad ; devoid of every liner art,

And elegance of life. Nor happiness

Domestic, mixed of tenderness and care,

Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss,

Nor guardian law were his ; nor various skiU

To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool

Mechanic ; nor the heaven-conduct od prow

Of navigation bold, that fearless braves

The burning line or dares the wintry pole,

Mother severe of infinite delights !

Nothing, save rapine, indolence, and guile.

And woes on woes, a still-revolving train !

Whose horrid circle had made human life

Than non-existence worse : but, taught by thee^

Ours are the plans of policy and peace ;

To live like brothers, and conjunctive all

Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds

Ply the tough oar, philosophy directs

The ruling helm ; or, like the liberal breath

Of potent heaven, invisible, the sail

Swells out, and bears the inferior world along.

Nor to this evanescent speck of earth
Poorly confined — the radiant tracts on high
Are here exalted range ; intent to gaze
Creation tlirough ; and, from that full complex
Of never-ending wonders, to conceive
Of the Sole Being right, who s])oke the word,
And Nature moved complete. Witli inward view^
Thence on the ideal kingdom swift slio turns
Her eye ; and instant, at her powerful glance,
The obedient |ihantoms vanish or apjx-ar ;
Compound, divide, and into order shift,
Each to his rank, from i)lain perception up
To the fair forms of fancy's Hcc'ting train ;
To reason then, <leducing truth froin truth,
And notion quite abstract ; where first begins
The world of spirits, action all, and life
I 'nfetfnred, arul unmixed. But here the cloud.
'■^ ■ w\\\< Internal Providence, sits deep.

A utumn:

Enough for us to know that this dark state,

In wayward passions lost, and vain pursuits,

This infancy of being, cannot prove

The final issue of the works of God,

By boundless Love and perfect Wisdom formed,

And ever rising with the rising mind.

AUTUMN.

Argument. — The subject proposed — Addressed to Mr
Onslow — A prospect of the fields ready for harvest — Re
flections in praise of industry, raised by that view — Reap
ing — A tale reJative to it — A harvest storm — Shootin|
and hunting ; their barbarity — A ludicrous account of fox
hunting — A view of an orchard — Wall fruit — A vineyard

— A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part o'
Autumn : wlience a digression, inquiring into llic rise o^
fountains and rivers — Birds of season considered, that now
shift their habitation — The prodigious number of then;
that cover ihe northern and western isles of Scotland —
Hence a view of the country — A prospect of the discolored,
fading woods — After a gentle dusky day, moonlight —
Autumnal meteors — Morning: to wiiich succeeds a calm,
pure, sunshiny day, such as usually shuts up the season —
The harvest being gathered in, the country dissolved in icy

— The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philosophical
country life.

Crowned with the sickle and the wheatcn sheaf,
While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain.
Comes jovial on, the Doric reed once more.
Well pleased, I tune. Whate'er the wintry frost
Nitrous prepared — the various-blossomed Spring
Put in white promise forth — and Sumnior suns
Concocted strong — rush boundless now to view,
Full perfect all, and swell my glorious theme,
Onslow ! * the muse, ambitious of thy name,
To grace, inspire, and dignify her song,

*Arfliur Onslow, second son of Sir Cliarlcs Oiislow He wac
fleeted Speaker of the House of V- )\\v\\c\\\- j;; K^i,

A UTUMN. fH

Would from the public voice thy gentle ear
Awhile engage. Thy noble cares she knows,
The patriot virtues that distend thy thought,
Spread on thy front, and in thy bosom glow ;
While listening senates hang upon thy tongue,
Devolving through the maze of eloquence
A roll of periods sweeter than her song.
But she too pants for public virtue ; she,
Though weak of power yet strong in ardent will.
Whene'er her country rushes on her heart.
Assumes a bolder note, and fondly tries
To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame.

When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days,
Anti Libra weighs in equal scales the year.
From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence shook
Of parting Summer, a serener blue,
With golden light enlivened, wide invests
The happy world. Attempered suns arise.
Sweet-beamed, and shedding oft through lucid clouds
A pleasing calm ; while broad, and brown, below
Extensive harvests hang the heavy head.
Rich, silent, deep, they stand ; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain;
A calm of plenty ! till the ruffled air
Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow.
Rent is the fleecy mantle of tlie sky ;
The clouds fly different ; and the sudden sun
iiy fits effulgent gilds the illumined field,
And black by fitstlie sliadows sweep along.
A gayly-checkered, heart-expanding view,
Far as the circling eye can shoot around.
Unbounded tossing in a flood of corn.

These are thy bles.-sings, industry ! rough power t
Whom labor still attends, and sweat, and pain ;
Yet the kind source of every gentle art,
And all the soft civility of life :
Rais<'r of human kind ! by Nature cast.
Naked, and hcljiless, out aini<i the woods
Atn1 wilds, to rude inclement elements ;
With various seeds of art deep in the mind

88 A VTUMN.

Implanted — and profusely poured around

Materials infinite ; but idle all.

Still unexerted, in the unconscious breast,

Slept the lethargic powers ; corruption still,

Voracious, swallowed what the liberal hand

Of bounty scattered o'er the savage year ;

And still the sad barbarian, roving, mixed

With beasts of prey ; or for his acorn meal

Fought the fierce tusky boar. A shivering wretch 1

Agliast and comfortless when the black north,

With Winter charged, let the mixed tempest fly,

Hail, rain, and snow, and bitter breathing frost —

Then to the shelter of the hut he fled ;

And the wild season, sordid, pined away.

For home he had not ; home is the resort

Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where.

Supporting and supported, polished friends.

And dear relations, mingle into bliss.

But this the rugged savage never felt.

Even desolate in crowds ; and thus his days

Rolled heavy, dark, and unenjoyed, along :

A waste of time ! till industry approached,

And roused him from his miserable sloth ;

His faculties unfolded ; pointed out

Where lavish Nature the directing hand

Of art demanded ; showed him how to raise

His feeble force by the mechanic powers ;

To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth,

On what to turn the piercing rage of fire.

On what the torrent, and the gathered blast,

Gave the tall ancient forest to his ax ;

Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone,

Till by degrees the finished fabric rose ;

Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur,

And wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm,

Or bright in glossy silk, and flowing lawn ;

With wholesome viands filled his tabh', poured

The generous glass around, inspired to wake

The life-refining soul of decent wit :

Nor stopped at barren bare necessity j

A UTUMN. 80

But, still advancing bolder, led him on
To pomp, to pleasure, elegance, and grace ;
And, breathing high ambition through his soul.
Set science, wisdom, glory, in his view.
And bade him be the lord of all below.

Then gathering men their natural powers combined,
And formed a public ; to the general good
Submitting, aiming^ and conducting all.
For this the patriot-council met, the full,
The free, and fairly represented whole ;
For this they planned the holy guardian laws,
Distinguished orders, animated arts,
And with joint force oppression chaining, set
Imperial justice at the helm — yet still
To them accountable ; nor slavish dreamed
That toiling millions must resign their weal,
And all the honey of their search, to sucli
As for themselves alone themselves have raised.

Hence every form of cultivated life
In order set, protected, and inspired,
Into perfection wrought. Uniting all,
Society grew numerous, high, polite.
And happy. Nurse of art ! tlie city reared
In beauteous pride her tower-encircled head ;
And, stretching street on street, by thousands drew,
From twining woody haunts, or tlie tougli yew
To bows strong-straining, h(;r asjnriiig sons.

Then commerce brought into the public walk
The busy merchant ; the big wai-ehouse built ;
Raised the strong crane ; choked up the loaded street
With foreign plenty ; and thy stream, O Thames,
Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of iloods !
Choice for his grand resort. On either hand.
Like a long wintry forest, groves of masts
Shot up their spires ; the In'llying sheet between
Possessed the breezy void ; the sooty hulk
Steered sluggish on ; the splendid l)arge along
Rowed regular to liarnioDv ; around,
The boat, light-skimming, si retched its oary wings _
While deep the various voice of fervent toil

•0 A UTUMN.

From bank to bank increased ; whence, ribbed with

oak,
To bear the British thunder, black and bold
The roaring vessel rushed into the main.

Then too the pillared dome, magnific, heaved
Its ample roof ; and luxury within
Poured out her glittering stores ; the canvaf smooth.
With glowing life protuberant, to the view
Embodied rose ; the statue seemed to breathe
And soften into flesh, beneath the touch
Of forming art, imagination-flushed.

All is the gift of industry ; whate'er
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life
Delightful, Pensive Winter, cheered by him,
Sits at the social fire, and happy hears
The excluded tempest idly rave along ;
His hardened fingers deck the gaudy Spring ;
Without him. Summer were an arid waste ;
Nor to the Autumnal months could thus transmit
Those full, mature, immeasurable stores,
That, waving round, recall my wandering song.

Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky.
And, unperceived, unfolds the spreading day,
Before the ripened field the reapers stand,
In fair array ; each by the lass he loves.
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate
By nameless gentle offices her toil.
At once they stoop and swell the lusty sheaves ;
While through their cheerful band the rural talk.
The rural scandal, and the rural jest,
Fly hamilcss, to deceive the tedious time.
And steal unfelt the sultry hours away.
Behind the master walks ; builds up the shocks ,
And, conscious, glancing oft on every side
His sated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners spread around ; and here and there.
Spike after sj)ike, their scanty harvc,st pick.
Be not too narrow, husbandmen ! but fling
From the full sheaf, with charitable stealth,
The libera), handful. Think, oh grateful think !

A VTUMN. 01

How good the God of Harvest is to you ;
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields —
While these unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask their humble dole. The various turns
Of fortune ponder ; that your sons may want
What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give.

The lovely young Lavinia once had friends ;
And fortune smiled, deceitful, on her birth.
For, in her helpless years deprived of all,
Of every stay save innocence and heaven,
She, with her widowed mother, feeble, old,
And poor, lived in a cottage, far retired
Among the windings of a woody vale ;
By solitude and deep surrounding shades.
But more by bashful modesty, concealed.
Together thus they shunned the cruel scorn
Which virtue, sunk to poverty, would meet
From giddy fashion and low-minded pride ;
Almost on Nature's common bounty fed.
Like the gay birds that sung them to repose.
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare.
Her form was fresher than the morning rose,
When the dew wets its leaves ; unstained and pur^
As is the lily, or the mountain snow.
The modest virtues mingled in her eyes.
Still on the ground dejected, darting all
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers ;
Or when the mournful tale her mother told,
Of what her faithless fortune promised once,
Thrilled in her thought, they, like the dewy star
Of evening, shone in tears. A native grace
Sat fair- proportioned on her polished limbs,
Veiled in a simj>le robe, their best attire.
Beyond the pomp of dress ; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament.
But is when unadorned adorned the most.
Tlioughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self,
Rei'luse amid the close-eiribowering woods.
As in the hollow breast of Apennine,

dd A UTUMN.

Beneath the shelter of encircling hills,
A myrtle rises, far from human eye,
And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild.
So flourished blooming, and unseen by all.
The sweet Lavinia ; till, at length, compelled
By strong necessity's supreme command.
With smiling patience in her looks, she went
To glean Palemon's fields. * The pride of swains
Palemon was, the generous, and the rich ;
Who led the rural life in all its joy
And elegance, such as Arcadian song
Transmits from ancient, uncorrupted times —
When tyrant custom had not shackled man,
But free to follow nature was the mode.
He then, his fancy with autumnal scenes
Amusing, chanced beside his reaper-train
To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye ;
Unconscious of her power, and turning quick
With unaffected blushes from his gaze :
He saw her charming, but he saw not half
The charms her downcast modesty concealed.
That very moment love and chaste desire
Sprung in his bosom, to himself unknown ;
For still the world prevailed, and its dread laugh.
Which scarce the firm philosopher can scorn,
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field ;
And thus in secret to his soul he sighed :
" What pity ! that so delicate a form.
By beauty kindled, where enlivening sense
And more than vulgar goodness seem to dwell.
Should be devoted to the rude embrace
Of some indecent clown ! She looks, methinks.
Of old Acasto's line ; and to my mind
Recalls that patron of my happy life.
From whom my liberal fortune took its rise ;
Now to the dust gone down — his houses, lands.
And once fair-spreading family, dissolved.
'Tis said that in some lone obscure retreat.
Urged by remembrance sad, and decent pride,
♦ The whole of this puhsa^u is by I'ope.

AUTUMN. 93

Far from those scenes which knew their better days,
His aged widow and his daughter live,
Whom yet my fruitless search could never find.
Romantic wish, would this the daughter were ! "

When, strict inquiring, from herself he found
She was the sauir>, the daughter of his friend,
Of bountiful Acasto — who can speak
The mingled passions that surprised his heart.
And through his nerves in shivering tran!^)ort ran :
Then blazed his smothered flame, avowed and bold :
And as he viewed her, ardent, o'er and o'er.
Love, gratitude, and pity, wept at once.
Confused, and frightened at his sudden tears,
Her rising beauties flushed a higher bloom,
As thus Palemon, passionate and just.
Poured out the pious rapture of his soid :

"And art thou then Acasto's dear remains ?
She whom my restless gratitude has sought
So long in vain ? O yes ! the very same.
The softened image of my noble friend ;
Alive, his every feature, every look,
More elegantly touched. Sweeter than Spring !
Thou sole surviving blossom from the root
That nourished up my fortune, say, ah where.
In what sequestered desert, hast thou drawn
The kindest aspect of delighted Heaven ?
Into such beauty spread, and blown so fair ;
Though poverty's cold wind, and crushing rain.
Beat keen, and heavy, on thy tender years !
Oh let me now, into a richer soil,

Transplant thee safe ! where vernal suns and showers
Diffuse their warmest, largest influtsnce ;
And of my garden be the pride and joy !
It, ill befits tiiec, oh, it ill befits
Acasto's daughter — his whose open stores,
Though vast, wert; little to his amph; heart,
'i'lie father of a country, thus to pick
The very refuse of tliose harvest -fields
Which from his bount(!ous friendship I enjoy.
Then throw that sliameful pittance from thy hand,

©4 A UTUMN.

But ill applied to such a rugged task :
The fields, the master, all, my fair, are thine ;
If to the various blessings which thy house
Has on me lavished, thou wilt add that bliss,
That dearest bliss, the power of blessing thee ! "

Here ceased the youth : yet still his speaking
Expressed the sacred triumph of his soul.
With conscious virtue, gratitude, and love,
Above the vulgar joy divinely raised.
Nor waited he reply. Won by the charm
Of goodness irresistible, and all
In sweet disorder lost, she blushed consent.
The news immediate to her mother brought.
While, pierced with anxious thought, she pined away
The lonely moments for Lavinia's fate —
Amazed, and scarce believing what she heard,
Joy seized her withered veins, and one bright gleam
Of setting life shone on her evening-hours :
Not less enraptured than the happy pair :
Who flourished long in tender bliss, and reared
A numerous offspring, lovely like themselves.
And good, the grace of all the country round.

Defeating oft the labors of the year.
The sultry south collects a potent blast.
At first,the groves are scarcely seen to stir
Their trembling tops, and a still murmur runs
Along the soft-inclining fields of corn ;
But as the aerial tempest fuller swells.
And in one mighty stream, invisible.
Immense, the whole excited atmosphere
Impetuous rushes o'er the sounding world.
Strained to the root, the stooping forest pours
A rustling shower of yet untimely loaves.
High-beat, the circling mountains eddy in,
From the bare wild, the dissipated storm.
And send it in a torrent down the vale.
Exposed, and naked, to its utmost rage.
Through all th(> sea of harvest rolling round,
The billowy plain floats wide ; nor can evade,
Though pliant to the blast, its seizing force --

AUTUMff. M

Or whirled in air, or into vacant chaff
Shook waste. And sometimes too a burst of rain,
Swept from the black horizon, broad, descends
In one continuous flood. Still over head
The mingling tempest waves its gloom, and still
The deluge deepens ; till the fields around
Lie sunk, and flatted, in the sordid wave.
Sudden, the ditches swell ; the meadows swim.
Red, from the hills, innumerable streams
Tumultuous roar ; and high above its bank
The river lift ; before whose rushing tide,
Herds, flocks, and harvests, cottages, and swaiiw.
Roll mingled down : all that the winds had sparvc
In one wild moment ruined ; the big hopes.
And well-earned treasures, of the painful vear.
Fled to some eminence, the husbandman.
Helpless, beholds the miserable wreck
Driving along ; his drowning ox at once
Descending, with his labors scattered round,
He sees ; and instant o'er his suivering thought
Comes Winter unprovided, and a train
Of clamant children dear. Ye masters, then.
Be mindful of the rough laborious hand
That sinks you soft in elegance and ease;
He mindful of those limbs, in russet clad,
Whoe toil to youis. )« warmth and graceful pride
And, oil, be minafulof that sparing board
Which covers yours with luxury profuse.
Makes youi giass sparkle, and your sense rejoice I
Xor crijelly demaiid wliat the deep rains
And all-invoiving winds have swept away.

Here the ruda chirnor of the sportsman's joy,
The (run fast-thundering, and tl)e winded horn.
Would tt-nipt the muse to sin* the rural game :
How, in his mid-career, the sj>aniel struck,
Stiff, by the taintiMl gale, with oj)en nose,
Outstreiched, an<l finely sensible, draws full.
Fearful, and cautious, on the latent prey ;
As in the sun the circling covey bas'k
Their varied plumes, ;ind, watchful every way,

66 A UTUMN.

Through the rough stubble turn the secret eye.
Caught in the meshy snare, in vain they beat
Their idle wings, entangled more and more :
Nor on the surges of the boundless air,
Though borne triumphant, are they safe ; the gun,
Glanced just and sudden from the fowler's eye,
O'ertakes their sounding pinions ; and, again,
Immediate brings them from the towering wing,
Dead to the ground ; or drives them wide-dispersedi
Wounded, and wheeling various, down the wind.

These are not subjects for the peaceful muse,
Nor wiH she stain with such her spotless song ;
Then most delighted, when she social sees
The most mixed animal-creation round
Alive and happy, 'Tis not joy to her.
This falsely-cheerful, barbarous game of death ;
This rage of pleasure, which the restless youth
Awakes, impatient, with the gleaming morn ;
When beasts of prey retire, that all night long,
Urged by necessity, had ranged the dark.
As if their conscious ravage shunned the light.
Ashamed. Not so the steady tyrant man,
Who with the thoughtless insolence of power
Inflamed, beyond the most infuriate wrath
Of the worst monster that e'er roamed the wastes
For sport alone pursues the cruel chase.
Amid the beamings of the gentle days.
Upbraid, ye ravening tribes, oui wanton rage,
For hunger kindles you, and lawless want ;
iiiit lavish fed, in Nature's bounty rolled.
To joy at anguish, and delight in blood,
Is what your horrid bosoms never knew.

Poor is the triumph o'er the timid hare !
Scared from the corn, and now to some lone seat
Retired : the rushy fen ; the ragged furze,
Stretched o'er the stony heath ; the stubble chap

ped ;
The thistly lawn ; the thick entangled broom.
Of the same friendly hue, the withered fern ;
The fallow ground laid open to the sun,

AUTUMM. I

Concoctive ; and the nodding sandy bank.
Hung o'er the mazes of the mountain brook.
Vain is her best precaution ; though she sits
Concealed, with folded ears ; unsleeping eye8,
By Nature raised to take the horizon in ;
And head couched close betwixt her hairy feet.
In act to spring away. The scented dew
Betrays her early labyrinth ; and deep,
In scattered sullen openings, far behind,
With every breeze she hears the coming storm.
But nearer, and more frequent, as it loads
The sighing gale, she springs amazed, and all
The savage soul of game is up at once :
The pack full-opening, various ; the shrill horn,
Resounded from the hills ; the neighing steed.
Wild for the chase ; and the loud hunter's shout
O'er a weak, harmless, flying creature, all
.Mixed in mad tumult, and discordant joy.

The stag too, singled from the herd, where long
Me ranged the branching monarch of the shades.
Before the tempest drives. At first, in speed
He, sprightly, puts his faith ; and, roused by fear,
Gives all his swift aerial soul to flight.
Against the breeze he darts, that way the more
To leave the lessening murderous cry behind :
Deception short ! though fleeter than the winds
Blown o'er the keen-aired mountain by the north,
He bursts the thickets, glances through the gladea.
And plunges deep into the wildest wood —
If slow, yet sure, adhesive to the track
Hot-steaming, up behind him come again
The inliuman roiit, and from the shady depth
Expel him, circling through his every shift.
He sweeps the forest oft ; and sobbing sees
The glades, mild opening to the golden day,
Wher(!, in kind contest, with his l)ntliiiic friends
He wont to struggle, or his loves enjoy.
Oft in the fuU-tlesceiiding flood he tries
To lose the scent, and lave his Imriiiiig sides ;
v/ft Hi.'cks the h(,Td ; the watch I'lil herd, alarmed.,

18 AUTUMN.

With selfish care avoid a brother's woe.

What shall he do? His once so vivid nervee,

So full of buoyant spirit, now no more

Inspire the course ; but fainting breathless toil.

Sick, seizes on his heart : he stands at bay ;

And puts his last weak refuge in despair.

The big round tears run down his dappled face ;

He groans in anguish ; while the growling pack,

Blood-happy, hang at his fair jutting chest.

And mark his beauteous checkered sides with gore

Of this enough. But if the sylvan youth
Whose fervent blood boils into violence
Must have the chase — behold, despising flight.
The roused-up lion, resolute and slow.
Advancing full on the protended spear.
And coward-band, that circling wheel aloof.
Slunk from the cavern, and the troubled wood,
See the grim wolf — on him his shaggy foe
Vindictive fix, and let the rufiian die ;
Or, growling liorrid, as the brindled boar
Grins fell destruction, to the monster's heart
Let the dart lighten from the nervous arm.

These Britain knows not ; give, ye Britons, then
Your sportive fury, pitiless, to pour
Loose on the nightly robber of the fold :
Him, from his craggy winding haunts unearthed,
Let all the thunder of the chase pursue.
Tlirow the broad ditch behind you ; o'er the hedge
High-bound, resistless ; nor the deep morass
Refuse, but through the shaking wilderness
Pick your nice way ; into the perilous flood
Bear fearless, of the raging instinct full —
And as you ride the torrent, to the banks
Your triumph sound sonorous, running round.
From i-(K'k to rock, in circling echoes tossed ;
Then scale the mountains to their woody tops ;
Rush down the dangerous steep ; and o'er the lawi.
In fancy swallowing up the space l)et\veen,
Pour all yours))eed into tlie ra))id gatne.
For nappy he who tops the wheeling chase ;

A UTUMN. M

Has every maze evolved, and every guile
Disclosed ; who knows the merits of the pack ;
Who saw the villain seized, and dying hai'd,
Without complaint, though by a hundred mouths
Relentless torn : oh glorious he, beyond
His daring peeis ! when the retreating horn
Calls them to ghostly halls of gray renown.
With woodland honors graced ; tlie fox's fur,
Def>ending decent from thj roof ; and spread
Round the drear walls, with antic figures fierce,
The stag's large front : he then is loudest heard,
When the night staggers witli severer toils,
With feats Thessalian Centaurs never knew,
And their repeated wonders shake the dome.
But first the fueled chimney blazes wade ;
The tankards foam ; and the strong table groans
Beneath the smoking sirloin, stretched immense
From side to side ; in which, with desperate knife^
They deep incision make, and talk the while
Of England's glory, ne'er to be defaced
While hence they borrow vigor : or amain
Into the pasty plunged, at intervals.
If stomach keen can intervals allow.
Relating all the glories of the chase.
Then sated hunger bids his brother thirst
Produce the mighty bowl ; the mighty bowl.
Swelled high with fiery juice, steams liberal round
A potent gale, delicious as the breath
Of Maia to the love-sick shepherdess.
On violets diffused, while soft she hears
Her panting shepherd stealing to her arms.
Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn,
Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat
Of thirty years ; and now his honest front
Plames in the light refulgent, not afraid
Even with the vineyard's best proddce to vie.
To cheat the thirsty moments, whist a while
Walks his grave round, beneath a cloud of smoke,
Wreathed fragrant from the pipe ; or the quick dice,
In thunder leaping from the box, awake

100 A utumn:

The sounding gammon : wliile romp-loving miss
Is hauled about, in gallantry robust.
At last these puling idlenesses laid
Aside, frequent and full, the dry divan
Close in firm circle ; and set, ardent, in
For serious drinking. Nor evasion sly,
Nor sober shift, is to the puking wretch
Indulged apart ; but earnest, brimming bowls
Lave every soul, the table floating round,
And pavement, faithless to the fuddled foot.
Thus as they swim in mutual swill, the talk,
Vociferous at once from twenty tongues.
Reels fast from theme to theme ; from horses, hounda
To church or mistress, politics or ghost.
In endless mazes, intricate, perplexed.
Meantime, with sudden interruption, loud,
The impatient catch bursts from the joyous heart :
That moment, touched is each congenial soul ;
And, opening in a full-mouthed cry of joy,
The Iaugh_ the slap, the jocund curse go round ;
While, from their slumbers shook, the kenneled hounds
Mix in the music of the day again.
As when the tempest, that has vexed the deep
The dark night long, with fainter murmurs falls ;
So gradual sinks their mirth. Their feeble tongues
Unable to take up the cumbrous word.
Lie quite dissolved. Before their maudlin eyes,
See* dim, and blue, the double tapers dance,
Like the sun wading through the misty sky.
Then, sliding soft, they drop. Confused above
Glasses and bottles, pipes and gazetteers.
As if the table even itself was drunk,
Lie a wet broken scene ; and Avide, below,
Is heaped the social slaughter — where astride
The lubber powt r in filthy triumph sits.
Slumbrous, inclining still from side to side.
And steeps them drenched in potent sleej) till morn,
Perhaps some doctor, of tremendous ])auii('h,
Awful and deep, a black abyss of drink,
Outlives thein all ; and from his buried flock

A UTUMff. lot

Retiring, full of rumination sad,

lyunients the weakness of these latter times.

But if the rougher sex by this fierce sport-
Is hurried wild, let not such horrid joy
E'er stain the bosom of the British fair.
Far be the spirit of the chase from them !
Uncomely courage, unbeseeming skill.
To spring the fence, to rein the prancing steed —
The cap, the whip, the masculine attire.
In which they roughen to the sense, and all
The winning softness of their sex is lost.
In them 'tis graceful to dissolve at woe ;
With every motion, every word, to wave
Quick o'er the kindling cheek the ready blush ;
And from the smallest violence to shrink.
Unequal, then the loveliest in their fears —
And by this silent adulation, soft,
To their protection more engaging man.
Oh may their eyes no miserable sight,
Save weeping lovers, see ! a nobler game.
Through love's enchanting wiles pursued, yet fled.
In chase ambiguous. May their tender limbs
Float in the loose simplicity of dress !
And, fashioned all to harmony, alone
Know they to seize the captivated soul.
In rapture warbled from love-breathing lips ;
To teach the lute to languish ; witli smooth step,
Disclosing motion in its every charm,
To swim along, and swell the mazy dance ;
To train the foliage o'er the snowy lawn ;
To guide the pencil, turn the tuneful page ;
To lend new flavor to tlie fruitful year.
And heighten Nature's dainties ; in their race
Tc rea*" their gra(;es into sc'c<»iid life ;
To give society its liigliest taste ;
Well-ordered home, rnaji's best delight to make ;
And by submissive wisdom, modest skill.
With every gentle care-eluding art,
To raise the virtues, animate tlic bliss,
Even charm the j>ain8 to sonietliing more than joy^

lOa AUTUMl^.

And sweeten all the toils of human life ;
This be the female dignity, and praise.

Ye swains, now hasten to the hazel bank ;
Where, down yon dale, the widely-winding brook
Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array,
Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub.
Ye virgins, come. For you their latest song
The woodlands raise ; the clustering nuts for you
The lover finds amid the secret shade ;
And, where they burnish on the topmost bough.
With active vigor crushes down the tree ;
Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk,
A glossy shower, and of an ardent brown,
As are the ringlets of Melinda's hair :
Melinda, formed M'ith every graoe complete.
Yet these neglecting, above beauty wise,
And far transcending such a vulgar praise.

Hence from the busy joy-resounding fields.
In cheerful error, let us tread the maze
Of Autumn, unc( nfined ; and tasie, revived,
The breath of orchard big with bending fruit.
Obedient to the breeze and beating ray.
From the deep-loaded bough a mellow shower
Incessant melts away. The juicy pear
Lies, in a soft profusion, scattered round.
A various sweetness swells the gentle race ;
By Nature's all-refining hand prepared.
Of tempered sun, and M'ater, earth, and air,
In ever-changing composition mixed.
Such, falling frequent through the chiller night,
The fragrant stores, the wide projected heaps
Of apples, which the lusty -handed year,
Innumerous, o'er the blushing orcliard shakes.
A various s})irit, fresh, delicious, keen,
Dwells in their gelid pores ; and, active point*
The ])iercing cider for the thirsty tongue :
Thy native theme, and boon iiispirer too,
Phillips, Pomona's bard,* the se(;<)nd thou

♦ John Pliillips, the author of Hie Splendid Shilling. The

A UTUM.V. 108

Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfettered verse.
With British freedom sing the British song ;
How, from Silurian vats, high-sparkling wines
Foam in transparent floods — some strung, to cheei
The wintry revels of the laboring hind,
And tasteful some, to cool the summer hours.

In this glad season, while his sweetest beams
The sun sheds equal o'er the meekened day,
Oh lose me in the green delightful walks
Of, Dodington ! thy seat, serene, and }>lain ;
Where simple Nature reigns ; and every view.
Diffusive, spreads the pure Dorsetian downs.
In boundless prospect — yonder shagged with wood,
Here rich with harvest, and there white with flocks '
Meantime the grandeur of thy lofty dome,
Far-splendid, seizes on the ravished eye.
New beauties rise with each revolving day ;
New columns swell ; and still the fresh Spring finds
New plants to quicken, and new groves to green.
Full of thy genius all ! the muses' seat ;
Where in the secret bower, and winding walk,
For virtuous Young * and thee they twine the bay.
Here wandering oft, fired with the restless thirst
Of thy applause, I solitary court
The inspiring breeze ; and meditate the book
Of Nature, ever open — aiming thence,
Warm from the heart, to learn the moral song.
And, as I steal along the sunny wall,
Where Autumn basks, with fruit empurpled deep,
My j)leasing theme continual prompts my thought :
Presents the downy peach ; the shining plum,
With a fine bluish mist of animals
Clouded ; the ruddy nectarine ; and, dark
Beneath his amj>le leaf, the luscious fig.

work specially alludcid to abovt; is his poem entitled Cider,
written in imitation of the (jeorgiai, and publislied in 170(5.

* Wlien this panegyric was piil)IislH;(i, Young had not yet
written the Night ThoHtjliLs, hut liis poelieai rep\itation WM
fully established by the iiatire».

104 AUTUMN.

The vine too here her curling tendrils shoots ;
Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the south ;
And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky.

Turn we a moment fancy's rapid flight
To vigorous soils, and climes of fail extent ;
Where, by the potent sun elated high,
The vineyard swells refulgent on the day ;
Spreads o'er the vale ; or up the mountain climbs.
Profuse ; and drinks am:d the sunny rocks,
From cliff to cliff increase"!, the heightened blaze.
Low bend the weighty boughs. The clusters clear
Half through the foliage seen, or ardent flame,
Or shine transparent ; while perfection breathes
White o'er the turgent film the living dew,
As thus they brighten with exalted juice.
Touched into flavor by the mingling ray,
The rural youth and virgins o'er the field.
Each fond for each to cull the autumral prime,
Exulting rove, and speck the vintage nigh.
Then comes the crushing swain ; the country floats^
And foams unbounded with the mashy flood ;
That by degrees fermented, and refined,
Round the raised nations pours the cup of joy :
The claret smooth, red as the lip we press
In sparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl ;
The mellow-tasted burgundy ; and, quick
As is the wit it gives, the gay champagne.

Now, by the cool declining year condensed,
Descend the copious exhalations, checked
As up the middle sky unseen they stole.
And roll the doubling fogs around the hill.
No more the mountain, horrid, vast, sublime,
Who ])onrs a sweep of rivers from his sides,
And high between contending kingdoms rear*
The rocky long division, fills the view
With great variety ; but in a night
Of gathering vapor, from the balHed sense,
Sinks dark and dreary. Thence expanding far,
The huge dusk, gradual, swallows up the plain.
Vanish the woods. The dim-seen river seemi

A UTUMff. 101

Sullen, and slow, to roll the misty wave.
Even in the height of noon oppressed, the sun
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide-refracted ray ;
Whence glaring oft, with many a broadened orb,
He frights the nations. Indistinct on earth,
See through the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear — and, wildered, o'er the waste
The shepherd stalks gigantic ; till at last
Wreathed dun around, in deeper circles still
Successive closing, sits the general fog
Unbounded o'er the world — and, mingling thick,
A formless gray confusion covers all :
As when of old (so sung the Hebrew bard)
Light, uncollected, through the chaos urged
Its infant way ; nor order yet had drawn
His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.

These roving mists, that constant now begin
To smoke along the hilly country, these.
With weighty rains, and melted Alpine snows,
The mountain-cisterns fill, those ample stores
Of water, scooped among the hollow rocks ;
Whence gush the streams, the ceaseless fountaim

play.
And there unfailing wealth the rivers draw.
Some sages say, that, where the numerous wave,
Forever lashes the resounding shore.
Drilled through the sandy stratum, every way,
The waters with the sandy stratum rise ;
Amid whose angles infinitely strained.
They joyful leave their jaggy salts behind,
And clear and sweeten as they soak along.
Nor stops the restless fiuid, mounting still,
Though oft amidst the irriguous vale it springs ;
But to the mountain courte<l by the sand.
That leads its darkling on in faithful maze.
Far from the parent main, it boils again
Fresh into day — and all tlie glittering hill
Is bright with spouting rills. Hut hence this vaia
Amusive dream ! why should the waters love
Tu lake so far a journey to the hills,

When the sweet valleys offer to their toil

Inviting quiet, and a nearer bed ?

Or if, by blind ambition led astray,

They must aspire, why should they sudden stop

Among the broken mountain's rushy dells,

And, ere they gain its highest peak, desert

The attractive sand that charmed their course so

long ?
Besides the hard agglomerating salts,
The spoil of ages, would impervious choke
Their secret channels ; or, by slow degrees.
High as the hills protrude the swelling vales :
Old ocean too, sucked through the porous globe.
Had long ere now forsook his horrid bed.
And brought Deucalion's watery times again.
Say then, where lurk the vast eternal springs,
That, like creating Nature, lie concealed
From mortal eye, yet with their lavish stores
Refresh the globe, and all its joyous tribes ?
Oh thou pervading genius, given to man.
To trace the secrets of the dark abyss.
Oh lay the mountains bare ; and wide display
Their hidden structure to the astonished view !
Strip from the branching Alps their piny load
The huge incumbrance of horrific woods
From Asian Taurus, from Imatis stretched
Athwart the roving Tartar's sullen bounds ;
Give opening Haemus to my searching eye.
And high Olympus pouring many a stream !
Oh, from the sounding summits of tlie north,
The Dofrine Hills, through Scandinavia rolled
To furthest Lapland and the frozen main ;
From lofty Caucasus, far-seen by those
Who in the Caspian and black Euxine toil ;
From cold Riphean rocks, which the wild Russ
Believes the stony girdle * of the world :

* The Muscovites call the Riphean Mountains Wdiki
Camenypoys, that is, the great utony girdle : because they suppose
them to encompass the whole earth.

AUTUMN. 107

And all the dreadful mountains, wrapt in storm,

Whence wide Siberia draws her lonely floods

Oh sweep the eternal snows ! Hiintx o'er the deepj

That ever works beneath his sounding haso,

Bid Atlas, propping heaven, as ])oets feign,

His subterranean wonders spread ; unveil

The miny caverns, blazing on the day,

Of Abyssinia's cloud-compelling clifl's,

AjhI of the bending mountain^ of the Moon ; *

O'ertopping all these giant-sons of earth,

Let the dire Andes, from the radiant Line

Stretched to the stormy seas that thunder round

The southern pole, their hideous deeps unfold !

Amazing scene ! Behold ! the glooms disclose •

I see the rivers in their infant beds ;

Deep, deep I hear them, laboring to get free.

I see the leaning strata, artful ranged ;

The gaping fissures to receive the rains,

The melting snows, and ever-dropping fogs.

Strewed bibulous above I see the sands.

The pebbly gravel next, the layers then

Of mingled molds, of more retentive earths,

The guttered rocks and mazy-running clefts ;

That, while the stealing moisture they transmit,

Retard its motion, and for])id its waste.

Beneath the incessant weeping of '.'ijse drains,

I see the rocky siphons stretched '.):i;;ieuse.

The mighty reservoirs, of hardened chalk,

Or stiff compacted clay, capacious formed.

O'erllowing thence, the congregated stores,

The crystal treasures of the liquid worhl,

Through the stirred sands a bubbling j)assage burst ;

And welling out, around the iniihllc^ stec^p,

Or from the bottoms of the l)osomi'd hills,

In pure effusion flow. United, thus,

The exhaling sun, the vapor-burdened air,

The gelid mountains, that to rain condensed

•■ A ninne of mountains in Africa, that surroinideil ahuost
Moiioniotapa.

108 AUTUM^r.

These vapors in continual current draw,
And send them, o'er the fair-divided earth,
In bounteous rivers to the deep again,
A social commerce hold, and firm support
The full- adjusted harmony of things.

When Autumn scatters his departing gleams,
Warned of approaching Winter, gathered, play
The swallow-peop/e ; and tossed wide around,
O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift.
The feathered eddy floats : rejoicing once,
Ere to their wintry slumbers they retire ^
In clusters clung, beneath the moldering bank.
And where, un pierced by frost, the cavern sweats.
Or rather into warmer climes conveyed,
With other kindred birds of season, there
They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months
Invite them welcome back ; for, thronging, now
Innumerous wings are in commotion all.

Where the Rhine loses his majestic force
In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep
By diligence amazing, and the strong
Unconquerable hand of liberty.
The stork -assembly meets ; for many a day,
Consulting deep, and various, ere they take
Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky.
And now their route designed, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, cleaned their vigorous wings
And many a circle, many a short essay.
Wheeled round and round — in congregation full
The figured flight ascends ; and, riding high
The aerial billows, mixes with the clouds.

Or where the Northern ocean, in vast whirli.
Boils round the naked melancholy isles
Of furthest Thulfe, and the Atlantic surge
Pours in among the stormy Hebrides —
Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go?
And how the living clouds on clouds arise?
Infinite wings ! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude resounding shore, are one wild cry

AUTUMJf. 106

Here the plain harmless native his small flock,
And herd diminutive of many hues,
Tends on the little island's verdant swell,
The shepherd's sea-girt reign ; or, to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food ;
Or sweeps the fishy shore ; or treasures up
The plumage, rising full, to form the bed
Of luxury. And here awhile the muse,
High hovering o'or the broad cerulean scene.
Sees Caledonia, in romantic view :
Her airy mountains, from the waving main,
Invested with a keen diffusive sky,
Breathing the soul acute ; her forests huge,
Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old ; her azure lakes between.
Poured out extensive, and of watery wealth
Full ; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales —
With many a cool translucent brimming flood
Washed lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent stream
Whose pastoral banks first lieard my Doric reed.
With, sylvan Jed, thy tributary brook)
To where the north-inflated tempest foams
O'er Orca's* or Berubium'sf highest peak.
Nurse of a people, in misfortune's school
Trained up to hardy deeds ; soon visited
By learning, when before the Gothic rage
She took her western fliglit. A manly race.
Of unsubmitting spirit, wise and bnive ;
Who still through bleeding ages struggled hard
(As well unhappy Wallace can attest,
Great patriot hero ! ill-requited chief !)
To hold a generous undiminished state —
Too much in vain ! Hence of unequal bounds
Impatient, and by temjjting glory borne
O'er every land, foi every land tlieir life
Has flowed profuse, their piercing genius planned,
And swelled the pomp ot j)eace tlieii faithful toil :

* The Orkneys.

\ A promontory in Scotland, called the Cape of St. Andrew

11# AVtUMJ^.

As from their own clear north, in radiant fitreamfl^
Bright over Europe bursts the Boreal morn.

Oh ! is there not some patriot, in whose power
That best, that godlike luxury is placed,
Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn,
'llirough late posterity ? some, large of soul,
To cheer dejected industry, to give
A double harvest to the pining swain,
And teach the laboring hand the sweets of toil f
How, by the finest art, the native robe
To weave ; how, white as hyperborean snow,
'i^o form the lucid lawn ; with venturous oar
How to dash wide the billow ; nor look on,
Shamefully passive, while Batavian fleets
Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms,
That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores ;
Mow all-enlivening trade to rouse, and wing
The prosperous sail, from every growing port,
Uninjured, round the sea-encircled globe ;
And thus, in soul united as in name,
Bid Britain reign the mistress of the deep ?

Yes, there are such. And full on thee, Argyle,*
Her hope, her stay, her darling, and her boast.
From her first patriots and her heroes sprung.
Thy fond-imploring country turns her eye ;
In thee, with all a mothei''s trium})h, sees
Her every virtue, every grace combined.
Her genius, wisdom, her engaging turn.
Her pride of honor, and her courage tried.
Calm, and intrepid, in the very throat
Of sulphurous war, on Taisniere's dreadful field.
Nor less the palm of peace in wreathes thy brow :
For, powerful as thy sword, from thy rich tongue
Persuasion flows, and vfins the high debate ;
While mixed in thee combine the charm of youth,
The force of manhood, and the deptli of age.

* .lolin, Duke of Argyle, raiswl to tlie Britislj peerage by
QiKiC'ii Amu'. and created Duke of Greenwich by George I.,
WIS l)orn in 1678. He served under Marlborough in Flaudert,
and was present at ail the great battlesw

AUTUMN. Ill

Thee, Forbes, f too, whom every worth attends,
As truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind — •
Thee, truly generous, and in silence great,
Thy country feels through her reviving arts.
Planned by thy wisdom, by thy soul informed ;
And seldom has she known a friend like thee.

But see the fading many-colored woods.
Shade deepening over shade, the country round
Irabrown : a crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun,
Of every hue from wan declining green
To sooty dark. These now the lonesome muse.
Low-whispering, lead mto their leaf-strown walks ;
And give the Season in its latest view.
Meantime, light-shadowing all, a sober calm
Fleeces unbounded ether ; whose least wave
Stands tremulous, uncertain where to turn
The gentle current : while, illumined wide,
The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun,
And through their lucid veil his softened force
Shed o'er the peaceful world. Then is the time
For those whom wisdom and whom nature charm
To steal themselves from the degenerate crowd.
And soar above this little scene of things ;
To tread low-thoughted vice beneath their feet,
To soothe the throbbing passions into peace,
And woo lone quiet in her silent walks.

Thus solitary, and in pensive guise.
Oft let me wander o'er the russet mead.
And through the saddened grove, where scarce ii

heard
One dying strain to cheer the woodman's toil.
Haply some widowed songster pours his plaint,
Far, in faint warblings, through the tawny copse;
While congregated thrushes, liiniets, iai'ks,
And each wild throat, whose aillrss strains so late
Swelled all the music of the swarming shades,

f Diincau Forbes, of Culloden, the personal friend of Thom-
son. He was born in 1685. and in 17:37 advanced to the dignity
of bord Prosideat of the Court of Se.s.si(Hi.

lit A UTUMN.

Robbed of their tuneful souls, now shivering sit
On the dead tree, a dull despondent flock !
With not a brightness Avaving o'er their plumes,
And naught save chattering discord in their note
Oh let not, aimed from inhuman eye.
The gun the music of the coming year
Destroy ; and harmless, unsuspecting harm,
Lay the weak tribes, a miserable prey.
In mingled murder, fluttering on the ground 1

The pale descending year, yet pleasing still,
A gentler mood inspires ; for now the leaf
Incessant rustles from the mournful grove —
Oft startling such as, studious, walk below,
And slowly circles through the waving air.
But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs
Sob, o'er the sky the leafy deluge streams ;
Till choked, and matted with the dreary shower,
The forest-walks, at every rising gale,
Roll wide the withered waste, and whistle bleak.
Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields ;
And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race
Their sunny robes resign. Even what remained
Of bolder fruits falls from the naked tree ;
And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around
The desolated prospect thrills the soul.

He comes ! he comes ! in every breeze the powef
Of philosophic melancholy comes !
His near approach the sudden-starting tear,
The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air.
The softened feature, and the beating heart.
Pierced deep with many a virtuous pang, declare.
O'er all the soul his sacred influence breathes ;
Inflames imagination ; through the breast
Infuses every tenderness ; and far
Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought.
Ten thousand thousand fleet ideas, such
As never mingled with the vulgar dream.
Crowd fast into the mind's creative eye.
As fast the correspondent passions rise,
As varied, and as high : devotion raised

AUTUMN". lift

To rapture, and divine astonishment ;

The love of Nature unconfined, and, chief,

Of human race ; the large ambitious wish,

To make them blest ; the sigh for suffering worth,

Lost in obscurity ; the noble scorn

Of tyrant pride ; the fearless great resolve ;

The wonder which the dying patriot draws,

Inspiring glory through remotest time ;

The awakened throb for virtue, and for fame ;

The sympathies of love, and friendship dear ;

With all the social offspring of the heart.

Oh ! bear me then to vast embowering shades.
To twilight groves, and visionary vales,
To weeping grottoes, and prophetic glooms !
Where angel forms athwart the solemn dusk
Tremendous sweep, or seem to sweep, along ;
And voices more than human, through the void
Deep-sounding, seize the enthusiastic ear.

Or is this gloom too much ? Then lead, ye powen
That o'er the garden and the rural seat
Preside, which shining through the cheerful land
In countless numbers blest Britannia sees.
Oh lead me to the wide-extended walks.
The fair majestic paradise of 8towe ! *
Not Persian Cyrus on Ionia's shore
E'er saw such sylvan scenes ; such various art
By genius fired, such ardent genius tamed
By cool judicious art — that, in the strife.
All-beauteous Nature fears to be outdone.
And there, O Pitt ! thy country's early boast
There let me sit beneath the sheltered slopes,
Or in that temple f where, in future times,
Thou well shalt merit a distinguished name ;
And, with thy converse blest, catch the last smiles
Of Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods.
While there with thee the enchanted round I walk,
The regulated wild, gay fancy then

• The seat of the Lord Viscount Cobliam.
f The Temple of Virtue in Stowe-gardens.

8

m AUTUMS.

Will tread in thought the groves of Attic land ;
Will from thy standard taste refine her own,
Correct her pencil to the purest truth
Of Nature, or, the unimpassioned shades
Forsaking, raise it to the human mind.
Or if hereafter she, with juster hand.
Shall draw the tragic scene, instruct her thou,
To mark the varied movements of the heart.
What every decent character requires.
And every passion speaks — oh ! through her strain
Breathe thy pathetic eloquence ! that molds
The attentive senate, charms, persuades, exalts.
Of honest zeal the indignant lightning throws.
And shakes corruption on her venal throne.
While thus we talk, and through Elysian vales
Delighted rove, perhaps a sigh escaj)es ;
What pity, Cobham, f thou thy verdant files
Of ordered trees shouldst here inglorious range.
Instead of squadrons flaming o'er the field.
And long embattled hosts ! when tlie proud foe.
The faithless vain disturber of mankind.
Insulting Gaul, has roused the world to war ;
When keen, once more, within their bounds to press
Those polished robbers, those ambitious slaves.
The British youth would hail thy wise command.
Thy tempered ardor, and thy veteran skill.

The western sun withdraws the shortened day ;
And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky,
In her chill progress, to the ground condensed
The vapors throws. Where creeping waters ooze.
Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind
Cluster the rolling fogs, and swim along
The dusky-mantled lawn. Meanwhile the moon,
Full-orbed, and breaking through the scattered

clouds,
Shows her broad visage in the crimsoned east.
Turned to the sun direct, her spotted disc.

f Most of tlio early improvements in tlie groiinds at Slowe
vrere made by Sir Jlicbard Temple, afterwards jLord Cobham-

At/TUMJ^. lift

Where mountains rise, umbrageous dales descend,

And caverns deep, as optic tube descries,

A smaller earth, gives us his blaze again,

Void of its flame, and sheds a softer day.

Now through the passing cloud she seems to stoop,

Now up the pure cerulean rides sublime.

Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild

O'er the skied mountain to the shadowy vale.

While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleant.

The whole air whitens with a boundless tide

Of silv^er radiance, trembling round the world.

But when half blotted from the sky her light,
Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn
With keener luster through the depth of heaven —
Or near extinct her deadened orb appears.
And scarce appears, of sickly beamless white —
Oft in this season, silent from the north
A blaze of meteors shoots : ensweeping first
The lower skies, they all at once converge
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once
Relapsing quick as quickly re-ascend,
And mix, and thwart, extinguish, and renew —
All ether coursing in a maze of light.

From look to look, contagious through the crowd,
The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes
The appearance throws : armies in meet array.
Thronged with aerial spears, and steeds of fire ;
Till, the long lines of full-extended war
In V)leeding tight commixed, the sanguine flood
llolls a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven.
As thus they scan the visionary scene,
On all sides swells the superstitious din.
Incontinent ; and busy frenzy talks
Of blood and battle ; cities overturned,
And late at night in swallowing earthquake sunk.
Or hideous wrapt in fierce ascending flame ;
C)f sallow famine, inundalion, storm ;
Of pestilence, an<l evt.-ry great distress ;
Empires sub versed, when ruling fate has struck
The unalterable hour : even Natuie's self

116 AUTUMN,

Is deemed to totter on the brink of time.

Not so the man of philosophic eye,

And inspect sage ; the waving brightness he

Curious surveys, inquisitive to know

The causes, and materials, yet unfixed.

Of this appearance beautiful and new.

Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall,
A shade immense. Sunk in the quenching gloom.
Magnificent and vast, are lieaven and earth.
Order confounded lies ; all beauty void :
Distinction lost ; and gay variety
One universal blot : such the fair power
Of light, to kindle and create the whole.
Drear is the state of the benighted wretch.
Who then, bewildered, wanders through the dark,
Full of pal« fancies, and chimeras huge ;
Nor visited by one directive ray,
From cottage streaming, or from airy hall.
Perhaps, impatient as he stumbles on,
Struck from the root of slimy rushes, blue
The wild -fire scatters round, or gathered trails
A length of flame deceitful o'er the moss —
Whither decoyed by the fantastic blaze.
Now lost and now renewed, he sinks absorbed,
Rider and horse, amid the miry gulf ;
While still, from day to day, his pining wife
And plaintive children his return await,
In wild conjecture lost. At other times,
Sent by the better genius of the night.
Innoxious gleaming on the horse's mane.
The meteor sits ; and shows the narrow path,
That winding leads through pits of death, or else
Instructs him how to take the dangerous ford.

The lengthened night elapsed, the morning shine*
Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright.
Unfolding fair the last autumnal day.
And now the mounting sun dispels the fog ;
The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam ;
And hung on every spray, on evury blade
Of grass, the myriad dewdrops twinkle round.

A UTUM!^. 117

Ah see where rohbed, and murdered in that pit
Lies the still-heaving hive ! at evening snatched,
Beneath the cloud ot' guilt-concealing night,
And fixed o'er sulphur ; while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people in their waxen cells,
Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Of temperance, for Winter poor — rejoiced
To mark, full-flowing round, their copious stores.
Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends ;
And used to milder scents, the tender race.
By thousands, tumble from their honeyed domes,
Convolved and agonizing in the dust.
And was it then for this you roamed tlie Spring,
Intent from flower to flower ? for this you toiled
Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away ?
For this in Autumn searched the blooming waste,
Nor lost one sunny gleam ? for this sad fate ?
O man ! tyrannic lord ! how long, how long,
Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage,
Awaiting renovation ? When obliged.
Must you destroy ? Of their ambrosial food
Can you not borrow ; and, in just return.
Afford them shelter from the wintry winds ;
Or, as the sharp year pinches, with their own
Again regale them on some smiling day ?
See where the stony bottom of their town
Looks desolate, and wild ; with here and there
A helpless number, who the ruined state
Survive, lamenting weak, cast out to death.
Thus a proud city, populous and ri(^h.
Full of the works of peace, and high in joy,
At theater or feast, or sunk in sleep,
(As late, Palermo, was thy fate) is seized
I>y some dread earthquake, and convulsive hurled,
Sheet from the bla(!k foundation, stench-involved.
Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame.

Hence every harsh(!r sight ! for now the day,
0\m- heaven and earth diffused, grows warm and high,
Iniinite splendor ! wide investing all.
How still the breeze ! save; what the filmy threadfi

118 A UTUMN,

Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain.

How clear the cloudless sky ! how deeply tinged

With a peculiar blue ! the ethereal arch

How swelled immense ! amid whose azure throned

The radiant sun how gay ! how calm below,

The gilded earth ! the harvest-treasures all

Now gathered in, beyond the reach of storms.

Sure to the swain ; the circling fence shut up ;

And instant Winter's utmost rage defied :

While, loose to festive joy, the country round

Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth,

Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-strung youth,

By the quick sense of music taught alone.

Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance.

Her every charm abroad, the village-toast,

Young, buxom, warm, in native beauty rich.

Darts not unmeaning looks ; and where her eye

Points an approving smile, Avith double force

The cudgel rattles, and the wrestler twines.

Age too shines out ; and, garrulous, recounts

The feasts of youth. Thus they rejoice ; nor tliink

That with to-raorrow^s sun their annual toil

Begins again the never ceasing-round.

Oh ! knew he but his happiness, of men
The happiest he, who far from public rage,
Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired.
Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life !
What though the dome be wanting; whose proud gate
Each morning, vomits cut the sneaking crowd
Of flatterers false, and in their turn abused :
Vile intercourse ! What though the glittering robe,
Of every hue reflected life can give,
Or floating loose, or stift" with mazy gold,
The pride and gaze of fools ! oppress him not ?
What though, from utmost land and sea purveyed,
For him each rarer tributary of life
Bleeds not, and his in.sati.ite table heaps
With luxury, and death ? What thought his bowl
Flames not with costly juice ; nor sunk m beds.
Of gay care, he tosses out thp night.

AUTUMN. lid

' I- melts the thoughtless hours in idle state?
W^hat though he knows not those fantastic joys
That still arause the wanton, still deceive ;
A face of pleasure, but a heart of pain ;
Their hollow moments undelighted all ?
Sure peace is his : a solid life, estranged
To disappointment, and fallacious hope ;
Rich in content, in Nature's bounty rich,
111 herbs and fruits ; whatever greens the Spring
When heaven descends in showers, or bends the

bough
When summer reddens and when Autumn beams,
Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies
Concealed, and fattens with the richest sap —
These are not wanting ; nor the milky drove
Luxuriant, spread o'er all the lowing vale ;
Nor bleeting mountain> ; nor the chide of streamy
And hum of bees, inviting sleep sincere
Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade,
Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay ;
Nor auglit besides of prospect, grove, or song,
Dim grottoes, gleaming lakes, and fountain clear.
Here too dwells simj)le truth ; plain innocence ;
Unsullied beauty ; sound unbroken youth.
Patient of labor, with a little pleased ;
Health ever blooming ; unambitious toil ;
Calm contem))lation, and poetic ease.

Let others brave the flood in quest of gain,
And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wavft
Lot such as d<;em it glory to destroy,
Jtush into blood, the sack of cities seek ;
L'^npierced, exulting in the widow's wail.
The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry.
Let some, far distant from tlieir native soil,
L^rged or by want or hardened avarice,
Find other lands beneath another sun.
Let this through cities work his eager way,
By legal outrage and established guile,
Tlu! social sense extinct ; and that ferment
Mid into tumult the seditious herd,

110 AUTUMN.

Or melt them down to slavery. Let these
Insnare the wretched in the toils of law,
Fomenting discord, and perplexing right,
An iron race ! and those of fairer front.
But equal inhumanity, in courts,
Delusive pomp, and dark cabals, delight ;
Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile,
And tread the weary labyrinth of state.
While he, from all the stormy passions free
That restless men involve, hears, and but hears,
At distance safe, the human tempest roar,
Wrapped close in conscious peace. The fall of

kings.
The rage of nations, and the crush of states.
Move not the man who, from the world escaped,
In still retreats, and flowery solitudes.
To Nature's voice attends, from month to month,
And day to day, through the revolving year;
Admiring, sees her in her every shape ;
Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart ;
Takes what she liberal gives, nor thinks of more.
He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems,
Marks the first bud, and sucks the heathful gale
Into his freshened soul ; her genial hours
He full enjoys ; and not a beauty blows.
And not an opening blossom breathes, in vain.
In Summer he, beneath the living shade.
Such as o'er frigid Tempe wont to wave,
Or Haemus cool, reads what the muse, of these
Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung ;
Or what she dictates writes ; and oft, an eye
Sliot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.
When Autumn's yellow luster gilds the world,
And tempts the sickled swain into the field.
Seized by the general joy, his heart distends
With gentle throes ; and, through the tepid gleams
Deep musing, then he best exerts liis song.
Even Winter wild to him is full of bliss,
"'lie mighty tempest, and the hoary waste,
Abrupt and deep, stretched o'er the buried eartb,

A UTUMN. 121

Awake to solemn thought. At night tlie skies,

Disclosed, and kindled, by refining frost,

Pour every luster on the exalted eye.

A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure,

And mark them down for wisdom. With swift

wing,
O'er land and sea iraagmat'on roams ;
Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind.
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers ;
Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.
The touch of kindred too and love he feels ;
The modet^t eye, whose beams on his alone
Ecstatic shine ; the little strong embrace
Of prattling children, twined around his neck,
And emulous to please him, calling forth
The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay.
Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns ;
For happiness and true philosophy
Are of the social still, and smiling kind.
This is the life which those who fret in guilt,
And guilty cities, never knew ; the life
Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,
When angels dwelt, and God himself, with man I

O Nature ! all-sufficient ! over all !
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works !
Snatch me to heaven ; the rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent.
Profusely scattered o'er the blue immense.
Show me ; their motions, periods, and their laws.
Give me to scan ; through the disclosing deep
Light my blind way : the mineral strata there ;
Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world ;
O'er that the rising system, more complex.
Of animals ; and higher still, the mind.
The varied scene of qui(!k-comj)oun(l('d thought,
And where the mixing passions endless shift —
These ever open to my ravished eye ;
A search, the Hight of lime can ne'er exhaust '
But if to that une<jual — if the blood,
In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid

123 AUTUMN.

That best ambition — under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,
And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin,
Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song j
And let me never, never stray from thee !

WINTER.

DEDICATION.
TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR SPENCER COMPTON.

Sir, — The author of the followlDg poem begs leave to in-
scribe lliis his first performance, to your name and patronage ;
unknown himself, and only introduced by the muse, he yet
ventures to approach you with a modest cheerfulness ; for
whoever attempts to excel in any generous art, though he
comes alone, and unregarded by the world, may hope for
your notice and esteem. Happy if I can, in anj^ degree,
merit this good fortune : as every ornament and grace of
polite learning is yours, your single approbation will be m}'
fame.

I dare not indulge my heart by dwelling on your public
character ; on that exalted honor and integrity which dis
tinguish you in that august assembly where you preside, that
unshaken loyalty to your sovereign, that disinterested c )ncern
for his people which shine out, united, in all your behavior,
and finish the patriot. I am conscious of my want of
strength and skill for so delicate an undertaking ; and yet, as
the sliepherd in his cottage may feel and acknowledge the
influence of the sun with as lively a gratitude as the great man
in his palace, even I may be allowed to publish my sense of
those blessings, which, from so many powerful virtues, are
derived to the nation they adorn.

I conclude with saying that your fine discernment and
humanity, in your private eapacity, are so conspicuous that,
if this address is not received with some indulgence, it will be
a severe conviction that what 1 have written has not the least
share of merit. — L am, willi tiie profoundest respect, sir, youl
most devoted and most faithful humble servant,

James Thomson.

WINTER. 128

PREFACE.

I am neither ignorant nor concerned how much one may
suffer in the opinion of several persons of great gravity and
character by the study and pursuit of poetry.

Altliough tliere may seem to be some appearance of reason for
the present contempt of it. as managed by tlie most part of our
modern writers, yet that any man should, seriously, declare
against that divine art is really amazing. It is declaring
against the most charming power of imagination, the most ex-
alting for'ce of thought, the most affecting touch of sentiment ;
in a word, against the very soul of all learning and politeness.
It is affronting tlie universal taste of mankind, and declaring
against what has charmed the listening world from Mosea
down to Milton. In line, it is even declaring against the sub-
limest passages of the inspired writings themselves, and what
seems to be the peculiar language of heaven.

The truth of the case is this ; these weak-sighted gentlemen
cannot liear the strong light of poetr}^ and the finer and more
amusing scene of things it displays ; but must those, therefore,
whom heaven has blessed with the discerning eye, shut it to
keep them company ?

It is pleasant enough, however, to ol)serve, frequently, in
thesf enemies of poetry, an awkward imitation of it. They
.sometimes have tlieir Utile brightnesses, when the opening
glooms will permit. Nay, I have seen tlieir heaviness, on some
occasions, deign to turn friskish and witty, in which they
make just sucii another figure as ^sop's ass, when he began
to fawn. To complete the absurdity they would, even in their
efforts against poetry, fain be poetical ; like those gentlemen
that reason with a great deal of zeal and severity against rea-
son.

That there are frequent and notorious abuses of poetry is as
true as that the best things are liable to that misfortune ; but
is there no cud of that clamorou.s. argument against the use of
things from the abuse of them ? And yet I hope that no man,
who has the least sense of shame in him, will fall into it after
the present sulphureous attacker of the stage.

To insist no further on this head, let poetry once more be
restored to her ancient truth and purity ; let her be inspired
from heaven ; and, in return, her inci'tise ascend thither ; let
her exchange her low, venal, trifling subjects for such as are
fair, useful, and magnilicenl ; and let her execute these so as
at once to please, instruct, siirjjrise, and astonish ; and then,
of neces.'-jty, the most inveterate ignorance and prejudice shall
be slr\n;k ilunib, and poets may yet become the delight and
wonder of mankind.

But this liappy period is not to be expected till some long-

1»4 WINTER.

wished illustrious man, of equal power and beneficence, rise
on the wintry world of letters ; one of a genuine and unbound-
ed greatness and generosity of mind ; who, far above all the
pomp and pride of fortune, scorns the little, addressful flatter-
er, pierces through the disguised, designing villain, discounte.
nances all tlie reigning fopperies of a tasteless age, and who,
stretching his views into late futurity, has the true interest of
virtue, learning, and mankind entirely at heart . A character
so nobly desirable, that, to an honest heart, it is almost incred-
ible so few should have the ambition to deserve it.

Nothing can have a belter influence towards the revival of
poetry than the choosing of great and serious subjects, such as
at once amuse the fancy, enlighten the head, and warm the
heart. These give a weight and dignity to the poem, nor is
the pleasure, I should say rapture, botli the writer and reader
feel, unwarranted by reason, or followed by rejientant disgust.
To be able to write on a dry, barren theme, is looked upon by
some as the sign of a happy, fruitful genius — fruitful indeed I
like one of the pendent gardens of Chcapside, watered every
morning by the hand of the alderman himself. And what are
we comn:ionly entertained with on these occasions, save forced,
uuaflfecting fancies, little glittering prettynesses, mixed turns
of wit and expression, which are as widely dift'er(;nt from na-
tive poetry as buffoonery is from the jierfeetion of human
thinking. A genius fired with the charms of truth and Nature
is tuned to a sublimer pitch, and scorns to associate with such
subjects.

I cannot more emphatically recommend this poetical ambi-
tion than by the four following lines from Mr. Hill's poem,
called The Jvdgment Day, which is a singular instance of it :-'

For me, sufQce it to have taught my muse
The tuneful triflings of her tribe to shun ;

And raised her warmth such heavenly themes to choose.
As, in past ages, the best garlands won.

I know no subject more elevating, more amusing, more ready
to awake the poetical euthusia.«m, the philosophical reflection
and the moral senlinient, than the wurks of Nature. Where
can we meet with such variety, such beauty, such magnifi-
cence ? All that enlarges and transports the soul ? What
more inspiring than a calm, wi<le survey of them ? In every
dre.ss Nature is greatly charming ! whether she puts on the
crimson robes of morning ! the strong effulgence of noon ! the
sober suit of evening ! or the deep sables of blackness and
tempe.-t ! How gay looks (he Spring ! bow glorious the Sum-
mer ! how pleasing the Autumn! and liow venerable the
Winter ! — But there i-> no thinking of these tilings without
breaking out into j)oetry, which is, by the by, a plain and
undeniable argument of their superior excellence.

WINTER. 125

Por thie reason the best, both ancient and modern, poets
have been passionately fond of retirement and solitude. The
wild romantic country was their deliglit. And they seem
never to have been more happy than when. lost in unfrequent-
ed fields, far from the little busy world, they were at leisure to
meditate, and sing the works of Nature.

The Boole of Job, that noble and ancient poem, wlich even
strikes .so forcibly through a manglintr trnnslution, is crowned
with a de.scription of the grand woik« of N.iture, and that, too,
from the mouth of their Almight}' Author.

It was this devotion to the works of Nature, tlnit, in lii.s
Georgics, Inspired the rural Virgil to write so inimitably ; and
who can forbear joining with him in this declaration of his,
which has been the rapture of ages ?

Me vero primum dulces ante omnia musa?,
Quarum .sacra fero ingcnli perculsus amore,
Accipiant ; Coilique vias et sidcra monstrent,
Defectus soils varios, lun^eque labores ;
Unde tremor terris : qua vi maria alta tumcscant
Objicibus ruptis, rursusque in se ipsa residant :
Quid lantum oceano properent se tingere soles
Hyl)erni : vel quse tardls mora noctibus obstel
Sin has ne possim naturae accedere |)artes,
Frigidiis obstiterit circum piaeconliu sanguis .
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnek
Flumina amem si'.vasqui' inglorius.

Which may be Englished thus :

Me may the muses, my supreme delight ,'

Whose priest I am, sniit with immense desire,

Snatch to their caro ; tlu; stiirry tracks diselosr,.

The sun's distri'ss, tlu; lal)or of the moon ;

Whence the earth quakes ; and by wiiat force the deep*

Heave at the rocks, tiien on themselves retlow.

Why wint(.'r-suns to plunge in ocean speed ;

And what retards the lazy suimner-night.

But, lest I should the.se my.stic, truths attain,

If the cold current freezes rouiul my heart,

The country me, the brooky vales may please,

'Mid wcjods and streams unknown.

I cannot i)Ut an end to this preface; witlionl takin;.:^ tiie fre«-
doui to olTer my most sincere and gnitefu! acknowledgmentH
to all those gentlcMien wiio have; given my first peif'ormance so
favorable Ji ief:eplion.

It is witii the best pleasure, and a rising am bit ion , that I rellect
on tiie lionor .Mr. Hill hasiione lue in reeDimiiendint; n)y poem
:o !iie world aUvr a manner so peculiar to himself, tiian whom

126 WINTER.

none approves and obliges with a nobler and more unreserv-
ing promptitude of soul. His favors are the very smiles of
humanity, graceful and easy, flowinc; from and to the heart-
This agreeable train of thought awakens naturally in my mind
all the other parts of his great and amiable character, which I
know not well how to quit, and yet dare not hen; pursue.

Every reader who has a heart to be moved, must feel the
most gentle power of poetry m the lines with which Mira has
graced my poem.

It might perhaps be reckoned vanity in me, to say how rich-
ly 1 value the approbation of a gentleman of Mr. Mallock's
fine and exact taste, so justly dear and valuable to all those
that have the happiness of knowing him ; and who, to say no
more of him, will abundantly make good to the world the
early promise his admired piece of TFi7fcm and Margaret has
given.

I only wish my description of the various appearance of
Nature in Winter, and, as I purpose, in the other Seasons,
may have the good fortune to give the reader some of that
true pleasure which they, in their agreeable succession, are
always sure to inspire into my heart

Argument. — The subject proposed — Address to the Earl of
Wilmington — First approach of Winter — According to the
nattu'al course of the season, various storms described — Rain
— Wind — Snow — The driving of the snows : a man per'shing
among them ; whence reflections on the wants and miseries of
human life — The wolves descending from the Alps and Apen-
nines— A winter evening described : as spent by philosophers ;
by the country people ; in tiie city — Frost — A view of Winter
within the polar circle — A thaw — The whole concluding with
moral reflections on a future state.

See, Winter comes, to rule the varied year,

Sullen and sad, with all his rising train ;

Vapors, and clouds, and storms. IJe these my theme'

These, that exalt the soul to solemn thought,

And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms .'

Congenial horrors, hail ! with frequent foot,

Pleased have I, in my cheerful morn of life.

When nursed by careless solitude I lived.

And sung of Nature with unceasing joy.

Pleased have I wandered through your rough domain f

Tro<l tlie pure virgin-snows, myself as pure ;

Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst ;

Or seen the deep-fermenting tempest brewed

WINTER. 127

In the grim evening sky. Thus passed the time ;
Till through the lucid chambers of the south
Looked out the joyous Spring — looked out and
smiled.

To thee, the patron of this tirst essay,
The muse, O Wilmington ! * renews her song.
Since has she rounded the revolving year :
Skimmed the gay Spring ; on eagle-pinions borne,
Attempted through the Summer-blaze to rise ;
Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale ;
And now among the wintry clouds again,
Rolled in the doubling storm, she tries to soar ;
To swell her note with all the rushing winds ;
To suit her sounding cadence to the floods ;
As is her theme, her numbers wildly great :
Thrice happy ! could she till thy judging ear
With bold description, and with manly thought.
Nor art thou skilled in awful schemes alone,
And how to make a mighty people thrive :
But equal goodness, sound integrity,
A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted soul
Amid a sliding age, and burning strong.
Not vainly blazing, for thy country's weal —
A steady spirit, regularly free :
These, each exalting each, the statesman light
Into the patriot ; these, the ])ublic hope
And eye to thee converting, bid the muse
Record what envy dares not flattery call.

Now when the cheerless empire of the sky
To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields,
And Herce Aquarius stains the inverted year —
Hung o'er the furihcst verge of heaven, the sun
Scarce spreads o'er ether the dejected day.
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot
His struggling ravs, in horizontal lines,
Through the thick air ; as clothed in cloudy storm,
\V<'ak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky ;

* Sir Bf)enc(;r ComplDii, iit'tc'isvuids K;ul of Wilmington.
He wus Speaker of tlie Houae of Commons chiriug ii part ot
the ministry of Walpole.

136 WINTER.

And, soon-aescending, to the long dark night.
Wide-shading all, the piostrate wc^-ld resigns.
Nor is the night unwished ; while vital heat,
Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake.
Meantime, in sable cincture, shadows vast.
Deep-tinged and damp, and congregated clouds.
And all the vapory turbulence of heaven.
Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls,
A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world.
Through Nature shedding influence malign,
And rouses up the seeds of dark disease.
The soul of man dies in him, loathing life,
And black with more than melancholy views.
The cattle droop ; and o'er the furrowed land,
Fresh from the plow, the dmi-discolored flocks,
Untended spi-eading, cro]) the wholesome root.
Along the woods, along the moorish fens,
Sighs the sad genius of the coming storm ;
And up among the loose disjointed cliifs.
And fractured mountains wild, the brawling brook
And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan.
Resounding long in listening fancy's ear.

Then conies the father of the tempest forth.
Wrapt in black glooms. First, joyless rains obscun
Drive through the mingling skies with vapor foul.
Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woodf^
That grumbling wave below. The unsightly plain
Lies a l^rown deluge ; as the low-bent clouds
Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still
Combine, and deepening into night shut up
The day's fair face. The wanderers of lieaven,
Each to his home, retire ; save those that love
To take their ])astime in tlie troubled air.
Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool.
The cattle from the untasted fields return,
And ask with meaning low, their wonted stalls,
Or ruminate in the contiguous shade.
Thither the household t'enlhery pco]»le crowd —
Tlie (^rested cock, with all his female train,
Pensive and dripi)ing; while llie c(jttafre hind

WINTER. m

Hangs o*er the enlivening blaze, and taleful there
Recounts his simple frolic : much he talks,
And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows
Without, and rattles on his humble roof.

Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swelled,
And the mixed ruin of its banks o'erspread,
At last the roused-up river pours along :
Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes,
From the rude mountain, and the mossy Avild,
Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far ;
Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads,
Calm, sluggisli, silent ; till again, constrained
Between two meeting hills, it burst away.
Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream —
There gathering triple force, rapid and deep,
It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through.

Nature ! great parent ! whose unceasing hand
Rolls round the Seasons of the changeful year,
How mighty, how majestic, are thy works !
With what a pleasing dread they swell the soul I
That sees astonished, and astonished sings !
Ye too, ye winds ! that now begin to blow,
With boisterous sweep, I raise my voice to you.
Where are your stores, ye powerful beings ! say,
Where your aerial magazines reserved.
To swell the brooding terrors of the storm :
In what far distant region of the sky.
Hushed in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm f

When from the pallid sky tlie sun descends,
With many a sjjot that o'er his glaring orb
I'neertain wanders, stained — red fiery streaks
Jiogin to flush aroun<]. The I'oeling clouds
S; agger with dizzy ])()isi% as doubting yet
AVhicli master to obey ; wliile rising slow,
l^lank, in the leaden-colored east, the moon
Wears a wan circh; round lier])luntcd horns.
Seen thnjugh the turl)id, fliicl uating air.
Tin; stars obtuse emit a shiv( ring ray ;
Or frequent scu-m to shoot at li wart the gloom,
And long behind them trail tlu,' wliitening blat«,

8

lid WINTER,

Snatched in short eddies, plays the withered leȣ ;
And on the flood the dancing feather floats.
With broadened nostrils to the sky upturned,
The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale.
Even as the matron, at her nightly task.
With pensive labor draws the flaxen thread,
The wasted taper and the crackling frame
Foretell the blast. But chief the plumy race,
The tenants of the sky, its changes speak.
Retiring from the downs, where all day long
They picked their scanty fare, a blackening train
Of clamorous rooks thick-urge their weary flight,
And seek the closing shelter of the grove.
Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl
Plies his sad song. The cormorant on high
Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land.
Loud shrieks the soaring heron ; and with wild wing
The circling sea-fowl cleave the flaky clouds.
Ocean, unequal pressed, with broken tide
And blind commotion heaves ; while from the shore^
Eat into caverns by the restless wave.
And forest-rustling mountains, comes a voice,
That solemn sounding bids the world prepare.
Then issues forth the f.torm with sudden burst,
And hurls the whole precipitated air
Down in a torrent. On the passive main
Descends the ethereal force, and with strong gust
Turns from its bottom tlie discolored deep.
Through the black night that sits immense around,
Lashed into foam, the fierce conflicting brine
Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn.
Meantime the monntain-})il]ows, to the clouds
\\\ dreadful tumult swelled, surge above surge,
Burst into chaos with tremendous roar.
And anchored navies f roni their stations drive,
Wild as the winds across the howliTig waste
Of mighty waters : now the inflaled wave
Straining they scale, and now impetuous shoot
Lito the secret chambers of the deep.
The wintry Baltic thundering o'er their head.

WINTER. It!

Emerging thence again, before the breath

Of full-exerted heaven they wing their course,

And dart on distant coast ; if some sharp rock,

Or shoal insidious, break not their career,

And in loose fragments fling them floating round.

Nor less at land the loosened tempest reigns.
The mountain thunders ; and its sturdy sons
Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they phade.
Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghast.
The dark wayfaring stranger breathless toils,
And, often falling, climbs against the blast.
Low waves the rooted forest, vexed, and sheds
What of its tarnished honors yet remain ;
Dashed down, and scattered, by the tearing wind's
Assiduous fury, its gigantic limbs.
Thus struggling through the dissipated grove,
The whirling tempest raves along the plain ;
And on the cottage thatched, or lordly roof.
Keen-fastening, shakes them to the solid base.
Sleep frighted flies ; and round the rocking dome,
For entrance eager, howls the savage blast.
Then too, they say, through all the burdened air,
Long groans are heard, shrill sounds, and distant

sighs.
That, uttered by the demon of the night.
Warn the devoted wretch of woe and death.

Huge uproar lords it wide. The clouds, commixed
With stars swift-gliding, swee}) along the iky.
All nature reels : till Nature's King, who oft
Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone,
And on the wings of the careering wind
Walks dreadfully serene, conunands a calm ;
Then straight air, sea, and earth, are liushed at once.

As Tf't 'tis midnight deep. The weary clouds.
Slow-meeting, mingle into solid gloom.
Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep,
I*et me associate with the serious night.
And contemplation her sedate compeer ;
Let nie shake off^ the intrusive cares of day,
And lav ^e meddlin<r senses all aside.

183 WINTER.

Where now, ye lying vanities of life !
Ye ever-tempting, ever-cheating train !
Where are you now ? and what is your amounts
Vexation, disappointment, and remorse.
Sad, sickening thought ! and yet deluded man,
A scene of crude disjointed visions past.
And broken slumbers, rises still resolved,
With new-flushed hopes, to run the giddy round.

Father of light and life ! thou Good Supreme !
O teach me what is good ! teach me Thyself !
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice.
From every low pursuit ; and feed ray soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure -~
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss !

The keener tempests come ; and fuming dun
From all the livid east, or piercing north,
Thick clouds ascend — in whose capacious womb
A vapory deluge lies, to enow congealed.
Heavy they roll their fleecy world along ;
And the sky saddens with the gathered storm.
Through the hushed air the whitening shower d«

scends.
At first thin wavering ; till at last the flakes
Fall broad, and wide, and fast, dimming the day
With a continual flow. 'J'he cherished fields
Put on their winter-robe of purest white.
'Tis brightness all ; save Avhere the new snow meltB
Along the mazy current. Low, the woods
Bow their hoar head ; and, ere the languid sun
Faint from the west emits his evening ray,
Earth's universal face, deep-hid and chill,
Is one wild dazzling waste that buries wide
The works of man. Drooping, the laborer-ox
Stands covered o'er with snow, and then demandi
The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of heaven,
Tamed by the cruel season, crowd around
The winnowing store, and claim the little boon
Whicli Providence assigns them. One alone,
The redbreast, saci-ed to the household gods.
Wisely regardful of the embroiling sky,

WINTER. IN

In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves
His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man
His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first
Against the window beats ; then, brisk, alights
On the warm hearth ; then, hopping o'er the floor,
Eyes all the smiling family askance,
And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is —
Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs
Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds
Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare,
Though timorous of heart, and hard beset
By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs,
And more unpitying men, the garden seeks,
Urged on by fearless want. The bleating kind
Eye the black heaven, and next the glistening earth,
With looks of dumb despair ; then, sad dispersed,
Dig for the withered herb through heaps of snow.

Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind ;
Baffle the raging year, and fill their pens
With food at will ; lodge them below the storm,
And watch them strict : for from the bellowing easti
In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing
Sweeps up the burden of whole wintry plains
At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless fiocks,
Hid in the hollow of two neighboring hills.
The billowy tempest whelms ; till, upward urged,
The valley to a shining mountain swells,
Tipped with a wreath high-curling in the sky,

As thus the snows arise, and foul and fierce
All Winter drives along the darkened air,
In his own loose-revolving fields the swain
Disastered stands ; sees other hills ascend.
Of unknown joyless brow ; and other scenes.
Of horrid prosj)ect, shag the trackless plain ;
Nor finds the river, nor the forest, hid,
Beneath the formless wild ; but wanders on
From hill to dale, still more an<l more astray —
impatient fiouncing ilirough the drifted heaps,
Stung with the tlioughts of home , the thoughts of
home

184 WlNT&a.

Rush on his nerves, and call their vigor forth

In many a vain attempt. How sinks his soul !

What black despair, what horror fills his heart I

When for the dusky spot which fancy feigned

His tutted cottage, rising through the snow,

tie meets the roughness of the middle waste,

Far from the track, and blest abode of man ;

While round him night resistless closes fast.

And every tempest, howling o'er his head.

Renders the ravage wilderness more wild.

Then throng the basy shapes into his mind,

Of covered pits, tiiifathomably deep,

A dire descent ! beyond the power of frost ;

Of faithless bogs ; of precipices huge.

Smoothed up with snow ; and, what is land, unknown

What water, of the still unfrozen spring.

In the loose marsh or soiiiary lake,

Where the fresh fountaui from the bottom boils.

These check his fearful steps ,• and down he sinks

Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift.

Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death,

Mixed with the tender anguish Natuie shoots

Through the wrung bosom of the dying man —

His wife, his children, and his friends unseen.

In vain for him the officious wife prepares

The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm,

In vain his little children, peeping out

Into the mingling storm, demand their sire.

With tears of artless innocence. Alas !

Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold.

Nor friends, nor sacred home. On every nerve

The deadly Winter seizes ; shuts up sense ;

And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold,

Lays him along the snows a stiffened corse —

Stretched out, and bleaching in the northern blast.

Ah ! little think the gay licentious proud.
Whom pleasure, power, affluence, surround ;
They, who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth,
And wanton, often cruel, not waste ;
Ah ! little tlunk ihcy, whiie they dance along,

WINTER. 135

flow many teel this very moment death,

And all the sad variety of pain.

How many sink in the devouring flood,

Or mere devouring flame. How many bleed,

By shameful variance betwixt man and man.

How many pme in want, and dungeon-glooms ;

Shut from, the common air. and common use

Of their own iimbs. How many drink the cup

Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread

Of misery. Sore pierced by wintry winds.

How many shrink into the sordid hut

Of cheerless poverty. How many shake

With all the fiercer tortures of the mind.

Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse ;

Whence tumbled headlong from the height of life,

They furnish matter for the tragic muse.

Even in the vale, where wisdom loves to dwell,

With friendship, peace, and contemplation joined,

How many, racked with honest passions, droop

In deep retired distress. How many stand

Around the death-bed of their dearest friends,

And point the parting anguish. Thought fond man

Of these, and all the thousand nameless ills.

That one incessant struggle render life,

One scene of toil, of suffering, and of fate,

Nice in his high career would stand appalled.

And heedless rambling impulse learn to think ;

The conscious heart of charity would warm,

And her wide wish benevolence dilate ;

The social tear would rise, the social sigh ;

And into clear perfection, gradual bliss.

Refining still, the social passions work.

And here can I forget the generous band, *
Who, touched with human woe, redressive searched
Into the horrors of the gloomy jail ?
Unpitied, and unheard, where misery moans ;
Where sickness pines ; where thirst and hunger burn,
And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice.

♦ The Jail Committee, in the year 17^9.

136 WINTER.

While in the land of liberty, the land
Whose evsry street and public meeting glow
With open freedom, little tyrants raged :
Snatched the lean morsel from the starving mouth
Tore from cold wintry limbs the tattered weed ;
Even robbed them of the last of comforts, sleep ;
The free-born Briton to the dungeon chained,
Or as the lust of cruelty prevailed,
At pleasure marked him with inglorious stripes ;
And crushed out lives, by secret barbarous ways,
That for their country would have toiled, or bled.
O great design ! if executed well,
With patient care, and wisdom -tempered zeal.
Ye sons of mercy ! yet resume the search ;
Drag forth the legal monsters into light.
Wrench from their hands oppression's iron rod,
And bid the cruel feel the pains they give.
Much still untouched remains ; in this rank age,
Much is the patriot's weeding hand required.
The toils of law, (what dark insidious men
Have cumbrous added to perplex the truth,
And lengthen simple justice into trade)
How glorious were the day that saw these broke,
And every man within the reach of right !

By wintry famine roused, from all the tract
Of hori'id mountains which the shining Alps,
And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees,
Branch out stupendous into distant lands —
Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave !
Burning for blood ! bony, and gaunt, and grim !
Assembling wolves in raging troops descend ;
And, poring o'er the country, bear along.
Keen as the north-wind sweeps the glossy snow.
All is their prize. They fasten on the steed,
Press him to earth, and pierce his miglifcy heart.
Nor can the bull his awful front defend.
Or shake the murdering savages away.
Rapacious, at the mother's throat they Hy,
And tear the screaming infant from her breast.
The godlike face of man avails him naught.

WINTEM. 1S7

Even beauty, force divine ! at whose bright glance

The generous lion stands in softened gaze,
Here bleeds, a hapless undistinguished prey.
Bat if, apprized of the severe attack,
The country be shut up — lured by the scent,
On churchyards drear (inhuman to relate !)
Tiie disappointed prowlers fall, and dig
The shrouded body from the grave ; o'er which.
Mixed with foul shades, and frighted ghosts they
howl.

Among those hilly regions, where embraced
In peaceful vales the happ}' Grisons dwell ;
Ott, rushing sudden from the loaded cliffs,
Mountains of snow their gathering terrors roll.
From steep to steep, loud-thundering, down they

come,
A wintry waste in dire commotion all ;
And herds, and flocks, and travelers, and swains.
And sometimes whole brigades of marching troops,
Or hamlets sleeping in the dead of night,
Are deep beneath the smothering ruin whelmed.

Now, all amid the rigors of the year.
In the wild depth of Winter, while without
The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat,
Between the groaning forest and the shore.
Beat by the boundless multitude of waves,
A rural, sheltered, solitary scene ;
VVhere ruddy fire and beaming tapers join
To cheer the gloom. There studious let me sit,
And hold high converse with the miglity dead ;
S;iges of ancient time, as gods revered,
As gods l)eneficL'nt, who blessed mankind
With arts, with arms, and humanized a world.
Roused at the ins])iring thought, I throw aside
Tlie long-lived voluint' ; and, deep-musing, hail
The sacred shades, that slowly-rising pass
Before my wondering eyes. First Socrates,
\Vho, firmly good in a eorrupled state,
A<_rriirist the rage of tyrants single stood
luviiK.'ihle I calm reason's holy law,

188 WINTER.

That voiee of God within the attentive mind.
Obeying, fearless, or in life or death :
Great moi'al teacher ! wisest of mankind I
Solon the next, who built his commonweal
On equity's wide base ; by tender laws
A lively people curbing, yet undamped
Preserving still that quick peculiar fire,
Whence in the laureled field of finer arts,
And of bold freedom, they unequaled shone —
The pride of smiling Greece, and human-kind.
Lycurgus then, who bowed beneath the force
Of strictest discipline, severely wise,
All human passions. Following him, I see,
As at Thermopylffi he glorious fell,
The firm devoted chief, who proved by deeds
The hardest lesson which the other taught.
Then Aristides lifts his honest front ;
Spotless of heart, to whom the unflattering voice
Of freedom gave the noblest name of Just ;
In pure majestic poverty revered ;
Who, even his glory to his country's weal
Submitting, swelled a haughty rival's fame, *
Reared by his care, of softer ray, appears
Cinion sweet-souled ; whose genius, rising strong,
Shook off the load of young debauch ; abroad
Tlu' scourge of Persian pride, at home the friend
Of every worth and every splendid art —
Modest, and simple, in the pomp of wealth.
Then the last worthies of declining Greece,
Late-called to glory, in unequal times,
Pensive, appear. The fair Corinthian boast,
Timoleon, tempered happy, mild and firm.
Who wept the brother while the tyrant bled, f
And, equal to the best, the Tiieban pair.
Whose virtues, in heroic concord joined.

* Themistocles.
f Timophanes, the tyrant of Corinth, slain by his brothel
Tiinoloii, who conspired against him to release the country
from liis rule.

WINTER. 139

Their country raised to freedom, empire, fame. *

He too, with whom Athenian honor sunk,

And left a mass of sordid lees behind,

Phocion the Good ; in public life severe.

To virtue still inexorably firm ;

But when, beneath his low illustrious roof.

Sweet peace and happy wisdom smoothed his brow,

Not friendship softer was, nor love more kind.

And he, the last of Lycurgus' sons,

The generous victim to that vain attempt,

To save a rotten state, Agis, who saw

Even Sparta's self to servile avarice sunk.

The two Achfean heroes close the train :

Aratus, who awhile relumed the soul

Of fondly lingering liberty in Greece ;

And he her darling as her latest hope,

The gallant Philopoemen, who to arms

Turned the luxurious pomp he could not cure ;

Or, toiling in his farm, a simple swain ;

Or, bold and skillful, thundering in the field.

Of rougher front, a mighty people come !
A race of heroes I in those virtuous times
Which knew no stain, save that with partial flame
Their dearest country they too fondly loved.
Her better founder first, the light of Rome,
Nuraa, who softened her rapacious sons.
Servius, the king who laid the solid base
On which o'er earth the vast republic spread.
Then the great consuls venerable rise.
The public father who the private quelled.
As on the dread tribunal sternly sad. f
He whom his thankless country could not lose.
Camillus, only vengeful to her foes.
Fabricius, scorner of all-coiujuering gold ;
And Cincinnatus, awful from the plow.
Thy willing victim, Carthage, bursting loose
FVom all that plea<ling Nature c(juld oppose ;
l-'i-o'ii a whole city's tears, by rigid faith

*Pelopida8 ami Epamiiiondas,
i Marcus Junius Brulub.

140 WINTER.

Imperious called, and honor's dire command. *
Scipio, the gentle chief, humanely brave.
Who soon the race of spotless glory ran ;
And, warm in youth, to the poetic shade
With friendship and philosophy retired.
Tully, whose powerful eloquence awhile
Restrained the rapid fate of rushing Rome.
Unconquered Cato, virtuous in extreme.
And thou, unhappy Brutus, kind of heart.
Whose steady arm, by awful virtue urged.
Lifted the Roman steel against thy friend.
Thousands, besides, the tribute of a verse
Demand ; but who can count the stars of heaven -,
Who sing their influence on this lower world ?

Behold, who yonder comes ! in sober state.
Fair, mild, and strong, as is a vernal sun :
'Tis Phoebus' self, or else the Mantuan swain !
Great Homer too appears, of daring wing,
Parent of song ! and equal by his side,
The British muse ; joined hand in hand they walk,
Darkling, full up the middle steep to fame.
Nor absent are those shades whose skillful touch
Pathetic drew the impassioned heart, and charmed
Transported Athens with the moral scene :
Nor those who, tuneful, waked the enchanting lyre,

First of your kind ! society divine !
Still visit thus my nights, for you reserved,
And mount my soaring soul to thoughts like yours.
Silence, thou lonely power ! the door be thine ;
See on the hallowed hour that none intrude.
Save a few chosen friends, avIio sometimes deign
To bless my humble roof with sense refined,
Learning digested well, exalted faith.
Unstudied wit, and humor ever gay.
Or from the muses' hill Mill Pope descend,
To raise the sacred hotir, to bid it smile,
And with the social spirit warm the heart :
For though not sweeter his own Homer sings,
Yet is his life the more endearing song.

♦ Reguhia.

WINTEH. 141

Where art thou, Hammond? thou the darling

pride,
The friend and lover of the tuneful throng !
Ah ! why, dear youth, in all the blooming prime
Of vernal genius, where disclosing fast
Each active worth, eacli manly virtue lay.
Why wert thou ravished from our hope so soon?
What now avails that noble thirst of fame,
Which stung thy fervent breast ? that treasured

store
Of knowledge early gained ? that eager zeal
To serve thy country, glowing in the band
Of youthful patriots, who sustain her name ?
What now, alas ! that life-diffusing charm
Of sprightly wit ? that rapture for the muse,
That heart of friendship, and that soul of joy,
Which bade with softest light thy virtue smile ?
Ah ! only showed, to check our fond pursuits.
And teach our humbled hopes that life is vain.*

Thus in some deep retirement would I pass
The winter-glooms, with friends of pliant soul.
Or blithe, or solemn, as the theme inspired :
With them would search, if Nature's boundless

frame
Was called, late-rising from the void of night,
Or sprung eternal from the Eternal Mind ;
Its life, its laws, its progress, and its end.
1 fence larger prospects of the beauteous whole
Would, gradual, open on our opening minds ;
And each diffusive harmony unite,
In full pcrfectioti, to the astonished eye.
': hen \v<^ul<l we try to scan the moral world ;
Which, though 1o us it Kcenis embroiled, moves OQ
In higher order —fitted, and impelled,
l>y wisdom's finest iiand, and issuing all
In general good. The sage historic muse
Should next conduct us through the deeps of time :

* HuiiuikjikI (lied iit the wirly age of tliirty two, iu the yeai

nil.

i4d WINTER.

Show us how empire grew, declined, and fell-
In scattered states ; what makes the nations smile»
Improves their soil, and gives them double suns ;
And why they pine beneath the brightest skies,
In Nature's richest lap. As thus we talked,
Our hearts would burn within us, would inhale
That portion of divinity, that ray
Of purest heaven, which lights the public soul
Of patriots, and of heroes. But if doomed,
In powerless humble fortune, to repress
These ardent risings of the kindling soul —
Then, even superior to ambition, we
Would learn the private virtues ; how to glide
Through shades and plains, along the smoothest

stream
Of rural life ; or snatched away by hope,
Through the dim spaces of futurity,
With earnest eye anticipate those scenes
Of happiness, and wonder — where the mind.
In endless growth and infinite ascent,
Rises from state to state, and world to world.
But when with these the serious thought is foiled,
We, shifting for relief, would play the shapes
Of frolic fancy : and incessant form
Those rapid pictures, that assembled train
Of fleet ideas, never joined before,
Whence lively wit excites to gay surprise —
Or folly-painting Immor, grave himself,
Calls laughter forth, deep-shaking every nerve.
Meantime the village rouses up the fire ;
While, well attested, and as well believed,
Heard solemn, goes the goblin story round.
Till superstitious horror creeps o'er all.
Or, frequent in the sounding hall, they wake
The rural gambol. Rustic mirth goes round :
The 8im))k' joke that takes the shepherd's heart,
Easily pleased : the long loud laugh, sincere ;
The kistt, snatched hasty from the sidelong maid,
On purpose guardless, or pretending sleep ;
The leap, the slap, the haul ; and. shook to notes

WINTER. 14«

Of native music, the respondent dance.

Thus jocund fleets with them the winter night.

The city swarms intense. The public haunt,
Full of each theme, and warm with mixed discourse^
Hums indistinct. The sons of riot flow
Down the loose stream of false enchanted joy,
To swift destruction. On the rankled soul
The gaming fury falls ; and in one gulf
Of total ruin, honor, virtue, peace.
Friends, families, and fortune, headlong sink.
Up springs the dance along the lighted dome,
Mixed, and evolved, a thousand sprightly ways.
The glittering court effuses every pomp ;
The circle deepens ; beamed from gaudy robes,
Tapers, and sparkling gems, and radiant eyes,
A soft effulgence o'er the palace waves :
While, a gay insect in his summer shine.
The fop, light-fluttering, spreads his mealy wings.

Dread o'er the scene, the ghost of Hamlet stalks ;
Othello rages ; poor Monimia mourns ;
And Belvidera pours her soul in love.
Terror alarms the breast ; the comely tear
Steals o'er the cheek : or else the comic muse
Holds to the world a })icture of itself.
And raises sly the fair impartial laugli.
Sometimes she lifts her strain, and paints the scenes
Of beauteous life : whate'er can deck mankind.
Or charm the heart, in generous Bevil * showed,

O thou whose wisdom, solid yet i-eflned,
Whose patriot-virtues, and consummate skill
To touch the finer s])rings that move the world,
Joined to whate'er the Graces can bestow.
And all Apollo's animating fire,
Give thee, with pleasing dignify, to shine
At once the guardian, ornament, and joy.
Of polished life — permit the rural muse,
O Chesterfield, to grace with thee her song !
F^re to the shades again she humbly flies,

* A character in the Consoious Lovers, written by Sir Richard
Btefcle.

144 WINTER.

Indulge her fond ambition, in thy train,
^For every muse has in thy train a place)
To mark thy various full accomplished mind :
To mark that spirit, which, with British scorn,
Rejects the allurements of corrupted power ;
That elegant politeness, which excels.
Even in the judgment of presumptuous France,
The boasted manners of her shining court ;
That wit, the vivid energy of sense,
The truth of nature, which, with Attic point,
And kind well-tempered satire, smoothly keen,
Steals through the soul, and without pain corrects.
Or, rising thence with yet a brighter flame.
O let me hail thee on some glorious day.
When to the listening senate, ardent, crowd
Britannia's sons to hear her pleaded cause.
Then dressed by thee, more amiably fair.
Truth the soft robe of mild persuasion wears :
Thou to assenting reason givest again
Her own enlightened thoughts ; called from the heart,
The obedient passions on thy voice attond ;
And even reluctant party feels awhile
Thy gracious power — as through the varied maze
Of eloquence, now smooth, now quick, now strong,
Profound and clear, you roll the copious flood.
To thy loved haunt return, my happy muse :
For now, behold, the joyous winter-days,
Frostv, succeed ; and through the blue serene,
For sight too fine, the ethereal niter flies —
Killing infectious damps, and the spent air
Storing afresh with elemental life.
Close crowds the shining atmosphere ; and binds
Our strengthened bodies in its cold embrace,
Constringent ; feeds, and animates our blood ;
Refines our spirits, through the new-strung nerves,
In swifter sallies darting to the brain —
Where sits the soul, intense, cuUected, cool,
Bright as the skies, and as the season keen.
All Nature feels the lenovating force
Of Winter, only to the thoughtless eye

WINTER. Ii5

In ruin seen. The frost-concocted glebe
Draws in abundant vegetable soul,
And gathers vigor for the coming year.
A stronger glow sits on the lively cheek
Of ruddy tire : and luculent along
The purer rivers flow ; their sullen deeps,
Transparent, open to the slu^pherd's gaze,
And murmur hoarser at the tixing frost. [stores

What art thou, frost ? and whence are thy keen
Derived, thou secret all-invading power.
Whom even the illusive fluid cannot fly ?
Is not thy potent energy, unseen,
Myriads of little salts, or hooked, or shaped
Like double wedges, and diffused immense
Through water, earth, and ether? Hence at eve,
Steamed eager from the red horizon round,
With the fierce rage of Winter deep suffused.
An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool
Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career
Arrests the bickering stream. The loosened ice.
Let down the flood, and half dissolved by day,
Rustles no more ; but to the sedgy bank
F'ast grows, or gathers I'ound the pointed stone —
A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven
Cemented firm ; till, seized from shore to shore,
The whole imprisoned river growls below.
Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects
A double noise ; while at his evening watch,
The village dog deters the nightly thief ;
The heifer lows ; the distant waterfall
Swells in the breeze ; and, with the hasty tread
Of traveler, the hollow-sounding j>lain
Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round,
It)finite worlds disclosing to the view.
Shines out intensely keen ; an<l, all one cope
Of starry glitter, glows from pole; to ])o]e.
I'Votn pole to pole the rigid iiitlueiice lulls.
Through the still night, incess.uil, heavy, strong,
And seizes Nature fast. It freezes on ;
rill morn, late rising o'er the drooping world,

146 WINTER.

Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears
The various labor of the silent night :
Prone from the dripping eave, and dumb cascade,
Whose idle torrents only seem to roar,
The pendent icicle ; the frost-work fair,
Where transient hues, and fancied figures, rise ;
Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen brook,
A livid tract, cold gleaming on the morn ;
The forest bent beneath the plumy wave ;
And by the frost refined the whiter snow,
Incrusted hard, and sounding to the tread
Of early shepherd, as he pensive seeks
His pining flock, or from the mountain top,
Pleased with the slippery surface, swift descends.

On blithesome frolics bent, the youthful swains,
While every work of man is laid at rest,
Fond o'er the river crowd, in various sport
And revelry dissolved ; where mixing glad,
Happiest of all the train ! the raptured boy
Lashes the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine
Branched out in many a long canal extends.
From every province swarming, void of care,
Batavia rushes forth ; and as tliey sweep.
On sounding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along,
The then gay land is maddened all to joy.
Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er the snow
Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid sleds,
Their vigorous youth in bold contention wheel
The long-resounding course. Meantime, to raise
The manly strife, with highly blooming charms,
Flushed by the Season, Scandinavia's dames,
Or Russia's buxom daughters, glow around.

Pure, quick, and sportful, is the wholesome day ;
But soon elapsed. The horizontal sun,
Broad o'er the south, hangs at his utmost noon ;
And, ineffectual, strikes the gelid cliff.
His azure gloss the mountain still maintains,
Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale
Relents awhile to the reflected ray ;

WINTER. :4^

Or from the forest falls the clustered snow,
Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam
Gay-twinkle as they scatter. Thick around
Thunders the sport of those who with the guM,
And dog impatient bounding at the shot,
Worse than the season, desolate the fields ;
And, adding to the ruins of the year,
Distress the footed or the feathered game.

But what is this ? Our infant Winter sinks,
Divested of his grandeur, should our eye
Astonished shoot into the frigid zone ;
Where, for relentless months, continual night
Holds o'er the glittering waste her starry reign.

There, through the prison of unbounded wilds,
Barred by the hand of Nature from escape,
Wide-roaras the Russian exile. Naught around
Strikes his sad eye, but deserts lost in snow ;
And heavy-loaded groves ; and solid floods,
'J'hat stretch, athwart the solitary vast,
Their icy horrors to the frozen main ;
And cheerless towns far-distant, never blessed,
Save when its annual course the caravan
Bends to the golden coast of rich Cathay,
With news of human-kind. Yet there life glows.
Yet cherished there, beneath the shining waste,
The furry nations harbor : tipped with jet.
Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press ;
Sables, of glossy black ; and dark-embrowned,
Or beauteous freaked with many a mingled hue,
Thousands besides, the costly {)ride of courts.
There, warm together pressed, the trooping deer
Sleep on the new-fallen snows ; and, scarce his head
Raised o'er the heapy wreath, the branching elk
Lies slumbering snllen in the white abyss.
The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils,
Nor with the dread of sounding bows he drives
The fearful flying race ; with ponderous clubs,
As weak against the mountain heaps they push
Their beating breast in vain, and piieous bray,
He lays them (quivering on the ensanguined snowi,

148 WINTER.

And with loud shouts rejoicing bears them home.
There through the piny forest half-absorpt,
Rough tenant of these shades, the shapeless bear,
With dangling ice all horrid, stalks forlorn ;
Slow-placed, and sourer as the storms increase,
He makes his bed beneath the inclement drift,
And, with stern patience, scorning weak complaint,
Hardens his heart against assailing want.

Wide o'er the spacious regions of the north,
That see Bootes urge his tardy wain,
A boisterous race, by frosty Caurus * pierced,
Who little pleasure know and fear no pain,
Prolific swarm. They once relumed the flame
Of lost mankind in polished slavery sunk.
Drove martial horde on horde, f with dreadful sweep
Resistless rushing o'er the enfeebled south,
And gave the vanquished world another form.
Not such the sons of Lapland : wisely they
Despise the insensate barbarous trade of war ;
They ask no more than simple Nature gives ;
They love their mountains and enjoy their storms.
No false desires, on pride-created wants.
Disturb the peaceful current of their time ;
And, through the restless ever-tortured maze
Of pleasure, or ambition, bid it rage.
Tlieir reindeer form their riches. These their tents,
Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth
Supply, their wholesome fare, and cheerful cups.
Obsequious at their call, the docile tribe
Yield to the sled their necks, and whirl them swift
O'er hill and dale, heaped into one expanse
Of marbled snow, as far as eye can sweep
With ablue crust of ice unbounded glazed.
By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless shake
A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens,
And vivid moons, and stars that keener play
With doubled luster from the radiant waste,

* The iiorlli wi'J-t wind.

f The wandering Scythian clans.

WINTER. 14»

Even in the depth of polar night, thev find

A wondrous day — enough to light the chase.

Or guide their daring steps to Finland-lairs.

Wished Spring returns ; and froju the liazy south.

While dim Aurora slowly moves before,

The welcome sun, just verging u[) at linst,

By small degrees extends th'j swelling curve ;

Tdl seen at last for gay rejoicing months,

Still, round and round, his spii-al coui-se he winds,

And as he nearly dips his flaming orb

Wheels up again, and reascends the sky.

In that glad season, from the lakes and floods,

Where pure Niemi's * fairy mountains rise,

And fringed with roses Tenglio f rolls his stream,

They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve,

They cheerful loaded to their tents repair ;

Where, all day long in useful cares employed.

Their kind unblemished wives the fire prepare.

Thrice happy race ! by poverty secured

From legal plunder and rapacious power :

In whom fell interest never yet has sown

The seeds of vice ; whose spotless swains ne'er knef '

Injurious deed ; nor, blasted by the breath

Ot faithless love, their blooming daughters woe.

Still pressing on, beyond Tornea's lake,|
And Hecla flaming through a waste of snow,
And furthest Greenland, to the pole itself.

* M- de Maupertuis, in his book on Tlie Fujnre, of iht Earth,
after iiaving descril>ed the beautiful lake and mountain of
Niemi, in Lapland, says, " From this iici^lil we li.i i oppor-
tunity several times to seo those vapors rise from the hike
which llie people of the couuiry call Ilaltios, and wiiich they
deem to be the guardian spirits of the niouiitains. We bad
been frightened with stories of bears that haunted this plare
but HJiw none. It seemed rather a place of resort for fairies uik'
genii than bears."

f Tiie same author ol)serves : " I was surprised to see upi'i
the banks of this river (tlie Tenglio) roses of as lively a red a-
any that are in om gardens."

\ In Fin and, situated at the northern extremity of the Gu f
of Bothnia.

180 WINTER.

Where, failing gradual, life at length goes oirt,
The muse expands her solitary flight ;
And, hovering o'er the wild stupendous scene,
Beholds new seas beneath another sky.*
Throned in his palace of cerulean ico.
Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court ;
And through his air}- hall the loud misrule
Of driving tempest is forever heard :
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath ;
Here arms his winds with ail-subduing frost ;
Molds his fierce hail, and treasures up his snows.
With which he now oppresses half the globe.

Thence winding eastward to the Tartar's coast^
She sweeps the howling margin of the main ;
Where undissolving, from tlie first of time,
Snows swell on snows amazing to the sky —
And icy mountains high on mountains piled
Seem to the shivering sailor from afar.
Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds.
Projected huge, and horrid, o'er the surge,
Alps frown on Alps ; or rushing hideous down,
As if old chaos was again returned,
Wide-rend the deep, and shake the solid pole.
Ocean itself no longer can resist
The binding fury ; but, in all its rage
Of tempest taken by the boundless frost,
Is many a fathom to the bottom chained.
And bid to roar no more : a bleak expanse,
Shagged o'er with wavy rocks, clieorless, and void
Of every life, that from the dreary months
Flies conscious southward. Miserable they !
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice.
Take their last look of the descending sun ;
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost,
The long, long night, incumbent o'er their heads
Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's f fate,

* The other hemisphere.

f iSir Hugh WiUoughby, sent by a company of adventurers
to discover the north-east passage. The voyage w^s undertak-
en in 1553.

WINTER. 161

As with first prow, (what have not Britons dared I)

He for the passage sought, attempted since

So much in vain, and seeming to be shut

l>y jealous Nature with eternal bars.

Ill these fell regions, in Arzina caught,

And to the stony deep his idle ship

Immediate sealed, he with his hapless crew,

Ii^:ich full exerted at his several task,

Froze into statues ; to the cordage glued

The sailor, and the pilot to the helm.

Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezing

stream
Rolls the wild Obi,* live the last of men ;
And, half enlivened by the distant sun.
That rears and ripens man, as well as plants,
Here human nature wears its rudest form.
Deep from the piercing season sunk in caves.
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer.
They waste the tedious gloom. Immersed in furs,
Doze the gross race. Nor sprightly jest, nor song,
Nor tenderness, they know ; nor auglit of life.
Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without.
Till morn at length, her roses drooping all.
Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er the fields,
And calls the quivered savage to the chase.
What cannot active government perform.
New-molding man ? Wide-stretching from thes*

shores,
A people savage from remotest time,
A liuge neglected empire — one vast mind.
By Heaven inspired, from Gothic darkness called.
Immortal Peter ! fii-st of monarchs ! He
His stubborn country tamed, her rocks, her fens.
Her fioods, her seas, her ill-suV)mitrMig sons ;
And while the fierce barbarian lie subdued.
To more exalted soul he raised the man.
Ye shades of ancient heroes, ye who toiled

* A river of Siberia, the banks of wliich are peopled by OsU-
ftkft.

15i WINTER.

Through long successive ages to build up

A laboring plan of state, behold at once

The wonder done ! behold the matchlesn fwiuMii, -

Who left his native throne, where reigacd till tta*k

A mighty sliadow of unreal power ;

Who greatly spurned the slothful pottp of courts ,

And roaming every land — in every port

His scepter laid aside, with glorious hand

Unwearied plying the mechanic tooi —

(-lathered the seeds of trade, of us'^ful arts,

Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.

Charged with the stores of P]urope, home he goes.

Then cities rise amid the illumiTiated waste ;

O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign ;

Far-distant flood to flood is social joined ;

The astonished Euxine hears the Baltic roar ;

Proud navies ride on seas that never foamed

With daring keel before ; and armies stretch

Each way their dazzling files — repressing here

The frantic Alexander of the north,

And awing their stern Othman's shrinking sons.

Sloth flies the land, and ignorance, and vice,

Of old dishonor proud : it glows abound,

Taught by the royal hand that routed the whole.

One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade —

For what his wisdom planned, and power enforced

More potent still, his great exawipie showed.

Muttering, the winds at eve, »vith blunted point.
Blow hollow-blustering from the south. Subdued,
'J'he frost resolves into a trtckling thaw.
Spotted, the mountains shiue ; loose sleet descend^
And floods the country round. The rivers swell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills,
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts,
A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once ;
And, where they rush, the wide-resounding pfaiu
Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen seas,
That wash the ungenial pole, will rest no more
Beneath the shackles of the mighty north ;
But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave —

WINTER. IM

And, hark ! the lengtlicning roar continuous runs

Athwart the rifted deep : at once it bursts.

And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds.

Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charged.

That, tossed amid the floating fragments, moors

Beneath the shelter of an icy isle.

While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks

More horrible. Can human foi'ce endure

The assembled mischiefs that besiege them round?

Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness,

The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice.

Now ceasing, now renewed with louder rage.

And in dire echoes bellowing round the main.

More to embroil the deep, Leviathan

And his un wieldly train, in dreadful sport.

Tempest the loosened brine, while through the gloom,

Far from the bleak inhospitable shore.

Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl

Of famished monsters, there awaiting wrecks.

Yet Providence, that ever-waking eye,

Looks down with pity on the feeble toil

Of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe

Through all this dreary labyrinth of fate.

'Tis done — dread Winter spreads his latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquered year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies !
How dumb the tuneful ! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man !
See here thy pictured life ; pass some few years —
Thy flowering S})ring, thy Sntiimer's ardent strength,
Thy sober Autumn fading into age,
Amd pale concluding Winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene. Ah I whither now are fled
Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes
Of happiness? those huigiiigs after fame?
Those restless can^s ? those busy bustling days?
Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering

thoughts,
Ijost between good and ill, that shared thy life?
All now are vanished ! Virtue sole survives.

l54 A HYMN.

Immortal, never-failing friend of man,

His guide to happiness on high. — And see !

*Tis come, the glorious morn ! the second birth

Of heaven and earth ! awakening Nature hears

The new-creating word, and starts to life,

In every heightened form, from pain and death

For ever free. The great eternal scheme

Involving all, and in a perfect whole

Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads,

To reason's eye refined clears up apace.

Ye vainly wise ! ye blind presumptuous ! now,

Confounded in the dust, adore that Power

And Wisdom oft arraigned : see now the cause

Why unassuming worth in secret lived.

And died, neglected ; why the good man's share

In life was gall and bitterness of soul ;

Why the lone widow and her orphans pined

In starving solitude — while luxury.

In palaces, lay straining her Ioav thought

To form unreal wants ; why heaven-born truth,

And moderation fair, word the red marks

Of superstition's scourge ; why licensed pain,

That cruel spoiler, that embosomed foe.

Embittered all our bliss. Ye good distressed !

Ye noble few ! who here unbending stand

Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile ;

And what your bounded view, which only saw

A little part, deemed evil is no more :

The storms of wintry time will quickly pass.

And one unbounded Spring encircle all.

A HYMN.

These, as they change, Almighty Father, these.
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring
Thy beauty walks, thy tenderness and love.
Wide fltish the fields ; the softening air is balm ;
Echo the mountains round ; the forest smiles ;

j4 AYMN. loo

And every sense, and every heart, is joy.
Then comes Thy glory in the summer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year ;
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks —
4-nd oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve.
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales.
Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfined,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In Winter, awful Thou ! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest rolled,
Majestic darkness ! on the whirlwinds wing
Riding sublime, Thou bidst the world adore,
And humblest Nature with Thy northern blast.

Mysterious round ! what skill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear ! a simple train.
Yet so delightful mixed, with such kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combined ;
Shade, unperceived, so softening into shade ;
And all so forming an harmonious whole ;
That, as they still succeed, they ravish still.
But wandermg oft, with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand.
That, ever-busy, wheels the silent spheres ;
Works in the secret deep ; shoots, steaming, thence
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the Spring ;
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day :
Feeds every creature ; hurls the tem])est forth ;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves.
With transport touches all the springs of life.

Nature, attend ! join every living soul,
Beneath the K))acious temple of the sky,
In adoration join ; and, ardent, raise
One general song ! T(j Him, ye vocal gales,
Hreatht; soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathe* :
Oh talk of Ilini in solitary glooms !
Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine
Fills the brown shade with a religious awe.
And ye, whose bolder not(; is iieard afar.
Who shake the astonished world, lift high to heaven

IM A HYMN.

The impetuous song, and say from whom you rage.

His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills ;

And let me catch it as I muse along.

Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound ;

Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze

Along the vale ; and thou, majestic main,

A secret world of wonders in thyself,

Sound His stupendous praise — whose greater voice

Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.

Soft-roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers.

In mingled clouds to Him ^ whose sun exalts,

Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.

Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave, to Him ;

Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart,

As home he goes beneath the joyous moon.

Ye that keep watch in heaven, as earth asleep

Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams,

Ye constellations, while your angels strike.

Amid the spangled eky, the silver lyre.

Great source of day ! best image here below

Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,

From world to world, the vital ocean round,

On Nature write with every beam His praise.

The thunder rolls : be hushed the prostrate world ;

While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn.

Bleat out afresh, ye hills ; ye mossy rocks,

Retain the sound : the broad responsive low,

Ye valleys, raise ; for the Great Shepherd reigns ;

And His unsuffering kingdom yet will come.

Ye woodlands all, awake : a boundless song

Burst from the groves ; and when the restless day,

Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep,

Sweetest of birds ! sweet Philomela, cliarm

The listening shades, and teach the night His praisa

Ye chief, for whom the whole creation snules,

At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all,

Crown the great hymn ! in swarming cities vast,

Assembled men, to the deep organ join

The long-resounding voice, oft-breaking clear.

At solemn pauses, through the swelling base ;

LIBERTY. ^1

And, as each mingling flame increases each.
In one united ardor rise to heaven.
Or if you rather choose the rural shade,
And find a fane in every sacred grove ;
There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay,
The prompting seraph, and the ])O0t's lyre,
Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll.
For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the blossom blows, the summer-ray
Russets the ])lain, inspiring Autumn gleams,
Or Winter rises in the blackening east.
Be my tongue mute — my fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat !

Should fate command me to the furthest verge
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes,
Rivers unknown to song — where first the sun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam
Flames on the xVtlantic isles — 'tis naught tome :
Since God is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste as in the city full ;
And where He vital spreads there must be joy.
When even at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey ; there, with new powers,
Will rising wonders sing : I cannot go
Where Universal Love not smiles around.
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their sons ;
From seeming evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression. — But I lose
Myself in Him, in light incfi'able !
Come then, expressive silence, muse His praise.

LIBERTY.

TO nia UOYAL niOHNESS FREDERICK, PRINCE OF WALES.

Sir,— When I roflect upon tliat iciidy coiulescension, that
pn'V«'iiliii!; generosity, with wliieli your Koyal 1 1 igluiess receiv-
ed tlie following poem under your proleclioii ; 1 can alone
awirihe it to the recommendHtion and intlucnec of the suhjcot.

188 LIBERTY.

la you the cause and concerns of Liberty have so zealous a
patron, as entitles whatever may have the least tendency to
promote them, to the distinction of your favor. And who
can entertain tliis delightful reflection, without feeling a pleas-
ure far superior to that of the fondest author ; and of which
all true lovers of their country must participate? To behold
the noblest dispositions of the prince, and of the patriot, unit-
ed: an overflowing benevolence, generosity, an(i candor of
heart, joined to an enlightened zeal for Liberty, an intimate
persuasion that on it depends the happiness and glory both of
kings and people : to see tliese shining out in public virtues, as
they have hitherto smiled in all the social lights and private
accomplisliments of life, is a prospect tijat cannot but inspire
a general sentiment of satisfaction and gladness, more easy
to be felt than expressed.

If the following attempt to trace Liberty, from the first ages
down to her excellent establishment in Great Britain, can at
all merit your approbation, and prove an entertaiiunent to
your Royal Highness ; if it can in any degree answer the dig-
nity of the subject, and of the name under wl)ich I presume
to shelter it ; 1 have my best reward : particularly as it affords
me an opportunity of declaring that 1 am, with the greatest
zeal and respect, Sir, your Royal Highness.'.s most < bedient and
most devoted servant,

James Thomson.

PART I.

ANCIENT AND MODERN ITALY COMPARED.

Contents. The following Poem is thrown into the form of a
Poetical Vision — Its scene, the ruins of ancient Rome —
The Goddess of Liberty, who is supposed to speali througli the
whole, appears, cliaracterized iis British Liberty — Gives
view of ancient Italy, and particulaily of Republican Rome,
in all her magnificence and glory — This contrasted by modern
Italy ; its valleys, mountains, culture, cities, people : the
difference appearing strougesi in the capital city Rome—
The ruins of the great work^ of Liberty more magnificent
than the borrowed pomp of Oppression ; anu from tuem
revived. Sculpture, Painting, and Arcliitcc^ture — The old
Romans apostrophized, with regard to tlie several melan-
choly changes in Italy : Hortice, Tuily, and Virgil, with
regard to their Tiber, Tusculum, and Naples — That once
finest and most ornamented part of Italy, all along the coast
of Baiae, how changed— This desolation of Italy applied to
Britain — Address to the Goddess of Liberty, that she would
deduce from the fi^.^t ages, her chief establishments, the de-
scription of which const Uute the subject of the following parts
of this Poem — She assents, and commands what she says to

LIBERTV 159

l)e sung in Britain ; whose happiness, arising from freedom,
and a limited monarchy, she marks — An immediate Vision
attends, and paints her words — Invocation.

O MY lamented Talbot ! * while with thee
The Muse gay roved the glad Hesperian round.
And drew^ the inspiring breath of ancient arts ;
Ah ! little thought she her returning verse
Should sing our darling subject to thy Shade.
And does the mystic veil, from mortal beam,
Involve those eyes where every virtue smiled,
And all thy Father's candid spirit shone ?
The light of reason, pure, without a cloud ;
Full of the generous heart, the mild regard ;
Honor disdaining blemish, cordial faith,
And limpid truth, that looks the very soul.
But to the death of mighty nations turn
My strain ; be there absorbed the private tear.f

♦Charles Richard Talbot, Esq. , died in his twenty-fifth
year, on the 27th September, 1773, two months before his fath-
er was appointed Lord Chancellor.

f In the first draught of this tribute to the memory of Mr.
Talbot, the subject was extended by general reflections on
death and future stale, which Thomson finally rejected. The
original lines have been preserved in a letler from Thomson
to his friend Dr. Cranston, dated 20th October, 1773. They
are tiius introduced : " I will conclude these thoughts by giv-
mg you some lines of a copy of verses 1 wrote on my friend
Mr. Talbot s death, and designed at first to be prefixed to Liber
ty, i)ut afterwards reduced to those you see stand there. Per-
haps some time or other I may publi.sli the whole :
' Be then the starting tear.
Or selfibh, or mistaken, wiped away.
By death the good, from reptile matter rais«d
And upward .so.iring to superim day,
With pity hear our plaints, witli pity see
Our ignorance of tear.s ; if e'er, indeed,
Amid the woes f)f life, they quench our joys.
Why sliould we cloud a friend's exalted state
With idle grief, teiiaci(Misly proloii^red
Beyond the lonely drops that frailty sheds
Surpriwd ? No ; rather thence less fond of life^
Yet still the lot erijoyiiitr heaven allows,
Attend we, cheerful the rejoining hour.
Children of Nature ! let us not reject,

160 LIBERTY.

Musing I lay ; warm from the sacred walks,
Where at each step imagination burns :
While scattered wide around, awful, and hoar,
Lies, a vast monument, once glorious Rom«,
The tomb of empire ! Ruins ! that efface
Whate'er, of finished, modern pomp can boast.

Snatched by these wonders to that world where
thought
Unfettered ranges. Fancy's magic hand
Ltd me anew o'er all the solemn scene,
Still in the mind's pure eye more solemn dressed :
When straight, methought, the fair majestic Power
Of Liberty appeared. Not, as of old,
Extended in her hand the cap, and rod,
Whose slave-enlarging touch gave double life : ♦
But her bright temples bound with British oak,
And naval honors nodded on her brow.
Sublime of port : loose o'er her shoulder flowed
Her sea-green robe, with constellations gay.
An island-goddess now ; and her high care
The Queen of isles, the mistress of the main.

Forward, the good we bave for what we want.
Since all by turns must spread the sable sail,
Driven to the coast that never makes return,
But where we happy hope to meet again ;
Sooner or later, a few anxious years,
Still fluttering on the wing, not much imports.
Eternal Goodness reigns : be this our stay ;
A subject, for the past, of grateful song,
And, for the future, of undrooping hope.'"
*Tlie ceremony of enfranchising a slave is thus described
by Dr. Smith, .Bovi. Antiq:—" ^\\ii lictor of the magistratus
iaid a rod (festuca) on the head of the slave, accompanied
with certain formal words, in which he declared that he was a
freeman, exjare Quiritium ; that is, thidicavlt in libertutem. The
master in the mean time held the slave, ami after he had pro-
jouiiced the words hunc hominem lihervm volo, he turned him
round (momeuto turbinis exit Marcus Dama, Peksius, Sat. v.
78) and let him go (emrsit ex manu), \vliciu;e the general name
of the act of manumission." Tlie cap alluded to in the next
was the Phrygian cap, which the manumitted slavi' put on
as the symbol of his freedom.

If BERT Y. lil

Biy heart beat filial transport at the sight ;
And, as she moved to speak, the awakened muse
Listened intense. Awhile she looked around,
With mournful eye the well-known ruins marked,
And then, her sighs repressinpf, thus began :

"Mine are these wonders, all thou seest is mine ;
But ah, how changed ! the falling, poor remains
Of what exalted once tlie Ausonian shore.
Look back through time : and, rising from tht

gloom,
Mark the dread scene, that paints whate'er I say.

" The great Republic see ! that glowed, sublime,
With the mixed freedom of a thousand states ;
Raised on the tiirones of kings her curule chair,
And by her fasces awed the subject world.
See busy millions quickening all the land.
With cities thronged, and teeming culture high :
For nature then smiled on her free-born sons,
And poured the plenty that belongs to men.
Behold, the country cheering, villas rise.
In lively prospect ; by the secret lapse
Of brooks now lost, and streams renowned in song ;
In XJmbria's closing vales, or on the brow
Of her brown hills that breatlie the scented gale;
On Baiie's viny coast, where peaceful seas,
Fanned by kind zephyrs, ever kissed the shore,
And sui'.s unclouded shine through })urest air :
Or in the spacious neigliborliood of Rome ;
Far shining upward to the Sabine hills,
To Anio's roar, and Tiber's olive shade ;
To where Preneste lifts her airy brow ;
Or downward spreading to the sunny shore.
Where Alba br(!atlu's the freshness of the main.

"See distant mountains leave their valleys dry.
And o'er the jtroud iVreade th(;ir trlbiitt; pour,
'I'o lave imperial Rome. For ages laid,
Deep, massy, tiiin, diverging every way,
With tombs of heroes sacred, see her roads,
By various nations trod, and supf>liant kings.
With l«gions flaming, or witli tiiumph gay.

in USEKTY.

" Full in the center of these wondrous worki,
The pride of earth ! Rome in her glory see I
Behold her demigods, in senate met ;
All head to counsel, and all heart to act ;
The commonweal inspiring every tongue .

With fervent eloquence, unbribed, and bold ;
Ere tame Corruption taught the servile herd
To rank obedient to a master's voice.

" Her forum see, warm, popular, and loud,
In trembling wonder hushed, when the two Sires,*
As they the private father greatly quelled,
Stood up the public fathers of the state.
See Justice judging there, in human shape,
Hark ! how with freedom's voice it thunders high,
Or in soft murmurs sinks to Tully's tongue.

" Her tribes, her censu8,f see ; her generous troopi^
"Whose pay was glory, and their best reward
Free for their country and for me to die ;
Ere mercenary murder grew a trade.

" Mark, as the purple triumph waves along,
The highest pomp and lowest fall of life.

" Her festive games, the school of heroes, see :
Her Circus, ardent with contending youth ;
Her street, her temples, palaces, and baths,
Full of fair forms, of Beauty's eldest born,
And of a people cast in virtue's mold ;
While sculpture lives around, and Asian hills
Lend their best stores to heave the pillared dome ;
All that to Roman strength the softer touch
Of Grecian art can join. But language fail*
To paint this sun, this center of mankind.
Where every virtue, glory, treasure, art,

*Luoius Junius Brutus, and Virginius.

f Tlie tribes were tlic cl;isses into whicli tlie Roman citizens
;ifere divided for the convenience of voting in elections, and
otlier public business, at tlie Vomii'ui trihuia. The census was
the declaration made by the citizens lielorc the censors of their
names, and places of abode, their wives, children, domestics,
tenants, and slaves, with an exact account of their property In
quantity and quality.

LIBERTY. 166

Attracted strong, in heightened luster met.

" Need I the contrast mark ? unjoyous vievv I
A land in all, in government and arts,
In virtue, genius, earth, and heaven, reversed ;
Who but these far famed ruins to behold,
Proofs of a peoj)le, whose heroic aims
Soared far above the little selfish sphere
Of doubting modern life ; who but inflamed
With classic zeal, these consecrated scenes
Of men and deeds to trace ; unhappy land.
Would trust the winds, and cities loose of sway ?

" Are these the vales, that, once, exulthig state«
In their warm bosom fed ? Tlie mountains these,
On whose high-blooming sides my suns, of old,
I bred to glory ? These dejected towns.
Where, mean and sordid, life can scarce subsist,
The scenes of ancient opulence and pomj) ?

"Come ! by whatever sacred name disguised,
Oppression, come ! and in thy works rejoice !
See nature's richest plains to putrid fens
Turned by thy fury.* From their cheerful bounda,
See razed the enlivening village, farm, and seat.
First, rural toil, by the rapacious hand
Robbed of his poor reward, resigned the plow ;
And now he dares not turn the noxious glebe.
'Tis thine entire. The lonely swain himself,
Who loves at large along the grassy downs
His flocks :o pasture, thy drear champaign flies.
Far as the sickening eye can swee}) around,
'Tis all one desert, desolate, and gray.
Grazed by the sullen buffalo alone ;
And, where the rank uncultivated growth
Of rotting ages taints the passing gale,
Beneath the baleful blast the city j)ines,
Or sinks enfeebled, or infectccl l^wrns ;
Beneath it mourns the solitary road,
Rolled in rude mazes (/er the abandoned waste ;
While ancient ways, ingulfecl, arc seen no more.

♦The Pontine marshes, find thp marslKis of Manturiisa.

164 LIBERTY.

" Such thjr dire plains, thou self-destroyer ! foe
To humankind ! thy moiintaiiis too, profuse.
Where savage nature blooms, seem their sad plaint
To raise against thy desolating rod.
There on the breezy brow, where thriving states
And famous cities, once, to the pleased sun.
Far other scenes of rising culture spread,
Pale shine thy ragged towns. Neglected round,
Each harvest pines ; the livid, lean produce
Of heartless labor : while thy hated joys.
Not proper pleasure, lift the lazy hand.
Better to sink in sloth the woes of life.
Than wake their rage with unavailing toil.
Hence, drooping art almost to nature leaves
The rude unguided year. Thin wave the gifts
Of yellow Ceres, thin the radiant blush
Of orchard reddens in the warmest ray.
To weedy wildness run, no rural wealth
(Such as dictators fed) * the garden pours.
Crude the wild olive flows, and foul the vine ;
Nor juice Csecubian, or Falernian, more.
Streams life and joy, save in the muse's bowl.
Unseconded by art, the spinning race
Draw the bright thread in vain, and idly toil.
In vain, forlorn in wilds, the citron V^lows ;
And flowering plants perfume the desert gale.
Through the vile thorn the tender myrtle twines :
Inglorious droops the laurel, dead to song.
And long a stranger to the hero's brow.

"Nor half thy triumph this ; cast, from brute fields
Into the haunts of men thy ruthless eye.
There, buxom Plenty never turns her horn ;
The grace and virtue of exterior life.
No clean convenience reigns ; e'en sleep itself,
Least delicate of powers, reluctant, there,
Lays on the bed impure his heavy head.
Thy horrid walk ! dead, empty, unadorned,

* Quintus Ciuciunatus Dictator est factus, qui agrum quatuor
Jugerura possidens. nianibus colebat.

LIBERTY. Iti

See streets whose echoes never know the voice
Of cheerful hurry, commerce many-tongued,
And art mechanic at his various task,
Fervent, employed. Mark the desponding race,
Of occnpSktion void, as void of hope ;
Hope, the glad ray, glanced from Eternal Good,
That life enlivens, and exalts its powers,
With views of fortune — madness all to them I
By the relentless seized their better joys,
To the soft aid of cordial airs they fly.
Breathing a kind oblivion o'er their woes,
And love and music melt their souls away.
From feeble Justice, see how rash Revenge,
Trembling, the balance snatches ; and the sword.
Fearful himself, to venial ruffians gives.
See where God's altar, nursing murder, stands.
With the red touch of dark assassins stained.

" But chief let Rome, the mighty city ! speak
The full-exerted genius of thy reign.
Behold her rise amid the lifeless waste.
Expiring nature all corrupted round ;
While the lone Tiber, through tlie desert plain,
Winds his waste stores, and sullen sweeps along.
Patched from my fragments, in unsolid pomp,
Mark how the temple glares ; and artful dressed,
Amusive, draws the superstitious train.
Mark how the palace lifts a lying front,
Concealing often, in magnific jail,
Proud want ; a deep unanimated gloom !
And oft adjoining to the dread abode
Of misery, whose melancholy walls
Seem its voracious grandeur to reproach.
Within the city Ijounds the desert see ,'
See the rank \\W(\ o'er subterranean roofs.
Indecent, spread ; beneath whose I'letted gold
It once, exulting, flowed. The people mark,
Matchless, while lirccl })y me ; to public good
Inexorably firm, just, generous, and brave,
Afraid of nothing but unworthy life,
Elate with glory, and heroic; soul

IM LIBERTY.

Known to the vulgar breast : — beLold them now
A thin despairing number, all-subdued,
The slaves of slaves, by superstition fooled,
By vice unmanned and a licentious rule ;
In guile ingenious, and in murder brave.
Such in one land, beneath the same fair clime,
Thy sons, Oppression, are ; and such were mine.

"^ E'en with thy labored pomp, for whose vain show
Deluded thousands starve, all age-begrimed.
Torn, robbed, and scattered in unnumbered sacks,
And by the tempest of two thousand years
Continual shaken, let my ruins vie.
These roads that yet the Roman hand assert,
Beyond the weak repair of modern toil ;
These fractured arches, that the chiding stream
No more delighted hear ; these rich remains
Of marbles now unknown, where shines imbibed
Each parent ray ; these massy columns, hewed
From Afric's furthest shore ; one granite all,
These obelisks high-towering to the sky.
Mysterious marked with dark Egyptian lore ;
These endless wonders that this sacred way
Illumine still, and consecrate to fame ;
These fountains, vases, urns, and statues, charged
With the fine stores of art-completing Greece.
Mine is, besides, thy every later boast :
Thy Buonarotis, thy Palladios mine ;
And mine the fair designs, which Raphael's soul
O'er the live canvas, emanating, breathed.

" What would you say, ye conquerors of earth I
Ye Romans ! could you raise the laureled head ;
Could you the country see, by seas of blood,
And the dread toil of ages, won so dear ;
Your pride, your triumph, your supreme delight I
For whose defense oft, in the doubtful hour,
You rushed with rapture down the gulf of fate,
Of death ambitious ! till by awful deeds.
Virtues, and courage, that amaze mankind.
The queen of nations rose, ])ossessed of all
Which nature, art, and glory could bestow ;

LIBERTY. W

What would you say deep in the last abyss

Of slavery, vice, and unambitious want,

Thus to behold her sunk ? your crowded plains,

Void of their cities ; unadorned your liills ;

Ungraced your lakes ; your ports to ships unknown i

Your lawless floods, and your abandoned streams ;

These could you know — these could you love again?

Thy Tiber, Horace, could it now inspire,

Content, poetic ease, and rural joy.

Soon bursting into song ; while through the grove*

Of headlong Anio, dashing to the vale,

In many a tortured stream, you mused along ?

Yon wild retreat,* where superstition dreams,

Could, Tully, you yourTusculum believe?

And could you deem yon naked hills, that form,

Famed in old song, the ship-forsaken bay, f

Your Formian shore ? Once the delight of earth.

Where art and nature, ever smiling, joined

On the gay land to lavish all their stores.

How changed, how vacant, Virgil, wide around,

Would now your Naples seem ! disastered less

By black Vesuvius thundering o'er the coast

His midnight earthquakes, and his mining fires,

Than by despotic rage, | thai inward gnaws

A native foe ; a foreign, tears without.

First from your flattered Cicsars this began :

Till, doomed to tyrants an eternal prey,

Thin peopled spreads, at last, tlie siren plain, §

That the dire soul of Hannibal disarmed ;

And wrapped in weeds the shore \\ of Venus lies.

♦Tusculiim is reckoned to have stood at aplac;; now called
Grotta f\'rrata a convent of monks.

f The hay of Mola (anciently Fonniae) into wliicii Homer
brings Ulysses and his companions. Near Formise Cicerc
liad a villa.

f Naples, then under the Austrian government.
Campagna Felice, adjoining to (Japuii.
The roast of IJaise, which was fornurly adorned with the
works mentioned in ihe following lines ; and where, amidst
many magnificent ruins, those of a temple erected to Venua
are still to be seco.

188 LIBERTY.

There Baise sees no more the joyous throng,
Her bank all beaming with the pride of Rome ;
No generous vines now bask along the hills,
Where sport the breezes of the Tyrrhene main :
With baths and temples mixed, no villas rise ;
Nor, art-sustained amid reluctant waves,
Draw the cool murmurs of the breathing deep;
No spreading ports their sacred arms extend ,•
No mighty moles the big intrusive storm.
From the calm station, roll resounding back.
An almost total desolation sits,
A dreary stillness, saddening o'er the coast ;
Where, when soft suns and tepid winters rose,
Rejoicing crowds inhaled the balm of peace ;
Where citied hill to hill reflected blazed ;
And where, with Ceres, Bacchus wont to hold
A genial strife. Her youthful form, robust.
E'en Nature yields, by fire and earthquake rent ;
Whole stately cities in the dark abrupt
Swallowed at once, or vile in rubbish laid,
A nest for serpents ; from the red abyss
New hills, explosive, thrown ; the Lucrine lake
A Keedy pool ; and all to Cuma's point,
The sea recovering his usurped domain,
And poured triumphant o'er the buried dome.

" Hence, Britain, learn ; my best established, last
And more than Greece, or Rome, my steady reign ;
The land where, King and People equal bound
By guardian laws, my fullest blessings flow ;
And where my jealous unsubmitting soul.
The dread of tyrants ! burns in every breast ;
Learn hence, if such the miserable fate
Of an heroic race, the masters once
Of human-kind, what, when deprived of MB,
How grievous must be thine ? in spite of clime*,
Whose sun-enlivened ether wakes the soul
To higher powers ; in spite of happy soils.
That, but by labor's slightest aid impelled.
With treasures teem to thy cold clime unknown ;
If there desponding fail the common arts,

LIBERTY, 161

And sustenance of life, could life itself.
Far less a thoughtless tyrant's hollow pomp,
Subsist with thee ? against depressing skies,
Joined to full-spread Oppression's cloudy brow,
How could thy spirits hold ? where vigor find,
Forced fruits to tear from their unnative soil ?
Or, storing every harvest in thy ports,
To plow the dreadful all-producing wave ?"

Here paused the Goddess. By the cause assured.
In trembling accents thus I moved my prayer :

" Oh first, and most benevolent of powers !
Come from eternal splendors, here on earth.
Against despotic pride, and rage, and lust.
To shield mankind ; to raise them to assert
The native rights and honor of their race ;
Teach me, thy lowest subject, but in zeal
Yielding to none, the progress of thy reign.
And with a strain from thee enrich the Muse.
As thee alone she serves, her patron, thou.
And great inspirer be ! then will she joy,
Though narrow life her lot, and private shade ;
And when her venal voice she barters vile.
Or to thy open, or thy secret, foes,
May ne'er those sacred raptures touch her more,
By slavish hearts unfelt ! and may her song
Sink in oblivion with the nameless crew !
Vermin of state ! to thy o'erflowing light
That owe their being, yet betray thy cause."

Then, condescending kind, the heavenly Power
ReVirned : — "What liere, suggested by the scene,
I slight unfold, record and sing at home.
In that blessed isle, where (so we s[)irits move)
With one quick effort of my will I iuii.
There Truth, unlicensed, walks ; and dares accost
E'en kings tlienis(;lv('s, the monarclis of the free 1
Fixed on my rock, tliere, an indulgent race
O'er Britons wield t li(> scepter of their choice ;
And there, to finish wliat liis sires began,
A prince * behold ! for nie who burns sincere,

* Frederick, Prin(;e of Wales.

176 UBEkTV.

E'en with a subject's zeal. He my great work

Will parent-like sustain ; and added give

The touch the Graces and the Muses owe.

For Britain's glory swells his panting breast ;

And ancient arts he emulous revolves ;

His pride to let the smiling heart abroad,

Through clouds of pomp, that but conceal the man ;

To please his pleasure ; bounty his delight ;

And all the soul of Titus dwells in him."

Hail, glorious theme ! but how, alas ! shall verse,
From the crude stories of mortal language drawn,
How faint and tedious, sing, what, piercing deep,
The Goddess flashed at once upon my soul.
For, clear precision all, the tongue of gods
Is harmony itself ; to every ear
Familiar known, like light to every eye.
Meantime disclosing ages, as she spoke.
In long succession poured their empires forth ;
Scene after scene, the human drama spread ;
And still the embodied picture rose to sight.

Oh THOU ! to whom the Muses owe their flame;
Who bidd'st, beneath the pole, Parnassus rise.
And Hippocrene flow ; with thy bold ease.
The striking force, the lightning of thy thought,
And thy strong phrase, that rolls profound and

clear ;
Oh, gracious Goddess ! re-inspire my song ;
While I, to nobler than poetic fame
Aspiring, thy commands to Britons bear.

PART n.

GREECE.

Contents. — Liberty traced from the pastoral ages, and the

first uniting of ueighlwring families inio civil government —
The several establishments of Liberty, in Egypt, Persia,
Phoenicia, Palestine, slightly touched upon, down to her great
establishment in Greece — Geographial description of Greece —
Bparta and Athens, the two principal stiites of Greece,
desrcribed — Influenceof liberty over all the Grecian states ;
with regard to their Government, their Politeness, their Vir-

LIBERTY. 171

tuet, their Arts, and Sciences — The vast superiority it gave
tbein, in point of force and bravery, over the Persians, exem-
plified by the action of Thermopylae, the Imttie of Marathon,
and the retreat of the Ten Thousand— Its full exertion, and
most beautiful effects in Athens — Lilx-riy tin- source of free
Philosophy — The various scliool.s which took their rise from
Socrates — Euumeratiou of Fine Arts : P^loqueiice, Poelr}',
Music, Sculpture, Painting and ArchitccUin; ; the effects of
Liberty in Greece, and brought to the uiinost perfectioc
there — Transition to the modern state of (Ireece— Wlij
Liberty declined, and was at last entirely lost among th<
Greeks — Concluding Reflection.

Thus spoke the Goddess of the fearless eye ;
And at her voice, renewed, the Vision rose ;

" First, in the dawn of tinae, with eastern swains,
In woods, and tents, and cottages, I lived ;
While on from plain to plain they led their flocks,
In search of clearer spring, and fresher field.
These, as increasing families disclosed
The tender state, I taught an equal sway.
Few were offenses, properties, and laws.
Beneath the rural portal, pain: o'erspread,
The father senate mut. There Justice dealt.
With reason then anw equity the same,
Free as the common air. lier prom])t decree ;
Nor yet had stained her sword witli subjects' blood.
The simpler arts were all their simple wants
Had urged to light. But instant, tliose supplied.
Another set of fonder wants arose,
And other arts with them of finer aim ;
Till, from refining want to want im])ellcd,
The mind by thinking pushed lur latent powers.
And life began to glow, and arts to sliine.

"At first, on brutes alone the rustic war
Launched the rude spear , swift, as he glared along,
On the grim lion, or the robber wolf :
For then the young sportive life was void of toil,
Demanding little and with little {(leased.
But when to maiiliood grown, and endless joyg,
Led on by equal toils, the bosom tired ;
Ixjwd lazy rapine broke primeval peace.
And, hid it) caves and idle forests drear,

17f LIBERTY.

From the lone pilgrim, and the wandering swain,
Seized what he durst not earn. Then brother's blood
F'irst, horrid, smoked on the polluted skies.
Awful in justice, then the burning youth,
Led by their tempered sires, on lawless men.
The last worst monsters of the shaggy wood,
Turned the keen arrow, and the sharpened spear.
Then war grew glorious. Heroes then arose ;
Who, scorning coward self, for others lived,
Toiled for their ease, and for their safety bled.
West, with the living day, to Greece I came :
Earth smiled beneath my beam ; the Muse before
Sonorous flew, that low till then in woods
Had tuned the reed, and sighed the shepherd's pain ;
But now, to sing heroic deeds, she swelled
A nobler note, and bade the banquet burn.

" For Greece my sons of Egypt I forsook ;
A boastful race, that in the vain abyss
Of fabling ages loved to lose their source,
And with their river traced it from the skies.
While there my laws alone despotic reigned,
And king, as well as people, proud obeyed ;
I taught them science, virtue, wisdom, arts ;
By poets, sages, legislators sought.
The school of polished life, and human kind.
But when mysterious Superstition came.
And, with her Civil Sister * leagued, iTivolved
In studied darkness the desponding mind ;
Then Tyrant Power the righteous scourge unloosed :
For yielded reason speaks the soul a slave.
Instead of useful works, like nature's, — great.
Enormous, cruel wonders crushed the land ;
And round a tyrant's tomb,f who none deserved,
For one vile carcass perished countless lives.
Then the great Dragon, J couched amid his floods,
Swelled his fierce heart, and cried, " This flood if

mine,
■Tis I that bid it flow." But, undeceived,

•CiTil tyrauny. f The Pyaniicls. % The tyrants of Egypt.

His frenay soon the proud blasphemer felt ;

Felt that, without my fertilizing power,

Suns lost their force, and Niles o'erflowed in vain,

Naught could retard me : nor the frugal state

Of rising Persia, sober in extreme,

Beyond the pitch of man, and thence reversed

Into luxurious waste ; nor yet the ports

Of old Phoenicia, first for letters famed,

That paint the voice, and silent speak to sight ;

Of arts prime source, and guardian ! by fair stars,

First tempted out into the lonely deep ;

To whom I first disclosed mechanic arts.

The winds to conquer, to subdue the waves,

With all the peaceful power of ruling trade ;

Earnest of Britain. Nor by these retained ;

Nor by the neighboring land, whose palmy shore

The silver Jordan laves. Before me lay

The promised Land of Arts, and urged my flight.

" Hail, Nature's utmost boast ! unrivaled Greece 1
My fairest reign ! where every power benign
Conspired to blow the flower of human kind.
And lavished all that genius can inspire.
Clear sunny climates, by the breezy main,
Ionian or JEgean, tempered kind ;
Light, airy soils ; a country ricli, and gay ;
Broke into hills with balmy odors crowned,
And, bright with purple harvest, joyous vales ;
Mountains, and streams, where verse spontaneous

flowed ;
Whence deemed by wondering men the seat of gods,
And still the mountains and the streams of song.
All that boon Nature could luxuriant pour
Of high materials, and my ri'stlcss Arts
Frame into finished life. How many states,
And clustering towns, and monuments of lame.
And scenes of glorious deecls, in little bounds — -
From the rough tract of bending mountains, beat
By Adria's liere, there by yEgean waves ;
To where the deej) adorning Cyclade Isles
In shining prospect rise, and on the shora

m LIBERTY,

Of furthest Crete resounds the Libyan main.

" O'er all two rival cities reared the brow,
And balanced all. Spread on Eurotas' banl^
Amid a circle of soft rising hills,
The patient Sparta one ; the sober, hard,
And man-subduing city ; which no shape
Of pain could conquer, nor of pleasure charm,
Lycurgus there built, on the solid base
Of equal life, so well a tempered state ;
Where mixed each government, in such just poiae ;
Each power so checking, and supporting each ;
That firm for ages, and unmoved, it stood.
The fort of Greece ! without one giddy hour,
One shock of faction, or of party rage.
For, drained the springs of wealth, Corruption there
Lay withered at the root. Thrice happy land 1
Had not neglected art, with weedy vice
Confounded, sunk. But if Athenian arts
Loved not the soil ; yet there the calm abode
Of wisdom, virtue, philosophic ease.
Of manly sense and wit, in frugal phrase
Confined, and pressed into Laconic force.
There too, by rooting thence still treacherous self,
The Public and the Private grew the same.
The children of the nursing Public all,
And at its table fed ; for that they toiled,
For that they lived entire, and even for that
The tender mother urged her son to die.

" Of softer genius, but not less intent
To seize the palm of empire, Athens rose.
Where, with bright marbles big and future pompf
Hymettus spread, amid the scented sky.
His thymy treasures to the laboring bee.
And to botanic hand the stores of health ;
Wrapt in a soul-attenuating clime.
Between Ilissus and Cephissus glowed
This hive of science, shedding sweets divine.
Of active arts, and animated arms.
There, passionate for me, an easy-moved,
A quick, refined, a delicate, humane,

LIBERTY, 175

Enlightened people reigned. Oft on the brink
Of ruin, hurned by the charm of speech,
Enforcing hasty counsel immature^
Tottered the rash Democracy ; unpoised,
And by the rage devoured, that ever tears
A populace unequal ; part too rich,
And part or fierce with want, or abject grown.
Solon at last, their mild restorer, rose ;
Allayed the tempest ; to the calm of laws
Reduced the settling whole ; and, with the weight
Which the two senates* to the public lent,
As with an anchor, fixed the driving state.

" Nor was my forming care to these confined.
For emulation through the whole I poured,
Noble contention ! who should most excel
In government well poised, adjusted best
To public weal ; in countries cultured high ;
In ornamented towns, where order reigns,
Free social life, and polished manners fair ;
In exercise, and arms ; arms only drawn
For common Greece, to quell the Persian pride ;
In moral science, and in graceful arts.
Hence as for glory peacefully they strove.
The prize grew greater, and the prize of all.
By contest brightened, hence the radiant youth,
Poured every beam ; by generous pride inflamed,
Felt every ardor burn : their great reward
The verdant wreath, f which sounding Pisa J gave.

" Hence flourished Greece ; and hence a race of men,
\8 gods by conscious future times adored :
In whom each virtue wore a smiling air.

• The Areopagus, or Supreme Court of Judicature, which
Solon reformed and improved : and the council of Four Hun-
dred, by him instituted. In this {•ouucil all iifTairs of state
were deliberated, before they came to be voted in the assembly
of the people.

f The prize at the Olympic games was a wreath of wild
olive.

f: Or Olympla, the citj where the Olympic games were
ebrated.

17» LIBERTY.

Each science shed o'er life a friendly light,
Each art was nature. Spartan valor hence,
At the famed pass,* firm as an isthmus stood ;
And the whole eastern ocean, waving far
As eye conld dart its vision, nobly checked.
While in extended battle, at the field
Of Marathon, my keen Athenians drove
Before their ardent band a host of slaves.

" Hence through the continent ten thousand Greeks
Urged a retreat, whose glory not the prime
Of victories can reach. Deserts, in vain.
Opposed their course ; and hostile lands, unknown ;
And deep rapacious floods, dire banked with death ;
And mountains, in whose jaws destruction grinned ;
Hunger, and toil ; Armenian snows, and storms ;
And circling myriads still of barbarous foes.
Greece in their view, and glory yet untouched.
Their steady column pierced their scattering herds,
Which a whole empire poured ; and held its way
Ti'iumphant, by the sage-exalted Chief
Fired and sustained. Oh light and force of mind,
Almost almighty in severe extremes !
The sea at last from Colchian mountains seen.
Kind-hearted transport round their captains threw
The soldiers' fond embrace ; o'erflowed their eyes
With tender floods, and loosed the general voice
To cries resounding loud — ' The sea ! The sea ! '

" In Attic bounds hence heroes, sages, wits.
Shone thick as stars, the milky way of Greece !
And though gay wit, and pleasing grace was theirs,
All the soft modes of elegance, and ease ;
Yet was not courage less, the patient touch
Of toiling art, and disquisition deep.

" My spirit pours a vigor through the soul,
The unfettered thought with energy inspires,
Invincible in arts, in the bright field
Of nobler Science, as in that of Arms,
Athenians thus not less intrepid burst

X The Straits of Thennopylse.

LIBERTY. IW

The bonds of tyrant darkness, than they spumed

The Persian chains ; while through the city full

Of mirthful quarrel and of witty war,

Incessant struggled taste, refining taste,

And friendly free discussion, calling forth

From the fair jewel Truth its latent ray.

O'er all shone out the great Athenian Sage, *

And Father of Philosophy : the sun,

From whose white blaze emerged, each various sect

Took various tints, but with diminished beam.

Tutor of Athens ! he, in every street,

Dealt priceless treasure : goodness his delight,

Wisdom his wealth, and glory his reward.

Deep through the human heart, with playful art,

His simple question stole ; as into truth.

And serious deeds, he smiled the laughing race ;

Taught moral happy life, whate'er can bless.

Or grace mankind ; and what he taught he was.

Compounded high, though plain, his doctrine broke

In different schools : in bold poetic phrase

Of figured Plato ; Xenophon's pure strain,

Like the clear brook that steals along the vale ;

Dissecting truth, the Stagyrite's keen eye ;

The exalted Stoic pride ; the Cynic sneer ;

The slow-consenting Academic doubt ; \

And, joining bliss to virtue, the glad ease

Of Epicurus, seldom understood.

They, ever candid, reason still opposed

To reason ; and, since virtue was their aim.

Each by sure practice tried to prove his way

The best. Then stood untouched the solid base

Of Liberty, the liberty of mind ;

For systems yet, and soul-enslaving creeds,

Slept with the monsters of succeeding times.

From priestly darkness s[)rutig the enlitrhtening art«

Of fire, and sword, and rage, and horrid names.

• Socrates.

+ Acndtmia of Athens was thn Oymnafiium in the suburhs
where Plato taught ; hence his disciplcH were called Arad^mux

tit LIBERTY.

" O Greece ! thou sapient nurse of finer arts !
"Which to bright science blooming fancy bore ;
Be this thy praise, that thou, and thou alone,
In these hast led the way, in these excelled,
Crowned with the laurel of assenting Time.

" In thy full language, speaking mighty things ;
Like a clear torrent close, or else diffused
A broad majestic stream, and rolling on
Through all the winding harmony of sound :
In it the power of eloquence, at large,
Breathed the persuasive or pathetic soul.
Stilled by degrees the democratic storm,
Or bade it threatening rise, and tyrants shook,
Flushed at the head of their victorious troops ;
In it the Muse, her fury never quenched.
By mean unyielding phrase ; or jarring sound,
Her unconfined divinity displayed ;
And, still harmonious, formed it to her will.
Or soft depressed it to the shepherd's moan,
Or raised it swelling to the tongue of gods.

" Heroic song was thine ; the Fountain Bard, *
Whence each poetic stream derives its course.
Thine the dread moral scene, thy chief delight
Where idle Fancy durst not mix her voice.
When Reason spoke august ; the fervent heart
Or plained, or stormed ; and in the impassioned man,
Concealing art with art, the poet sunk.
This potent school of manners, but when left
To loose neglect, a land-corrupting plague,
Was not unworthy deemed of public care.
And boundless cost, by thee ; whose every son,
E'en last mechanic, the true taste possessed
Of what had flavor to the nourished soul.

" The sweet enforcer of tlie poet's strain.
Thine was the meaning music of the heart.
Not the vain trill, that, void of passion, runs
In giddy mazes, tickling idle ears ;
But that deep-searching voice, and artful hand,

* Homer.

uMEJity. iW

To which respondent shakes the varied soul.

" Thy fair ideas, thy delightful forms,
By Love imagined, by the Graces touched,
The boast of well-pleaseil Nature ! Sculpture seized
And bade them ever smile in Parian stone.
Selecting Beauty's choice, and that again
Exalting, blending in a perfect whole,
'tliy workmen left e'en Nature's self behind.
From those far different, whose prolific hand
Peoples a nation ; they foi- years on years.
By the cool touches of judicious toil.
Their rapid genius curbing, poured it all
Through the live features of one breathing stone
There, beaming full, it shone ; exj)ressing goda :
Jove's awful brow, Apollo's air divine.
The fierce atrocious frown of sinewed Mars,
Or the sly graces of the ('yprian Queen ;
Minutely perfect all ! Each dimple sunk.
And every muscle swelled, as nature taught.
In tresses, braided gay, the marble waved ;
Flowed in loose robes, or thin transparent veils j
Sprung into motion ; softened into flesh ;
Was fired to passion, or refined to soul.

" Nor less thy pencil, with creative touch.
Shed mimic life, when all thy brightest dames,
Assembled, Zeuxis in his Helen mixed.
And when Apelles, who peculiar knew
To give a grace that more than mortal smiled,
The soul of beauty ! called the Queen of Love,
Fresh from the billows, blushing orient charms.
E'en such enchantment then thy pencil poured,
riiat cruel-thoughted War the impatient torch
Dashed to the ground ; and, rather than destroy
The patriot picture, * let the city Mcape.

"Fi-t, elder Sculpture taught her sister art

* When Demetrius besieged Kiiodcs, aiui could hard
reduced the city, by sotting fire to tliat quarter of it where
stoo<l the house of llie celoljruted Protogeiies ; he chose
rather to raise tlie siege;, tiiau liazanl tlic biiruing of a fumoiu
picture called Jasylus, the riiasleryiece of that paiuter.

180 UBBHTY.

Correct design, where great ideas shone,
And in the secret trace oppression spoke ;
Taught her the graceful attitude ; the turn.
And beauteous airs of head ; the native act.
Or bold, or easy ; and, cast free behind,
The smiling mantle's well-adjusted flow.
Then the bright Muse, their eldest sister, came,
And bade her follow where she led the way ;
Bade earth, and sea, and air, in colors rise,
And copious action on the canvas glow ;
Gave her gay Fable ; spread Invention's store ;
Enlarged her view ; taught Composition high,
And just Arrangement, circling round one point,
That starts to sight, binds, and commands the whole ;
Caught from the heavenly Muse a nobler aim.
And scorning the soft trade of mere delight,
O'er all thy temples, porticoes and schools,
Heroic deeds she traced, and warm displayed
Each moral beauty to the ravished eye.
There, as the imagined presence of the god
Aroused the mind, or vacant hours induced
Calm contemplation, or assembled youth
Burned in ambitious circle round the sage,
The living lesson stole into the heart,
With more prevailing force than dwells in words.
These rouse to glory ; while, to rural life,
The softer canvas oft reposed the soul.
There gayly broke the sun-illumined cloud ;
The lessening prospect, and the mountain blue,
Vanished in air ; the precipice frowned dire ;
While, down the rock, the rushing torrent dashed ;
The sun shone, trembling, o'er the distant main ;
The tempest foamed, immense ; the driving storm
Saddened the skies, and, from the doubling gloom
On the scathed oak the ragged liglitning fell :
In closing shades, and where tiie current strays.
With Peace, and Love, and Innocence around,
Piped the lone shepherd to his feeding flock ;
Round happy parents smiled their younger selves j
And friends conversed, by death divided long.

LIBERTY. 181

"To public virtue thus the smiling arts,
Unblemished handmaids, served ; the Graces they
Thus revered, to dress this fairest Venus.
And placed beyond the reach of sordid care.
The high awarders of immortal fame,
Alone for glory thy great masters strove ;
Courted by kings, and by contending states
Assumed the boasted honor of their birth.

" In Architecture too thy rank supreme !
That art where most magnificent appears
The little builder man ; by thee refined,
And smiling high, to full perfection brought.
Such thy sure rules, that Goths of every age,
Who scorned their aid, have only loaded earth
With labored, heavy monuments of shame.
Not those gay domes that o'er thy splendid shore
Shot, all proportion, up. First unadorned,
And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose ;
The Ionic then, with decent matron grace,
Her airy pillar heaved ; luxuriant last,
Th^ rich Corinthian spread her wanton wreath.
The whole so measured true, so lessened off
By fine proportion, that the marble pile.
Formed to repel the still or stormy waste
Of rolling ages, light as fabrics looked
That from the magic wand aerial rise.

" These were the wonders that illumined Greece
From end to end" — Here interrupting warm,
"Whore are they now ?" I cried, "say, goddess, where?
And what the land, thy darling thus of old ?"

" Sunk ! " she resumed, " deep in the kindred gloom
Of Superstition, and of Slavery, sunk !
No glory now can touch their hearts, benumbed
By loose dejected sloth and servile fear ;
Xo science pierce the darkness of their minds ;
No nobler art the quick anil)itiouR soul
Of imitation in their breast awake.
K'en to supply the needful arts (■>{ life,
Mechanic toil denies the hoj)eIess hand.
Scarce any trace remaining, vestige gray,

lai LIBERTY.

Or nodding column, on the desert shore.

To point where Corinth, or where Athens stooA,

A faithless land of violence, and death !

Where commerce parleys, dubious, on the shore \

And his wild impulse curious search restrains,

Afraid to trust the inhospitable clime.

Neglected nature fails ; in sordid want

Sunk, and debased, their beauty beams no more.

The sun himself seems, angry, to regard,

Of light unworthy, the degenerate race ;

And fires them oft with pestilential rays ;

While earth, blue poison steaming on the skies,

Indignant, shakes them from her troubled sides.

But as from man to man, Fate's first decree,

Impartial Death the tide of riches rolls,

So states must die, and Liberty go round.

" Fierce was thi; stand, ere Virtue, Valor, Arts,
And the soul fired by me (that often, stung
With thoughts of better times and old renown,
From hydra-tyrants tried to clear the land)
Lay quite extinct in Greece, their works effaced,
And gross o'er all unfeeling bondage spread.
Sooner I moved my much reluctant flight, [Greece
Poised on the doubtful wing ; when Greece with
Embroiled in foul contention K)iiglit no more
For common glory, and for common weal,
But, false to Freedom, sought to quell the free ;
Broke the firm band of Peace, and sacred Love,
That lent the whole irrefragable force ;
And, as around the partial trophy blushed,
Prepared the way for total overthrow.
Then to the Persian power, whose pride they scorned,
When Xerxes poured his millions o'er the land,
Sparta, by turns, and Athens, vilely sued ;
Sued to b« venal parricides, to spill
Their country's bravest blood, and on themselves
To turn their matchless mercenary arms.
Peaceful in Susa, then, set the Great King ; *

Bo the kings of Persia ^ere called by tlie Greeks-

LIBERTY. iel'

And by the trick of treaties, the still waste

Of sly corruption, and barbaric gold.

Effected what his steel could ne 'er perform.

Profuse he gave them the luxurious draught,

Inflaming all the land ; unbalanced wide

Their tottering states ; their wild assemblies ruleOj

As the winds turn at every blast the seas ;

And by their listed orators, whose breath

Still with a factious storm infested Greece,

Roused them to civil war, or dashed them down

To sordid peace — Peace ! * that, when Sparta shook

Astonished Artaxerxes on his throne.

Gave up, fair-spread o'er Asia's sunny shore.

'J'lieir kindred cities to perpetual chanis.

What could so base, so infamous a thought

In Spartan hearts inspire? Jealous, they saw

Respiring Athens, f rear again her walls ;

And the pale fury fired them, once again

fo crush their rival city to the dust.

For now no more the noble social soul

Of Liberty my families combined ;

But by short views, and telfish passions, broke.

Dire as when friends are rankled into foes,

They mixed severe, and waged eternal war ;

Nor felt they, furious, their exhausted force ;

Nor, with false glory, discord, madness blind.

Saw liow tlie blackening storm from Thracia came.

Long years rolled on, \ by many a battle stained.

The blush and boast of Fame ! where courage, art.

And military glory shone supreme :

But let detesting ages, from the scene

Of Greece self-mangled, turn the sickening eye.

* The peace made by Aiitalcidas, the Jjacedemonian admiral
with the Persians ; by wliich tin; Ltioedcmoniaiis al)andoned
all Hie (Jreek.s established in the lesser Asia, to the dominion ot
the King of Persia.

t AtliciiH had been dismantled ])y the Lacedemonians, at the
end of the first i'elopoiiiiesian war, and was at this time r©
Btored by ("oiion to its former splendor.

\ The Peloponueaiau war.

tU LIBERTY.

At last, when bleeding from the thousand woimds.

She felt her spirits fail ; and in the dust

Her latest heroes, Nicias, Conon, lay,

Agesilaus, and the Theban friends ; *

The Macedonian vulture marked his time,

By the dire scent of Cheronaea f lured,

A.nd, fierce descending, seized his hapless prey.

" i'hus tame submitted to the victor's yoke
Greece, once the gay, the turbulent, the bold ;
For every grace, and muse, and science bom;
With arts of War, of Government, elate ;
To tyrants dreadful, di'eadful to the best;
Whom I myself could scarcely rule : and thus
The Persian fetters, that inthralled the mind,
Were turned to formal and apparent chains.

" Unless Corruption first deject the pride,
And guardian vigor of the free-born soul.
All crude attempts of violence are vain ;
For firm within, and while at heart untouched,
Ne'er yet by Force was Freedom overcome.
But soon as Independence stoops the head.
To Vice enslaved, and vice-created wants ;
Then to some foul corrupting hand, whose waste
These heightened wants with fatal bounty feeds,
From man to man the slackening ruin runs.
Till the whole state unnerved in slavery sinks.**

PART III.

ROME.

Contents. — As this part contains a description of the estalb-
lishment of Liberty in Rome, it begins with a view of the
Grecian Colonies settled in the southern parts of Italy, which
with Sicily constituted the Great Greece of the Ancients —
With these colonies, the »:?pirit of Liberty, and of Republics,
spreads over Italy— Transition to Pythagoras and his
philosophy, which he taught through those free states and
citiee — Amidst the many smull Republics in Italy, Rome

•Pelopidas and Epaminondas.

f The battle of Cheronsea in which Philip of Macedon utterly
defeated the Greeks.

LIBERTY. 18f

the destined seat of Lil:)erty — Her establishment there dated
from the expulsion of the Tarquins — How uiffcting fiom
that in Greece — Reference to a view of the Roman Ile-

Sublic given in the First Part of this Poem : to mark its
iise and Fall the peculiar i)urport of W\\? — During its first
ages, the greatest force of Liberty and Virtue exerted — The
source whence derived the Heroic Virtues of the Remans —
Enumeration of these Virtues — Thence their security at
home; their glory, success, and t'mj)irc abroad — Bounds
of the Roman empire geographically described — The states
of Greece restored to Liberty by Titus Quinlus Flaminius,
the highest instance of public generosity atid beneficence —
The loss of Liberty in Rome — Its cause, progress and com-
pletion in the death of Brutus — Rome under the emperors

— From Rome the Goddess of Liberty goes among the
Northern Nations : where, by infusing into them her
Spirit and general principles, she lays the groundwork of
her future establishments ; sends them in vengeance on the
Roman empire, now totally enslaved ; an l then, with Arts
and Sciences in her train, quits earth during the dark ages

— The celestial regions, to which Liberty retired, not proper
to be opened to the view of mortals.

Here melting mixed with air the ideal forms

That painted still whate'er the goddess sung.

Then I, impatient. — " From extinguished Greece,

To what new region streamed tlie Human Day?"

She softly sighing, as when Zephyr leaves,

Resigned to Boreas, the declining year,

Resumed. — " Indignant, these last scenes I fled ; *

And ^ong ere then, Leucadia's cloudy cliff,

And the Cerauuian hills hehind me thrown.

All Latium sto(id aroused. Ages before,

Great niother of repiiV)lics ! (Treece had poured,

Swarm alter swarm, her ardent youth around.

On Asia, Afric, Sicily, they stooped,

But chief on fair Hesperia's winding shore ;

Where, from Lacinum f to P^trurian vales,

They rolled increasing (!olonies along.

And lent materials for my Roman reign.

With them my spirit spread ; and numerous states,

♦ The last struggles of Liberty in Greece.
f A promontory in Calabrio.

1« LIBERTY.

And cities rose, on Grecian models formed ;
As its parental policy and arts
Each had imbibed. Beside, to each assigned,
A guardian Genius o'er the public weal,
Kept an unclosing eye ; tried to sustain.
Or more sublime, the soul infused by me:
And strong the battle rose, with various wave,
Against the tyrant demons of the land.
Thus they their little wars and triumphs knew ;
Their flows of fortune, and receding times,
But almost all below the proud regard
Of story vowed to Rome, on deeds intent
That Truth beyond the flight of F'able bore.

*' Not so the Saraian sage ; * to him belongs
The brightest witness of recording Fame.
For these free states his native isle f forsook,
And a vain tyraint's transitory smile,
He sought Crotona's pure salubrious air ;
And through Great Greece \ his gentle vision taught \
Wisdom that calmed for listening years § the mind,
Nor ever heard amid the storm of zeal.
His mental eye first launched into the deeps
Of boundless ether ; where unnumbered orbs,
Myriads on myriads, through the pathless sky
Unerring roll, and wind their steady "way.
There he the full consenting choir beheld ;
There first discerned the secret band of love,
The kind attraction, that to central suns
Binds circling earths, and world Avith "world unites.
Instructed thence, he great ideas formed
Of the whole-moving, all-informing God,
The Sun of beings ! beaming unconfined
Light, life, and love, and ever active power ;
Whom naught can image, and who best approves
The silent worship of the moral heart,

* Pythagoras.

I Samoa, over which then reigned the Ij'rant Polycrate«.
; The southern juirts of Italy nnd Sicily, so called because of
the Grecian colonies there settled.
^ His Bcholars were enjoined silence for five years.

LIBERTY, 1«»

That joys in bounteous Heaven, and spreads the joy.

Nor scorned the soaring sage to stoop to life,

And bound his reason to the sphere of man.

He gave the four yet reiL^ning virtues* name ;

Inspired the study of the finer arts,

That civilize mankind, and laws devised

Where with enlightened justice mercy mixed.

He e'en, into his tender system, took

Whatever shares the brotherhood of life :

He taught that life's indissoluble flame,

From brute to man, and man to brute again,

Forever shifting, runs the eternal round ; —

Thence tried against the blood-polluted meal,

And limbs yet quivering with some kindred soul.

To turn the human heart. Delightful truth !

Had he beheld the living chain ascend,

And not a circling form, but rising whole.

" Amid these small republics one arose
On yellow Tiber's brink, almighty Rome,
Fated for me. A nobler spirit warmed
Her sons ; and, roused by tyrants, nobler still
It burned in Brutus ; the proud Tarquins chased.
With all their crimes ; l)ade radiant eras rise,
And the long honors of the Consul-line.

" Here from the fairer, not the greater, plan
Of Greece I varied ; whose unmixing states,
By the keen soul of emulation pierced.
Long waged alone the bloodless war of arts,
And their best empire gained. But to diffuse
O'er men an empire was my purpose now ;
To let my martial majesty abroad ;
Into the vortex of one state to draw
The whole mixed force, and liberty, on earth ;
To conquer tyrants, and set nations free.

"Already have I given, with flying touch,
A broken view of this my amplest reign.
Now, while Its first, last, ])eri(>dH you survey,
Mark how it laboring rose, and rapid fell.

* The four cardiual virtues.

toe LIBERTY.

"When Rome in noon-tide empire grasped the
world,
And, soon as her resistless legions shone.
The nations stooped around ; though then appeared
Her grandeur most ; yet in her dawn of power,
By many a jealous equal people pressed.
Then was the toil, the mighty struggle then ;
Then for each Roman 1 a hero told ;
And every passing sun, and Latian scene,
Saw patriot virtues then, and awful deeds,
That or surpass the faith of modern times,
Or, if believed, w^ith sacred horror strike.

" For then, to prove my most exalted power,
I to the point of full perfection pushed,
To fondness and enthusiastic zeal,
The great, the reigning passion ! of the free.
That godlike passion ! which, the bounds of self
Divinely bursting, the whole public takes
Into the heart, enlarged, and burning high
With the mixed ardor of unnumbered selves ;
Of all who safe beneath the voted laws
Of the same parent state, fraternal, live.
From this kind sun of moral nature flowed
Virtues, that shine the light of humankind,
And, rayed through story, warm remotest time.
These virtues too, reflected to their source.
Increased its flame. The social charm went round.
The fair idea, more attractive still,
As more by virtue marked ; till Romans, all
One band of friends', unconquerable grew. [voice,

" Hence, when their country raised her plaintive
The voice of pleading Nature was not heard ;
And in their hearts the fathers throbbed no more :
Stern to themselves, but gentle to the whole.
Hence sweetened I*ain, the luxury of toil ;
Patience, tliat baflled fortune's utmost rage ;
High-minded Hope, which at the lowest ebb,
When Jirennus conquered, and when Cannae bled.
The bravest impulse felt, and s(u>rned despair.
Hence Moderation a new conquest gained ;

UBERTY, IM

As on the vanquished, like descending heaven,

Their dewy mercy dropped, the bounty beamed.

And by the laboring hand were crowns bestowed.

Fruitful of men, hence hard laborious life,

Which no fatigue can quell, no season pierce.

Hence, Independence, with his little pleased.

Serene, and self-sufficient, like a god ;

In whom Corruption could not lodge one charm.

While he his honest roots to gold })referre(l ;

While truly rich, and by his Sabine field,

The man maintained, the Roman's splendor all

Was in the public wealth and glory placed ;

Or ready, a rough swain, to guide the plow ;

Or else, the purple o'er his shoulder thrown.

In long majestic flow, to rule the state.

With Wisdom's purest eye ; or, clad in steel.

To drive the steady battle on the foe.

Hence every passion, e'en the proudest, stooped

To common good : Camillus, thy revenge ;

Thy glory, Fabius. All submissive hence,

Consuls, Dictators, still resigned their rule,

The very monent that the laws ordained.

Though Conquest o'er them clapped her eagle wings.

Her laurels wreathed, and yoked her snowy steeds

To the triumphal car ; soon as expired

The latest hour of sway, taught to submit,

(A harder lesson that than to command)

Into the private Roman sunk the chief.

If Rome was served, and glorious, careless they

By whom. Their country's fame they deemed their ow

And above envy, in a rival's train,

Sungtiie loud los by themselves deserved.

Hence matchless courage. On Oemera's bank,

Hence fell the Fabii ; * hence the Decii died ;

• Caio Plavio et Lucio Virginio Coss, Irfconti nobiles
hoiriincH, quicx Piil)i£i faniiliTi <;nint, contra \'(ient('S bellum
soli susc<-p(;rut)'. promittcules senntui it pojiuio |)er .se oraue
.''crtairicn implendum. Itaque jirofcfti omncs nohiles, et qui
(iin^tili magnonim cxcrcitiiurii duces esse deberent, in praelio
concideruci — Eotrop. iib. l

IM LIBEhTY.

And Curtius plunged into the flaming gulf.

Hence Regains the wavering fathers firmed.

By dreadful counsel never given before ;

For Roman honor sued, and his own doom.

Hence he sustained to dare a death prepared

By Punic rage. On earth his manly look

Relentless fixed, he from a last embrace,

liy chains polluted, put his wife aside,

His little children climbing for a kiss ; [friends,

Then dumb through rows of weeping, wondering

A new illustrious exile ! pressed along.

Nor less impatient did he pierce the crowds

Opposing his return, than if, escaped

From long litigious suits, he glad forsook

The noisy town a while, and city cloud.

To breathe Venaf rian, or Tarentine air.

Need I these high particulars recount ?

The meanest bosom felt a thirst for fame ;

Flight their worst death, and shame their only fear.

Life had no charms, nor any terrors fate,

When Rome and glory called. But, in one view,

Mark the rare boast of these unequaled times

Ages revolved unsullied by a crime ;

Astrea reigned, and scarcely needed laws

To bind a race elated with the pride

Of virtue, and disdaining to descend

To meanness, mutual violence, and wrongs.

While war around them raged, in happy Rome

All peaceful smiled, all save the passing clouds

That often hang on Freedom's jealous brow ;

And fair imblemished centuries elapsed,

When not a Roman bled but in the field.

Their virtue such, that an unbalanced state,

Still between Noble and Plebeian tost,

As flowed the wave of fluctuating power.

Was then kept firm, and with triumphant prow

Rode out the storms. Oft though the native feudi,

That from the first tlieir constitution shook,

(A latent ruin, growing as it grew,)

Stood on the threatening point of civil war

UMEJtTY. IM

Ready to rush : yet could the lenient voice

Of wisdom, soothing the tumultuous soul,

Those sous of virtue calm. Their generous heartf

Unpetrified by self, so naked lay

And sensible to Truth, that o'er the rage

Of giddy faction, by oppression swelled,

Prevailed a simple fable, * and at once

To peace recovered the divided state.

But if their often cheated hopes refused

The sootiiini^ touch ; still, in the love of Rome,

The dread Dictator found a sure resource.

Was she assaulted ? was her glory stained ?

One common quarrel wide inflamed the whole.

Foes in tlie forum in the field were friends.

By social danger bound ; each bound for each,

And for their dearest country all, to die.

" Thus up the hill of empire slow they toiled ;
Till, the bold summit gained, the thousand states
Of proud Italia blended into one ;
Then o'er the nations they resistless rushed,
And touched the limits of the failing world.

" Let Fancy's eye the distant lines unite.
See that which borders wild the western main,
Where storms at large resound, and tides immense ;
From Caledonia's dim cerulean coast.
And moist IIil>ernia, to where Atlas, lodged
Amid the restless clouds and leaning heaven.
Hangs o'er the deep that borrows thence its name.
Mark that opposed, where first the springing mora
Her roses slieds, and sliakes around her dews :
From the dire deserts by the Caspian laved,
To wiiere the Tigris and Euphrates, joined.
Impetuous tear the Babylonian plain ;
And bhiss(;d Arabia aromatic breathes.
See that dividing far the watery north,
Parent of floods ! from the majestic Rhine,
Drunk by Batavian meads, to where, seven mouthed,

* The fable of The Belly and the iftmbent, applied by
Jicnenius Agrippa to the Romau Statu.

IM LIBERTY.

In Euxine waves the flashing Danube roare ;

To where the frozen Tanais scarcely stirs

The dead Maeotic pool or the long Kha, *

In the black Scythian sea his torrent throws.

Last, that beneath the burning zone behold :

See where it runs, from the deep-loaded plains

Of Mauritania to the Libyan sands,

Where Ammon lifts amid the torrid waste

A verdant isle, with shade and fountain fresh ;

And further to the full Egyptian shore,

To where the Nile from Ethiopian clouds,

His never-drained ethereal urn, descends.

In tliis vast space what various tongues, and states /

Wliat bounding rocks, and mountains, floods, anci

seas !
What purple tyrants quelled, and nations freed !

" O'er Greece, descended chief, with stealth divine
The Roman bounty in a flood of day ;
As at her Isthmian games, a fading pomp !
Her full assembled youth innumerous swarmed.
On a tribunal raised, Flaminius sat :
A victor he, from the deep phalanx pierced
Of iron-coated Macedon, and back
The Grecian tyrant to his bounds repelled.
In the high thoughtless gayety of game.
While sport alone their unambitious hearts
Possessed, the sudden trumpet, sounding hoarse
Bade silence o'ev the bright assembly reign ;
Tlian thus a herald : — ' To the states of Greece
The Roman people, unconfined, restore
Their countries, cities, liberties, and laws ;
Taxes remit, and garrisons withdraw. '
The crowd astonished half, and half informed,
Stared dubious round ; some questioned, some

exclaimed,
(Like one who dreaming, between hope and fear.
18 lost in anxious joy,) ' Be tiiat again.
Be that again proclaimed, distinct, and loud.'

The Hucienl name of the Volga.

UBEkTY. m

Loua, and distinct, it was again proclaimed ;

And still as midnight in the rural shade,

When the gale slumbers, they the words devoured.

A while severe amazement held them mute,

Then bursting broad, the boundless shout to Heaven

From many a thousand hearts ecstatic sprung.

On every hand rebellowed to their joy

The swelling sea, the rocks, and vocal hills ;

I'lirough all her turrets stately Corinth shook ;

And, from the void above of shattered air,

The Hitting bini fell breathless to the ground.

What piercing bliss, how keen a sense of fame,

Did then, Flaminius, reach thy inmost soul !

And with what deep-felt glory didst thou then

Escape the fondness of transported Greece !

Mixed in a tempest of superior joy.

They left the sports ; like Bacchanals they flew,

Each other straining in a strict embrace.

Nor strained a slave ; and loud acclaims till night

Round the Proconsul's tent repeated rung,

Then, crowned with garlands, came the festive hoinv]

And music, sparkling wine, and converse warm,

Their raptures waked anew. ' Ye gods ! ' they cried,

'Ye guardian gods of Greece ! and are we free?

Was it not madness deemed tlie very thought?

And is it true ? How did we purchase chains ?

At what a dire expense of kindred blood ?

And are they now dissolved? and scarce one drop

For the fair firs* of blessings have we paid ?

Courage, and conduct, in the doubtful field.

When rages wide the storm of mingling war,

Are rare indeed ; but how to generous ends

To turn success, and conquest, rarer still :

That the great gods and Jlomans only know.

liives there on earth, almost to Greece unknown.

A people so magnanimous, to (put

Their native soil, traverse the stormy deep,

And by their blood and treasure, spent for us,

Redeem our states, our liberties, :uid laws !

There does ! there does ! Oh savior, Titus i Rome^i

m LIBERTY.

Thus through the happy night they poured their souls,

And in my last reflected beams, rejoiced.

As when the shepherd on the mountain -brow,

Sits piping to his flocks and gamesome kids ;

Meantime the sun, beneath the green earth sunk,

Slgnts upward o'er the scene a parting gleam :

Short is the glory that the mountain gilds,

Plays on the glittering flocks, and glads the swaio.

To western worlds irrevocable rolled,

Rapid, the source of light recalls his ray."

Here interposing I — " Oh, Queen of men I
Beneath whose scepter in essential rights
Equal they live ; though placed for common good.
Various, or in subjection, or command ;
And that by common choice ; alas ! the scene,
With virtue, freedom, and with glory bright,
Streams into blood, aud darkness into woe."
Thus she pursued : — " Near this great era, Rome
Began to feel the swift approach of fate,
That now her vitals gained : still more and mor«
Her deep divisions kindling into rage,
And war with chains and desolation charged.
From an unequal balance of her sons
These fierce contentions sprung : and, as increa^*««
This hated inequality, more fierce
They flamed to tumult. Independence failed ;
Here by luxurious wants, by real there ;
And with this virtue every virtue sunk.
As, with the sliding rock, the pile sustained.
A last attempt, too late, the Gracchi made,
To fix the flying scale, and poise the state.
On one side swelled aristocratic Pride ;
With Usury, the villain ! whose fell gripe
Bends by degrees to baseness tht free soul ;
And Luxury ra})acious, cruel, mean.
Mother of vice ! While on the other crept
A populace in want, with pleasure fired ;
Fit for proscriptions, for the darkest deeds,
As the proud feeder bade ; inconstant, blind,
Deserting friends at need, and duped by fofc< j,

UBRRTY. IM

Load and seditious, when a chief inspired
Their headlong fury, but, of him deprived,
Already slaves that licked the scourging hand,

" This firm republic, that against the blast
Of opposition rose ; that (like an oak.
Nursed on ferocious Algidum, * whose boughs
Still stronger shoot beneath the rigid ax)
By loss, by slaughter, from the steel itself,
li'en force and spirit drew ; smit with the calm.
The dead serene of prosperous fortune, pined.
Naught now her weighty legions could oppose ;
Her f terror once, on Africa's tawny shore,
Now smoked in dust, a stabling now for wolves ;
And every dreaded power received the yoke.
Besides, destructive, from the conquered East,
In the soft plunder came that worst of plagues,
That pestilence of mind, a fevered thirst
For the false joys which Luxury prepares.
Unworthy joys ! that wasteful leave behind
No mark of honor, in reflecting hour.
No secret ray to glad the conscious soul ;
At once involving in one ruin wealth.
And wealth-acquiring powers ; while stupid self
Of narrow gust, and habetating sense.
Devour the nobler faculties of bliss.
Hence Roman virtue slackened into sloth :
Security relaxed the softening state ;
And the broad eye of government lay closed.
No more the laws inviolable reigned,
And public weal no more : but party raged ;
And partial power, and license unrestrained.
Let Discord through the deathful city loose.
First, mild Tiberius, \ on thy sacred head
The fury's vengeance fell ; the first, whose blood,
Had, since the consuls, stained contending Rome.
Oh precedent pernicious ! with thee bled
Three hundred Romans ; with thy brother, next.

♦ A 'own of Latium, near Tusculura.

t Carthage. 1 Tiberius Gracchua.

m UBEMTY,

Three thousand more : till, into battles tamed
Debates of peace, and forced the trembling laws,
The forum and Comitia horrid grew,
A scene of bartered power, or reeking gore.
When, half-ashamed, Corruption's thievish arts.
And ruffian force began to sap the mounds
And majesty of laws ; if not in time
Repressed severe, for human aid too strong
'J'he torrent turns, and overbears the whole.

" Thus Luxury, Dissension, a mixed rage
Of boundless pleasure and of boundless wealth,
Want- wishing change, and waste-repairing war,
Rapine forever lost to «eaceful toil,
Guilt unatoned, profuse of blood Revenge,
Corruption all avowed, aud lawless Force,
Each heightening each, alternate shook the state.
Meantime Ambition, at th« dazzling head
Of hardy legions, with the Uurels heaped
And spoil of nations, in ont* circling blast
Combined in various storm, and from its base
The broad republic tore. By Virtue built
It touched the skies, and spread o'er sheltered earth
An ample roof ; by Virtue too sustained.
And balanced steady, every tempest sung
Innoxious by, or bade it firmer stand.
But when, with sudden and enormous change,
The first of mankind * sunk into the last.
As once in Virtue, so in Vice extreme,
This universal fabric yielded loose.
Before Ambition still ; and thundering down.
At last, beneath its ruins crushed a world.
A conquering people, to themselves a prey.
Must ever fall ; when their victorious troops,
In blood and rapine savage grown, can find
No land to sack and pillage but their own.

" By brutal Marius, and keen Sylla, first
Effused the deluge dire of civil blood,
Unceasing woes began, and this, or that,

♦ C«e8»r.

UBRRTY. £m

Deep-drenching their revenge, nor virtue sp&red.

Nor sex, nor age, nor quality, nor name ;

Till Rome, into a human shambles turned,

Made deserts lovely. — Oli, to well-earned chains,

Devoted race ! — If no true Roman then,

Yio Scsevola there was, to raise for me

Avengeful hand ; was there no fatlier, robbed

Of blooming youth to prop his withered age ?

No son a witness to his hoary sire

In dust and gore defiled ? no friend, forlorn ?

No wretch that doubtful trembled for himself ?

None brave, or wild, to pierce a monster's heart,

Who, heaping horror round, no more deserved

The sacred shelter of the laws he spurned ?

No : — Sad o'er all profound dejection sat ;

And nerveless fear. The slave's asylum theirs ;

Or flight, ill-judging, that the timid back

Turns weak to slaughter ; or partaken guilt.

In vain from Sylla's vanity I drew

An unexampled deed. The power resigned,

And all unhoped the commonwealth restored,

Amazed the public, and effaced his crimes.

Through streets yet streaming from his murderoiu

hand
Unarmed he strayed, unguarded, un assailed,
And on the bed of peace his ashes laid ;
A grace, which I to his demission gave
But with him died not the despotic soul.
Ambition saw that stooping Rome could bear
A master, nor had virtue to be free.
Hence, for succeeding years, my troubled reign.
No certain peace, no spreading prospect knew.
Destruction gathered round. Still the black soul.
Or of a Cataliiie, or RuUus,* swelled
With fell designs ; and all the watchful art
Of Cicero demanded, all the ioww,

* PiibliuH Sorviliiis Riillus, tribuno of the people, proposed
an uu;rariaii law, in apix-arancc, very ailvantageousfor the peo-

Ele, hut (iestructive of their liberty ; iuid wliich was defeated
y the (,'loquence of Cicero, in his speech figaiust RuUut.

tit LIBERTY.

All the Btate-wielding magic of his tongae ;

And all the thunder of my Cato's zeal.

With these I lingered ; till the flame anew

Burst out, in blaze immense, and wrapped the world

The shameful contest sprung — to whom mankind

Should yield the neck : to Pompey, who concealed

A rage impatient of an equal name ;

Or to the nobler Caesar, on whose brow

O'er daring vice deluding virtue smiled,

And who no less a vain superior scorned.

Both bled, but bled in vain. New traitors rose.

The venal will be bought, the base have lords.

To these vile wars I left ambitious slaves ;

And from Philippi's field, from where in dust

The last of Romans, matchless Brutus ! lay,

Spread to the north untamed a rapid wing.

"What through the first smooth Caesars arts caresse^
Merit, and virtue, simulating me ?
Severely tender ! cruelly humane !
The chain to clinch, and make it softer sit
On the new-broken still ferocious state.
From the dark Third, f succeeding, I beheld
The imperial monsters all. — A race on earth
Vindictive, sent the scourge of humankind !
Whose blind profusion drained a bankrupt world ;
Whose lust to forming nature seems disgrace ;
And whose infernal rage bade every drop
Of ancient blood, that yet retained my flame,
To that of Paetus,* in the peaceful bath,
Or Rome's affrighted streets, inglorious flow.
But almost just the meanly patient death,
That waits a tyrant's unprevented stroke,
Titus indeed gave one short evening gleam ;
More cordial felt, as in the midst it spread

* Tiberius.

■f-Thrasea Paetus, put to death by Nero. Tacitus introducei
the account be gives of his (icath, thus: — "After liaving in-
humanely slaughtered so many illustrious men, he (Nero)
burned at last with a desire of cutting oflf virtue itself in th«
person of Thrasea," «3fcc.

LIBERTY. 199

Of Btorm, and horror. The delight of men I
He who the day, when his o'erflowing hand
Had made no happy heart, concluded lost ;
Trajan and he, with the mild sire* and son,
His son of virtue ! eased awhile mankind ;
And arts revived heneath their gentle beam.
Then was their last effort : what sculpture raised
To Trajan's glory, following triumphs stole ;
And mixed with Gothic forms, (the chisel's shame)
On that triumphal arch,f the foi*ms of Greece.

" Meantime o'er rocky Thrace, and the deep vales
Of gelid Haemus, I pursued my flight ;
And, piercing furthest Scythia, westward swept
Sarmatia, \ traversed by a thousand streams.
A sullen land of lakes and fens immense,
Of rocks, resounding torrents, gloomy heaths,
And cruel deserts black with sounding pine ;
Where nature frowns ; though sometimes into smiles
She softens ; aud immediate, at the touch
Of southern gales, throws from the sudden glebe
Luxuriant pasture, and a waste of flowers.
But, cold-compressed, when the whole loaded heaven
Descends in snow, lost in one white abrupt.
Lies undistinguished earth ; and, seized by frost,
Lakes, headlong streams, and floods, and oceans sleep.
Yet there life glows ; the furry millions there
Deep dig their dens beneath the sheltering snows,
And there a race of men prolific swarms,
To various pain, to little pleasure used ;
On whom, keen-parcliing, beat Ripluean winds ; §
Hard like their soil, and like their climate fierce.
The nursery of nations ! — These I roused,

* Antonius Phis, and bis adopted son Marcus Aurelius, af.
tcrwards called Antonius Pliilosoplius.

t Constantine's arch, to build which that of Trajan was de-
itroyed, sculpture havinjr Ix'cn then almost entirely lost.

^ The ancient Sarmatia (•oiituincd a vast tract of country
running all along the north of Europe ami Asia.

§ So called, as coming from the northern extremity of Bar
M»tia, inhabited by the Riph^ei.

$00 UBEKTY,

Drove land on land, on people people poured j
Till from almost perpetual night they broke,
As if in search of day ; and o'er the banks
Of yielding empire, only slave-sustained.
Resistless raged ; in vengeance urged by me.

'* Long in the barbarous heart the buried seedt
Of Freedom lay, for many a wintry age ;
And though ray spirit worked, by slow degrees,
Naught but its pride and fierceness yet appeared.
Then was the night of time, that parted worlds.
I quitted earth the while. As when the tribes
Aerial, warned of rising winter, ride
Autumnal winds, to warmer climates borne ;
So, arts and each good genius in my train,
I cut the closing gloom, and soared to heaven.

" In the bright regions there of purest day.
Far other scenes, and palaces, arise.
Adorned profuse with other arts divine.
All beauty here below, to them compared.
Would, like a rose befo;*' the mid-day sun,
Shrink up its blossom ; like a bubble break
The passing poor magnificence of kings.
For there the King ot Nature, in full blaze.
Calls every splendor forth : and there his court,
Amid ethereal powers, and virtues, holds :
Angel, archangel, tutelary gods,
Of cities, nations, empires, and of worlds.
But sacred be the veil that kindly clouds
A light too keen for mortals ; wraps a view
Too softening fair, for those that here in dust
Must cheerful toil out their appointed years.
A sense of higher life would only damp
The schoolboy's task, and spoil his playful hour*.
Nor could the child of Reason, feeble man,
With vigor through this infant-being drudge,
Did brighter worlds, their unimagined bliss
Disclosing, dazzle and dissolve his mind."

UBRRTY. IM

PABTIT.

BRITAIN.

CoNTiurT& — Difference betwixt the Ancients and Moden<i
sligblly touched upou — Description of the dark ages — The
Goddess of Liberty, who during these is supposed to have left
earth, return, attended with Arts and Science — She first de-
scends on Italy — Sculpture, Painting and Arcliitecture fix at
Rome, to revive their several arts, by the great models of
antiquity there, which in:iny barbarous'invasionshad not been
able to destroy — The revival of these arts marked out — That
sometimes arts may flourish for awhile under despotic govern-
ments, tliough never the natural and genuine production of
them — Learning begins to dawn— The Muse and Science attend
Liberty, who in her progress towards Great Britain raises
several free states and cities — These enumerated — Author's
exclamation of joy, upon seeing tlie British seas and coasts rise
in the vision, which painted whatever the Goddess of Liberty
said — Siie resumes her narration — The Genius of the Deep
appears, and addressuig Liberty, associates Great Britain into
liis dominion — Liberty received and congratulated by
Britannia, and the Native Genii or Virtues of the island —
These described — Animated by the presence of Liberty, they
ftei^in their operations — Their beneficent influence contrastea
with the works and delusions of opposing Demons — Concludes
with an abstract of the English history, making the several
advances of Liberty down to her complete establishment at
the Revolution.

Struck with the rising scene, thus I, amazed :

"Ah, Goddess, what a change ! is eartli the same?

Of the same kind the ruthless race slie feeds?

And does the same fair sun and etlier spread

Round this vile spot their all-enlivening soul?

Lo ! beauty fails ; lost in unlovely forms

Of little pomp, magnificence no more

h)xalt8 the mind, and l)ids the public smile ;

While to raj)acious interest Glory leaves

Mankind, and every grace of life is gone."
To this the Pnwer, whose vital radiance calls

From the brute mass of man an ordered world :

" Wait till the morning shines, and from the deptk

Of Gothic darkness sjtringsanr.thcr day.
IVue, (TcniuR droops ; the tender ancient taste

Of Beauty, then fresh blooming in her prime,

M8 LIBERTY.

But faintly trembles through the callous soul ;
And Grandeur, or of morals, or of life,
Sinks into safe pursuits, and creeping cares.
E'en cautious Virtue seems to stop her flight,
And aged life to deem the generous deeds
Of youth romantic. Yet in cooler thought
Well reasoned, in researches piercing deep
Through nature's works, in profitable arts,
And all that calm Experience can disclose,
(Slow guide, but sure), behold the world anew
Exalted rise, with other honors crowned ;
And, where my Spirit wakes the finer powers,
Athenian laurels still afresh shall bloom.

" Oblivious ages passed ; while earth forsook
By her best Genii, lay to Demons foul.
And unchained Furies, an abandoned prey.
Contention led the van ; first small of size.
But soon dilating to the skies she towers ;
Then, wide as air, the livid Fury spread,
And high her head above the stormy clouds,
She blazed in omens, swelled the groaning winds
With wild surmises, battlings, sounds of war ;
From land to land the maddening trumpet blew ;
And poured her venom through the heart of man.
Shook to the pole, the North obeyed her call.
Forth rushed the bloody power of Gothic war.
War against human kind : Rapine, that led
Millions of raging robbers in his train ;
Unlistening, barbarous Force, to whom the sword
Is reason, honor, law ; the foe of arts
By monsters followed, hideous to behold,
That claimed their place. Outrageous mixed witk

these
Another species of tyrannic * rule.
Unknown before, whose cankerous shackles seized
The envenomed soul ; a wilder Fury, she
Even o'er her Elder Sistei- f tyrannized ;
Or, if perchance agreed, inflamed her rage.

■ Church power, or pccl«sifistical tyranny, f Civil tyraonj.

LIBERTY. 908

IMre was her train, and loud ; the stable band,
Thundering : — " Submit, ye Laity ! ye profane !
Earth is the Lord's, and therefore ours ; let kings
Allow the common claim, and half be theirs ;
If not, behold ! the sacred lightning flies ! "
Scholastic Discord, with a hundred tongues,
For science uttering jangling words obscure,
Where frighted reason never yet could dwell ;
Of peremptory feature, cleric Pride,
Whose reddening cheek no contradiction bears i
And only Slander, his associate firm.
On whom the lying Spirit still descends ;
Mother of tortures ! persecuting Zeal,
High flashing in her hand the ready torch,
Or poniard bathed in unbelieving blood ;
Hell's fiercest fiend ! of saintly brow demure,
Assuming a celestial seraph's name,
While she beneath the blasphemous pretense
Of pleasing Parent Heaven, the Source of Love ."
Has wrought more horrors, more detested deeds
Than all the rest combined. Led on by her.
And wild of head to work her fell designs.
Came idiot Superstition ; round with ears
Innuraerous strowed, ten thousand monkish form'
With legends plied them, and with tenets, moanf
To charm or scare the simple into slaves,
And poison reason ; gross, she swallows all.
The most absurd believing ever most.
Broad o'er the whole her universal night,
The gloom still douV)ling, Ignorance diffused.

"Naught to be seen but visionary monks,
I'o councils strolling, and embroiling creeds ;
Banditti Saints, disturbing distant lands ;
And unknown nations, wandering for a home
All lay reversed ; the sacred arts of rule
I'urned to flagitious leagues against niankind
And arts of plunder more and more av(jwed ;
Pure plain Devotion to a solemn funjc ;
To holy dotage Virtue, even to guile.
To murder, and a mockery of oaths \

M4 LIBERTY.

Brave ancient Freedom to the rage of slaves,*
Proud of their state, and fighting for their chains ;
Dishonored Courage to the bravo's trade, f
To civil broil ; and Glory to romance.
Thus human life, unhinged, to ruin reeled,
And giddy Reason tottered on her throne.

" At last Heaven's best inexplicable scheme,
Disclosing, bade new brightening eras smile.
The high command gone forth, Arts in my train,
And azure-mantled ScieiK^e, suift we spread
A sounding pinion. Eager pity, mixed
With indignation, urged her downward flight.
On Latium first we stooped, for doubtful life
That panted, sunk beneath unnumbered woes.
Ah, poor Italia ! what a bitter cup
Of vengeance hast thou drained ? Goths, Vandals^

Huns,
Lombards, barbarians broke from every land,
How many a ruffian form hast thou beheld ?
What horrid jargons heard, where rage alone
Was all thy frighted ear could comprehend ?
How frequent by the red inhuman hand,
Yet warm with brother's, husband's, fathor's blood.
Hast thou thy matrons and thy virgins seen
To violation dragged, and mingled deatli ?
What conflagrations, earthquakes, ravage, floods,
Have turned thy cities into stony wilds ;
And succorless, and bare, the poor remains
Of wretches forth to Nature's common cast ?
Added to these the still continued waste
Of inbred foes that on thy vitals prey,;};
And, double tyrants, seizt; the very soul.
Where hadst thou treasures for this rajiine all ?
These hungry myriads, that thy bowels tore.
Heaped sack on sack, and buried in their rage
Wonders of art ; whence this gray scene, a mine
Of more than gold becomes, and orient gems.

♦ V»8salage. whence the attarihmoiii of cliins to their chiel
f Dueling. \ The Hierarchy.

LIBERTY, tOS

Where Egypt, Greece, and Rome united glow.

"Here Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, bent
From ancient models to restore their arts,
Remained. A little trace we how they rose.

" Amid the hoary ruins, Sculpture first.
Deep digging, from the cavern dark and damp^
Their grave for ages, bid her marble race
Spring to new light. Joy sparkled in her eyes.
And old remembrance thrilled in every thought,
As she the pleasing resurrection saw.
In leaning site, respiring from his toils,
The well-known Hero, who delivered Greece,
His ample chest, all tempested with force,
Unconquerable reared. She saw the head,
Breathing the hero, small, of Grecian size.
Scarce more extensive than the sinewy neck ;
The spreading shoulders, muscular, and broad ;
The whole a mass of swelling sinews, touched
Into harmonious shape ; she saw, and joyed.
The yellow hunter, Meleagor, raised
His beauteous front, and through the finished whole
Shows what ideas smiled of old in Greece.
Of raging aspect, ruslied impetuous forth
The Gladiator : pitiless his look,
And each keen sinew braced, the storm of war,
Riffling, o'er all liis nervous body frowns.
The dying other from the gloom she drew,
Supported on his shortened arm he leans,
Prone, agonizing ; with incumbent fate,
llt-avy declines his h(*a<l ; yet dark beneath
Tlie suffering feature sullen vengeance lours.
Shame, indignation, unaccomplished rage.
And still the (;heat(!d eye oxpi'cts his fall.
Ail con<piest-fiush('d, from prostrate Python, came
The (piivered God. In graceful act he stands.
His arm extended with the s];i(;keiied bow :
Light flows his easy robe, and fair displays
A manly softened form. TIk; bloom of gods
Seems youthful o'er tlu; beardless eheek to wave}
Mis features yet heroic ardor warms ;

tM UBEKTY.

And, sweet subsiding to a native smile,

Mixed with the joy elating conquest gives,

A scattered frown exalts his matcliless air.

On Flora moved ; her full p]'opo"*ioned limbs

Rise through the mantle flutterin in the breeze.

The Queen of Love arose, as ..-om the deep

She sprung in all the melting porno of charms.

Bashful she bends, her well-taught look aside

Turns in enchanting guise, where dubious mix

Vain conscious beauty, a dissembled sense

Of modest shame, and slippery looks of love.

The gazer grows enamored, and the stone,

As if exulting in its conquest, smiles.

So turned each limb, so swelled with softening art,

That the deluded eye the marble doubts.

At last her utmost masterpiece she found.

That Maro fired ; the miserable sire.

Wrapt with his sons in fate's severest grasp ;

The serpents, twisting round, their stringent folds

Inextricable tie. Such passion here.

Such agonies, such bitterness of pain,

Seem so to tremble through the tortured stone,

That the touched heart engrosses all the view.

Almost unmarked the best proportions pass,

That ever Greece beheld ; and, seen alone.

On the wrapt eye the imperious passions seize

The father's double pangs, both for himself

And sons convulsed ; to Heaven his rueful look,

Imploring aid, and half accusing, cast ;

His fell despair with indignation mixed.

As the strong curling monsters from his side

His full extended fury cannot tear.

More tender touched, with varied art, his sons

All the soft rage of younger passions show.

In a boy's helpless fate one sinks oppressed ;

While, yet unpierced, the frighted other tries

His foot to steal out of the liorrid twine.

" She bore no more, but straight- from Gothic roft
Her chisel cleared, and dust and fragments drove
Impetous round. Successive as it went

LIBERTY. 907

From son to son, with more enlivening touch,
From the brute rock it called the breathing form ;
Till, in a legislator's awful grace
Dressed, Buonaroti bid a Moses rise.
And, looking love immense, a Savior God.

** Of these observant, Painting felt the fire
Burn inward. Then ecstatic she diffused
The canvas, seized pallet,with quick hand then
The colors brewed ; and on the void expanse
Her gay creation poured, her mimic world.
Poor was the manner of her eldest race.
Barren, and dry ; just struggling from the taste
That had for ages scared, in cloisters dim,
The superstitious herd ; yet glorious then
Were deemed their works ; where undeveloped lay
The future wonders that enriched mankind,
And a new light and grace o'er Europe oust.
Arts gradual gather streams. Enlarging this,
To each his portion of her various gifts
The goddess dealt, to none indulging all ;
No, not to Raphael. At kind distance still
Pefection stands, like Happiness, to tempt
The eternal chase. In elegant design.
Improving Nature ; in ideas fair.
Or great, extracted from the fine antique ;
In attitude, expression, airs divine ;
Her sons of Rome and Florence bore the prize.
To those of Venice she the magic art
Of colors melting into colors gave.
Theirs too it was by one embracing mass
Of light and shade, that settles round the whole,
Of varies tremulous from part to part.
O'er all a binding harmony to throw,
To raise the picture, and repose the sight.
The Lombard school,* succeeding, mingled both.

" Meantime dread fanes, and pahiccs, around.
Roared the raagnific front. Music again

•TheBchool of Caracci. [So anuotutcii l)y Tbomsou ; but
h« should have said " the Bolognese school. "]

lOe UBERTY.

Her universal language of the heart
Renewed ; and, rising from the plaintive vale,
To the full concert spread, and solemn choir.

" E'en bigots smiled ; to their protection took
Arts not their own, and from thein borrowed pomp \
For in a tyrant's garden these awhile
May bloom, though freedom be their parent soil.

"And now confessed, with gently growing gleam
The morning shone, and westward streamed its light
The muse awoke. Not sooner on the wing
Is the gay bird of dawn. Artless her voice,
Untaught and wild, yet wai-bling through the woods
Romantic lays. But as her northern course
She, with her tutor Science, in my train,
Ardent pursued, her strains more nobly grew ;
While Reason drew the plan, the Heart informed
The moral page, and Fancy lent it grace.

" Rome and her circling deserts cast behind,
I passed not idle to my great sojourn.

" On Arno's fertile plain, where the rich vine
Luxuriant o'er Erurian mountains roves,
Safe in the lap reposed of private bliss,
I small republics * raised. Thrice happy they :
Had social Freedom bound their peace, and arts,
Instead of ruling Power, ne'er meant for them.
Employed their little cares, and saved their fate.

" Beyond the rugged Apennines, that roll
Far through Italian bounds their wavy tops,
My path, too, I with public blessings strewed ;
Free states and cities, where the Lombard plain.
In spite of culture negligent and gross,
From her deep bosom pours unbidden joys,
And green o'er all the land a garden spreads.

" The barren rocks themselves beneath my foot,
Relenting bloomed on the Ligurian shore.
Thick swarming people f there, like emmets, seized

♦ The republics of Florence, Pisa. I.uccu, and SicDii.

f The Ge:io<;8e territory is reckoned vitv populous ; but the
towDS and villages for the most part lie hid among tlie ApoD-
nine rf>ck8 and raountaius.

LIBERTY. •»

Amid surrounding cliffs, the scattered spots,
Wiiich Nature left in her destroying rage,*
Made their own fields, nor sighed for other lands.
There, in white prospect from tlie rocky hill
Gradual descending to the slieltered shore,
By me proud Genoa's marble turrets rose.
And while my genuine spirit warmed her sons,
Beneath her Uorias, not unworthy, she
Vied for the trident of the narrow seas.
Ere Britain yet had opened all the main.

" Nor be the then triumphant state forgot ; f
Where, J pushed from plundered earth, a remnant still,
Inspired by me, through the dark ages kept
Of ray old Roman flame some sparks alive :
The seeming god-built city ! which my hand
Deep in the bosom fixed of wondering seas.
Astonished mortals sailed, with pleasing awe.
Around the sea-girt walls, by Neptune fenced.
And down the briny street ; where on each hand,
Amazing seen amid unstable waves,
The splendid palace shines ; and rising tides,
The green steps mai'king, murmur at the door.
To this fair Queen of Adria's stormy gulf,
The mart of nations ! long, obedient seas
Rolled all the treasure of the radiant East.
But now no more. Than one great tyrant worse
(Whose shared oppression lightens, as diffused,)
Each subject tearing, many tyrants rose.
The least the proudest. Joined in dark cabal,
They jealous, watchful, silent, and severe.
Cast o'er the indissoluV^le chains ;
The softer shackles of luxurious case

* According lo Dr. Burnet's system of IIk; Deluge.

f Venice whs tiie most rtourishinii; city in Kmope, with regard
lo trade, before tiie piis.siige to tlie East Indies hy the Cape of
Good Hope and America was diseovercd.

X Those who fled to some marsiies in Ww. Adriatic gulf, from
the desolation spread over Italy by an irruption of the Huns
flrst founded there this famous city, about the beginning of
fifth century.

910 UBERTY.

They likewise added, to secure their sway.

Thus Venice fainter shines ; and Commerce thni^

Of toil impatient, flags the drooping sail.

Bursting, besides, his ancient bounds, he took

A larger circle ; * found anotlier seat, f

Opening a thousand ports, and, charmed with toil,

Whom nothing can dismay, far other sons.

" The mountains then, clad with eternal snow.
Confessed my power. Deep as the rampant rocks,
By Nature thrown insuperable round,
I planted there a league of friendly states, J
And bade plain Freedom there ambition be.
There in the vale, where rural plenty fills.
From lakes, and meads, and furrowed fields, her horn,
Chief, § where the I.eman pure emits the Rhone,
Rare to be seen ! unguilty cities rise.
Cities of brothers formed : while equal life,
Accorded gracious with revolving power,
Maintains them free ; and, in their happy streets.
Nor cruel deed, nor misery, is known.
For valor, faith, and innocence of life
Renowned, a rough laborious people, there,
Not only give the dreadful Alps to smile.
And press their culture on retiring snows ;
But, to firm order trained and patient war.
They likewise know, beyond the nerve remiss
Of mercenary force, how to defend
The tasteful little their hard toil has earned.
And the proud arm of Bourbon to defy.

" E'en, cheered by me, their shaggy mountains
charm.
More than or Gallic or Italian plains ;
And sickening Fancy oft, when absent long,
Pines II to behold their Alpine views again ;

* The Main Ocean. f Great Britain. % Swiss Cantons
§ Geneva, situated on Lacus Lemanus, a small state, but

noble example of the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
I The Swiss, after having i)een long absent from their native

country, are seized with such a violent desire; of seeing it again,

»8 affects them with a kind of languishing indisposition, called

the Swiss-sickness.

LIBERTY. %\\

TTie hollow-winding stream ; the vale, fair spread
Amid an amphitheater of hills ;
Whence, vapor winged, the sudden tempest springs
From steep to steep ascending, the gray train
Of fogs, thick-rolled into romantic shapes :
The flitting cloud, against the summit dashed ;
And, by the sun illumined, pouring bright
A gemmy shower ; hung o'er amazing rocks.
The mountain ash, and solemn sounding pine ;
The snow-fed torrent, in white mazes tost,
Down to the clear ethereal lake below ;
And, high o'ertopping all the broken scene,
The mountain fading into sky ; where shines
On winter, winter shivering, and whose top
Licks from their cloudy magazine the snow.

" From these descending, as I waved ray course
O'er vast Germania, the ferocious nurse
Of hardy men and hearts affronting death,
I gave some favored cities, * tliere to lift
A nobler brow, and through their swarming streets.
More busy, wealthy, cheerful, and alive.
In each contented face to look my soul.

" Thence the loud Baltic passing, black with storm.
To wintry Scandinavia's utmost bound ;
There, I the manly race, \ the parent hive
Of the mixed kingdoms, formed into a state
More regularly free. By keener air
Their genius purged, and tempered hard by frost,
Tempest and toil, their nerves the sons of those
Whose only terror was a bloodless death ;
They, wise and dauntless, still sustain my cause.
Yet there I fixed not. Turning to the south,
The whispering zephyrs siglied at my delay."

Here, with tlie sliil"t('<l vision, burst my joy : —
" O the dear prospect ! O majestic view !
See Britain's empire ! lo ! tlu; watery vast
Wide waves, diffusing the ecruleun plain.
And now, methinks, like clouds at distance seen.

♦ The Hanse Towns. \ The Sweden

»U LIBERTY.

Emerging white from deeps of ether, dawn

My kindred cliffs ; whence, wafted in the gale,

Ineffable, a secret sweetness breathes.

Goddess, forgive ! — my heart, sui-prised, o'erflows

With filial fondness for the land you bless."

As parents to a child complacent deign

Approvance, the celestial Brightness smiled ;

Then thus : — "As o'er the wave resounding deep,

To my near reign, the happy isle, I steered

With easy wing ; behold ! from surge to surge,

Stalked the tremendous Genius of the Deep.

Around him clouds, in mingled tempest, hung ;

Tliick flashing meteors crowned his starry head ;

And ready thunder reddened in his hand.

Or from it streamed compressed the gloomy cloud.

Where'er he looked, the trembling waves recoiled.

He needs but strike the conscious flood, and shook

From shore to shore, in agitation dire,

It works his dreadful will. To me his voice

(Like that hoarse blast that round the cavern howls.

Mixed with the murmurs of the falling main,)

Addressed began — ' By Fate commissioned, go.

My Sister-Goddess now, to yon blessed isle.

Henceforth the partner of my rough domain.

All my dread walks to Britons open lie.

Those that refulgent, or with rosy morn,

Or yellow evening, flame ; those that, profuse.

Drunk by equater's suns, severely shine ;

Or those that, to the poles approving, rise

In billows rolling into Alps of ice.

E'en, yet untouched by daring keel, be theirs

The vast Pacific ; that on other worlds.

Their future conquest, rolls resounding tides.

Long I maintained inviolate my reign ;

Nor Alexanders me, nor Caesars braved.

Still, in the crook of shore, the coward sail

Till now low crept ; and peddling cominerce plied

Between near joining lands. For Britons, chief

It was reserved, with star-directed prow,

To dare the middle deep, and drive assured

UBERTY. an

To dietant nations through the pathless main.
Chief, for their fearless hearts the glory waits,
Long months from laud, while the black stormy night
Around them rage:-!, on the groaiiinGj rnast
With unshook knee to know their gi<ldy way ;
To sing, unquelled, amid the lasliing wave ;
To laugh at danger. Theirs the triumph be,
By deep Invention's keen pervading eye,
The heart of Courage, and the hand of Toil,
Kach conquered ocean staining with their blood,
Inst 'ad of treasure robbed by ruffian war.
Round social earth to circle fair exchange.
And bind the nations in a golden chain.
To these I honored stoop. Rushing to light
A. race of men behold ! whose daring deeds
Will in renown exalt my nameless plains
O'er those of fabling earth, as hers to mine
In terror yield. Nay, could my savage heart
Such glories check, their unsubmitting soul
Would all my fury brave, my tempest climb,
And might in spite of me my kingdom force.
Here, waiting no reply, the shadowy power
Eased the dark sky, and to the deep returned ;
While the loud thunder rattling from his hand,
Auspicious, sho )k opponent Gallia's shore.

" Of this encounter glad, my way to land
I quick pursued, that from the smiling sea
Received me joyous. Loud acclaims were heard?
And music, more than mortal, warbling, tilled
With pleased astonishment the laboring hind.
Who for a while the unfinished furrow left.
And yet the listening steer forgi't his toil.
Unseen by grosser eye, Hrit;uuiia breathed.
And her aerial train these? sounds of joy.
P\>r of old time, since first the rushing flood.
Urged by almighty power, this favored isle
Turiie<l Hashing from the continent aside,
Indented shore to shore responsive still,
Its guardian she — the (ioddcss, whose sl;ii(l eye
lic.irns tlic dark azure of the doubtful dawn.

•U LIBERTY.

Her tresses, like a flood of softened light
Through clouds imbrowned, in waving circles play.
Warm on her cheek sits Beauty's brightest rose,
Of high demeanor, stately, shedding grace
With every motion. Full her rising chest ;
And new ideas from her finished shape
Charmed Sculpture taking, might improve her art.
Such the fair Guardian of an isle that boasts,
Profuse as vernal blooms, the fairest dames.
High shining on the promontory's brow.
Awaiting me, she stood ; with hope inflamed,
By my mixed spirit burning in her sons,
To firm, to polish, and exalt the state.

" The native Getiii, round her, radiant smiled.
Courage, of soft deportment, aspect calm,
Unboastful, suffering long, and, till provokeci
As mild and harmless as the sporting child ;
But, on just reason, once his fury roused.
No lion springs more eager to his prey ;
Blood is a pastime ; and his heart, elate,
Knows no depressing fear. That virtue, known
By the relenting look, whose equal heart
For others feels, as for another self ;
Of various name, as various objects wake.
Warm into action, the kind sense within ;
Whether the blameless poor, the nobly maimed,
The lost to reason, the declined in life.
The helpless young that kiss no mother's hand,
And the gray second infancy of age,
She gives in public families to live,
A sight to gladden heaven ! whether she stands
Fair beckoning at the hospitable gate.
And bids the stranger take repose and joy ;
Whether, to solace honest labor, she
Rejoices those that make the land rejoice ;
Or whether to Philosophy, and Arts,
(At once the basis and the finished pride
Of government and life) she spreads her hand ;
Nor knows her gift profuse, nor seems to know.
Doubling her bounty, that she gives at all.

LIBERTY. tl6

Justice to these her awful presence joined,

The mother of the state ! no low revenge,

No turbid passions in her breast ferment :

Tender, serene, compassionate of vice.

As the last woe that can afflict mankind.

She punishment awards ; yet of the good

More piteous still, and of the suffering whole,

Awards it firm. So fair her just degree.

That, in his judging peers, each on himself

Pronounces his own doom. O happy land !

Where reigns alone this justice of the free !

Mid the bright group Sincerity his front,

Effusive, reared ; his pure untroubled eye

The fount of truth. The thoughtful Power, apart»

Now, pensive, cast on earth his fixed regard.

Now, touched celestial, launched it on the sky.

The Genius, he whence Britain shines supreme,

The land of light, and rectitude of mind.

He, too, the fire of fancy feeds intense.

With all the train of passions thence derived ;

Not kindling quick, a noisy transient blaze.

But gradual, silent, lasting, and profound.

Near him, Retirement, pointing to the shade,

And Independence stood ; the generous pair,

That simple life, the quiet-wbispering grove.

And the still raptures of the free-born soul,

To cates prefer by Virtue bought, not earned.

Proudly prefer them to the servile pomp,

And to the heart-erabittored joys of slaves.

Or should the latter to the public scene

demanded, quit his sylvan friend awhile ;

Naught can his firmness shake, nothing seda06

His zeal, still active for the commonweal ;

Nor stormy tyrants, nor corru]>ti()n's tools,

Foul ministers, dark-working by the force

Of secret-sapjiint'^ i?"l<^- -^" tlieir vile arts.

Their shameful honors, their perfidious gifts

He greatly scorns ; and, if he must betray

His plundered country, or his j)ower resign,

A moment's parley were eternal shame :

ili LIBERTY.

Illustrious into private life again,

From dirty levees he unstained ascends,

And firm in senates stands the patriot'fl ground,

Or draws new vigor in the peaceful shade.

Aloof the bashful virtue hovered coy,

Proving, by sweet distrust, distrusted worth.

Rough Labor closed the train : and in his hand.

Rude, callous, smew-swelled, and black with toil.

Came manly Indignation. Sour he seems,

And more than seems, by lawless pride assailed ;

Yet kind at heart, and just, and generous there

No vengeance lurks, no pale, insidious gall ;

Even in the very luxury of rage,

He softening can forgive a gallant foe ;

The rferve, support, and glory of the land !

Nor be Religion, rational and free.

Here passed in silence ; whose enraptured eye

Sees Heaven with earth connected, human things

Linked to divine : who not from servile fear.

By rites for some weak tyrant incense fit,

The God of Love adores, but from a heart

Effusing gladness, into pleasing awe

That now astonished swells, now in a calm

Of fearless confidence that smiles serene ;

That lives devotion, one continual hymn,

And then most graceful, when Heaven's bounty meet

Is right enjoyed. This ever cheerful Power

O'er the raised circle rayed superior day.

" I joyed to join the V irtues, whence my reign
O'er Albion was to rise. Each cheering each.
And, like the circling planets from the sun,
All borrowing beams from me, a heightened zeal
Impatient fired us to commence our toils.
Or pleasures rather. Long the pungent time
Passed not in mutual hails ; but, through the laud
Darting our light, we shone the fogs away.

" The Virtues conquer with a single look.
Such grace, such beauty, such victorious light,
Live in their presence, stream in every glance,
That the soul won, enamored, and refined.

LIBERTY. *17

Grows their own image, pure ethereal flame.

Hence, the foul Demons, tliat oppose our reign.

Would still from us deluded mortals wrap ;

Or in gross shades they drown the visual ray ;

Or by the fogs of prejudice, where mix

Falsehood and truth confounded, foil the sense

With vain refracted images of bliss.

But chief around the court of flattered kings

They roll the dusky rampart, wall o'er wall

Of darkest pile, and with their thickest shade

Secure the throne. No savage Alp, the den

Of wolves, and bears, and m<inslrous things obscene

That vex the swain, and waste the country round,

Protected lies beneath a deeper cloud ;

Yet there we sometimes send a searching ray,

As, at the sacred opening of the morn.

The prowling race retire ; so, pierced severe,

Before our potent blaze these Demons fly.

And all their works dissolve — the whispered tale.

That, like the fabling Nile, no fountain knows ;

Fair-faced Deceit, whose wily conscious eye

Ne'er looks direct ; the tongue that licks the dust,

But when it safely dares, as prompt to sting ;

Smooth crocodile Destruction, whose fell tears

Ensnare ; the Janus-face of courtly Pride : —

One to superiors heaves submissive eyes,

On hapless work the other scowls disdain :

Cheeks that for some weak tenderness, alone,

Some virtuous slip, can wear a blush ; — the laugh

Profane, when midnight bowls disclose the heart.

At starving Virtue, and at Virtue's fools ;

Determined to be broke, the plighted faith ;

Nay more, the godless oath, that knows no ties ;

Soft-buzzing Slander ; silky tiioIIis, that eat

An honest nanuj ; the har])y liaiul, and maw.

Of avaricious Luxury, who makes

The throne his shelter, venal laws his fort

And, his [best] service who betrays his king,

" Now, turn your view, and mark from CN^ltic * night

* Great Britain waa peopled by the Cclta; or Oaulb.

81« LIBERTY.

To present grandeur how my Bi-itain rose.

" Bold were those Britons, who the careless sons
Of Nature, roamed the forest-bounds, at once
Their verdant city, high-embowering fane,
And the gay circle of their woodland wars :
For by the Druid taught, that death but shifts
The vital scene, they that prime fear despised ;
And, prone to rush on steel, disdaining to spare
An ill saved life that must again return.
Erect from Nature's hand, by tyrant force.
And still more tyrant custom, unsubdued,
Man knows no master save creating Heaven,
Or such as choice and common good ordain.
This general sense, with which the nations I
Promiscuous fire, in Britons burned intense.
Of future times prophetic. Witness, Rome,
Who sawest thy Caesar, from the naked land.
Whose only fort was British hearts, repelled.
To seek Pharsalian wreaths. Witness, the toil.
The blood of ages, bootless to secure,
Beneath an empire's yoke, a stubborn isle,
Disputed hard, and never quite subdued. [scorned
The North remained untouched, where those who
To stoop retired ; and, to their keen effort
Yielding at last, recoiled the Roman power.
In vain, unable to sustain the shock.
From sea to sea desponding legion:: raised
The wall immense, and yet, on summer's eve.
While sport his lambkins round, the shepherd's gaze.
Continual o'er it burst the northern storm.
As often checked, receded ; threatening hoarse
A swift return. But the devouring flood
No more endured control, when, to support
The last remains of empire, was recalled
The weary Roman, and the Briton lay
Unnerved, exhausted, spiritless, and sunk.
Great proof ! how men enfeebled into slaves.
The sword * behind him flashed ; before him roared,

* Tlie Britons applying to ^tius tlie Roman general foi
•sistaoce, thus expressed their miserable condition : "We

LIBERTY. 2i;-

Deaf to bis woes the deep. Forlorn, around
i le rolled his eye, not sparkling ardent flame.
As when Caractacus * to battle led
Silurian swains, and B adicea taught
Her raging troops the miseries of slaves.

"■ Then sad relief, from the bleak coast that hears
Tlie German Ocean roar, deep blooming, strong,
And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came.
He came implored, but came with other aim
Than to protect ; for conquest and defence
Suffices the same arm. With the fierce race
Poured in a fresh invigorating stream,
Blood, where unequaled a mighty spirit glowed.
Rash war, and perilous battle, their delight ;
And immature, and red with glorious winds,
Unpeaceful death their choice ; deriving thence
A right to feast, and drain immortal bowls,
In Odin's hall ; f whose blazing roof resounds

know not which way to turn us. The barbarianB drive us to
s^a, and the sea forces us back to the barbarians : between
which we have only the choice of two deaths, either to bo
swallowed up by the waves, or butchered by the sword."

• King of the Silures, famous for his great exploits, and
accounted the best general Great Britain h d ever produced.
The Silures were esteemed the bravest and luont powerful of
all the Britons ; they inhabited Herefordshiro, Radnorshire,
Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and Glamorgun.shire.

t It is certain that an opinion was fixed and general among
them (the Goths) that death was but the entrance into another
life ; that all men who lived lazy and unactive lives, and died
natiiral deaths, by sickess and by age, went into vast caves
underground, all dark and miry, full of noisome creatures
usual to such places, and there forever grovehd in endless
stench and misery. Ou the contrary, all who give themselves
to warlike actions and enterprises, to the conquest of their
neigliljors and the slaughter of their enemies, and died in bat-
tle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures or resolutions,
went immediately to the vast ball or p;ilaco of Odin, their god
of war, who eternally kept open h u^c for all such guests,
where they were entertained at intinito tables, in perpetual
feasts and mirth, carousing in bowls made of the skulls of their
enemies thev had slain ; accordiuf^ to the nuinher of whom,
every one of these mansions of pleasure was the most and best
entertained. — Sib William Temple's Essay on Heroic Virtue.

1W UBSRTY.

The genial uproar of those shades, who fall

In desperate fight, or by some brave attempt ;

And through more polished times the martial creed

Disown, yet st^ the f euiiess habit lives.

Nor were the surly gifts of war their all.

Wisdom was likewise theirs, indulgent laws,

The calm gradations of art-nurs'nc; peace,

And matchless order, the deep basis still

On which ascends my British reign. Untamed

To the refining subtleties of slaves,

They brought a happy government along ;

Formed by that freedom, which, wit secret voice,

Impartial Nature teaches all her sens

And which of old through tlie whole Scythian masi

I strong mspired. Monarchic"! their state.

But prudently confined, and mingled wise

Of each harmonious power • only, too much.

Imperious war into their rule infused,

Prevailed their General-King, and Chieftain-Thanee.

" In many a field, by civil fury tained.
Bled the discordant Heptarchy , and long
CEducing good from ill) the battle groaned ;
Ere, blood-cemented, Anglo-Saxon saw
Egbert * and Peace on one united throne.

" No sooner dawned the fair disclosing calm
Of brighter days, when lo ! the North anew.
With stormy nations black, on England poured
Woes the severest e'er a people felt.
The Danish Raven, f lured by annual prey,
Hung o'er the land incessant. Fleet on fleet
Of barbarous pirates unremitting tore
The miserable coast. Before them stalked,
Far seen, the Demon of devouring Flame ;

•Egbert, King of Wessex, who, after having reduced all the
other kingdoms of the Heptarcijy under his domiDion, was
the first king of England .

f A famous Daaisl: standard was called liafan, or Rayen.
The Danes imagined that, before a battle, the Raven wrought
upon this standard clapped his wings or hung down its bead,
In token of victory or defeat.

LIBERTY. til

Rapine, and Murder, all with blood besmeared,

Without or ear, or eye, or feeling heart ;

While close behind them marched the sallow Powei

Of desolating Famine, who delights

In grass-grown cities, and in desert fields ;

And purple-spotted Pestilence, by whom

E'en friendship scared, in sickening iiorror sinlcs

Each social sense and tenderness of life.

Fixing at least, the sanguinary race

Spread, from the Humber's loud-resounding shore

To where the Thames devolves his gentle maze,

And with superior arm the Saxon awed.

But Superstition first, and monkish dreams,

And monk-directed, cloister-seeking kings,

Had eat away his vigor, eat away

His edge of Courage, and depressed the soul

Of conquering Freedom, which he once respired.

Thus cruel ages passed ; and rare appeared

White-mantled Peace, exulting o'er the vale,

As when, with Alfred, from the wilds she came

To policed cities and protected plains.

Thus by degrees the Saxon empire t-unk,

Then set entire in Hastings' bloody field.

" Compendious war ! (on Britain's glory bent,
So fate ordained) in that decisive day.
The haughty Norman seized at once an isle.
For which, through many a century, in vain,
The Roman, Saxon, Dane, had toiled and bled.
Of Gothic nations this the final burst :
And, mixed the genius of t/iese people all.
Their virtues mixed in one exalted stream,
Here the rich tide of English blood grew full.

" Awhile my Spirit slejit ; the land awhile,
Affrighted, drooped beneath despotic rage.
Instead of P^dward's * equal, gentle laws,
The furious victor's partial will prevailed.

•E<lward the ('oiifc.ssfjr, who redurcil Wc^i Saxon, Mercian,
and Daiiisli laws into oue hody ; wliicli from that time, became
common to all England, under the name of " The Laws ol
Edward."

93S LIBERTY.

All prostrate lay ; and, in the secret shade,
Deep stung but fearful ludignatioii gnashed
His teeth. Of freedom, property, despoiled,
And of their bulwark, arms ; with castles crushed,
With ruffians quartered o'er the bridled land ;
The shivering wretches, at the curfew sound,
Dejected shrunk into their sordid beds,
And, through the mournful gloom, of ancient timea
Mused sad, or dreamt of better. E'en to feed
A tyrant's idle sport, the peasant starved :
To the wild herd, the pasture of the tame.
The cheerful hamlet, spiry town, was given,
And the brown forest * roughened wide around.

" But this so dead, so vile submission, long
Endured not. Gathering force, my gradual flame
Shook off the mountain of tyrannic sway.
Unused to bend, impatient of control.
Tyrants themslves the common tyrant checked.
The church bv kinG^s intractable and fierce.
Denied her portion of the plundered state,
Or, tempted by the timorous and weak.
To gain new ground, first taught their rapine law.
The Barons next a nobler league began,
Both those of English and of Norman race,
In one fraternal nation blended now,
The nation of the Free ! pressed by a band
Of Patriots, ardent as the summer's noon
That looks delighted on, the tyrant see !
Mark ! how with feigned alacrity he bears
His strong reluctance down, his dark revenge,
And gives the Charter, by which life indeed
Becomes of price, a glory to be man.

" Through this, and through succeeding reigns
affirmed
These long contested rights, the wholesome winds
Of Opposition hence began to blow,
And often since have lent the country life.
Before their breath Corruption's insect-blights,

*The New Forest in Hampshire ; to make which, the country
for above thirty miles in compass was laid waste.

UBERTY. 938

The darkening clouds of evil counsel, fly ;
Or should they sounding swell, a putrid court,
A pestilential ministry, they purge,
And ventilated states renew their bloom.

" Though with the tempered Monarchy here mixed
Aristocratic sway, the People still,
Flattered by this or that, as interest leaned,
No full protection knew. For me reserved,
And for my Commons, was that glorious turn.
They crowned ray first attempt, in senates * rose
The fort of Freedom ! Slow till then, alone.
Had worked that general liberty, that soul
Which generous nature breathes, and which, when

left
By me to bondage, was corrupted Rome,
I through the northern nations wide diffused.
Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rushed
From the rude iron regions of the North,
To Libyan deserts swarm protruding swarm.
And poured new spirit through a slavish world.
Yet, o'er these Gothic states, the King and Chiefs
Retained the high prerogative of war,
And with enormous property engrossed
The mingled power. But on Britannia's shore
Now present, I to raise my reign began
By raising the Democracy, the third
And broadest bulwark of the guarded state.
Then was the full, the perfect plan disclosed
Of Britain's matcliloss constitution, mixed
Of mutual checking am] supporting powers.
Kings, Lords, and Commons ; nor the name of free

• The Commons are generally thouglit to liiive tliem first
represented in parliament towards the end of Henry the Third's
reign. T ■ a parliament called in the year 1264, each county
was ordere ^ I o send four knights, as representatives of their
respective shires : and to a parliament called in the year fol-
lowing, each coimty was orderecJ to send, its llieir representa-
tives, two knights, and ejich city and borough as many citi-
zens and burgesses. Till then, history makes no mention of
them ; whence a very strong argumtmt may be drawn, to fix
the oriijinal of the House of Commons to that era.

tU UBERTY.

Deserving, while the vassal-many drooped :
For since the moment of the whole they form
So, as depressed or raised, the balance they
Of public welfare and of glory cast.
Mark from this period the continual proof.

" When kings of narrow genius, minion-rid,
Neglecting faithful worth for fawning slaves ;
Proudly regardless of their people's plaints,
And purely passive of insulting foes ;
Double, not prudent, obstinate not firm,
Their mercy fear, necessity their faith ;
Instead of generous fire, presumptuous, hot,
Rash to resolve, and slothful to perform ;
Tyrants at once and slaves ; imperious, mean,
To want rapacious, joining shameful waste ;
By counsels weak and wicked, easy roused
To paltry schemes of absolute command.
To keek their splendor in their sure disgrace,
And in a broken, ruined people wealth :
When such o'ercast the state, no bond of love,
No heart, no soul, no unity, no nerve,
Combined the loose disjointed public, lost,
To fame abroad, ti happiness at come.

" But when an Edward,* and a Henry f breathed
Tlu'ough the charmed whole one all-exerting soul ;
Drawn sympathetic from his dark retreat.
When wide-attracted merit round them glowed ;
Then counsels just, extensive, generous, firm.
Amid the maze of state, determined kept
Some ruling point in view ; when, on the stock
Of public good and glory grafted, spread
Their palms, their laurels ; or, if thence they stmj

ed,
Swift to return, and patient of restraint ;
When regal state, pre-eminence of place,
They scorned to deem pre-eminence of ease.
To be luxurious drones, that only rob
The busy hive ; as in distinction, power,

• Edward lU. f Henry V

UBER1Y, aw

Indulgence, honor, and advaatage, first ,
When they too claimed in virtue, danger, toil,
Superior rank ; with equal hand, prepared
To guard the subject, and to quell the foe ;
When such with me their vital influence shed,
No muttered grievance, hopeless sigh, was heard ;
No foul distrust through wary senates ran.
Confined their bounty, and their ardor quenched
On aid, unquestioned liberal aid was given ;
Safe in their conduct, by their valor fired.
Found where they led, victorious armies rushed ;
And Cressy, Poitiers, Agincourt proclaim
What kings supported by almighty Love,
Aud people fired with Liberty, can do.

" Be veiled the savage reigns, when kindred rage
The numerous once Plantagenets devoured,
A race to vengeance vowed ! and, when oppressed
By private feuds, almost extinguished lay
itty quivering flame. But, in the next, behold !
A cautious tyrant * lend it oil anew.

" Proud, dark, suspicious, brooding o'er his gold^
As how to fix his throne he jealous cast
His crafty views round ; pierced with a ray,
Which on his timid mind I darted full,
ne marked the barons of extensive sway.
At pleasure making and unmaking kings ;
And hence to crush these petty tyrants, planned
A law,f that let tlioin, by the silent waste
Of hixury their landed wealth diffuse.
And with that wealth llieir im))licate(l power.
Hy soft degrees a mii^lity change ensued,
E'en working to tiiis day. With streams, deduced
From these diminished floods, the country smiled.
As when impetuous from tlie sn()\v-hea[)ed Alps,
To v«!rnal suns relenting, pours the Rliine ;
While, undivided, oft, with wasteful Kwe(>p,
ile foams along ; but through Batavian meads.

» Henry VII.

f Permitting the IJarons lo alieiiale their iaud«.

IM UBERTt.

Branched into fair canals, indulgent flows ;

Waters a thousand fields ; and culture, trade,

Towns, meadows, gliding snips, and villas mixed,

A rich, a wondrous landscape rises round.

His furious son the soul-enslaving cliain,

Which many a doting venerable age

Had link by link strong twisted round the land,

Shook off. No longer could be borne a power,

Fi-om Heaven pretended, to deceive, to void

Each solemn tie, to plunder without bounds,

To curb the generous eoul, to fool mankind ;

And, wild at last, to plunge into a sea

Of blood and horror. The returning light.

That first through Wickliff streaked the priestly

gloom,
Now burst in open day. Bared to the blaze,
Forth from the naunts of Superstition crawled
Her motley sons, fantastic figures all ;
And, wide dispersed, their useless fetid wealth
In graceful labor bloomed, and fruits of peace.

" Trade, joined to these, on every sea displayed
A daring canvas, poured with every tide
A golden flood. From other worlds * w^ere rolled
The guilty glittering stores, whose fatal charms,
By the plain Indian happily despised,
Ye. worked his woe ; and to the blissful groves,
Where Nature lived herself among her sons,
And Innocence and joy for ever dwelt,
Drew rage unknown to pagan climes before.
The worst the zeal-inflamed barbarian drew.
Be no such horrid commerce, Britain, thine !
But want for want, with mutual aid, supply.

"The Commons thus enriched, and powerful grown
Against the Barons weighed. Eliza tlien,
Amid these doubtful mot ions, steady, gave
The beam to fix. She ! like the secret Eye,
That never closes on a guarded world,
So sought, so marked, so seized the j)uhlic good,
That self-supported, without one ally,

♦ The tSpanisli West Indiets.

LIBERTY. aw

She awed her inward, quelled her circling foes.

Inspired by me, beneath her sheltering arm,

In spite of raging universal sway *

And raging seas repressed, the Belgic states,

My bulwark on the continent, arose.

Matchless in all tlie s})iiiL of her days !

With confidence unbounded, fearless love

Elate, her fervent people waited gay,

Cheeiful demanded the long threatened fleet, f

And dashed the pride of Spain around their isle.

Nor ceased the British thunder here to rage ;

The deep, reclaimed, obeyed its awful call ;

In fire and smoke Iberian ports involved,

The trembling foe even to the center shook

Of their new conquered world, and, skulking, stole

By veering winds their Indian treasure home.

Meantime, Peace, Plent}', Justice, Science, Arts,

With softer laurels crowned her happy reign.

As yet uncircumscribed the regal power,

And wild and vague prerogative remained ;

A wide voracious gulf, where swallowed oft

The helpless subject lay. This to reduce

To the just limit w^as my great effort.

" By means that evil seem to narrow man,
Superior Beings work their mystic will :
From storm and trouble thus a settled calm,
At last, effulgent, o'er Britannia smiled.

"The gathering tempest, Ileaven-commissioned,
came,
Came in the prince, \ who, drunk with flattery,

dreamt
His vain pacific counsels ruled the world ;
Though scorned abroad, bewildered in a maze
Of fruitless treaties ; while at home enslaved.
And by a worthless crew insatiate drained,

* The dominion of tlio house ui Austria.

f The Spanish Arnmdii. Rapin says, that after proper meas-
ures liad been taken, the enemy was expected with uncommon
alacrity.

X James L

tm LIBERTY.

He lost his people's confidence and love :

Irreparable loss ! whence crowns become

An anxious burden. Years inglorious passed ;

Triumphant Spain the vengeful draught enjoyed ;

Abandoned Frederick * pined, and Raleigh bled

But nothing that to these internal broils,

That rancor, he began ; while lawless sway

He, with his slavish Doctors, tried to rear

On metaphysic, f on enchanted ground,

And all the mazy quibbles of the schools :

As if for one, and sometimes for the worst.

Heaven had mankind in vengeance only made.

Vain the pretense ! not to the dire effect.

The fierce, the foolish discord \ thence derived,

That tears the country still, by party rage

And ministerial clamor kept aiive.

In action weak, and for the wordy war

Best fitted, faint this prince pursued his claim ;

Content to teach the subject herd, how great,

How sacred he ! how despicable they !

" But his unyielding son these doctrines drank,
With all a bigot's rage ; (who never damps
By reasoning his fire) ; and what they taught.
Warm, and tenacious, into practice pushed.
Senates, in vain, their kind restraint applied ;
The more they struggle to support the laws
His justice-dreading ministers the more
Drove him beyond their bounds. Tired with the

check
Of faithful Love, and with the flattery pleased
Of false designing Guilt, the fountain § he

* Hiector Palatine, and who liad been chosen King of
Bohemia, but was stripped of all his dominions and dignities
by tlie Emperor Ferdinand, while James first, his father-in-
law, being amused from time to time, endeavored to mediate a
peace.

t The monstrous and till then imheard-of doctrines of divine
Indefeasible hereditary right, passive obedience, etc.

X The parties of Whig and Tory

% Parliaments.

UBEKTY. tm

Of Public "Wisdom and of Justice shut.

Wide mourned the land. Straight to the voted aid

Free, cordial, large, of never-failing source,

The illegal imposition followed harsh,

With execration given, or ruthless squeezed

From an insulted people, by a band

Of the worst ruflSans, those of tyrant power.

Oppression walked at large, and poured abroad

Her unrelenting train : informers, spies,

Bloodhounds that sturdy Freedom to the grav«

Pursue ; projectors of aggrieving schemes.

Commerce to load for unprotected seas, *

To sell the starving many to the few, f

And drain a thousand ways the exhausted land.

E'en from that place, whence healing Peace shouUI

flow,
And Gospel truth, inhuman bigots shed
Their poison \ round ; and on the venal bench,
Instead of justice, party held the scale.
And violence the sword. Afflicted years.
Too patient, felt at last their vengeance full,
'* 'Mid the low murmurs of submissive fear,
And mingled rage, my Hampden raised his voice,
And to the laws appealed ; the laws no more
In judgment sat, behooved some other ear.
When instant from the keen resentive North,
By long oppression, by religion roused.
The guardian army came. Beneath its wing
Was called, though meant to furnish hostile aid.
The more than Roman senate. Tliere a flame
Broke out, that cleared, consumed, renewed the land.
In deep emotion hurled, nor Greece, nor Rome,
Indignant bursting from a tyrant's chain.
While, full of me, each agitated soul
Strung every nerve and flamed in every eye,

* Sliip-money.

\ Monopolies.

X The raging hi^h-cliurch sermons of these times, inspiring a
spirit of slavisii submission to llic coiiil. iind of l>itler persccu-
lion ajfainat those whom they cull Church aud State Purilao*.

m LIBERTY.

Had eVr beheld such light and heat combined r
Such heads and hearts ! such dreadful zeal, led on
By calm majestic wisdom, taught its course
What nuisance to devour ; such wisdom fired
With unabating zeal, and aimed sincere
To clear the weedy state, restore the laws,
And for the future to secure their sway.

" This then the purpose of my mildest sons.
But man is blind. A nation once inflamed
(Chief, should the breath of factious fury blow,
With the wild rage of mad enthusiast swelled)
Mot easy cools again. From breast to breast,
From eye to eye, the kindling passions mix
In heightened blaze ; and, ever wise and just.
High Heaven to gracious ends directs the storm.
Thus in one conflagration Britain wrapt,
And by Conf uson's lawless sons despoiled,
King, Lords, and Commons, thundering to the ground.
Successive, rushed — Lo ! from their ashes rose,
Gay beaming radiant youth, the Phoenix State. *

" The grievous yoke, of vassalage, the yoke
Of private life, lay by those flames dissolved ;
And, from the wasteful, the luxurious king,
Was purchased f that which taught the young to bend.
Stronger restored, the Commons taxed the whole.
And built on that eternal rock their power.
The Crown, of its hereditary wealth
Despoiled, on senates more dependent grew,
And they more frequent, more assured. Yet lived,
And in full vigor spread that bitter root,
The passive doctrines, by their patrons first
Opposed ferocious wlien they touch themselves.

" This wild delusive cant ; the rash cabal
Of hungry courtiers, ravenous for ))rey ;
The bigot, restless in a double chain
To bind anew the land ; the constant need
Of finding faithless means, of shifting forms.
And flattering senates, to supply liis waste ;

* At the Kestoration.
f Court of Wards.

LIBERTY. »1

These tore some moments from the careless prince,

And in his breast awaked the kindred plan.

By dangerous softness long he mined his way ;

By subtle arts, dissimulation deep ;

By sharing what corruption showered, profuse ;

By breathing wide the gay licentious plague,

And pleasing manners, fitted to deceive.

" At last subsided the delirious joy.
On whose high billow, from the saintly reign,
The nation drove too far. A pensioned king.
Against his country bribed by Gallic gold ;
The port * pernicious sold, the Scylla since
And fell Charybdis of the British seas ;
Freedom attacked abroad, f with surer blow
To cut it off at home ; the savior league J
Of Europe broke ; the progress e'en advanced
Of universal sway, which to reduce
Such seas of blood and treasure Britain cost ;
The millions, by a generous people given,
Or squandered vile, or to corru))!, disgrace.
And awe the land with forces § not their own
Employed ; the darling church herself betrayed ;
All these, broad glaring, oped the general eye,
And waked my spirit, the resisting soul.

" Mild was, at first, and half ashamed, the cheek
Of senates, shook from the fantastic dream
Of absolute submission, tenets vile !
Which slaves would blush to own, and which reduced
To practice, always honest nature shock.
Not e'en the mask removed, ami the fierce front
Of tyranny disclosed ; nor trampled laws ;
Nor seized each badge of freedom || tlirc)iigli the land ;
Nor Sidney bleeding for the unpublished page ;
Nor on the bench avowed corruption placed,

* Dunkirk.

f The war in conjunction witli France, a<i;ainst the Dutch.

X The Triple Ailiaricf.

§ A standing army, raised witiiout llie consent of ParHamenl

I The charters of corporations.

an LIBERTY.

And murderous rage itself, in Jefferies' form ;

Nor endless acts of arbitrary power,

Cruel, and false, could raise the public arm.

Distrustful, scattered, of combining chiefs

Devoid, and dreading blind rapacious war,

The patient public turns not, till impelled

To the near verge of ruin. Hence I roused

The bigot king, and hurried fated on

His measures immature. But chief his zeal,

Out-flaming Rome herself, portentous scared

The troubled nation : Mary's horrid days

To fancy bleeding rose, and the dire glade

Of Smithfield lightened in its eyes anew.

Yet silence reigned. Each on another scowled

Rueful amazement, pressing down bis rage :

As, mustering vengeance, the deep thunder frowns.

Awfully still, waiting the high command

To spring. Straight from his country Europe saved,

To save Britannia, lo ! my darling son,

Than hero more ! the patriot of mankind 1

Immortal Nassau came. I hushed the deep

By demons roused, and bade the listed winds, *

Still shifting as behooved, with various breath.

Waft the deliverer to the longing shore.

See ! wide alive, the foaming channel f bright

With swelling sails, and all the pride of war,

Delightful view ! when justice draws the sword ;

And mark ! diffusing ardent soul around,

* The Prince of Orange, in liis passage to England, though
his fleet had been at first dispersed by a storm, was afterwards
extremely favored by several clianges of wind.

f Rapin, in his History of England- — The third of November
the fleet entered tlie Channel, and laj' by between Calais and
Dover, to stay for the ships that were behind. Here the
Prince called a council of war. It is easy to imagine what a
glorious show the fleet made. Five oi- six hundred ships in so
narrow a channel, and both the English and French shores
covered witli numberless spectators, are no common sight.
For my part, who was then on board the fleet, I own it struck
me extremely.

IJBRRTY. *•

And sweet contempt of death, my streaming flag.*
E'en adverse natives f blessed the binding gale,
Kept down the glad acclaim, and silent joyed.
Arrived, the pomp, and not the waste, of arms
His progress marked. The faint opposing host
For once, in yielding their best victory found,
And by desertion proved exalted faith ;
While his the bloodless conquest of the heart,
Shouts without groan, and triumph without war.
" Then dawned the period destined to confine
The surge of wild prerogative, to raise
A mound restraining its imperious rage,
And bid the raging deep no further flow.
Nor where, without that fence, the swallowed stat«
Better than Belgian plains without their dykes,
Sustaining weighty seas. This, often saved
By more than human hand, the public saw.
And seized the white-winged moment. Pleased J to

yield
Destructive power, a wise heroic prince
E'en lent his aid — Thrice happy ! did they know
Their happiness, Britannia's bounded kings.
What though not theirs the boast, in dungeon glooma.
To plunge bold freedom ; or, to cheerless wilds,
To drive him from the cordial face of friend ;
Or fierce to strike him at the midnight hour.
By mandate blind, not justice, that delights
To dare the keenest eye of open day.
What tliough no glory to control the laws.
And make injurious will their only rule.
They deem It. What uiougli, tools of wanton powor.
Pestiferous armies swarm not at tlieir call.
What though they give not a relentless crew

* The Prince placed himself in \\w, nmin body, carrying •
flii/^ with ICn^'lisli colors, find ihoir hi^'-hiicsseH' arms surround-
t:ii wiiii this niottf), " Tlie Prole.stuiit Religion mid the Libertiea
(jf Knii;l!ind :" and underneath the rnolto of the house of Na»-
Hau, " .Je maiiitiendrai."

f The English fleet.

\ By the Bill of K'ghtJS and the Act of Succeasiou.

114 UBERTlf

Of civil furies, proud oppression's fangs I

To tear at pleasure the dejected land,

With starving labor pampering idle waste.

To clothe the naked, feed the hungry, wipe

The guiltless tear from lone affliction's eye ;

To raise his merit, set the alluring light

Of virtue high to view ; to nourish arts.

Direct the thunder of an injured state,

Make a glorious people sing for joy,

Bless human-kind, and through the downward deptb

Of future times to spread that better sun

Which lights up British soul : for deeds like these,

The dazzling fair career unbounded lies ;

While (still superior bliss ? ) the dark abrupt

Is kindly barred, the precipice of ill.

O luxury divine ! O poor to this

Ye giddy glories of despotic thrones !

By this, by this indeed, is imaged Heaven,

By boundless good, without the power of ill.

" And now behold ! exalted as the cope
That swells immense o'er many-peopled earth,
And like it free, my fabric stands complete.
The palace of the laws. To the four heavens
Four gates impartial thrown, unceasing crowds,
With kings themselves the hearty peasant mixed.
Pour urgent in. And though to different ranks
Responsive place belongs, yet equal spreads
The sheltering roof o'er all ; while plenty flows,
And glad contentment echoes round the whole.
Ye floods descend ! Ye winds, confirming, blow t
Nor outward tempest, nor corrosive time,
Naught but the felon undermining hand
Of dark Corruption, can its train dissolve,
Apd lay the toil of ages in the dust."

LIBERTY, ass

PART V.

THE PROSPECT.

OoHTENTS. — The author addresses the Ooddoss of Lil)erty,
marking the happiness and grandeur of Great Britain, as
arising from her infiueuoe — Six; re.sinncs ln-r dis' ourse, and
points out the chief Virtues whicli are necessary to maintain
her establisliment there — Recommends, as its last ornament
and finishing, Sciences, Fine Arts, and Pul)lic Works — Tiie
encouragement of these urged from the example of France,
though under a despotic government — The whole concludes
with a prospect of future times, given \iy the Gi>ddess of
Liberty : thus described by the author, as it passes in vision
before him.

Herk interposing, as the Goddess paused : —

"O blessed Britannia ! in thy presence blessed,
Thou guardian of mankind ! whence spring, alone,
All human grandeur, happiness, and fame ;
For toil, by thee protected, feels no pain ;
The poor man's lot with milk and honey flows ;
And, gilded with thy rays, even death looks gay.
Let other lands the potent blessings boast
Of more exalting suns. Let Asia's woods,
Untended, yield the vegetable fleece ;
And lei the little insect-artist form.
On higher life intent, its silken to:r.b.
Let wondering rocks, in radiant biril;, disclose
The various tinctured children of the sun.
From the prone beam let more delicious fruits,
A flavor drink, that in one jticrcing taste
Bids each combine. Let Gallic, vineyards V)ur8t
With floods of joy ; with mild balsamic, juice
The Tuscan olive. Let Arabian breathe
Her spicy gales, her vital gums distill.
Turbid witli gold, let soutlicrn rivers flow ;
And orient floods draw soft, o'er ])earls, their maze.
Let Afric vaunt her treasures ; let Peru
Deep in her bowels her own ruin brciid,
The yellow traitor that her bliss betrayed, —
Un'-finaled bliss and to unecjualed rage

M LIBERTY.

Yet not the gorgeous East, nor golden South,

Nor, in full prime, that new discovered world,

Where flames the falling day, in wealth and praise,

Shall with Britannia vie ; while, Goddess, she

Derives her praise from thee, her matchless charms.

Her hearty fruits the hand of freedom own ;

And warm with culture, her thick clustering fields

Prolific teem. Eternal verdure crowns

Her meads ; her gardens smile eternal spring.

She gives the hunter-horse, unquelled by toil,

Ardent to rush into the rapid chase ;

She, whitening o'er her downs, diffusive, pours

Unnumbered flocks : she weaves the fleecy robe,

That wraps the nations : she, to lusty droves,

The richest pasture spreads ; and, hers, deep-wave

Autumnal seas of pleasing plenty round.

These her delights ; and by no baneful herb.

No darting tiger, no grim lion's glare,

No fierce-descending wolf, no serpent rolled

In spires immense progressive o'er the land.

Disturbed. Enlivening these, add cities, full

Of wealth, of trade, of cheerful toiling crowds ;

Add thriving towns ; add villages and farms,

Innumerous sowed along the lively vale.

Where bold unrivaled peasants happy dwell ;

Add ancient seats, with venerable oaks

Embosomed high, while kindred floods below

Wind through the mead ; and those of modern hand,

More pompous, add, that splendid shine afar.

Need I her limpid lakes, her rivers name.

Where swarm the finny race? Thee, chief, 0

Thames !
On whose each tide, glad with returning sails,
Flows in the mingled harvest of mankind ?
And tlioe, thou Severn, whose prodigious swell.
And waves resounding, imitate the main?
Why need I name her dec}» capacious ports,
That point around the world ? and why her seas?
All ocean is her own, and every land
To whom her ruling thunder ocean bears.

UBERTY. W

She too the mineral feeds : the obedient lead,

The war-like iron, nor the peaceful less,

Forming of life art-civilized the bond ;

And that * the Tyrian merchant sought of old.

Not dreaming then of Britain's brighter fame.

She rears to freedom an undaunted race :

Compatriot zealous, hospitable, kind,

Hers the warm Cambrian ; hers the lofty Scot,

To hardship tamed, active in arts and arms,

Fired with a restless, an impatient flame.

That leads him raptured where ambition calls ;

And English merit hers, where meet, combined,

Whate'er high fancy, sound judicious thought,

An ample generous heart, undrooping soul,

And firm tenacious valor can bestow.

Great nurse of fruits, of flocks, of commerce, she I

Great nurse of men ! by thee, O Goddess, taught,

Her old renown I trace, disclose her source

Of wealth, of grandeur, and to Britons sing

A strain the Muses never touclied before.

" But how shall this thy mighty kingdom stand ?
On what unyielding base? how finished shine?"

At this her eye, collecting all its fire,
Beamed more than human ; and her awful voice,
Majestic thus she raised. " To Britons bear
This closing strain, and with intenser note
Loud let it sound in their awakened ear :

" On virtue can alone my kingdom stand,
On public virtue, every virtue joined.
For, lost this social cement of mankind,
The greatest empires, by scarce-felt degrees.
Will molder soft away ; till, tottering loose,
They, prone at last, to total ruin rush.
Unblessed by virtue, government a league
Buctomes, a circling junto of the great.
To rob by law ; rc^gion mild, a yoke
To tame the stooping soul, a ti'ick of state
To mask their rapine, and to share the prey.
What are, without it, senates ; save a face
' — — '^Tm.

Itt UBMMTY.

Of consaltation deep and reason free,

While the determined voice and heart are sold ?

What boasted freedom, save a sounding name ?

And what election, but a market vile

Of slaves self-bartered ? Virtue I without thee.

There is no ruling eye, no nerve, in states ;

War has no vigor, and no safety peace ;

E'en justice warps to party, laws oppr-ess,

Wide through the land their weak protection fails,

First broke the balance, and then scorned the sword.

Thus nations sink, society dissolves ;

Rapine and guile and violence break loose,

Everting life, and turning love to gall ;

Man hates the face of man, and Indian woods

And Libya's hissing sands to him are tame.

" By those three virtues be the frame sustained
Of British freedom : independent life ;
Integrity in office ; and o'er all
Surpreme, a passion for the commonweal.

"Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best
gift, .
To that of life and an immortal soul !
The life of life ! that to the banquet high
And sober meal gives taste ; to the bowed roof
Fair-dreamed repose, and to the cottage charms.
Of public freedom, hail, thou secret source !
Whose streams, from every quarter confluent, form
My better Nile, that nurses human life.
By rills from thee deduced, irriguous, fed,
The private fields look gay, with nature's wealth
Abundant flows, and blooms with each delight
That nature craves. Its happy master there,
The only freeman, walks his pleasing round :
Sweet-featured peace attending ; fearless truth ;
Firm resolution ; goodness, blessiiig all
That can rejoice ; contentment, surest friend ;
And, still fresh stores from nature's book derived,
Philosophy, companion ever new.
These cheer his rural, and sustain or fire,
When into action called, his busy hours.

LIBERTY. 839

Meantime true-judging moderate desires.
Economy and taste, combined, direct
His clear affairs, and from debauching fiends
Secure his little kingdom. Nor can those
Whom fortune heaps, without these virtues reac&
That truce with pain, that animated ease,
That self enjoyment springing from within,
That independence, active or retired.
Which make the soundest bliss of man below :
But lost beneath the rubbish of their means,
And drained by wants to nature all unknown,
A wandering, tasteless, gayly wretched train,
Though rich, are beggars, and tliough noble, slaves.
** Lo ! damned to wealth, at what a gross expense
They purchase disappointment, pain, and shame.
Instead of hearty hospitable cheer,
See ! how the hell with brutal riot flows ;
While in the foaming flood fermenting, steeped,
The country maddens into party rage.
Mark I those disgraceful piles of wood and stone ;
Those parks and gardens,where, his haunts betrimmed,
And nature by presumptuous art oppressed,
The woodland genius mourns. See 1 the full boarcl
That steams disgust, and bowels that give no joy ;
No truth invited there, to feed the mind ;
Nor wit, the wine rejoicing reason quaffs.
Hark ! how the dome with insolence resounds.
With those retained by vanity to scare
Repose and friends. To tyrant fashion, mark I
The costly worship paid ; to the broad gaze
Of fools. From still-delusive day to day,
Led an eternal round of lying liope,
See ! self-abandoned, how the roam adrift.
Dashed o'er the town, a miserable wreck !
Then to adore some warbling eunuch turned.
With Midas' ears they crowd ; or to the buza
Of masquerade unblushing ; or, to show
Their scorn of nature, at the tragic scene
They mirthful sit, or prove the comic true.
But, chief, behold ! around the rattling boaro.

940 LIBBRTY.

The civil robbers ranged ; and e'en the fair.

The tender fair, each sweetness laid aside,

As fierce tor plunder as ill-licensed troops

In srtne sacked city. Thus dissolved their wealth,

Without one generous luxury dissolved,

Or quartered on it many a needless want,

At the thronged levee bends the venal tribe :

With fair but faithless smiles each varnished o'er,

Each smooth as those that mutually deceive,

And for their falsehood each despising each ;

Till shook their patron by the wintry winds,

Wide flies the withered shower, and leaves him bare

O far superior Af ric's sable sons,

By merchant pilfered, to these willing slaves !

And rich, as unsqueezed favorite, to them,

Is he who can his virtue boast alone !

" Britons ! be firm ! — nor let corruption sly
Twine round your heart indissoluble chains !
The steel of Brutus burst the grosser bonds
By Csesar cast o'er Rome ; but still remained
The soft enchanting fetters of the mind.
And other Caesars rose. Determined, hold
Your independence ; for, that once destroyed.
Unfounded, Freedom is a morning dream.
That flits aerial from the spreading eye.

" Forbid it. Heaven ! that ever I need urge
Integrity in oflice on my sons !

Inculcate common honor not to rob

And whom ? — the gracious, the confiding hand.
That lavishly rewards ? the toiling poor,
Whose cup with many a bitter drop is mixed ;
The guardian public ; every face they see,
And every friend ; nay, in effect themselves.
As in familiar life, the villain's fate
Admits no cure ; so, when a desperate age
At this arrives, I the devoted race
Indignant spurn, and hopeless soar away.

" But, ah too little known to modern tim«« I
Be not the noblest passion past unsung ;
That ray peculiar, from unbounded love

UBERtr. M

Effused, which kindles the heroic soul ;
Devotion to the public. Glorious flame !
Celestial ardor ! in what unknown worlds,
Profusely scattered through the blue immense,
Hast thou been blessing myi'iads, since in Rome,
Old virtuous Rome, so many deathless names
From thee their luster drew ? since, taught by thee,
Their poverty put splendor to the blush,
Pain grew luxurious, and e'en death delight ?
O wilt thou ne'er, in thy long period, look.
With blaze direct, on this my last retreat ?

" 'Tis not enough, from self, right understood.
Reflected, that thy rays inflame the heart :
Though virtue not disdains appeals to self.
Dreads not the trial ; all her joys are true,
Nor is there any real joy save hers.
Far less the tepid, the declaiming race,
Foes to corruption, to its wages friends,
Or those whom private passions, for a while,
Beneath my standard list ; can they sufiice
To raise and fix the glory of my reign ?

" An active flood of universal love
Must swell the breast. First, in effusion wide,
The restless spirit roves creation round.
And seizes every being ; stronger then
It tends to life, whate'er the kindred search
Of bliss allies ; then, more collected still.
It urges human kind ; a passion grown,
At last, the central parent public calls
Its utmost effort forth, awakes each sense,
The comely, grand, and tender. Without thii,
This awful pant, shook from sublimer powers
Than those of self, this Heaven-infused delight,
This moral gravitation, rusliing prone
'I'o press the public good, my system soon.
Traverse, to several selfisli centers drawn.
Will reel to ruin : while fori'ver shut
Stand the bright portals of despond ing fame,

" From sordid self shoot up no shining deeds.
None of those ancient lights that gladden earth.

Mt LIBERTY.

Give grace to being, and arouse the brar*
To just ambition, virtue's quickening tire !
Life tedious grows, an idly bustling round,
Filled up with actions animal and mean,
A dull gazette ! The impatient reader scorns
The poor historic page ; till kindly comes
Oblivion, and redeems a people's shame.
Not so the times when, emulation-stung,
Greece shone in genius, science, and in arts,
And Rome in virtues dreadful to be told !
To live was glory then ! and charmed mankind,
Through the deep periods of devolving time,
Those, raptured, copy ; these, astonished, read.

" True, a corrupted state, with every vice
And every meanness foul, this passion damps.
Who can, unshocked, behold the cruel eye ?
The pale inveigling smile V the ruffian front ?
The wretch abandoned to relentless self,
Equally vile if miser or profuse ?
Powers not of God, assiduous to corrupt?
The fell deputed tyrant, who devours
The poor and weak,* at distance from redress ?
Delirious faction bellowing loud my name?
The false fair-seeming patriot's hollow boast ?
A race resolved on bondage, tierce for chains,
My sacred rights a merchandise alone
Esteeming, and to work their feeder's will
By deeds, a horror to mankind, prepared,
As were the dregs of Romulus of old ?
Who these indeed can undetesting see ? —
But who unpitying ? to the generous eye
Distress is virtue ; and, though self-betrayed,
A poople struggling with their fate must rouse
The hero's throb. Nor can a land at once.
Be lost to virtue quite. How glorious then !

* Lord Moleswortli, in liis account of Denmark, says, " It
is observed, th (it in limited monarcliics and commonwealths,
a neighborliood to the seat of the government is advant«igeoua
to the suhjects , whilst the distant provinces are less thriving,
»nd more liable to oppressioo. "

UBERTY, 141

Pit luxury for ffods ! to save the good,
Protect the feeble, dash bold vice aside,
Depress the wicked, and restore the frail.
Posterity, besides ! the )oung are pure,
And sons may tinge their father's cheek with shanit;.
" Should then the time arrive (which Heavou
avert !)
That Britons bend unnerved, not by the force
Of arms, more generous and more manly, quelled.
But by corruption's soul-dejecting arts.
Arts impudent ! and gross ! by their own gold,
In part bestowed, to bribe them to give all.
With party raging, or immersed in sloth,
Should they Britannia's well-fought laurels yield
To slyly conquering Gaul ; e'en from her brow
Let her own naval oak be basely torn.
But such as tremble at the stiffening gale.
And nerveless sink while others sing rejoiced ;
Or (darker prospect ! scarce one gleam behind
Disclosing) should the broad corruptive plague
Breath from the city to the furthest hut.
That sits serene within the forest shade ;
The fevered people fire, inflame their wants.
And their luxurious thirst, so gathering rage.
That, were a buyer found, they stand prepared
To sell their birthright for a cooling draught ;
Should shameless jx'iis for plain corruption plead,
The hired assassins of the commonweal !
Deemed the declaiining rant of Greece and Rome,
Should public virtue grow tin; j)ublic scoff,
Till private, failing, staggers through the land ;
Till rourxl the city loose mechanic want.
Dire prowling niglitly, makes the cheerful haunts
Of men rru^re hideous than Numidian wilds,
\or from its fury shieps the vale in peace,
And murders, horrors, perjuries abound ;
Nay, till to lowest deeds the highest stoop ;
The rich, like starving wretches, tliirst for gold ;
And those, on whom the vernal showers of IleaveB
AU-bounteous fall, and that prime lot bestow.

•44 LIBERTY.

A power to live to nature and themselves,
In sick attendance were their anxious days,
With fortune, joyless, and with honors, mean.
Meantime, perhaps, profusion flows around,
The waste of war, without tlie works of peace ;
No mark of millions in the gulf absorbed
Of uncreating vice, none but the rage
Of roused corruption still demanding more.
That every portion, which (by faithful skill
Employed) might make the smiling public rear
Her ornamented head, drilled through the hands
Of mercenary tools, serves but to nurse
A locust band within, and in the bud
Leaves starved each work of dignity and use.

" I paint the worst. But should these times arrive,
If any nobler passion yet remain,
Let all my sons all parties fling aside.
Despise their nonsense, and together join ;
Let worth and virtue, scorning low despair,
Exerted full, from every quarter shine,
Commixed in heightened blaze. Light flashed to

light.
Moral, or intellectual, more intense
By giving glows. As on pure winter's eve,
Gradual, the stars eifulge ; fainter at first.
They, straggling, rise ; but when the radiant host.
In thick profusion poured, shine out immense,
Each casting vivid influence on each.
From pole to pole a glittering deluge plays,
And worlds above rejoice, and men below.

" But why do Britons this superfluous strain ? •—.
Good-nature, honest truth e'en somewhat blunt,
Of crooked baseness an indignant scorn,
A zeal unyielding in their country's cause.
And ready bounty, wont to dwell with them —
Nor only wont — wide o'er the land diffused,
In many a blessed retirement still they dwelt

" To softer prospect turn wo now the view,
To laureled science, arts and public works,
That lend my finished fabric comely pride,

LIBERTY, Uft

Orandeur and grace. Of sullen genius he !

Cursed by the Muses .' by the Graces loathed !

Who deems beneath the public's high regard

These last enlivening touches of my reign.

However puffed with power, and gorged with wealtk

A nation be ; let trade enormous rise,

Let East and South their mingled treasures pour,

Till, swelled impetuous, the corruptive flood

Hurst o'er the city and devour the land ;

Yet these neglected, these recording arts,

Wealth rots, a nuisance ; and, oblivious sunk,

That nation must another Carthage lie.

If not by them, on monumental brass.

On sculptured marble, on the deathless page,

Impressed, renown had left no trace behind ;

In vain, to future times, the sage had thought.

The legislator planned, the hero found

A beauteous death, the patriot toiled in vain.

The awarders they of Fame's immortal wreath.

They rouse ambition, they the mind exalt.

Give great ideas, lovely forms infuse.

Delight the general eye, and, dressed by them,

The moral Venus glows with double charms.

" Science, my close associate, still attends
Where'er I go. Sometimes, in simple guise,
She walks the furrow with the council-swain,
Whispering unlettered wisdom to the heart,
Direct ; or, sometimes, in the pompous robe
Of fancy dressed, she charms Athenian wits,
And a whole sapient city round her burns.
Then o'er her brow Minerva's terrors nod ;
Witli Xeiiophon, sometimes, in dire extremes,
She breathes dehberate soul, and makes retreat*
Unequaled glory : with the Tlicban sage,
Kpaininondas, first and best of men !
Sf)rnetime8 she bids the deep-embattled host,
Above the vulgar r(;ached, resistless formed.

*Tl)e famous retreat of the Ten Thousand was cbielty coo,-
ductod by Xenophon.

Mi LIBERTY.

March to sure conquest — never gained before ! •

Nor on the treacherous seas of giddy state

Unskillful she : when the triumphant tide

Of high-swoln empire wears one boundless smile,

And the gale tempts to new pursuits of fame,

Sometimes, with Scipio, she collects her sail,

And seeks the blissful shore of rural ease.

Where, but the Anonian maids, no sirens sing ;

Or should the deep-brewed tempest muttering rige.

While rocks and shoals perfidious lurk around,

With Tully she her wide-reviving light

To senates hold ; a Catiline confounds,

And saves awhile from Caesar sinking Rome.

Such the kind power, whose piercing eye dissolves

Each mental fetter, and sets reason free ;

For me inspiring an enlightened zeal.

The more tenacious as the more convinced

How happy freemen, and how wretched slaves.

To Britons not unknown, to Britons full

The Goddess spreads her stores, the secret soul

That quickens trade, the breath unseen that wafts

To them the treasures of a balanced world.

But finer arts (save Avhat the Muse has i^ung,

In daring flight, above all modern wing,)

Neglected droop the head ; and public works,

Broke by corruption into private gain,

Nor ornament, disgrace ; not serve, destroy.

"Shall Britons, by their own joint wisdom ruled
Beneath one Royal Head, whose vital power
Connects, enlivens, and exerts the M'hole ;
In finer arts, and public works, shall they
To Gallia yield ? yield to a land that bends
Depressed, and broke, beneath the Avill of one?
Of one who, should the unkingly thirst of gold,

* Epaminondas, after havinsf heat the Lacedemonians anc
their allies, in the h;Utle of Leiictra, ni;ule an incursion, at the
head of a powerful army, into Luconia. It was now six hun-
dred years since the Dorians had possessed this country, and
in all that time the face of an enemy had not been seen witliin
Uieir territories. — Plcta'^ch in Anf.vUivH.

USER TV. M

Or tyrant passions, or ambition, prompt,

C.'iUs locust-armies o'er tlie blasted land ;

Drains from its thirsty bounds the springs of WMltll

His own insatiate reservoir to fill ;

To the lone desert patriot-merit frowns,

Or into dungeon arts, when they, their chains.

Indignant, bursting, for their nobler works

All other license scorn but Truth's and mine?

O shame to think ! shall Britons, in the field

Unconquered still, the better laurel lose ?

E'en in that monapch's reign,* who vainly dreamt,

By giddy power, betrayed, and flattered pride,

To grasp unbounded sway ; while, swarming round,

His armies dared all Europe to the field ;

To hostile hands while treasures flowed profuse.

And, that great source of treasure, subjects' blood,

Inhuman squandered, sickened every land ;

From Britain, chief, while my superior sons,

In vengeance rushing, dashed his idle hopes,

And bade his agonizing heart be low :

E'en then, as in the golden calm of peace.

What public works, at home, what arts arose !

What various science shone ! what genius glowed I

" 'Tis not for me to paint, diffusive shot
O'er fair extents of land, the shining road ;
The flood-compelling arch ; the long canal, f
Through mountains piercing and uniting seas ;
'i'lie dome \ resounding sweet with infant joy,
From famine saved, or cruel-handed shame ;
And that \ whore valor counts his noble scans ;
Tlie land where social pleasure loves to dwell.
Of the fierce Demon, Gothic duel, freed ;
The robber from his furthest forest chased ;
The turbid city cleared, and, by degrees,
Into sure peace, the best police, refined,
Magnificence, and grace, and decent joy.

* U-wis XIV.

f The Oiiuiil of Languedoc.

% Ths hospitals for foundlings and iDvaUcU,

Mi LIBERTY.

Let Gallic bards record, how honored arti,

And science, by despotic bounty blessed,

At distance flourished from my parent-eye :

Restoring ancient taste, how Boileau rose ;

How the big Roman soul shook, in Corneille,

The trembling stage ; in elegant Racine,

How the more powerful, though more humble voio*

Of nature-painting Greece, resistless, breathed

The whole awakened heart ; how Moliere's scene,

Chastised and regular, with well-judged wit.

Not scattered wild, and native humor, graced,

Was life itself ; to public honors raised,

How learning in warm seminaries * spread ;

And, more for glory than the (^mall reward,

How emulation strove ; how their pure tongue

Almost obtained what was denied their arms ;

From Rome, awhile, how Painting, courted long,

With Poussin came ; ancient design, that lifts

A fairer front, and looks another soul ;

How the kind art,f that, of unvalued price,

The famed and only picture, easy gives,

Refined her touch, and, through the shadowed piece,

All the live spirit of the painter poured ;

Coyest of arts, how Sculpture northward deigned

A look, and bade her Girardon arise ;

How lavished grandeur blazed ; the barren waste,

Astonished, saw the sudden palace swell.

And fountains spout araad its arid shades.

For leagues, bright vistas opening to the view.

How forest in majestic gardens smiled ; \

How menial arts, by their gay sisters taught,

Wove the deep flower, the blooming foliage trained

In joyous figures o'er the silky lawn,

The palace cheered, illumed the storied wall.

And with the pencil vied the glowing loom. §

* The Academies of Sciences, of the Bellea Lettres, and of
Painting,
f Engraving.

% The Pahu e of Versailles.
§ The tapestry of the Gobeliaa.

UBERTY. 249

" These laurels, Lewis, by the droppings raised
Of thy profusion, its dishonor shade,
And, green through future times, shall bind thy

brow ;
While the vain honors of perfidious war
Whither abhorred, or in oblivion lost.
With what prevailing vigor had tiicy shot,
And stole a deeper root, by the fuller tide
Of war-sunk millions fed ? Superior still,
How had they branched luxuriant to the skies,
In Britain planted, by the potent juice
Of freedom swelled ? Forced is the bloom of arts,
A false uncertain spring, when Bounty gives.
Weak without me, a transitory gleam.
Fair shine the slippery days, enticing skies
Of favor smile, and courtly breezes Ijlow ;
Till arts, betrayed, trust to the flattering air
Their tender blossom ; then malignant rise
The blights of envy, of those insect clouds,
That, blasting merit, often cover courts ;
Nay, should, perchance, some kind Maecenas aid
The doubtful beamings of his prince's soul,
His wavering ardor fix, and unconfined
Diffuse his warm benificence around ;
Yet death, at last, and wintry tyrants come,
Each sprig of genius killing at the root.
But when with me imperial Bounty joins.
Wide o'er the public blows eternal snring ;
While mingled Autumn every harvest pouri
Of every land ; whate'er Invention, Art,
Creating Toil, and nature can produce."

Here ceased the (Goddess ; and her ardent wings,
Difit in the colors of the heavenly bow,
Stood waving radiance round, for sudden flight
Prepared, wlien thus, impatient, burst my prayer:
" Oh forming light of life ! Oh better sun !
Sun of mankind ! by whom the cloud}' north,
Sublimed, not envies L;inguedo(nan skies,
Tliat, unstained ether all, diffusive smile :
When shall we call these ancient laurels ours?

MK) UBERTY.

And when thy work complete ? " Straight with h«

hand,
Celestial red, she touched my darkened eyes.
As at the touch of day the shades dissolve.
So quick, methought, the misty circle cleared,
That dims the dawn of being here below :
The future shone disclosed, and, in long view.
Bright rising eras instant rushed to light,

"They come ! Great Goddess ! I tlie times behoH
The times our fathers, in the bloody field,
Have earned so dear, and, not with less renown,
In the warm struggles of the senate fight.
The times I see ! whose glory to supply.
For toiling ages. Commerce round the world
Has winged unnumbered sails, and from each land
Materials heaped, that, well em})loyed with Rome
Might vie our grandeur, and with Greece our art.

"Lo! Princes I behold ! contriving still,
And still conducting firm some brave design ;
Kings that the narrow joyless circle scorn,
Burst the blockade of false designing men
Of treacherous smiles, of adulation fell,
And of the blinding clouds around them thrown :
Their court rejoicing millions ; AVorth, alone.
And Virtiie dear to them ; their best delight,
In just proportion, to give general joy ;
Their jealous care thy kingdom to maintain ;
The public glory theirs ; unsparing love
Their endless treasure ; and their deeds their praise.
With thee they work. Naught can resist your force
Life feels it quickening in her dark retreats ;
Strong spread the blooms of Genius, Science, Art ;
His bashful bounds disclosing Merit breaks ;
And, big with fruits of glory, Virtue blows
Expansive o'er the land. Another race
Of generous youth, of patriot sires, I see !
Not those vain insects fiuttcring in the blaze
Of court, and })all, and play ; those venal souls,
Corruption's veteran unrelenting bands.
That, to their vices slaves, can ne'er be free.

LIBERTY. an

" I see the fountains purged ! whence life derives
A clear or turbid flow ; see the young mind
Not fed impure by chance, by flattery fooled.
Or by scholastic jargon bloated proud,
Hut filled and nourished by the light of truth.
Then, beamed through fancy the refining ray
And pouring on the heart, the passions feel
At once informing light and moving flame ;
Till moral, public, graceful action crowns
The whole. Behold ! the fair contention glows,
In all that mind or body can adorn,
And form to life. Instead of barren heads,
Barbarian pedants, wrangling sons of pride,
And truth-perplexing metaphysic wits.
Men, patriots, chiefs, and citizens are formed.

" Lo ! Justice, like the liberal light of Heaven,
Unpurchased shines on all ; and from her beam
Appalling guilt, retire the savage crew.
That prowl amid the darkness they themselves
Have thrown around the laws. Oppression grieves ;
See ! how her legal furies bite the lip.
While Yorkes and Talbots their deep snares detect,
And seize swift justice through the clouds they raise.

" See ! social Labor lifts his guarded head.
And men not yield to government in vain.
From the sure land is rooted ruflian force.
And, the lewd nurse of villains, idle waste ;
Lo ! raised their haunts, down dashed their maddening
bowl,

A nation's poison ! beauteous order reigns !
tfanly submission, unimposing toil,
Trade without guile, civility that marks
^rom the foul herd of brutal slaves thy sons,
And fearless peace. Or should affronting war
To slow but dreadful vengeance rouse the just.
Unfailing fields of freemen I behold !
That know, with their own j)roper arm, to guard
Their (;wii blessed isle iigainst a leaguing world.
I^cspairing Gaul her boiling youth restrains,
Dissolved her dream of universal sway ;

M LIBERTY.

The winds and seas are Britain's wide domain ;
And not a sail, but by permission, spreads.

" Lo ! swarming southward, on rejoicing suns,
Gay colonies extend ; the calm retreat
Of undeserved distress, the better home
Of those whom bigots chase from foreign lands.
Nor built on rapine, servitude, and woe.
And in their turn some petty tyrant's prey ;
But, bound by social Freedom, firm they rise ;
Such as, of late, an Oglethorpe has formed.
And, crowding round, the charmed Savannah sees.

" Horrid with want and misery, no more
Our streets the tender passenger afflict.
Nor shivering age, nor sickness without friend,
Or home, or bed to bear his burning load ;
Nor agonizing infant, that ne'er earned
Its guiltless pangs ; I see ! the stores, profuse,
Which British bounty has to thee assigned,
No more the sacrilegious riot swell
Of cannibal devourers ! right applied,
No starving wretch the land of freedom stains :
If poor, employment finds ; if old, demands,
If sick, if maimed, his miserable due ;
And will, if young, repay the fondest care.
Sweet sets the sun of stormy life ; and sweet
The morning shines, in Mercy's dews arrayed.
Lo ! how they rise ! these families of Heaven !
That ! chief,* (but why — ye bigots ! — why so late ?)
Where blooms and warbles glad a rising age ;
What smiles of praise ! and, while their song as-
cends.
The listening seraph lays his lute aside.

" Hark, the gay muses raise a nobler strain,
With active nature, warm impassioned truth.
Engaging fable, lucid order, notes
Of various string, and heart-felt image filled.
Behold ! I see the dread delightful school
Of tempered passions, and of polished life,
Restored : beliold ! tlie well dissembled scene

* TLe Foundliug HospilaL

LIBERTY. ««

Calls from embellished eyes the lovely tear,
Or lights up mirth in modest cheeks again.
Lo ! vanished monster-land. Lo ! driven away
Tliose that Apollo's sacred walks profane ;
Their wild creation scattered, where a world
Unknown to nature, Chaos more confused.
O'er the brute scene its Oi'ang-Outangs pours ;
Detested forms ! that, on the mind impressed,
Corrupt, confound, and barbarize an age.

" Behold ! all thine again the Sister-Arts,
Thy graces they, knit in harmonious dance.
Nursed by the treasure from a nation drained
Their works to purchase, they to nobler rouse
Their untamed genius, their unfettered thought ;
Of pompous tyrants, and of dreaming monks,
The gaudy tools, and prisoners, no more,

" Lo ! numerous domes a Burlington confess ;
For kings and senates fit, the palace see !
The temple breathing a religious awe ;
E'en framed with elegance tlie plain retreat,
The private dwelling. Certain in his aim,
Taste, never idly working, saves expense.

"See ; sylvian scenes, where Art alone pretends
To dress her mistress, and disclose her charms ;
Such as a Pope in miniature has shown ;*
A Bathurst o'er the widening forest f spreads ;
And such as form a Richmond, Chiswick, Stowe,

" August, around, what public works I see !
Lo ! stately streets, lo ! squares that court the bree«
In spite of those to whom pertains the care,
Ingulfing more than founded Roman ways.
Lo ! rayed from cities o'er the hriglitened land,
Connecting sea to sea, the solid road.
Lo ! thi,' proud arch (no vile exactor's stand)
With easy sweep bestrides the chasing flood.
See ! long canals, and deepened rivers join
Each part \\\\\\ each, and with the circling main
The whole enliveni'd isle. Lo ! ports expand,

*At his Twickenham Villa.

f Okely woodB, near Cirencester.

154 THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Free as the winds and waves, their sheltering arms.
Lo ! streaming comfort o'er the troubled deep,
On every pointed coast the lighthouse towers ;
And by the broad imperious mole repelled,
Hark ! how the baffled storm indignant roars."
As thick to view these varied wonders rose,
Shook all ray soul with transport, unassured.
The vision broke ; and on my waking eye,
Rushed the still ruins of dejected Rome.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

This poem being written in the manner of Spenser, the obsolete
words, and a simplicity of diction in sonie of the lines, which
borders on the ludicrous, were necessary to make the ioiitation
more perfect. And the style of that admirable poet, as well
as the measure in which he wrote, are, as it were, appropriat-
ed by custom to the allegorical poems writ in our language ;
just as in French, the style of Marot.who lived under Francis
the First, has been used in tales, and familiar epistles, by the
politest writers of the age of Louis the Fourteenth.

CANTO I.

The castle hight of Indolence,
And its false luxury ;

Where for a little time, alas I
We lived right jollily.

O MORTAL man, who livest here by toil,

Do not complain of this thy hard estate ;

That like an emmet thou must ever moil.

Is a sad sentence of an ancient date ;

And, certes, there is for it reason great ;

For, though sometimes it makes thee weep and wail,

THE CASTLM OF INDOLENCE. 2M

And curse thy star, and early drudge and late,
Withouten that would come a heavier bale.
Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale.

2.

In lowly dale, fast by a river's side,

With woody hill o'er hill encompassed round,

A most enchanting wizard did abide,

Than whom a tiend more fell is nowhere found.

It was, I ween, a lovely spot of ground ;

And there a season atween June and May,

Half prankt with spring, with summer half im«

browned,
A listless climate made, M'here, sooth to say.
No living wight could work, ne cared even for play.

Was naught around but images of rest :
Sleep-soolhing groves, and quiet lawns between ;
And flowery beds that slumberous influence kest,
From poppies breathed, and beds of pleasant green,
Where never yet was creeping creature seen.
Meantime, unnumbered glittering streamlets played
And hurled everywhere tlieir waters sheen ;
That, as they bickered through the sunny glade.
Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur
made.

4.

Joined to the prattle of the purling rills
Were heard the lowing herds along the vale,
And flocks loud bleating from tlu; distant hills
And vacant shejjlierds pij)ing in the dale :
Ari<l, now and then, sweet I^hiiomel would wall.
Or stockdoves plain atnid the forest deep.
That drowsy rustled to tlie sigliMig gale ;
And Htill a coil the grasshopper did keep ;
Yet all theue sounds yblent inclined ;ill to sleep.

IM THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Full in the passage of the vale, above,

A sable, silent, solemn forest stood.

Where naught but shadowy forms were seen tt

move,
As Idless fancied in her dreaming mood ;
And up the hills, on either side, a wood
Of blackening pines, aye waving to and fro.
Send forth a sleepy horror through the blood ;
And where this valley winded out, below,
riie murmuring main was heard, and scarcely heani

to flow.

6.

A pleasing land of drowsy head it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half -shut eye ;
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass.
Forever flushing round a summer-sky :
There eke the soft delights, that witchingly
Instill a wanton sweetness through the breast ;
And the calm pleasures always hovered nigh ;
But whate'er smacked of noyance or unrest,
Was far, far off expelled from this delicious nesi.

The landscape such, inspiring perfect ease,
Where Indolence (for so the wizard hight)
Close-hid his castle mid embowering trees,
That half shut out the beams of Phoebus bright,
And made a kind of checkered day and night :
Meanwhile unceasing at the massy gate
Beneath a spacious palm, the wicked wight
Was placed ; and to his lute, of cruel fate
And labor harsh, complained, lamenting man's estaU

Thither continual pilgrin)s crowded still,

From all the roads of earth tiiat pass there by ;

THE CASTLE OF INDOLE NCH. JWt

For, as they chaunced to breathe on neighboH i\g

hill,
The freshness of this valley smote their eye,
And drew them ever and anon more nigh ;
Till clustering round the enchanter false they hur^',
Ymolten with his siren melody ;
While O'er the enfeebling lute his hand he flung,
And to the trembling chords these tempting verse*
sung :

" Behold ! ye pilgrims of this earth, behold !
See all, but man, with unearned pleasure gay ;
See her bright robes the butterfly unfold.
Broke from her wintry tomb in prime of May t
What youthful bride can equal her array ?
Who can with her for easy pleasure vie ?
From mead to mead witli gentle wing to straj.
From flower to flower on balmy gales to fly,
Is all she has to do beneath the radiant sky.

10.

" Behold the merrj minstrels of the morn,
The swarming son/^sters of the careless grove,
Ten thousand throats ! that, from the flowering

thorn,
Ilymn their good <jod, and carol sweet of love,
Such grateful kindly raptures them eraove :
They neither pli>w, nor sow ; ne, fit for flail.
E'er to the barn the nodden sheavcfs they drove ;
Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale,
Whatever crowns the hill, or smiles along the vale.

11.

" Outcast of nature, man ! the wretched thrall
Of bitter droo])ing sweat, of sw<'llry pain,
Of cares that eat away the licart with gall,
Ajid of the vices, an inhuman 1r;iin,
That all proceed from savage tlurst of gain \

$M THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

For when hard-hearted interest first began
To poison earth, Astraea left the plain ;
Guile, violence, and murder seized on man,
And, for soft milky streams, with blood the rivers ran.

12.

" Come, ye, who still the cumbrous load of life
Push hard up hill ; but as the furthest steep
You trust to gain, and put an end to strife,
Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep
And hurls your labors to the valley deep.
Forever vain : comes, and withouten fee,
I in oblivion will your sorrows steep,
Your cares, your toils ; will steep you in a sea
Of full delight ; O come, ye weary wights, to me )

13.

" With me, you need not rise at early dawn,
To pass the joyless day in various stounds ;
Or, louting low, on upstart fortune fawn,
And sell fair honor for some paltry pounds,
Or through the city take your dirty rounds,
To cheat, and dun, and lie, and visit pay,
Now flattering base, now giving secret wound* ;
Or prowl in courts of law for human prey.
In venal senate thieve, or rob on broad highway.

14.

'* No cocks, with me, to rustic labor call.
From village on to village sounding clear ;
To tardy swain no shrill-voiced matrons squall ;
No dogs, no babes, no wives, to stun your ear ;
No hammers thump ; no horrid blacksmith sear
Ne noisy tradesmen your sweet slumbers start.
With sounds that are a misery to hear :
But all is calm, aa would delight the iieart
Of Sybarite of old, all nature, and all art.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. dM

15.

" Here naught but candor reigns, indulgent ease,
Good-natured lounging, sauntering up and down.
They who are pleased themselves must always

please ;
On others' ways they never sq^uint a frown,
Nor heed what haps in haiulet or in town.
Thus from the source of tender Indolence,
With milky blood the heart is overflown,
Is soothed and sweetened by the social sense ;
For interest, envy, pride, and strife are banished

hence.

16.

" What, what is virtue, but repose of mind,
A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm ;
Above the reach of wild ambition's wind,
Above those passions that this world deform.
And torture man, a proud malignant worm ?
But here, instead, soft gales of passion play,
And gently stir the heart, thereby to form
A quicker sense of joy : as breezes stray
Across the enlivened skies, and make them still mor<

gay-

17.

" The best of men have ever loved repose :
They hate to mingle in the filthy fray ;
Where the soul sours, and gradual rancor grows.
Imbittered more from peevish day to day.
E'en those whom fame has lent her fairest ray,
The most renowned of worthy wights of yore,
From a base world at last have stolen away :
So Scipio, to the soft Cuma^an shore
Retiring, tasted joy he never knew before.

18.

" But if a little exercise you choose.

Some zest for tiase. 'Hs not forbidden her« :

MO THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Amid the groves you may indulge the muse,
Or tend the blooms, and deck the vernal year ;
Or f^oftly stealing, with your watery gear,
Along the brooks, the crimson-spotted fry
You may delude ; the whilst, amused, you hear
Now the hoarse stream, and now the zephyr's sigh
AttunM to the birds, and woodland melody.

19.
" O grievous folly ! to heap up estate.
Losing the days you sec beneath the sun ;
When, sudden, comes blind unrelenting fate,
And gives the untasted portion you have won
With ruthless toi', and many a wretch undone,
To those who mock you, gone to Pluto's reign,
There with sad ghosts to pine, and shadows dun :
But sure it is of vanities most vain,
To toil for what you here untoiling may obtain."

20.
He ceased. But still their trembling ears retained
The deep vibrations of his witching song ;
That, by a kind of magic power, constrained
To enter in, pell mell, the listening throng.
Heaps poured on heaps and yet they slipped along,
In silent ease : as when beneath the beam
Of summer-moons, the distant woods among.
Or I)y some flood all silvered with the gleam,
The soft-embodied fays through airy portal stream.

21.
By the ciiiooth demon so it ordered was,
And here bis banoful bounty first began :
Though some there were who would not further pass,
And his iJluring baits suspected ban.
The \, i T distrust the tO(- fair-spoken man ;
Yet, through the gate they cast a wishful eye :
Not to move on, perdie, is all they can ;
For do their very best they cannot tly,
But often each way look, and often sorely sigh.

TBM C4STLB OF INDOLENCE, 3«l

22.

When this the watchful wicked wizard saw,
With sudden spring ho leaped upon them straight *,
And soon as touched by his unhallowed paw,
They found themselves within the (!urs»^d gate ;
Full hard to be repassed, like that of fate.
Not stronger were of old the giant crew,
Who sought to pull high Jove from regal state ;
Though feeble wretch he seemed, of sallow hue,
Certes, who bides his grasp, will that encounter rue.

23.

For whomso'er the villain takes in hand.
Their joints unknit, their sinews melt apace J
As lithe they grow as any willow-wand.
And of their vanished force remains no trace :
So when a maiden fair, of modest grace.
In all her buxom blooming May of charms,
Is seized in some losel's hot embrace.
She waxeth very weakly as she warms.
Then sighing yields her up to love's delicious channa

24.

Waked by the crowd, slow from his bench arose
A comely, full-spread porter, swoln with sleep ;
His calm, broad, thoughtless aspect breathed re>

j)ose ;
And in sweet torpor he was plunged deep,
Ne could himself from ceaseless yawning keep ;
While o'er his eyes the drowsy liquor ran,
Through which his half- waked soul would faintly

})eep ;
Thf'ii, taking his blacrk staff, he called his man.
And roused himself as mu(;h as rouse himself he can

25.

The lad leaped liglilly at his master's call:
He was, to wee, a little roguish page,

362 THE CASTLE 0^ INDOLENCE.

Save sleep and play, who minded naught at all.
Like most the untaught striplings of his age.
This boy he kept each band to disengage,
Garters and buckles, task for him unfit,
But ill becoming his grave personage.
And which his portly paunch would not permit ;
So this same limber page to all performed it.

36.

Meantime the master porter wide displayed
Great store of caps, of slippers, and of gowns ,
Wherewith he those who entered in arrayed
Loose, as the breeze that plays along the downs,
And waves the summer-woods when evening

frowns :
Oh fair undress, best dress ! it chocks no vein,
But ever flowing limb in pleasure drowns.
And heightens ease with grace. This done, right

fain.
Sir porter sat him down, and turned to sleep again.

27.

Thus easy robed, they to the fountain sped

That in the middle of the court up-threw

A stream, high spouting from its liquid bed,

And falling back again in drizzly dew ;

There each deep draughts, as deep he thirsted,

drew ;
It was a fountain of nepenthe rare ;
Whence, as Dan Homer sings, huge pleasance grew.
And sweet oblivion of vile earthly care ;
Fair gladsome waking thoughts, and joyous dreams

more fair.

28.

This rite performed, all inly pleased and still,
Withouten tronip, was ]>rocIamation made :
"Ye sons of Indolence, do what you will ;
And wander where you list, through hall or glade )

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 263

Be no man's pleasure for another staid ;
Let each as likes him best his hours employ,
And cursed be he who minds his neighbor's trade I
Here dwells kind ease and uin-eproving joy ;
He little merits bliss who others can annoy."

29.

Straight of these endless numbers, swarming round,
As thick as idle motes m sunny ray,
Not one eftsoons in view was t*"' be found,
But every man strolled off his own glad way j
Wide o'er this ample court's blank area.
With all the lodges that thereto pertained,
No living creature could be seen to stray ;
While solitude, and perfect silence reigned ;
So that to think you dreamt you almost was con-
strained.

30.

As when a shepherd of the Hebrid-Isles,
Placed far amid the melancholy main,
(Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles ;
Or that aerial beings sometime. ; deign
To stand, embodied, to our senses plain)
Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
The whilst in ocean Phfcbus dips his wain,
A vast assembly moving to and fro :
Then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show

31.

Ye gods of quiet, and of sleej) profound !
Whose soft dominion o'er this castle sways,
And all the widely silent places round,
Forgive me, if my trembling pen <lisplayg
What never yet was sung in mortal lays.
But how shall I atlemj)t such ai'duous string?
I who have spcTit niy nights, and niglitly days,
In this soul-deadening place loose-loitering :
Ah ! how shall 1 for this uproar my molted wing.

ta THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

32.

Oc^flv vD, my muse, nor stoop to low despair,
Thou imp of Jove touched by celestial fire !
Thou yet shait sing of war, and actions fair,
Which the bold sons of Britain will inspire ;
Of ancient bards chou yet shalt sweep the lyre ;
Thou yet shalt thread in tragic pall the stage,
Paint love's enchanting woes, the hero's ire,
The sage's calm, tne patriot's noble rage,
Oashing corruption down through every worthless
age.

33.

The doors, that knew no shrill alarming bell,
Ne cursed knocker plied by villain's hand,
Self-opened into halls, where, who can tell
What elegance and grandeur wide expand ;
The pride of Turkey and of Persia land ?
Soft quilts on quilts, on carpets carpets spread.
And couches stretched around in seemly band ;
And endless pillows rise to prop rhe head ;
So that each spacious room was one full-swelling bed.

34.

And everywhere huge covered tables stood,
With wines high-flavored and rich viands crown-
ed ;
Whatever sprightly juice or tasteful food
On the green bosom of this earth are found,
And all old ocean 'genders in his round,
Some hand unseen these silently displayed.
Even undemanded by a sign or sound ;
You need but wish, and, instantly obeyed,
Fair ranged the dishes rose, and thick the glassei
played.

35.

Here freedom reigned, without the least alloy ;
Nor gossip's tale, nor ancient maiden's gall,

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. i«S

Kor Baintly spleen, durst murmur at our joy,
And with envenomed tongue our pleasures pall.
For why ? there was but one great rule for all ;
To wit, that each should work his own desire,
And eat, drink, study, sleep, as it'may fall,
Or melt the time in love, or wake the lyre,
And carol what, unhid, the muses might inspire.

36.

The rooms with costly tapestry were.hung
Where was inwoven many a gentle tale,
Such as of old the rural poets sung,
Or of Arcadian or Sicilian vale ;
Reclining lovers in the lonely dale.
Poured forth at large the sweetly tortured heart ;
Or, sighing tender passion, swelled the gale,
And taught charmed echo to resouild their smart ;
While flocks, woods, streams around, repose and peace
impart.

37.

Those pleased the most, where, by a cunning hand,

Uepainted was the patriarchal age ;
What time Dan Abraham left the Chaldee land,
And pastured on from verdant stage to stage.
Where fields and fountains fresh could best engage.
Toil was not then ; of nothing took they heed,
But with wild beasts the sylvan war to wage,
And o'er vast plains their herds and flocks to feed :
Blessed sons of nature they ! true golden age indeed 1

38.

Sometimes the pencil, in cool airy halls,
Bade the gay bloom of vernal landscapes rise,
Or Auturnu'ri varied shades inibrown the walls ;
Now the black t<'tiipest strikes the astonished eyea ;
Now down the steep the llaHhiiig tcjrreiit flies ;
The trcinl»Iiiig snii now plays o'er ocean blue,
And n(jw rude niountains frown amid the skiee j

Mt THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Whate'er Lorraine light-touched with softening hue,
Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew

39.

Each sound too here to languishment inclined
Lulled the weak bosom, and induced ease ;
Aerial music in the warbling wind,
At distance rising oft, by small degrees.
Nearer and nearer came, till o'er the trees
It hung, and breathed such soul-dissolving air«,
As did, alas ! with soft perdition please :
Entangled deep in its enchanting snares,
The listening heart forgot all duties and all cares.

40.
A certain music, never known before,
Here lulled tjie pensive, melancholy mind ;
F'ull easily obtained. Behooves no more,
But sidelong, to the gently waving wind,
To lay the well-timed instrument reclined ;
From which, with airy flying fingers light,
Beyond each mortal touch the most refined,
The god of winds drew sound of deep delight :
Whence, with ^ust cause, the harp of ^olus it bight.

41.
Ah me ! what hand can touch the string so fine
Who up the loftly diapason roll
Such sweet, such sad, such solemn airs divine.
Then let them down again into the soul !
Now rising love they fanned ; now pleasing dole
They breathed, in tender musings through tb*

hear; ;
And now a graver sacred strain they stole,
As when seraphic hands a hymn impart :
Wild warbling nature all, above the reach of art ;

42.

Such the gay splendor, the luxurious state,
or Caliphs old, who on the Tigris' shore

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. %&l

Ib mighty Bagdat, jiopulous and great,
Held their bright court, where was of ladies store,
And verse, luve, mu.-ie, still the garland wore ;
When sleep was coy, the bard, in waiting there.
Cheered the lone midnight with the muse's lore ;
Composing music bade his dreams be fair.
And music lent new gladness to the morning air.

43.
Near the pavilion where we slept, still ran
Soft tinkling streams, and dashing waters fell,
And sobbing breezes sighed, and oft began
(So worked the wizard) wintry storms to swell,
As heaven and earth they would together mell ;
At doors and windows threatening seemed to call
The demons of the tempest, growling fell.
Yet the least entrance found they none at all :
Whence sweeter grew our sleep secure in massy hall.

44.
And hither Morpheas sent his kindest dreams.
Raising a world of gayer tinct and grace ;
O'er which were shadowy cast elysian gleams,
That played, in waving lights, from place to place ;
And shed a roseate smile on nature's face.
Not Titian's pencil e'er could so array,
So fleece with clouds the pure ethereal space ;
Ne could it e'er such melting forms display.
As loose on flowery beds all languishingly lay.

45.

No, fair illusions ! artful phantoms, no !
My muse will not attempt your fairy land :
She has no colors that like you can glow :
To catch your vivi<l scenes too gross her hand.
But sure it is, was ne'er a subtler band
Than these same guileful angel-seeining snrights,
Who thus ill dreams voiuptuou-, soft, .iiid bland.
Poured all the Arabian heaven upoiioui' nights.
And blest them oft begides with more '■(tincil n'r!i<dit«

M TME CASTLE OP INDOLENCE.

46.

They were, in sooth, a most enchanting train.
Even feigning virtue ; skillful to uniio
With evil good, and strew with pleasure pain.
But for those fiends, whom blood and broils delight,
Who hurl the wretch, as if to hell outright,
Down down black gulfs, where sullen waters sleep ;
Or hold him clambering all the fearful night
On beetling cliffs, or pent in ruins deep ;
rhey, till due time should serve, were bid far hence
to keep.

47.

Ye guardian spirits, to whom man is dear,

From these foul demons shield the midnight

gloom ;
Angels or fancy and of love, be near.
And o'er the blank of sleep diffuse a bloom :
Evoke the sacred shades of Greece and Rome,
And let them virtue with a look impart :
But chief, a while, O ! lend us from the tomb
Those long lost friends for whom in love we smart,
And fill with pious awe and joy-mixed woe the heart.

48.

Or are you sportive Bid the morn of youth

Rise to new light, and beam afresh the days
Of innocence, simplicity, and truth ;
To cares estranged, and manhood's thorny ways.
What transport to retrace our boyish plays.
Our easy bliss, when each thin<:^ joy supplied ;
The woods, the mountains, and thn warblins; maze
Of the wild brooks ! — but, fondly wanderiifg wide,
My muse, resume the task that yet doth thee ibid-,

49.

One great amusement of our household w. ,,

In a huge crystal magic globe to spy,

Still as you turned it, all things that do \h,.^

THE CASTLE OF INDOLEi\CE. Ml

Upon this ant-hill earth ; where constantly
Of idly busy men the restless frv
Run bustling to and fro with foolish haste,
In search of pleasures vain that from them fly,
Or which, obtained, the caitiffs dare not taste :
When nothing is enjoyed, can there be greater waste \

50.

" Of vanity the mirror," this was called :
Here, you a muckworm of the town may sea.
At his dull desk, amid his ledgers stalled,
Eat up with carking care and penury ;
Most like to carcase parched on gallow-tree.
" A penny saved is a penny got : "
Firm to this scoundrel maxim keepeth he,
Ne of its rigor will he bate a jot,
Till he has quenched his fire, and banishM his pot.

51.
Straight from the filth of this low grub, behold I
Comes fluttering forth a gaudy spendthrift heir.
All glossy gay, enameled all with gold,
The silly tenant of the summer air ;
In folly lost, of nothing takes he care ;
Pimps, lawyers, stewards, harlots, flatterers vile,
And thieving tradesmen him among them share ;
His father's ghost from limbo lake, the while,
Sees this, which more damnation doth upon him pile,

52.
Tliis globe protrayed the race of learned men.
Still at their books, and turning o'er the page,
Backwards and forwards ; olL they snatch the pen,
Ah if ins{)ireii, and in a Thespian rage ;
Then write, and l)lot, as would your ruth engage :
Why, authors, all this scrawl and scribbling sore ?
To lose the presr'ut, Ljain the future age.
Praised to Im' wIumi yon can hcai' n(j more.
And much t-nriched with fame, when useless worldly
store.

870 THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

53.

Then would a Bplendid city rise to view,
With carts, and cars, and coaches, roaring all ;
Wide-poured abroad behold the giddy crew ;
See how they dash along from wall to wall ;
At every door, hark how they thundering call I
Good Lord ! what can this giddy route excite?
Why, on each other with fell tooth to fall ;
A neighbor's fortune, fame, or peace, to blight,
And making new tiresome parties for the coming
night.

54.

The puzzling sons of party next appeared,

In dark cabals and nightly juntos met ;

And now they whispered close, now shrugging

reared
The important shoulder ; tlien, as if to get
New light, their twinkling eyes were inward set.
No sooner Lucifer recalls affairs
Then forth they various rush in mighty fret ;
When lo ! pushed up to power, and crowned their
cares.
In comes another set, and kicketh them down-stairs.

55.

But what Most showed the vanity of life
Was to behold the nations all on fire.
In cruel broils engaged, and deadly strife ;
Most Christian kings, inflamed by black desire,
With honorable ruffians in their hire.
Cause war to rage, and blood around to pour ;
Of this sad work when each begins to tire.
Then sit them down just where they were before,
Ti}!, for new scenes of woe, i)eace shall their force
restore.

56.

To number up the thousands dwelling here,
A useless were, and ekt- an endless task :

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 271

From kings and those who at the helm appear,
To gypsies brown in summer-glades who bask.
Yea many a man, })erdit, 1 could unmask,
Whose desk and table make a solemn show.
With tape-tied trash, and suits of fools that ask
For place or pension laid in decent row ;
But these I passen by, with nameless numbers moe.

57.

Of all the gentle tenants of the place,
There was a man of special grave remark ;
A certain tender gloom o'ers})read his face,
Pensive, not sad ; in thought involved, not dark ;
As soot this man could sing as morning lark,
And teach the noblest morals of the heart :
But these his talents were yburicd stark ;
Of the fine stores he nothing would impart.
Which or boon nature gave, or nature-painting art.

58.

To noontide shades incontinent he pan,
Where purls the brook with sleep-inviting sound :
Or when Dan Sol to slope his wheels began.
Amid the broom he basked him on the ground,
Where the wild thyme and camomile are found ;
There would he linger, till the latest ray
Of light sat trembling on the welkin's bound ;
Then homeward through tlu; twiliglit shadows stray,
Sannting and slow. So had he passed many a day.

59.

Yet not in thoughtless shimbor were they past :
For oft the heavenly tire, that lay concealed
Beneath the sleeping embers, mounted fast,
And all its native light anew revealed :
Oft as he traversed the cerulean iield,
\nd marked the clouds that drove before the wind,
Ten thousand glorious systems would he build,

fTl THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Ten thousand great ideas filled his mind ;
But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace behind.*

60.

With him was sometimes joined, in silent walk
(Profoundly silent, for they never spoke),
One shyer still, who quite detested talk :
Oft, stung by spleen, at once away he broke.
To groves of pine, and broad o'ershadowing oak ;
There, inly thrilled, he wandered all alone,
And on himself his pensive fury wroke,
Ne ever uttered word, save when first shone
The glittering star of eve — " Thank heaven ! the day
is done." f '

61.

Here lurked a wretch, who had not crept abroad
For forty years, ne face of mortal seen ;
In chamber brooding like a loathly toad ;
And sure his linen was not very clean.
Through secret loop-holes, that had practiced been,
Near to his bed, his dinner vile he took ;
Unkempt, and rough, of squalid face and mien.
Our castle's shame ! whence, from his filthy nook,
We drove the villain out for fitter lair to look.

62.
One day there chanced into these halls to rove
A joyous youth, who took you at first sight ;
Him the wild wave of pleasure hither drove,
Before the sprightly tempest tossing light ;
Certes, he was a most engaging wiglit,
Of social glee, and wit humane though keen.
Turning the night to day, and day to night :

•Among tlie speculations bazfirdcd ix"-pecting tliese portraits,
no clue appears to have been traced to the original of this
sketch

f This character wns designed for Dr. Armstrong, the author
of The Art of I^e*eming Health,

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 878

For him the merry belis had rung, I ween,
If, in this nook of quiet, bells had ever been.

63.

But not e'en pleasure to excess is good :
What most elates, then sinks the soul as low :
When springtide joy pours in with copious flood,
The higher still the exulting billows flow.
The further back again they flagging go,
And leave us groveling on the dreary shore ;
Taught by this son of joy, we found it so,
Who, whilst he staid, he kept in gay uproar
Our maddened castle all, the abode of sleep no more.

64.

As when in prime of June a burnished fly.
Sprung from the meads oYm- which he sweeps along,
Cheered by the breathing bloom and vital sky,
Tunes up amid these airy halls his song,
Soothing at first the gay reposing throng :
And oft he sips their bowl ; or, nearly drowned.
He, thence recovering, drives their beds among.
And scares their tender sleep with trump pro
found ;
Then out again he flies, to wing his mazy round. *

65.

Another guest there was, of sense refined.
Who felt each worth, for every woi-th he had ;
Serene yet warm, humane yet firm his mind,
As little touched as any man's with bad :
Him through their inmost walks the muses lad,
To him the sacred love of nature lent,
And sometimew would he iniikf! our valley glad ;
Whenas we found he would not here be pent.
To him the better sort this friendly message sent ,

John Forbes, the son of Duncan Forbes.Culloden.

f74 THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

66.

" Come, dwell with us ! true son of virtue, come I
But if, alas ! we cannot thoe persuade
To lie content beneath our peaceful dome,
Ne never more to quit our quiet glade ;
Yet when at last thy toils but ill apaid
Shall dead thy fire and damp its heavenly spark,
Thou wilt be glad to seek the rural shade,
There to indulge the muse, and nature mark :
We then a lodge for thee will rear in Hagley Park.** *

67.

Here whilom Hgged the Esopus of the age ;
But called by fame, in soul yprickM deep,
A noble pride restored him to the stage,
And roused him like a giant from his sleep.
Even from his slumbers we advantage reap :
With double force the enlivened scene he wakes,
Yet quits not nature's bounds. He knows to keep
Each due decorum : now the heart he shakes,
And now with well urged sense the enlighted judg
ment takes, f

68.

A bard here dwelt, mo»e fat than bard beseems ;
Who, void of envy, guile, and lust of gain.
On virtue still, and nature's pleasing themes,
Poured forth his unpremeditated strain ;
The world forsaking with a calm disdain.
Here laughed he careless in his easy seat ;
Here quaffed, encircled with the joyous train,
Oft moralizing sage ; his ditty sweet
He loathed much to write, ne cared to repeat. J

* Lord Lyttleton.

f Quin, the actor.

X This portrait of Thomson was contributed by Lord LytU*
toa with the exception of the first line.

THM CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 275

69.

Full oft by holy feet our ground was trod,
Of clerks good plenty here you mote espy.
A little round, fat, oily man of God,
Was one I chiefly marked among the fry :
He had a roguish twinkle in his eye,
And shone all glittering with ungodly dew,
If a tight damsel chanced to trippen by ;
Which when observed, he shrunk into his mew,
And straight would recollect his piety anew.*

70.

Nor be forgot a tribe, who minded naught
(Old inmates of the place) but state affairs :
They looked, perdie, as if they deeply thought,
And on their brow sat every nation's cares ;
The world by them is parceled out in shares,
When in the Hall of Smoke they congress hold.
And the sage berry, sun-burnt Mocha bears,
Has cleared their inward eye : then, smoke enroll-
ed
Their oracles break forth mysterious as of old,

71.

Here languid Beauty kept her pale-faced court :
Bevies of dainty dames, of high degree.
From every quarter hither made resort ;
Where, from gross mortal care and business free,
They lay, poured out in ease and luxury ;
Or should they a vain show of work assume,
Alas ! and well-a-day ! what can it be?
To knot, to twist, to range the vernal bloom ;
But far is cast the distaff, spinning-wheel, and loom.

72.

Their only labor was to kill the time
(And labor dire it is, and weary woe) ;

• Dr. Murdoch.

pt THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

They sit, they loll, turn o'er some idle rhyme ;
Then, rising sudden, to the glass they go,
Or saunter forth, with tottering step and slow :
This soon too rude an exercise they tind ;
Straight on the couch their limbs again they throw,
Where hours they sighing lie reclined,
And court the vapory god, soft breathing in the wind.

73.

One nymph there was, methought, in bloom of

May,
On whom the idle fiend glanced many a look,
In hopes to lead lier down the slippery way
To taste of Pleasure's deep deceitful brook ;
No virtues yet her gentle mind forsook ;
No idle whims, no vapors filled her brain,
But prudence for her youthful guide she took,
And goodness, which no earthly vice could stain,
Dwelt in her mind ; she was ne proud I ween or vain.

74.

Now must I mark the villainy we found,
But ah ! too late, as shall eftsoons be shown.
A place here was, deep, dreary, under grown ;
Where still our inmates, when unpleasing ground,
Diseased and lonesome, privily were thrown :
Far from the light of heaven, they languished there,
Unpitied uttering many a bitter groan ;
For of these wretches taken was no care :
Fierce fiends, and hags of hell, their only nurses were.

75.

Alas ! the change ! from scenes of joy and rest,
To this dark den, wliere sickness tossed alway.
Here Lethargy, with deadly sleep oppressed,
Sti't^tched on his back, a niiglity lubbard, lay,
Heaving his sides, and snored night and day ;
To stir him from his traunce it was nut eath.
And his half-opened eyne he shut straightway ;

THE CASTLE Oh INDOLENCE. 271

He led, I wot, the softest way to death,
And taught withouten pain and strife to yield the
breath.

76.

Of limbs enormons, but withal nnsound,
Soft-swoln and pale, here lay the Hydropsy :
Unwieldly man ; with belly monstrous round,
Forever fed with watery supply :
For still he drank, and yet he still was dry.
And moping liere did Hypochondria sit,
Mother of Spleen, in robes of various dye,
Who vexed was full oft with ugly fit ;
And some her frantic deemed, and some her deemed
a wit.

77.

A lady proud she was, of ancient blood.
Yet oft her fear her pride made crouchen low :
She felt, or fancied in her fluttering mood,
All the diseases which the spittles know.
And sought all physic which the shops bestow,
And still new leeches and new drugs would try,
Her humor ever wavering to and fro :
For sometimes she would laugh, and sometime*
cry,
Then sudden waxed wroth, and all she knew not why.

78.

Fast by her side a listless maiden pined,
With aching head, and sfjucarnish hcart-biirnings ;
Pale, bloated, cold, she sectncd to hate mankind.
Yd loved in secret all foi-hidden tilings.
And here the Tertian sliak"s his chilling wings ;
The sleepless (j(Mtt liei'e counts the crowing <n)cks
A wolf now gnaws him, now a serpent stinsj^s ;
While A{)oplexy crannned lntenij)erance knocks
Down to the gn;und at once, as butcher felleth ox,

fit THE CASTLE OF INDOLEl^CE.

CANTO II.

The Knights of Arts and Industrj,

Aud his achievements fair ;

That, by this castle's overthrow,

Secured^ and crownM were-

1.

Escaped the castle of the sire of sin,
Ah ! where shall I so sweet a dwelling find ?
For all around, without, and all within,
Nothing save what delightful was and kind,
Of goodness savoring and a tender mind,
E'er rose to view. But now another strain,
Of doleful note, alas ! remains behind :
I now must sing of pleasure turned to pain,
And of the false enchanter Indolence complain,

2.

Is there no patron to protect the muse,
And fence for her Parnassus' barren soil ?
To every labor its reward accrues.
And they are sure of bread who swink and moil ;
But a fell tribe the Aonian hive despoil.
As ruthless wasps oft rob the painful bee :
Thus while the laws not guard that noblest toil,
Ne for the muses other meed decree,
They praised her alone, and starve right merrily.

I care not, Fortune, what you me deny :
You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace ;
You cannot shut the windows of the »ky,
Through which Aurora shows her brightening face .
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace
The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve :
Let healhh my nerves and finer fibers brace,
And I their toys to the great children leave :
Of fancy, reason, virtue, naught can me bereave.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLEtfCE. Vt%

Come then, my muse, and raise a bolder song ;
Come, lig no more upon the bed of sloth,
Dragging the lazy languid line along.
Fond to begin, but still to finish loth.
Thy half-writ scrolls all eaten by the moth :
Arise, and sing that generous imp of fame,
Who with the sons of softness noble wroth,
To sweep away this human lumber came,
(^r in a chosen few to rouse the slumbering fiama.

In Fairy Land there lived a knight of old.
Of features stem, Salvaggio, well ycleped,
A rough unpolished man, robust and bold.
But wondrous poor : he neither sowed nor reaped.
Ne stores in summer for cold winter heaped ;
In hunting all his days away he wore ;
Now scorched by June, now in November steeped,
Now pinched by biting January sore.
He still in woods pursued the libbard and the boar.

6.

As he one morning, long before the dawn,
Pricked through the forest to dislodge his prey,
Deep in the winding bosom of a lawn.
With wood wild fringed, he marked a taper's ray.
That from the beating rain and wintry fray,
Did to a lonely cot his steps decoy ;
There, up to earn the needments of the day
He found dame Poverty, nor fair nor coy :
Her he compressed, and filled her with a lusty boy.

Amid the greenwood ?hade this boy was bred.
And grew at last a knight of muchel fame.
Of active mind and vigorous lustyhed,
The Knight of Arts and Industry by name :
Earth was his bed, the boughs his roof did frame {

i8d tHE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

He knew no beverage but the flowing stream ;
His tasteful well-earned food the sylvan game.
Or the brown fruit with which the woodlands teem ;
The same to him glad summer, or the winter breme.*

So passed his youthly morning, void of care.
Wild as the colts that through the commons run:
For him no tender parents troubled were,
He of the forest seemed to be the son.
And, certes, had been utterly undone ;
But that Minerva pity of him took,
With all the gods that love the rural wonne,f
That teach to tame the soil and rule the crook ;
Ne did the sacred Nine disdain a gentle look.

9.

Of fertile genius him they nurtured well,
In every science, and in every art,
By which mankind the thoughtless brutes excel,
That can or use, or joy, or grace impart,
Disclosing all the powers of head and heart ;
Ne were the goodly exercises spared,
That brace the nerves, or makes the limbs alert,
And mix elastic force with firmness hard :
Was never knight on ground mote be with him com*
pared.

10.

Sometimes, with early morn, he mounted gay

The hunter steed, exulting o'er the dale,

And drew the roseate breath of orient day ;

Sometimes, retiring to the secret vale,

Yclad in steel, and bright with burnished mail,

He strained the bow, or tossed the sounding spear,

Or darting on the goal, outstripped the gale,

•Pierce, Furious.

f Or xeoniiff — dwellinf .

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 281

Or wheeled the chariot in its mid career,
Or strenuous wrestled hard with many a tough com-
peer.

11.

At other times he pried through nature's store,
Whate'er she in the ethereal round contains,
Whate'er she hides beneath the verdant floor,
The vegetable and the mineral reigns ;
Or else he scanned the globe, those small domains
Where restless mortals such a turmoil keep,
Its seas, its floods, its mountains, and its plains ;
But more he searched the mind, and roused from
sleep
Those moral seeds whence we heroic actions reap.

12.

Nor would he scorn to stoop from high pursuits
Of heavenly truth, and practice what she taught ;
Vain is the tree of knowledge without fruits !
Sometimes in hand the spade or plow he caught.
Forth calling all with which boon earth is fraught ;
Sometimes he plied the strong mechanic tool.
Or reared the fabric from the finest draught ;
And oft he put himself to Neptune's school.
Fighting with winds and waves on the vexed ocean
pooL

13.

To solace then these rougher toils, he tried
To touch the kindling canvas into life ;
With nature his creating j)encil vied,
With nature joyous at tlie mimic strife :
Or, to such shapes as graced Pygmalion's wife
He hewed the marble ; or with varied fire,
He roused the trumpet, and the uKirtial fife.
Or bade the lute sweet tenderness insj>ire,
Or verses framed that well might wake Apollo's lyre

MB THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE,

14.

Accomplished thus, he from the woods issued,
Full of great aims, and bent on bold emprise ;
The work, which long he in his breast had brewed,
Now to perform he ardent did devise ;
To wit a barbarous world to civilize.
Earth was still then a boundless forest wild ;
Naught to be seen but savage wood and skies ;
No cities nourished arts, no culture smiled.
No government, no laws, no gentle manners mild.

15.

A rugged wight, the worst of brute, was man ;
On his own wretched kind he, ruthless, preyed ;
The strongest still the weakest overran ;
In every country mighty robbers swayed,
And guile and ruffian force were all their trade.
Life was a scene of rapine, want, and woe ;
Which this brave knight, in noble anger, made
To swear he would the rascal rout o'erthrow.
For, by the powers divine, it should no more be so !

16.

It would exceed the purport of my song
To say how this best sun from orient clime«,
Came beaming life and beauty all along.
Before him chasing indolence and crimes.
Still as he passed, the nations he sublimes.
And calls forth arts and virtues with his ray :
Then Egypt, Greece, and Rome their golden timee^
Successive had ; but now in ruins gray
They lie, to slavish sloth and tyranny a prey.

17.

To crown his toils. Sir Industry then spread
The swelling sail, and made for Britain's coast.
A sylvan life till then the natives led,
In the brown shades and greenwood forest lost,
All careless rambling where it liked them most \

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 283

Their wealth the wild deer bouncing through the

glade ;
They lodged at large, and lived at native's cost,
Save spear and bow, vrithouten other aid
Fet not the Roman steel their naked breast dismayed,

18.

He liked the soil, he liked the clement skies,
He liked the verdant hills and flowery plains :
" Be this my great, my chosen isle," he cries,
" This, whilst my labors Liberty sustains,
This queen of oceans all assault disdains."
Nor liked he less the genius of the land,
To freedom apt and persevering pains.
Mild to obey, and generous to command.
Tempered by forming Heaven with kindest firmest
hand,

19.

Here, by degrees, his master- work arose,
Whatever arts and industry can frame ;
Whatever finished agriculture knows.
Fair queen of arts ! from heaven itself who caake,
When Eden flourished in unspotted fame ;
And still with her sweet innocence we find,
And tender peace, and joys witliout a name.
That, while they ravish, tranquillize the mind :
Nature and art at once, delight and use combined.

20,

Then towns he quickened by mechanic arts,
And bade the fervent city glow with toil ;
Bade social commerce raise renowned marts,
Join land to land, and marry soil to soil ;
Unite the poles, and without bloody spoil
Bring home of either Ind the gorgeous stores }
Or, should despotic rage the world embroil,
Bade tyrants tremble on remotest shores,
While o'er the encircling deep Britannia's tbuadey
roars.

tti THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

21.

The drooping muses then he westward called,
From the famed city by Propontic sea,
What time the Turk the enfeebled Grecian thrall-
ed ;
Thence from their cloistered walks he set them free.
And brought them to another Castalie,
Where Isis many a famous nursling breeds ;
Or where old Cam soft-paces o'er the lea
In pensive mood, and tunes his Doric reeds
The whilst his flocks at large the lonely shepherd feedi.

33.

Yet the fine arts were what he finished least.

For why ? They are the quintessence of all,

The growth of laboring time, and slow increased ;

Unless, as seldom chances, it should fall

That mighty patrons the coy sisters call

Up 1o the sunshine of uncumbered ease

Where no rude care the mounting thought may

thrall,
And where they nothing have to do but please :
Ah 1 gracious God ! thou knowest they ask no other
fees.

23.

But now, alas ! we live too late in time .
Our patrons now e'en grudge that little claim,
Except to such as sleek the soothing rhyme ;
And yet, forsooth, they wear Maecenas' name,
Poor sons of puft-up vanity, not fame.
Unbroken spirits, cheer ! still, still remains
The eternal patron, Liberty ; whose flame,
While she protects, inspires the noblest strains:
The best and sweetest far, are toil-created gains.

24.

When as the knight had framed, in Britain-land,
A matchless form of glorious government,

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 886

In which the sovereign laws alone command,
Laws, 'stablished by the public free consent.
Whose majesty is to the scepter lent ;
When this great plan, Avilh each dependent art,
Was settled firm, and to his heart's content,
Then sought lit; from the toilsome scene to part,
And let life's vacant eve breathe quiet through the
heart.

25.

For this he chose a farm in Deva's vale.
Where his long alleys peeped upon the main :
In this calm seat he drew the healthful gale,
Here mixed the chief, the patriot, and the swain.
The happy monarch of his sylvan train,
Here, sided by the guai'dians of the fold,
He walked his rounds, and cheered his blest domain :
His days^ the days of unstained nature, rolled
Replete with peace and joy, like patriarchs, of old.

26.

Witness, ye lowing herds, who gave him milk ;
Witness ye flocks, whose woolly vestments far
Exceeded soft India's cotton, or her silk ;
Witness with Autumn charged the nodding car,
That homeward came beneath sweet evening's star,
Or of September-moons the radiance mild.
O hide thy head, abominable war !
Of crimes and ruffian idleness the child !
From heaven this life y sprung, from hell thy glo.
ries viled !

27.

Nor from his deep retirement banished was

The amusing care of rural industry.

Still, as witii grateful (•li;ui<^r(. tjie seasons pass,

New sc(iTies arise, new landscapes strike the eye,

And all the fnlivencd count ry lu-autify ;

Gay jilains extend where inarslies sl(;pt before ;

O'er recent meads the exultant streamlets fly j

388 THE ca::tle of indolence.

Dark frowning heaths grow bright with Ceres' store,
And woods imbrown the steep, or wave along the
shore.

28.

As nearer to his farm you made approach.
He polished Nature with a finer hand ;
Yet on her beauties durst not art encroach ;
'Tis art's alone these beauties to expand.
In graceful dance immingled, o'er the land.
Pan, Panes, Flora, and Pomona played ;
Here, too, brisk gales the rude wild common fanned,
A happy place ; where free, and unafraid,
Amid the flowering brakes each coyer creature
strayed.

29.

But in prime vigor what can last for aye ?
That soul-enfeebling wizard Indolence,
I whilom sung, wrought in his works decay.
Spread far and wide was his cursed influence ;
Of public virtue much he dulled the sense.
E'en much of private ; eat our spirit out.
And fed our rank luxurious vices : whence
The land was overlaid with many a lout ;
Not, as old fame reports, wise, generous, bold, and
stout.

30.

A. rage of pleasure maddened every breast ;

Down to the lowest lees the ferment ran ;

To his licentious wish each must be blessed,

With joy be fevered, snatch it as he can.

Thus vice the standard reared ; her arrier-ban

Corruption called, and loud she gave the word,

" Mind, mind yourselves ! why should the vulgai

man,
The lacquey be more virtuous than his lord ?
Knjoy this span of life ! 'tis all the gods afford,"

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. SSt

31.

The tidings reached to where, in quiet hall,
The good old knight enjoyed well earned repose ;
" Come, come, sir knight ! thy children on thee call j
Come, save us yet, e'er ruin round us close !
The demon Indolence thy toils o'erthrows."
On this the noble color stained his cheeks,
Indignant, glowing through the whitening snows
Of venerable eld ; his eye full speaks
His ardent soul, and from his couch at once he breaks.

32.

" I will," he cried, " so help me, God ! destroy
That villain Archimage." His page then straight
He to him called ; a fiery-footed boy,
Benempt Dispatch : — " My steed be at the gate ;
My bard attend ; quick, bring the net of fate."
This net was twisted by the sisters three ;
Which, when once cast o'er hardened wretch, too

late
Repentance comes ; replevy cannot be
From the strong iron grasp of vengeful destiny.

33.

He came, the bard, a little druid wight.
Of witliered aspect ; but his eye was keen.
With sweetness mixed. In russet brown bedight,
As is his sister oi the copies green,
He crept along, unpromising of mien.
Gross he who judges so. His soul was fair,
Bright as the children of yon azure sheen !
True comeliness, which nothirg can inij)air.
Dwells in the mind : all eke is vanity and glare.

34.

*Come," quoth the knight, " a voice has reached

mine ear :
The demon Indolence throats overflow
To all that to mankind is good and dear •

368 THE CASTLE OF mDOLENCR.

Come, Philomelas ; let us instant go,
O'erturn his bowers, and lay his castle low.
Those men, those wretched men ! who will be slaves
Must drink a bitter wrathful cup of woe :
But some there be, thy song, as from their graves.
Shall raise." Thrice happy he ! who without rigoi
saves.

85.

Issuing forth, the knight bestrode his steed,

Of ardent bay, and on whose front a star

Shone blazing bright ; sprung from the generoiu

breed
That whirl of active day the rapid car.
He pranced along, disdaining gate or bar.
Meantime, the bard on milk-white palfrey rode j
An honest sober beast, that did not mar
His meditations, but full softly trode :
!Lnd much they moralized as thus yfere they yode.

36.

They talked of virtue, and of human bliss.
What else so fit for man to settle wall ?
And still their long researches met in this.
This Truth of Truths, which notliing can refel :
" From virtue's fount the purest joys outwell.
Sweet rills of thought that cheer the conscioui

soul ;
While vice pours forth the troubled streams of hell,
The which, howe'er disguised, at last with dole
Will through the tortured breast their fiery torrent

roll."

37.

At length it dawned, that fatal valley gay

O'er which high wood-crowned hills their summitJ

rear :
On the cool height awhile our palmers stay.
And spite even of themselves their senses cheer ;

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. SSII

Then to the wizard's wonne their steps they steer,
Like a green isle, it broad beneath them spread,
With gardens round, and wandering currents clear,
And tufted groves to shade the meadow-bed,
Sweet airs and song ; and without hurry all Beemed
glad.

38.

"As God shall judge me, knight! we must for-
give,"
The half-enraptured Philomelus cried,
" The frail good man deluded here to live,
And in these groves his musing fancy hide.
Ah ! naught is pure. It cannot be denied.
That virtue still some tincture has of vice,
And vice of virtue. What should then betid^
But that our charity be not too nice ?
Come, let us those we can, to real bliss entice."

39.

" Ay, sicker," quoth the knight, " All flesh is frail,
To pleasant sin and joyous dalliance bent ;
But let not brutish vice of this avail,
And think to 'scape deservod punishment.
Justice were cruel weakly to relent ;
From mercy's self she got her sacred glaive :
Grace be to those who can, and will, repent ;
But penance loTig, and dreary, to the slave,
Who must in floods of ire his gross foul spirit lave.

40.

Thus, holding high discourse, they came to whert

The cursed carl was at his wonted trade ;

Still teni]>ting heedless men into \\'\^ H?iare,

In witching wise, as I before have said.

But when he saw, in goodly geer arrayed.

The grave majestic knight approaching nigh,

And by his side the bard so sage and staid,

ddO TUB CASTLE OF tTDOLENCE.

His countenance fell ; yet oft his anxious eye
Marked them, like wily fox who roosted cock dotb
spy.

41.

Nathless, with feigned respect, he bade give back
The rabble rout, and welcomed them full kind ;
Struck with the noble twain, they were not slack
His orders to obey, and fall behind.
Then he resumed his song ; and, unconfined.
Poured all his music, ran through all his strings :
With magic dust their eyne he tries to blind,
And virtue's tender airs o'er weakness flings.
What pity base his song who so divinely sings J

42.

Elate in thought, he counted them his own.
They listened so intent with fixed delight :
But they instead, as if transmewed to stone,
Marveled he could with such sweet art unite
The lights and shades of manners, wrong or right.
Meantime, the silly crowd the cliarm devour.
Wide pressing to the gate. Swift, on the knight
He darted fierce, to drag him to his bower.
Who backening shunned his touch, for well he knew
its power.

43.

As in thronged amphitheater, of old,
The wary Retiarius trapped his foe ;
E'en so the knight, returning on him bold.
At ouce involved him in the Net of Woe,
Whereof I mention made not long ago.
Inraged at first, he scorned so weak a jail,
And leaped, and flew, and flounced to and fro ;
But when he found t!iat nothing could avail,
He 8at him felly down, and gnawed his bitter nail.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE 961

44.

Alarmed, the inferior demons of the place

Raised rueful shrieks and hideous yells around ;

Black stormy clouds deformed the welkin's face.

And from beneath was heard a wailinn; sound,

As of infernal sprights in cavern bound ;

A solemn sadness every creature strook,

And lightnings flashed, and horror rocked the

ground ;
Huge crowds on crowds outpoured with blemished
look,
As if on time's last verge this frame of things had
shook.

45.

Soon as the short-lived tempest was yspent,
Steamed from the jaws of vexed Avernus' hole.
And hushed the hubbub of the rabblement,
Sir Industry the first calm moment stole :
" There must," he cried, " amid so vast a shoal,
Be some who are not tainted at the heart.
Not poisoned quite by this same villain's bowl :
Come then, my bard, thy heavenly fire impart ;
Touch soul with scul, till forth the latent spirit start."

46.

The bard obeyed ; and taking from his side
Where it in seemly sort depending hung,
His British harp, its speaking strings he tried.
The which with skillful toucli he deftly strung,
Till tinkling in clear 8ymj)liony they rung.
Then, as he felt the muses come along,
Light o'er the chords his ruptured hand he flung,
And played a prelude to liis rising song :
The whilst, like midnight mute, ten thousand round
him throng.

47.

Thus, ardent burst, his strain. — " Ye hapless race,
Dire laboring here to smother reason's ray,

M9 THE CASTLE OF INDOLEIfCS. ♦

That lights our Maker's image in our face,
And gives us wide o'er earth unquestioned sway,
What is the adored Supreme Perfection, say ? —
What, but eternal never-resting soul,
Almighty Power, and all-dii'ccting day ;
By whom each atom stirs, the planets roll ;
Who fills, surrounds, informs, and agitates the whole.

48.

** Come, to the beaming God your hearts unfold I
Draw from its fountain life ! 'Tis thence, alone,
We can excel. Up from unfeeling mold.
To seraphs burning round the Almighty's throne,
Life rising still on life, in higher tone,
Perfection forms, and with perfection bliss.
In universal nature this clear shown.
Not needeth proof : to prove it were, I wis.
To prove the beauteous world excels the brute abyss.

49.

"Is not the field, with lively culture green,
A sight more joyous than the dead morass?
Do not the skies, with active ether clean.
And fanned by sprightly zephyrs, far surpass
The foul November fogs, and slumbrous mass
With which sad Nature veils her drooping face ?
Does not the mountain stream, as cleai- as glass,
Gay-dancing on, the putrid ])Ool disgrace ?
The same in all holds true, but chief in human race.

50.

" It was not by vile loitering in case.
That Greece obtained the brighter palm of art ;
That soft yet ardent Athens learned to please,
To keen the wit, and to sublime the heart.
In all supreme ! complete in every part !
It was not thence majestic Home arose.
And o'er the nations shook her conquering dart :
For sluggard's brow the laurel never grows ;
Renown is not the child of indolent Repose.

TSM CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 29;j

51.

" Had unambitious mortals minded naught.
But in loose joy their time to wear away ;
Had they alone the lap of dalliance sought,
Pleased on her pillow their dull lieads to lay,
Rude nature's state had been our state to-day ;
No cities e'er their towery fronts had raised,
No arts had made us opulent and gay
With brother-brutes the human race had grazed ;
None e'er had soared to fame, none honored been,
none praised.

62.

" Great Homer's song had never fired the breast
To thirst of glory and heroic deeds ;
Sweet Maro's muse, sunk in inglorious rest.
Had slept amid the Mincian reeds ;
The wits of modern time had told their beads.
And monkish legends been their only strains ;
Our Milton's Eden had lain wrapt in weeds,
Our Shakespeare strolled and laughed with War*
wick swains,
Ne had my master Spenser charmed his Mulla's plains.

53.

" Dumb too had been the sage historic muse,
And perished all the sons of ancient fame ;
Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse
Through the dark depth of time their vivid flams^
Had all been lost with such as have no name.
Who then had scorned his ease for others' good?
Who then had toiled rapacnous men to tame ?
Who in the public l)reach devoted stood,
And for his country's cause been j)rodigal of blood?

54.

" But should to fame your hearts unfeeling be,
If right I read, you pleasure all re(}uire ;
Then hear how best may be obtained this fee,

iU THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

How best enjoyed this nature's wide desire.
Toil and be glad ! let industry inspire
Into your quickened limbs her buoyant breath j
Who does not act is dead ; absorbed entire
In miry sloth, no pride, no joy he hath :
O leaden-hearted men, to be in love with death 1

55.

" Ah ! what avail the largest gifts of heaven,
When drooping health and spirits go amiss ?
How tasteless then whatever can be given ?
Health is the vital principle of bliss.
And exercise of health. In proof of this.
Behold the wretch, who slugs his life away,
Soon swallowed in disease's sad abyss ;
While he whom toil has braced, or manly play.
Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as
day.

56.

" O who can speak the vigorous joys of health I
Unclogged the body, unobscured the mind :
The morning rises gay, with pleasing stealth,
The temperate evening falls serene and kind.
In health the wiser brutes true gladness find :
See ! how the younglings frisk along the meads,
As May comes on, and waives the balmy wind ;
Rampart with life their joy all joy exceeds ;
Yet what but high-strung health this dancing pleas,
aunce breeds ?

57.

" But here, instead, is fostered every ill.
Which or distempered minds or bodies know.
Come then, my kindred spirits ! do not spill
Your talents here : this place is but a show,
Whose charms delude you to the den of woe.
Come, follow me, I will direct you right,
Where pleasure's roses, void of serpents, grow.

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 295

Sincere as sweet ; come, follow this good knight,
And you will bless the day that brought him to your
sight.

58.
" Some he will lead to courts, and some to camps,
To senate some, and public sage debates,
Where, by the solemn gleam of midnight lamp^
The world is poised, and managed mighty state;
To high discovery some, that new creates
The face of earth ; some to the thriving mart ;
Some to the rural reign, and softer fates ;
To the sweet muses some, who raise the lieart :
A.11 glory shall be yours, all nature, and all art 1

59.
" There are, I see, who listen to my lay.
Who wretched sigh for virtue, but despair :

* All may be done,' methinks I hear them say,

* E'en death despised by generous actions fair ;
All, but for those who to tliese bowers repair,
Their every power dissolved in luxury.

To quit of torpid sluggishness the lair.
And from the powerful arms of sloth get free :
*Tig rising from the dead — Alas ! — it cannot be I'

60.
" Would you then learn to dissipate the band
Of the huge threatening difficulties dire,
That in the weak man's way like lions stand,
His soul appall, and damp his rising fire ?
Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire.
Exert that noblest privilege, alone
Here to mankind indulged ; control desire ;
Let (xodlike reason, from her sovereign throne,
Roeak the commanding word ' I will ! ' and it is done.

61.
" Heavens ! can you then thus waste, in shameful

wise,
four few important days of trial here ?

tM THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Heirs of eternity ! yborn to rise

Through endless states of being, still more near

To bliss approaching, and perfection clear ;

Can you renounce a fortune so sublime,

Such glorious hopes your backward steps to steer,

And roll, Avith vilest brutes, through mud and

slime ?
Ko ! No ! — Your heaven-touched hearts disdain the

sordid crime ! "

62.

Enough ! enough ! " they cried — straight, from the

crowd,
The better sort on wings of transport fly :
As when amid the lifeless summits proud
Of Alpine cliffs where to the gelid sky
Snows piled on snows in wintry torpor lie.
The rays divine of vernal Phoebus play ;
The awakened heaps, in streamlets from on high,
Roused into action, lively leap away.
Glad warbling through the vales, in their new being

gay-

63.

Not less the life, the vivid joy serene,
That lighted up these new created men,
Than that which wings the exulting spirit clean
When, just delivered from this fleshy den.
It soaring seeks its native skies agen :
How light its essence ! how unclogged its powers,
Beyond the blazon of my luortal pen !
E'en so we glad forsook these sinful j)0wer8.
E'en such enraptured life, such energy was ours.

64.

But far the greater part, with rage inflamed,
Dire-muttered curses, and blasphomoil high Jove :
" Ye sons of hate ! " they bitterly exclaimed,
" What brought you to this seat of peace and love ?

TBX CASTLE OF INDOLENCi. Wt

Wliile with kind nature, here amid the grove,
We passed the harmless sabbath of our time,
What to disturb it could, fell men, emove
Your barbarous heart ? Is hapjiiness a crime ?
Then do the fiends of hell rule in yon heaven sub-
lime."

65.

" Ye impious wretches," quoth the knight in wrath,
" Your happiness behold ! " — Then straight ft

wand
He waved, an anti-magic power that hath,
Truth from illusive falsehood to command.
Sudden the landscape sinks on every hand ;
The pure quick streams are marshy puddles found ;
On baleful heaths the groves all blackened stand ;
And o'er the weedy foul abhorriid ground,
Snakes, adders, toads, each loathsome creature crawli
around.

66.

And here and there, on trees by lightning scathed.
Unhappy wights who loathed life yhung ;
Or, in fresh gore and recent murder bathed,
They weltering lay ; or else, infuriate flung
Into the gloomy flood, while ravens sung
The funeral dirge, they down the torrent rolled :
These, by distempered blood to madness stung.
Had doomed themselves ; whence oft, when night
controlled
The world, returning hither their sad spirits howled.

67.

Meantime a moving scene was open laid ;
That lazar-liouse, I whilom in niy lay
Dfp.iinted have, its horrors deep displayed.
And give iiiinuinbereri wretches to tlie day.
Who tossing there in scpialid misery lay.
Soon as of sacred light the unwonted smile

8W THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE,

Poured on these living catacombs its ray,
Through the drear caverns, stretching many a mil.
The sick upraised their heads, and dropped their woes
awhile.

68.

" O heaven ! " they cried, " and do we once more see
Yon blessed sun, and this green eartli so fair ?
Are we from noisome damps of pesthouse free ?
And drink our souls the sweet ethereal air ?
Oh thou ! or night, or god ! who boldest there
That liend, oh keep him in eternal chains !
But what for us, the children of despair.
Brought to the brink of hell, what hope remains ?
Repentance does itself but aggravate our pains."

69.

The gentle knight, who saw their rueful case,
Let fall adown his silver beard some tears.
" Certes," quoth he, " it is not e'en in grace,
To undo the past, and eke your broken years :
Nathless, to nobler worlds repentance rears,
With humble hope, her eye ; to her is given
A power the truly contrite heart that cheers ;
She quells the brand by which the rocks are riven ;
She more than merely softens, she rejoices heaven.

70.

" Then patient bear the sufferings you have earned,
And by these sufferings purify the mind ;
Let wisdom be by })ast misconduct learned ;
Or pious die, with penitence resigned,
And to a life more happy and refined,
Doubt not, you shall, new creatures, yet arise.
Till then, you may expect in me to find
One who will wipe your sorrow from your eyes,
One who will soothe your pangs, and wing you to the
skies.'*

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. M«

71.

They silent heard, and poured their tlianks in tears :
"For you," resumed the kniirlit witli sterner tone,
" Whose hard dry hearts the obdurate demon sears
That villain's gifts will cause you inmiy a groan ;
In dolorous mansion long you must l)einoan
His fatal charms, and weep your sl:iiiis away ;
Till, soft and pure as infant goodness grown,
You feel a perfect change : then, who can say
What grace may yet shine forth in heaven's eternal
day ? »

72.

This said, his powerful wand he waved anew :
Instant a glorious angel train descends,
The Charities, to wit, of rosy hue ;
Sweet love their looks a gentle radiance lends,
And with seraphic flame compassion blends.
At once, delighted, to their charge they fly :
When lo ! a goodly hospital ascends ;
In which they bade each lenient aid be nigh,
That could the sick-bed smooth of that said company

73.

It was a worthy edifying sight.

And gives to human kind peculiar grace,

To see kind hands attending day and night,

W^ith tender ministry, from })lac(' to jilace.

Some prop the head ; some, from the ))allid face

Wipe off the faint cold dews weak nature slieds ;

Some reach the healing draught ; the whilst, to

chase
The fear supreme, around their softened beds,
Some holy man by prayer all ojjening heaven dis

preds.

74.

Attended by a grand acclaiming train.
Of those he rescued had from gaping liell.
Then turned the ktiight ; and, to his hall again

800 THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE.

Soft-pacing, sought of peace the mossy cell :
Yet down his cheeks the gems of pity fell,
To see the helpless wretches that remained.
There left through delves and deserts dire to yell ;
Amazed, their looks with pale dismay were stained,
And spreading wide their hands they meek repen-
tance feigned.

75.

But ah ! their scorned day of grace was past :

For, horrible to tell ! a desert wild

Before them stretched, bare, comfortless, and vast ;

With gibbets, bones, and carcasses defiled.

There nor trim field, nor lively culture smiled ;

Nor waving shade was seen, nor fountain fair:

But sands abrupt on sands lay loosely piled,

Through which they floundering toiled with pain-
ful care,
Whilst Phoebus smote thera sore, and fired the cloud-
less air,

76.

Then, varying to a joyless land of bogis,

The saddened country a gray mist appeared ;

Where naught but putrid streams and noisome fogs

Forever hung on drizzly Auster's beard ;

Or else the ground, by piercing Caurus soared,

Was jagged with frost, or heaped with glazed snow ;

Through these extremes a ceaseless round they

steered.
By cruel fiends still hurried to and fro.
Gaunt beggary, and scorn, with many hell-hounds

moe.

77.

The first was with base dunghill rags yclad.
Tainting the gale, in which they fluttered light ;
Of morbid hue his features, sunk and ^ad ;
Hia hoUow eyne shook forth a sickly light ;

THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE. 301

And o'er his lank jawbone, in piteous plight,
His black rough beard was matted rank and vile ;
Direful to see ! a heart-appalling sight !
Meantime foul scurf and blotches him defile ;
And dogs, where'er he went, still barked all the
while.

78.

The other was a fell despiteful fiend ;
Hell holds none worse in baleful bower below ;
By pride, and wit, and rage, and rancor, keened ;
Of man alike, if good or bad, the foe ;
With nose upturned, he always made a show
As if he smelt some nauseous scent ; his eye
Was cold, and keen, like blast from boreal snow ;
And taunts he casten forth most bitterly.
Such were the twain that offdrove this ungodly fry.

79.

E'en so through Brentford town, a town of mud,

A herd of bristly swine is pricked along ;

The filthy beasts, that never chew the cud,

Still grunt, and squeak, and sing their troubloud

song.
And oft they plunge themselves the mire among :
But aye the ruthless driver goads them on,
And aye of barking dogs the bitter tlirong
Makes them renew their unmelodious moan ;
Ne ever find they rest from their unresting foMC.

sot MISCELLANEOUS,

MISCELLANEOUS.

A POETICAL EPISTLE TO SIR WM. RENNET,
BART., OF GRUBBAT. *

My trembling muse your honor does address,
That it's a bold attempt ii^ost humbly I confess ;
If you'll encourage her young fagging flight.
She'll upwards sore and mount Parnassus' height.
If little things with great may be compared,
In Rome it so with the divine Virgil fared ;
The tuneful bard Augustus did inspire,
Made his great genius flash poetic fire ;
But if upon ray flight your honor frowns.
The muse folds up her wings, and dying — justice
owns.

LISY'S PARTING WITH HER CAT. f

The dreadful hour with laden pace approached.

Lashed fiercely on by unrelentmg fate.

When Lisy and her bosom Cat must part :

For now to school and pensive needle doomed.

She's banishf d from her childhood's undashed joj,

And all the pleasing intercourse she kept

With her gray comrade, which has often soothed

Her tender moments, while the world around

Glowed with ambition, business, and vice.

Or lay dissolved in sleep's delicious arms ;

And from their dewy orbs the conscious stars

* This Httle piece is presuiiic<l tolx; tlic eiirlii.'st of Thomson'a
poems that has beeu preserved ; probably written before he
was fifteen.

f Elizal)eth, the iieroine of these juvenile lines, was Thorn-
sou's second and favorite sister.

USY'S PARTING WITH HER CAT. 308

Shed on their friendship influence benign.

But see where mournful Puss, advancing stood
With outstretched tail, casts looks of anxious woe
On melting Lisy, in whose eye the tear
Stood tremulous, and thus would fain have said,
If nature had not tied her struggling tongue :
" Unkind, O ! who shall now with fattening milk,
With flesh, with bread, and flsh beloved, and meat,
Regale my taste ? and at the cheerful fire,
Ah ! who shall bask me in their downy lap ?
Who shall invite me to the bed, and throw
The bedclothes o'er me in the winter night,
When Eurus roars ? Beneath whose soothing hand
Soft shall I purr ? But now, when Lisy's gone,
What is the dull ofticious world to me ?
I loathe the thoughts of life : " thus plained the Cat,
While Lisy felt, by sympathetic touch,
These anxious thoughts that in her mind revolved,
And casting on her a desponding look.
She snatched her in her arms with eager grief,
And mewing thus began : — " O Cat beloved !
Thou dear companion of my tender years !
Joy of my youth ! that oft hast licked my hands
With velvet tongue ne'er stained by mouse's blood ;
Oh, gentle Cat ! how shall I part with thee ?
How dead and heavy will the moments pass
When you are not in my delighted eye,
With Cubi playing, or your flying tail !
How harshly will the softest muslin feel.
And all the silk of schools, while I no more
Have your sleek skin to sooth my softened sense !
How shall I oat when yon are not beside
To share tlie bit ? How shall I cvtr sleep
While I no more your lulling murmurs hear ?
Yet we must part — so rigid falc decrees —
Hut never shall your loved idoa, dear,
Part from my soul, and when I first can mark
The embroided figure on the snowy lawn,
Your image shall my needle keen employ.
Uark ! now I am called away ! O direful sound \

t04 PSALM CIV. PARAPHRASED.

I come — I come, but first I charge you all — .
You — You — and you, particularly you,
O, Mary, Mary,* feed lier with the best.
Repose her nightly in the warmest couch,
And be a Lisy to her ! " — Having said,
She sat her down, and with her head across,
Rushed to the evil which she could not shun.
While a sad mew went knelling to her heart !

PSALM CIV. PARAPHRASED, f

To praise thy Author, Soul, do not forget ;

Canst thou in gratitude, deny the dept ?

Lord, thou art great, how great we cannot know ;

Honor and majesty do round thee flow.

The purest rays of primogenial light

Compose thy robes, and make them dazzling bright r

The heavens and all the wide spread orbs on high

Thou like a curtain stretched of curious dye ;

On the devouring flood thy chambers are

Established ; a lofty cloud's thy car ;

Which quick through the ethereal road doth fly.

On swift winged winds, that shake the troubled sky.

Of spiritual substance angels thou didst frame.

Active and bright, piercing and quick as flame.

Thou'st firmly founded this unwieldly earth ;

Stand fast for aye, thou saidst, at nature's birth.

The swelling flood thou o'er the earth madest creep,

And coveredst it with the vast hoary deep :

Then hills and vales did no distinction know,

But leveled nature lay oppressed below.

With speed they, at thy awful thunder's roar,

Shrinked within the limits of their shore.

Through secret tracts they up the mountains creep,

* Thomson's youngest sister.

f Written while Thomson was at the University, probably
in 1718 or 1719. This is the production the reception of which
may be said to have determined the future course of the poet

fSALM CIV. PARAPHRASED. tOt

And rocky caverns fruitful moisture weep,

Which sweetly through the verdant vahs doth glide,

Till 'tie devoured by the greedy tide.

The feeble sands thou'st made the ocean's mounds,

Its foaming waves shall ne'er repass these bounds,

Again to triumph over the dry grounds.

Between the hills grazed by the bleating kind.

Soft warbling rills their mazy way do find ;

By him appointed fully to supply,

When the hot dogstar fires the realms on high,

The raging thirst of every sickening beast,

Of the wild ass that roams the dreary waste :

The feathered nation, by their smiling sides,

In lowly brambles, or in trees abide ;

By nature taught, on them they rear their nests,

That with inimitable art are dressed.

They for the shade and safety of the wood

With natural music cheer the neighborhood.

He doth the clouds with genial moisture fill.

Which on the [shrjiveled ground they bounteous

distill,
And nature's lap with various blessings crowd :
The giver, God ! all creatures cry aloud.
With freshest green lie clothes the fragrant mead.
Whereon the grazing herds wanton and feed.
With vital juice he makes the plants abound.
And herbs securely spring above the ground,
That man may be sustained beneath the toil
Of manuring the ill producing soil ;
Which with a plenteous harvest does at last
Cancel the memory of labors past ;
Yields him the product of the generous vine.
And balmy oil that makes his face to shine :
Fills all his granaries with a loadeii crop,
Against the bare barren wiiitei- his great prop.
The trees of God with kindly sap do swell.
E'en cedars tall in Lebanon that dwell,
Upon whose lofty top the birds erect
Their nests, as careful nature does direct.
The long necked storks unto the fir trees fly,

tot PSALM CIV. PARAPHRASED.

And with their cackling cries disturb the sky.
To unfrequented hills wild goats resort,
And on bleak rocks the nimble conies sport.
The changing moon thou cladst with silver light,
To check the black dominion of the night :
High through the skies in silent state she rides,
And by her rounds the fleeting time divides.
The circling sun doth in due time decline,
And unto shades the murmuring world resign.
Dark night thou makest succeed the cheerful day,
Which forest beasts from their lone caves survey :
They rouse themselves, creep out, and search theil

prey.
Young hungry lions from their dens come out,
And, mad on blood, stalk fearfully about :
They break night's silence with their hideous roar,
And from kind heaven their nightly })rey implore.
Just as the lark begins to stretch her wing,
And, flickering on her nest, makes short essays to

And the sweet dawn, with a faint glimmering lights

Unveils the face of nature to the sight.

To their dark dens they take their hasty flight.

Not so the husbandman, — for with the sun

He does his pleasant course of labors run :

Home with content in the cool e'en returns,

And his sweet toils until the morn adjourns.

How many are thy wondrous works, O Lord I

They of thy wisdom solid proofs afford :

Out of thy boundless goodness thou didst fill,

With riches and delights, both vale and hill :

E'en the broad ocean, wherein do abide

Monsters that flounce upon the boiling tide,

And swarms of lesser beasts and fish beside :

'TIS there that daring ships before the wind

Do scud amain, and make the })ort assigned :

'Tis there that Leviathan sports and })lays,

And spurts his water in th(^ fntte of day ;

For food witli ga])ing mouth they wait on thee,

If thou wjthholdst, they pine, they faint, they die

OiV A COUXTRY LIFE. Wl

Thou bountifully opest thy liberal hand,
And scatterest plenty both on sea and land.
Thy vital spirit makes all things live below,
The face of nature with new beauties glow.
God's awful glory ne'er will have an end,
To vast eternity it will extend.
When he surveys his works, at the wnde sight
He doth rejoice, and take divine delight.
His look the earth into its center shakes ;
A touch of his to smoke the mountains makes,
ril to God's honor consecrate my lays,
And when I cease to be I'll cease to praise.
Upon the Lord, a sublime lofty theme,
My meditations sweet, my joys supreme.
Let daring sinners feel thy vengeful rod,
May they no more be known by their abode.
My soul and all my powers, O bless the Lord,
And the whole race of men with one accord.

ON A COUNTRY LIFE.*

I HATK the clamor of the smoky towns,

liut much admire the bliss of rural clowns ;

Where some remains of innocence appear.

Where no rude :ioise insults the listening ear ;

Naught but soft zephyrs whispering through the tre«^

(Jr the still humming of the peaceful bees ;

The gentle inurniurs of the purling rill,

Or the unwearied chirping of tlie drill ;

'i'hc charming harmony of warlWing birds,

')r hollow lowings of the grazing herds ;

The munnuring stockdoves' inclancholy coo,

When they their loved mates lament or woo.

The pleasing hleatings of the tender lambs.

Or the indistinct mutnhling of tiuir dams ;

The musical discord of chiditig hounds,

* This piece, and the two Ibul nnmediutely follow, wen
written al the University.

30e ON A COUNTRY LIFE.

Whereto the echoing hill or rock resounds ;
The rural mournful songB of lovesick swains,
Whereby they soothe their raging amorous pains ;
The whistling music of the lagging plow,
Which does the strength of drooping beasts renew.

And as the country rings with pleasant sounds.
So with delightful prospects it abounds :
Through every season of the sliding year,
Unto the ravished sight new scenes appear.

Id the sweet spring the sun's prolific ray
Does painted flowers to the mild air display;
Then opening buds, then tender herbs are seen,
And the bare fields are all arrayed in green.

In ripening Summer, the full laden vales
Give prospect of employment for the flails ;
Each breath of wind the bearded groves make*

bend.
Which seems the fatal sickle to portend.

In Autumn, that repays the laborer's pains,
Reapers sweep down the honors of the plains.

Anon black Winter, from the frozen north,
Its treasuries of snow and hail pours forth ;
Then stormy winds blow through the hazy sky,
In desolation nature seems to lie ;
The unstained snow from the full clouds descends,
Whose sparkling luster open eyes offends.
In maiden white the glittering fields do shine ;
Then bleating flocks for want of food repine.
With withered eyes they see all snow around.
And with their fore feet paw and scrape the ground ;
They cheerfully do crop the insipid grass,
The shepherds sighing, cry, Alas ! alas !
Then pinching want the wildest beast does tame ;
Then huntsmen on the snow do trace iheir game ;
Keen frost then turns the liquid lakes to glass.
Arrests the dancing rivulets as they pass.

How sweet and innocent are country sports,
And, as men's tcinpei's, various are their sorts.

You, on the banks of soft meandering Tweed,
May in your toils insnare the watery breed,

OV A COUNTRY LIFE. V^

And nicely lead the artificial flee,*
Which, when the nimble, watchful trout does see,
He at the bearded hook will briskly spring ;
Then in that instant twitch your hairy string,
And, when he's hooked, you, with a constant hand,
May draw him struggling to the fatal land.

Then at fit seasons you may clothe your hook,
With a sweet bait, dressed by a faithless cook ;
The greedy pike darts to't with eager haste.
And, being struck, in vain he flies at last ;
He rages, storms, and flounces through the stream.
But all, alas ! his life cannot redeem.

At other times you may pursue the chase,
And hunt the nimble hare from place to place
See, when the dog is just upon ihe grip.
Out at a side she'll make a handsome skip,
And ere he can divert his furious course,
She, far before him, scours with all her force ;
She'll shift, and many times run the same ground ;
At last, outwearied by the stronger hound,
She falls a sacrifice unto his hate,
And with sail piteous screams laments her fate.

See how the hawk doth take his towering flight,
And in his course outflies our very sight.
Bears down the fluttering fowl with all his might,
See how the wary gunner casts about.
Watching the fittest posture when to shoot :
Quick as the fatal lightning blasts tlie oak,
He gives the springing fowl a sudden stroke ;
He pours u])on't a shower of mortal lead.
And ere the noise is heard the fowl is dead.

Sometimes he spreads his hidden subtle snare,
Of which the entangled fowl was not aware ;
Through pathless wastes he doth pursue his sport,
Where naught but moor-fowl and wild beasts resort

When the noon sun directly darts liis beams
Upon your gi'My licadv, witli fiery gleams,
Then you may l^atlic yourself in cooling streams ;
Or to the sweet aijjoining grove retire,
*A 8cottieism for a lly.

MO ON HAPPINESS.

Where trees with interwoven boughs conspire
To form a graceful shade ; — there rural swainb
Do tune their oaten reeds to rural strains ;
The silent birds sit listening on th<! sprays,
And in soft charming notes do imitate their layg.
There you may stretch yourself upon the grass,
And lu41ed with music, to kind slumbers pass :
No meager cares your fancy will distract,
And on that scene no tragic fears will act ;
Save the dear image of a charming she,
Naught will the olDJect of your vision be.

Away the vicious pleasures of the town ;
Let empty partial fortune on me frown ;
But grant, ye powers, that it may be ray lot
To live in peace from noisy towns remote.

ON HAPPINESS.

Warmed by the summer sun's meridian ray,

As underneath a spreading oak I lay

Contemplating the mighty load of woe,

In search of bliss that mortals undergo.

Who while they thini: they happiness enjoj.

Embrace a curse wrapt in delusive joy,

I reasoned thus : Since the Creator, God,

Who in eternal love has his abode.

Hath blended with the essence of the soul

An appetite as fixed as the pole.

That's always eager in pursuit of bliss,

And always veering till it j)oint to this,

There is some object adequate to fill

This boundless \, ish of our extended will.

Now, while :ny thought round nature's circle runi

(A bolder journey than the furious sun's)

This chief and satiating good to find

The attracting center of tlie human mind,

My ears thej' deafened, to my swimming eyes

His magic wand the drowsy (xoil Djiplies,

ON HAPPINESiS. ill

Bound all my senses in a silken sleep,
Willie mimic fancy did her vigils keep ;
Yet still raethinks some condescending powei
Ranged the ideas in my mind that hour,

Methought I wandering was, with thousands more,
Beneath a high prodigious hill, before.
Above the clouds whose towering summit rose,
With utmost labor only gained by those
Who groveling prejudices throw away,
And with incessant straining climbed their way ;
Where all who stood their failing breath to gain.
With headlong ruin tumbled down amain.
This mountain is through every nation famed,
And, as I learned, Contemplation named.
O happy me ! when I had reached its top
Unto ray sight a boundless scene did ope.

First, sadly I surveyed with downward eye,
Of restless men below the busy fry,
Who hunted trifles in an endless maze,
Like foolish boys on sunny summer days,
Pursuing butterflies with all their might,
Who can't their troubles in the chase requite.
The painted insect, he who most admires,
Grieves most when it in his rude hand expires ;
Or should it live, with endless fe:)rs is tossed,
Lest it take wing and be forever lost.

Some men I saw their utmost art employ
How to attain a false deceitful joy.
Which from afar conspicuously did blaze.
And at a distance fixed their ravished gaze,
But nigh at hand it mocked their fond embrace ;
When lo ! again it flashed in their eyes,
But still, as they drew near, the fond illusion diet.
Just so I've seen a water-dog pursue
An unflown duck within his greedy view.
When he has, panting, at his prey arrived,
The cox('(unb fooling — suddenly it dived ;
He, gri})|>iiig, is almost with water choked,
Ami grit'f, that all his towering hopes are mocked |
Then it emerges, he renews his toil,

M ON HAPPlNESt.

And o*er and o*er again he gets the foil.

Yea, all the joys beneath the conscious sun,

And softer ones that his inspection shun,

Much of their pleasures in fruition fade •,

Enjoyment o'er them throws a sullen shade.

The reason is, we promise vaster things

And sweeter joys than from their nature springs ;

When they are lost, weep the apparent bliss,

And not what really in fruition is ;

So that our griefs are greater tlian our joys,

And real pain springs from fantastic toys.

Though all terrene delights of men below
Are almost nothing but a glaring show ;
Yet if there always were a virgin joy
When t'other fades to soothe the wanton boy,
He somewhat might excuse his heedless course,
Some show of reason for the same enforce ;
But frugal nature wisely does deny
To mankind such profuse variety ;
Has only what is needful to us given,
To feed and cheer us in the way to heaven ;
And more would but the traveler delay
Impede and clog him in his upward way.

I from the mount all mortal pleasures saw
Themselves within a narrow compass draw :
The libertine a nauseous circle run,
And dully acted what he'd often done.
Just so when Luna darts her silver ray,
And pours <mi silent earth a paler day :
From Stygian caves the flitting fairies scud,
And on the margent of some limpid flood.
Which !;y reflected moonlight darts a glance,
In midnight circle range themselves and danoci

To-morrow, cries he, will us entertain :
Pray what's to-morrow but to-day again ?
Deluded youth, no more the chas(> pursue.
So oft deceived, no moi;; tlie toil renew.
Tliough in a constant and a fixed design
Of acting well there is a lasting mine
Of solid satisfaction, purest joy, —

OK HAPPINESS. 818

For virtue's pleasures never, never cloy, —
Yet hither come, climb up tlie steep ascent,
Your painful labor you will ne'er re])cnt.
From heaven itself here you're but one remove ;
Here's the preludium of the joys above ;
Here you'll behold the awful Godlu'ad shine,
And all perfections in tlie same combine ;
You'll see that God, wlio, by his powerful call,
From empty nothing drew this spacious ball,
Made beauteous order the rude mass control,
And every part subservient to the whole ;
Here you'll behol ' upon the fatal tree
The God of nature bleed, expire, and die,
For such as 'gainst his holy laws rebel.
And such as bid d( : mce to his hell.
Through the dark gulf, here you may clearly pry
'Twixt narrow Time and vast Eternity ;
Behold the Godhead just, as well as goo 1,
And vengeance poured on tram])lers on his blood ;
But all the tears wiped from his peo])l(''s eyes,
And, for their entrance, cleave the parting skies.
Then sure you will witli holy ardors burn.
And to seraphic heats your passion turn ;
Then in your eyes all mortal fair will fade,
And leave of mortal beauties but the shade ;
Yourself to him you'll solemnly devote,
To him, without whose providence you're not ;
You'll of his service relish the d(light.
And to his praises all your })Owers excite ;
You'll cele])rate liis name in lieavenly sound,
Wliich well pleased skies in echoes will rebound;
This is the greatest hap]>iness tliat can
Possessed be in this short life by man.

But darkly here tlu; (Todhead we survey,
Confined and cramixVl in this cage of clay.
What cruel band is this to caith that ties
Our souls from soaring to their native skie»*
Upon the bright eternal {wvc. to gaze,
And there drink in the beatific rays :
There to behold the good one and the fair*

81% A FLOWER FROM HIS MISTRESS.

A ray from whom all mortal beauties are ?
In beauteous nature all the harmony-
Is but the echo of the Deity,
Of all perfection who the center is,
And boundless ocean of untainted bliss ;
Forever open to the ravished view,
And full enjoyment of the radiant crew
Who live in raptures of eternal joy.
Whose flaming love their tuneful harps employ
In solemn hymns Jehovah's praise to sing,
And make all heaven with hallelujahs ring.

These realms of light no further I'll explore,
And in these heights I will no longer soar :
Not like our grosser atmosphere beneath,
The ether here's too thin for me to breathe.
The region is insufferably bright.
And flashes on me with too strong a light.
Then from the mountain, lo ! I now descend,
And to my vision put a hasty end.

VERSES ON RECEIVING A FLOWER FROM
HIS MISTRESS.

Madam, the flower that I received from you,
Ere I came home, had lost its lovely hue :
As flowers deprived of the genial day.
Its sprightly bloom did wither and decay.
Dear, fading flower, I know full well, said I,
The reason that you shed your sweets and die ;
You want the influence of her enlivening eye.
Your case is mine — Absence, that plague of lore
With heavy pace makes every minute move ;
It of my being is an empty blank,
And hinders me myself witli men to rank ;
Your cheering ])resence quickens me again,
And new-sprung life exults in every vein.

A If ELEGY ON PARTING. Slf

AN ELEGY ON PARTING.

It was a sad, ay 'twas a ?ad farewell ;
I still afresh the pangs of parting feel !
Against my breast ray heart impatient beat,
And in deep sighs bemoaned its cruel fate ;
Thus with the object of my love to part,
My life ! my joy ! 'twould rend a rocky hearL

Where'er I turn myself, where'er I go,
I meet the image of my lovely foe ;
With witching charms the phantom still appears,
And with her wanton smile insults my tears ;
Still haunts the places where we used to walk,
And where with raptures oft I heard her talk ;
Those scenes I now with deepest sorrow view,
And sighing bid to all delight adieu.

While I my head upon this turf recline,
Officious sun, in vain on me you shine ;
In vain unto the smiling fields I hie ;
In vain the flowery meads salute my eye ;
In vain the cheerful birds and shepherds sing.
And with their carols make the valleys ring ;
Yea, all the pleasure that the country yield
Can't rae from sorrow for her absence shield ;
With divine pleasure books which one inspire,
Yea, books themselves I do not now admire.
But hark ! methinks some pitying power I hear
This welcome message whisjjer in my ear :
" Forget thy groundless griefs, dejected swain,
Vou and the nymph you love shall meet again ;
No more your muse shall sing such mournful lays,
But bounteous heaven and your kind mistress praifte."

ID TO SERAPHINA.

TO SERAPHINA

The wanton's charms, however bright,
Are like the false illusive light
Whose flattering unauspicious blaze
To precipices oft betrays :
But that sweet ray your beauties dart,
Which clears the mind, and cleans the heart
Is like the sacred queen of night,
Who pours a lovely gentle light
Wide o'er the dark, by wanderers blest,
Conducting them to peace and rest.
A vicious love depraves the mind,
'Tis anguish, guilt, and folly joined ;
But Seraphina's eyes dispense
A mild and gracious influence ;
Such as in visions angels shed
Around the heaven-illumined head.
To love thee, Seraphina, sure
Is to be tender, happy, pure ;
'Tis from low passions to escape,
And woo bright virtue's fairest shape ;
'Tis ecstasy with wisdom joined ;
And heaven infused into the mind.

ON THE HOOP.

Thk hoop, the darling justly of the fair,

Of every generous swain deserves the care.

It is unmanly to desert the weak,

'Twould urge a stone, if possible, to speak ;

To hear stanch hypocrites bawl out and cry,

"This hoop's a whorish garb, fie ! ladies, fie !*•

O cruel and audacious men, to blast

The fame of ladies more than vestals chaste ;

Should you go search the globe throughout.

None will you find so pious and devout ;

So modest, chaste, so handsome, and so fair,

ON MA Y. Wt

As our dear Caledonian ladies are.

When awful beauty puts on all her charms.

Naught gives our sex such terrible alarms,

As when the hoop and tartan both combine

To make a virgin like a goddess shine,

Let quakers cut their clothes unto the quick.

And with severities themselves afflict ;

But may the hoop adorn Ediiia's street,

Till the south pole shall with the northern meet.

ON MAY.

Among the changing months, May stands confest

The sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed !

Soft as the breeze that fans the smiling field ;

Sweet as the breath that opening roses yield ;

Fair as the color lavish nature paints

On virgin flowers free from uiiodorous taints ! —

To rural scenes thou tempt'st the busy crowd,

Who, in each grove, tliy jn-aises sing aloud !

The blooming belles and sliallow beaux, strange sight

Turn nymphs and swains, and in their sports delight

THE MORNING IT^ THE COUNTRY,

When from the opening ohaml)ers of the east
The morning S]>rings, in thousand liveries drest,
The early larks their niorniTig tribute pay,
And, in shrill notes, salute the blooming day.
Refreshed fields with pearly dew do shine.
And tender blades therewith their tops incline.
Their painte<l leaves the unblown flowers expand,
And with their odorous breath [xrlume the land.
The erowing fock and chuttcring hen awitkes
Dull sl(!<'py (clowns, who know the morning breaks.
The herd his pl;iid around his shoulders tlii'ows.
Grasps his dear erook, calls on his dog, and goes
Around the fold : he walks with careful pace,
And fallen clods sets in tlu-ir wonted place ;

Jit LINES ON MARLEFIELD.

Then opes the door, unfolds bis fleecy care,
And gladly sees them crop their morning farei
Down upon easy moss he lays,
And sings some charming shepherdess's praise.

LINES ON MARLEFIELD.

What is the task that to the muse belongs ?
What but to deck in her harmonious songs
The beauteous works of nature and of art,
Rural retreats that cheer the heavy heart ?
Then Marlefield begin, my muse aud sing ;
With Marlefield the hills and vales shall ring.
O ! what delight and pleasure 'tis to rove
Through all the walks and alleys of this grove.
Where spreading trees a checkered scene display,
Partly admitting and excluding day ;
Where cheerful green and odorous sweets conspire
The drooping soul with pleasure to inspire ;
Where little birds employ their narrow throats
To sing its praises in unlabored notes.
To it adjoined a rising fabric stands,
Which with its state our silent awe commands ;
Its endless beauties mock the poet's pen.
So to the garden I'll return again.
Pomona makes the trees with fruit abound.
And blushing Flora paints the enameled ground.
Here lavish nature does her stores disclose,
Flowers of all hue, their queen the bashful rose,
'With their sweet breath the ambient air's perfumed
Nor is thereby their fragrant stores consumed.
O'er the fair landscape sportive zephyrs scud,
And by kind force, display the infant l)ud.
The vegetable kind here rear their head,
By kindly showers and heaven's indulgence fed :
Of fabled nymphs such were the sacred haunts,
But real nymphs this chanuing dwelling vaunts.
Now to the greenhouse let's awhile retire.
To shun the heat of Sol's infectious fire

ON BEA UTY. tit

Immortal authors grace this cool retreat.
Of ancient times, and of a modern date.
Here would my praises and my fancy dwell (
But it, alas, description does excel.
O may this sweet, this beautiful abode
Remain the charge of the eternal God.

ON BEAUTY.

Beauty deserves the homage of the muse :
Shall mine, rebellious, the dear theme refuse?
No ; while my breast respires the vital air,
Wholly I am devoted to the fair.
Beauty I'll sing in my sublimest lays,
I burn to give her just immortal praise.
The heavenly maid with transport I'll pursue
To her abode, and all her graces view.

This happy place with all delights abounds,
And plenty broods upon the fertile grounds.
Here verdant grass their waving * * * ♦
And hills and vales in sweet confusion lie ;
The nibbling flock strays o'er the rising hills,
And all around with bleating music fills ;
High on their fronts tall blooming forests nod.
Of sylvan deities the blest abode ;
The featliered minstrels hop from 8])ray to spray.
And chant their gladsome carols all the day ;
Till dusky night, advancing in her car,
Makes with declining night successful war.
Then Philomel her mournful lay rej)eats,
And through her throat breathes mclanclioly sweet*
Still Iiiglicr yet wild rugged rocks arise,
That all ascent to human foot, denies,
An<l strike beholders with a di-cnd Hiir])ri8e.
This ])aradise these towering hills surround,
That thither is one only passage found.
Increasing brooks roll down the mountain's side,
And aa they pass the o]>posing j^eubles chide.

8M ON BEAUTY.

But vernal showers refresh the blooming year.
Their only season is eternal spring,
Which hovers o'er them with a downy wing j
Blossoms and fruits at once the trees adorn
With glowing blushes, like the rosy morn.

The way that to this stately palace goes,
Of myrtle trees, lies 'twixt two even rows,
Which, towering high, with outstretched arms dit

played
Over our heads a living arch have made.
To sing, my muse, the bold attempt begin,
Of awful beauties you beheld within :
The goddess sat upon a throne of gold.
Embossed with figures charming to behold ;
Here new-made Eve stood in her early bloom,
Not yet obscured with sin's sullen gloom ;
Her naked beauties do the soul confound.
From every part is given a fatal wound ;
There other beauties of a nicaner fame
Oblige the sight, whom here I shall not name.
In her right hand she did a scepter sway,
O'er all mankind ambitious to obey ;
Her lovely forehead and her killing eye.
Her blushing cheeks of a vermilion dye.
Her lip's soft pulp, her heaving snowy breast,
Her well turned arm, her handsome slender waist.
And all below veiled from the curious eye ;
Oh ! heavenly maid ! makes all beholders cry.

Her dress was plain, not pompous as a bride,
Which would her sweeter native beauties hide.
One thing I mind, a spreading hoop she wore,
Than nothing which adorns a lady more ;
With equal rage could I its beauties sing,
I'd with the liooj) make all Parnassus ring.
Around her shoulders, dangliuLC on her thronCj
A bright Tartana carelessly w as thrown
Which has already won immortal j)raise.
Most sweetly sung in Allan Kamsay's lays j
The wanton Cujjids did around her play,

ON BEAUTY.

And smiling loves upon her bosom stray ;
With purple wings they round about her flew.
And her sweet lips ti ged with ambrosial dew :
Iler air was easy, graceful was lier mien,
Her presence banished the ungrateful spleen ;
In shortj^ her divine influence refined
Our corrupt hearts, and polished mankind.

Of lovely nymphs she had a smiling train,
Fairer than those e'er graced Arcadia's plain.
The British ladies next to her took place,
Who chiefly did tlie fair assembly grace.
What blooming virgins can Britannia boast,
Their praises would all eloquence exhaust !
With ladies there my ravished eyes did meet,
That ott I've seen grace fair Edina's street.
With their broa^^ hoops cut through the willing air.
Pleased to give ^lace unto the lovely fair.

Sure this is like those blissful seats above,
Here [all] is peace, transporting joy, and love.

Should I be doomed by cruel angry fate
In some lone isle my lingering end to wait,
Yet happy I ! still happy should I be !
While blessed with virtue and a charming she;
With full content I'd fortune's pride despise,
And die still gazing on her lovely eyes.
May all the l>lessings mortals need below,
May aU the blessings heaven can bestow,
May everything that's j)leasant, good, or rars
Be the eternal portion of the Fair.

9M AN ELEGY UYOU JAMES THURBURlf.
AN ELEGY UPON JAMES THERBURN,*

IN CHATTO.

Now, Chatto, you're a dreary place.
Pale sorrow broods on ilka face;
Therburn has ran his race.
And now, and now, ah me, alas!

The carl lies dead.
Having his paternoster said,
He took a dram and went to bed,
He fell asleep, and death was glad

That he had catched him;
For Therburn was e'en ill bested,

That none did watch him.

For had the carl but been aware,

That meager death, who none does spare,

T' attempt sic things should ever dare.

As stop his pipe;
He might have come to flee or scare :

The greedy gipe.

How he'd had but a gill or twae.
Death would nae got the victory sae.
Nor put poor Therburn o'er the brae,
Into the grave;

• • t

The fumbling tellow, some folks say
Should be jobbed on baith night and day \
She had without'eu better play,

Remained still.
Barren forever and for aye,

Do what he will.

* This is the ouly instuncH; of a poem in the Scotch dialed
written by Thomson. lie liad, liowever, a very broad Scotcl:
accent.

■f The MS. is imperfect in these places,

Off THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER.

Therefore they say he got some help
In getting of the little whelp ;
But passing that, it makes me yelp,

But what remead?
Death lent him sic a cursed skelp,

That now he's dead.

Therburn, for evermore farewell,
And be thy grave both dry and deep ;
And rest thy carcase soft and well,

Free from ....
« . . . . no night . .

Disturb ♦

ON THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER f

Ye fabled Muses, I your aid disclaim,
Your airy raptures, and your fancied flame ;
True genuine woe my throbbing breast inspires.
Love prompts my lays, acd filial duty fii'es ;
My soul springs instant at the warm design.
And the lieart dictates every flowing line.
See ! where the kindest, best of mothers lies,
And death has closed her ever watching eyes ;
Has lodged at last in peace her weary breast,
And lulled her many piercing cares to rest.
No more the orphan train around her stands,
While her full heart upl>raids lier needy hands I
No more the widow's lonely fate she feels,
The shock severe that modest want coiK^eals,
The oppressor's scourge, the scorn of wealthy pride,
And poverty's unnumb(M'ed ills beside.
For see ! attended by the angelic tliroiig,
Through yonder worlds of light she glides along,
And claims the well earned rajitiires of the sky :

• The M.S. is imperfect in llicse pliiccs.

f The event to whicli these liins refer took phice on tlie 10th
of May, 1725, only a few weeks after Thomson left Edinburgk.

IM ON THE DEATH OF HIS MO THEM.

Yet fond concern recalls the mother's eye ;

She seeks the helpless orphans left beliiud ;

So hardly left ! so bitterly resigned !

Still, still ! is she my soul's diurnal theme,

The waking vision, and the wailing dream :

Amid the ruddy sun's enlivening blaze

O'er my dark eyes her dewy image plays,

And in the dread dominion of the night

Shines out again the sadly pleasing sight.

Triumphant virtue all around her darts,

And more than volumes every look imparts —

Looks, soft, yet awful ; melting, yet serene ;

Where both the mother and the saint are seen.

But ah ! that night — that torturing night remain! \

May darkness dye it with the deepest stains,

May joy on it forsake her rosy bowers.

And streaming sorrow blast its baleful hours,

When on the margin of the briny flood.

Chilled with a sad presaging damp I stood,

Took the last look, ne'er to behold her more.

And mixed our murmurs with the wavy roar ;

Heard the last words fall from her pious tongue,

Then, wild into the bulging vessel flung.

Which soon, too soon, conveyed me from her sight,

Dearer than life, and liberty, and light !

Why was I then, ye powers, reserved for this ?

Nor sunk that moment in the vast abyss ?

Devoured at once by the relentless wave.

And whelmed forever in a watery grave? —

Down, ye wild wishes of unruly woe ! —

I see her with immortal beauty glow ;

The early wrinkle, care-contracted, gone.

Her tears all wiped, and all her sorrows flown ;

The exalting voice of Heaven I hear her breathe,

To soothe her soul in agonies of death.

I see her through the mansions blessed above,

And now she meets her dear expecting love.

Heart-cheering sight ! but yet, alas ! o'erspread

By the dark gloom of Grief's uncheerful sliade.

Come then, of reason the reflecting hour,

TO THE MEMORY OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 83$

And let me trust the kind o'erruling Power,
Who from tlie night commands the shining day,*
The poor man's portion and the orphan's stay.

TO THE MEMORY OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

His tibi me rebus quaedam divina Voluptas
Percepit, atque Horror ; quod sic Natura tu4 vi
Tarn manifesta patet ex omui parte retecta.

Lucretius.

Shall the great soul of Newton quit this earth,f
To mingle with his stars ; and every Muse,
Astonished into silence, shun the weight

* In most previous editions tliis line is thus rendered —
" Wlio from the right commands the shining day. '
Mr. Robert Bell introduced the reading " night."

f These verses were inscribed to Sir Robert Walpole, and
published immediately after the death of Sir Isaac Newton,
which took place on the 20th of March, 1727. The dedication
to Walpole ran as follows : —

" TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR ROBERT WALPOLE, KNIGHT 0»
THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER.

" Sir, — Since I have ventured to write a poem on a gentle-
man who is universally acknowledged to be the honor of our
country as a philosopher, prompted by the same ambition, I
address it to her most illu.stritjus patiiot.

"Though, by the wise choice of the ImjsI of Kings, you are
engaged in the highest and most active scenes of life, balanc-
ing tlie power of Europe, watching over our common welfare,
informing the whole body of society and commerce, and
even, like H<'aven, dispensing happiness to the discontented
and the ungrateful ; though ihus gloriously employed, yet yom
are not less attentive, in the iiour of leisure, to the variety,
tx;;iuty, and magniticenco of nature ; nor less delighted and
astonislw;!] at the disecjvcries of the incompan'ble Newton.
The Hjinie comprehensive g(;nius wliich way .soever it lookfl
must have a steady, clear Htid unbounded prospect.

" Hut not to enorf)aeh any further on your iini>ortant mo-
ments, all devoted to the good (;f mankind, I once more plead
the dignity ol my subject for niy cxruse in this approach, and
beg leave to subs(;ril)e myself, with tlie sinceiest veneratioa
Sir, your most faithful, humble servant, " J a.mks Thomson,"

SM TO THE MEMORY OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON,

Of honors due to his illustrious name?

But what can man ? — E'en now the sons of light,

In strains high warbled to seraphic lyre,

Hail his arrival on the coast of bliss.

Yet am not I deterred, though high the theme,

And sung to harps of angels, for with you,

Ethereal flames ! ambitious, I aspire

In Nature's general symphony to join.

And what new wonders can you show your guest 1
Who, while on this dim spot, where mortals ton
Clouded in dust, from Motion's simple laws,
Could trace the secret hand of Providence,
Wide- working through this universal frame.

Have ye not listened while he bound the suns
And planets to their spheres ! the unequal task
Of humankind till then. Oft had they rolled
O'er erring man the year, and oft disgraced
The pride of schools, before their course was known
Full in its causes and effects to him.
All-piercing sage ! Who sat not down and dreamed
Romantic schemes, defended by the din
Of specious words, and tyranny of names ;
And, bidding his amazing mind attend.
And with heroic patience years on years
Deep-searching saw at last the system dawn,
And shine, of all his race, on him alone.

What were his raptures then ! how pure ! how
strong !
And what the triumphs of old Greece and Rome,
By his diminished, but the pride of boys
In some small fray victorious ! when instead
Of shattered parcels of this earth usurped
By violence unmanly, and sore deeds
Of cruelty and blood, Nature herself
Stood all subdued by him, and open laid
Her every latent glory to his view.

All intellectual eye, our solar round
First gazing through, he by the blended powet
Of gravitation and projection saw
The whole in silent harmony revolve.

TO THE MEMORY OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. 827

From unassisted vision liid, the moons

To cheer remoter planets numerous formed,

By him in all their mingled tracts were seen.

He also fixed our wandering Queen of Night,

Whether she wanes into a scanty orb,

Or, waxing broad, with her pale shadowy lights

In a soft deluge overflows the sky.

Her every motion clear-discernmg, he

Adjusted to the mutual main, and taught

Why now the mighty mass of Avater swells

Resistless, heaving on the broken rocks,

And the full river turning : till again

The tide revertive, unattracted, leaves

A yellow waste of idle sands behind.

Then breaking hence, he took his ardent flight
Through the blue infinite ; and every star
Which the clear concave of a winter's night
Pours on the eye, or astronomic tube,
Far stretching, snatches from the dark abyss ;
Or such as further in successive skies
To fancy shine alone, at his approach
Blazed into suns, the living center each
Of an harmonious system : all combined.
And ruled unerring by that single power,
Which draws the stone projected to the ground.

O unprofuse magnificence divin

O wisdom truly perfect ! thus to call
From a few causes such a scheme of things.
Effects so various, beautiful, and great,
A universe complete ! And O, beloved
Of Heaven ! whose well jiurged penetrative eye
The mystic veil transpiercing, inly scanned
The rising, moving, wide-established fame.
He, first of men, with awful wing })ursued
The Comet through the long ellij)tic curve.
As round innumerous worlds he wound his waj ;
Till, to the forehead of our evening sky
Returned, the bla/ing wonder glares anew,
And o'er the trembling nations shakes dismay.
The heavens are all his own ; from the wild rult

tS8 TO THE MEMORY OF SIR ISAAC NEWTOH,

Of whirling Vortices, and circling Spheres,
To their first great simplicity restored,
The schools astonished stood ; but found it vain
To combat still with demonstration strong,
And, unawakened, dream beneath the blaze
Of truth. At once their pleasing visions fled.
With the gay shadows of the morning mixed,
When Newton rose, our philosophic sun !

The aerial flow of Sound was known to him,
From whence it first in wavy circles breaks.
Till the touched organ takes the message in.
Nor could the darting beam of speed immense
Escape his swift pursuit, and measuring eye.
E'en Light itself, which everything displays
Shone undiscovered, till his brighter mind
Untwisted all the shining robe of day ;
And, from the whitening undistinguished blaze,
Collecting every ray into his kind.
To the charmed eye educed the gorgeous train
Of parent colors. First the flaming Red
Sprung vivid forth ; the tawny Orange next ;
And next delicious Yellow ; by whose side
Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing Green ;
Then the pure Blue, that swells autumnal skies
Ethereal played ; and then, of sadder hue,
Emerged the deepened Indigo, as when
The heavy skirted evening droops with frost ;
While the last gleamings of refracted light
Died in the fainting Violet away.
These, when the clouds distill the rosy shower.
Shine out distinct adown the watery bow ;
While o'er our heads the dewy vision bends
Delightful, melting on the fields beneath.
Myriads of mingling dyes from these result,
And myriads still remain ; infinite source
Of beauty, ever blushing, ever new.

Did ever poet image aught so fair,
Dreaming in whispering groves, by the hoarse brook;
Or prophet, to whose rapture heaven descends?
K'en now the setting sun and shifting clouds,

TO THE MEMORY OF StR ISAAC NEWTON, SM

Seen, Greenwich, from thy lovely heights, declare
How just, how beauteous the refractive law.
The noiseless tide of Time, all bearing down
To vast eternity's unbounded sea,
Where the green islands of the happy shine,
He stemmed alone ; and to the source (involved
Deep in primeval gloom) ascending, raised
His lights at equal distances, to guide
Historian, wildercd on his darksome way.

But who can number up his labors ? who
His high discoveries sing? when but a few
Of the deep studying race can stretch their minds
To what he knew — in fancy's lighter thought.
How shall the muse then grasp the mighty theme?

What wonder thence that his devotion swelled
Responsive to his knowledge ? For could he,
Whose piercing menial eye diffusive saw
The finished university of things,
In all its order, magnitude, and parts,
Forbear incessant to adore that Power
Who fills, sustains, and actuates the whole ?

Say, ye who best can tell, ye happy few,
Who saw him in the softest lights of life.
All un withheld, indulging to his friends
The vast unborrowed treasures of his mind,
Oh, speak the wondrous man ! how mild, how ealm|
How greatly humble, how divinely good ;
How firm established on eternal truth ;
Fervent in doing well, with every nerve
Still pressing on, forgetful of the past,
And panting for perfection : far above
Those little cares, and visionary joys,
That so perplex the fond iinj):issi()ned heart
Of ever cheated, ev(^r trusting man.

And you, ye liopclcss gloomy-minded tribe,
You who, uncons(!i()US of those nol)l<'r fiights
That reach im|)aticnt at irntnort;il life.
Against the prime endearing privilege
Of B"ing dare (;ontend, — say, can a soul
Of such extensive, deep, tremen<lous powers,

^ TO THE MEMORY OE SIR ISAAC NEWTOU.

Enlarging still, be but a finer breath

Of spirits dancing through their tubes awhile,

And then forever lost in vacant air?

But hark ! methinks I hear a warning voice,
Solemn as when some awful change is come, [full •,
Sound through the world — " 'Tis done!— The measure's
And I resign my charge." — Ye raoldering stones,
That build the towering pyramid, the proud
Triumphal arch, the monument effaced
By ruthless ruin, and whate'er supports
The worshiped name of hoar antiquity,
Down to the dust ! what grandeur can ye boasi
While Newton lifts his column to the skies,
Beyond the waste of time. Let no weak drop
Be shed for him. The virgin in her bloom
Cut off, the joyous youth, and darling child,
These are the tombs that claim the tender tear,
And elegiac song. But Newton calls
For other notes of gratulation high,
That now he wanders through those endless worlds
He here so well descried, and wondering talks,
And hymns their Author with his glad compeers.
O Britain's boast ! wliether with angels thou
Sittest in dread discourse, or fellow-blessed,
Who joy to see the honor of their kind ;
Or whether, mounted on cherubic wing,
Thy swift career is with the whirling orbs.
Comparing things with things, in rapture lost.
And grateful adoration, for that light
So plenteous rayed into thy mind below,
From Light himself ; oh, look with pity down
On humankind, a frail erroneous race !
Exalt the spirit of a downward world !
O'er thy dejected Country chief preside,
And be her genius called ! her studies raise,
Coircct her manners, and inspire her youth. [forth,
l''or, though depraved and sunk, she brought the«
And glories in thy name ; she points ihee out
To all her sons, and bids tlieni eye thy star :
While in expectance of the second life,

A PARAPHRASE ON THE LATTER, ETC. 881

When time shall be no more, thy sacred dust
Sleeps with her kings, and dignities the scene.

A PARAPHRASE ON THP: LATTER PART OF
THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF ST. MAl^THEW.*

Whex ray breast labors with oppressive care,
And o'er my cheek descend the falling tear ;

While all my warring passions are at strife,
O, let me listen to the word of life !
Raptures deep felt His doctrine did impart,
And thus He raised from earth the droojiing heart.

" Think not when all your scanty stores afford,
Is spread at once upon the sparing board ;
Think not, when worn the homely robe appears.
While on the roof the howling temj)esl bears ;
What further shall this feeble life sustain,
And what shall clothe these shivering limbs again 1
Say, does not life its nourishnienl exceed?
And the fair body its investing weed ?

" Behold ! and look away your low despair —
See the light tenants of the barren air :
To them, nor stores, nor granaries belong.
Naught, but the woodland, aiid the pleasing song ;
Yet, your kind heavenly Father bends his eye
On the least wing that flits ahnig the sky.
To him they sing, when Spring renews the plain,
To him they cry, in Winter's pineliiug reign ;
Nor is their muse, nor their j)]aint in vain ;
He hears the gay and the distressfid call,
And with unsj»aririg bounty tills them all.

'■'Observe the rising lily's snowy graco.
Observe the various vegetable race ;
They neither toil, iioi- spin, but careless grow.
Yet se(! how warm tliev bln.sli I how bri^lit thev glow!
Wliat Higal vestments (•an willi them compare !

* 'I'hiH Pariiphiise, mid the tlii(!c pieces Itiiit iminediatciv foj
low, were publiHlied in ITTSW

A HAPPY MAN.

What king so shining ! or what queen so fair !
If ceaseless thus the fowls of Iieaven he feeds,
If o'er the fields such lucid robes he spreads :
Will he not care for you, ye faithless, say ?
Is he unwise ? or are ye less than they ?

THE HAPPY MAN.

Hi's not the happy man, to whom is given

A plenteous fortune by indulgent Heaven ;

Whose gilded roofs on shining columns rise,

And painted walls enchant the gazer's oyos ;

Whose table flows with hospitable cheer,

And all the various bounties of tlie year ;

Whose valleys smile, whose gardens breathe the spring,

Whose curved mountains bleat, and forests sing ;

For whom the cooling sliado in summer twines.

While his full cellars give their generous wines ;

From whose wide fields unbounded autunm pours

A golden tide into his swelling stores ;

Whose winter laughs ; for whom the liberal gales

Stretch the big sheet, and toiling commerce sails ;

Whom yielding crowds attend, and })]easure servos ;

While youth, and health, and vigor string his nerves.

E'en not all these, in one rich lot combined.

Can make the happy man, without tlie mind ;

Where judgment sits clear-sighted, and surveys

The chain of reason with unerring gaze ;

Where fancy lives, and to the lii-ightcning eyes,

Her fairer scenes, and bolder figures rise ;

Where social love exerts her soft command,

And lays the passion with a tend(M- hand,

Whence every virtue flows, in rival strife,

And all the moral harmony of life.

Nor canst thou, Oodington,* tliis truth decline :
Thine is the fortune, and the mind is thine.

* Qrtox^e Bub Dndinarton, aftorwunls Lord iMclfunhA

VMM INCOMPARABLE SOPORIFIC DOCTOR. 3$S

rHE INCOMPARABLE SOPORIFIC DOCTOR.*

SwEKT, sleeky Doctor ! dear pacific soul !

Lay at the beef, and suck the vital bowl !

Still let the involving siuoke around thee fly,

And broad-looked dullness settle in thine eye.

Ah ! soft in down these dainty limbs repose,

And in the very lap of slumber doze ;

But chiefly on the lazy day of grace,

Call forth the lambent glories of thy face ;

If aught the thoughts of dinner can prevail,

And sure the Sunday's dinner cannot fail,

To the thin church in sleepy pomp proceed,

And lean on the lethargic book thy head ;

Those eyes wipe often with the hallowed lawn,

Profoundly nod, immeasurably yawn ;

Slow let the prayers by thy meek lips be sung,

Nor let thy thoughts be distanced by thy tongue ;

If e'er the lingerers are within a call,

Or if on prayers thou deign'st to think at all.

Yet — only yet — the swimming head we bend ;

But when serene, the pul})it you ascend,

Througli every joint a gentle horror creeps,

And round you the consenting audience sleeps.

So when an ass with sluggish front appears,

The horses start and prick their (piivering ears ;

But soon as ere the sage is heard to pray,

The fields all thunder, and they bound away.

HYMN ON SOLITUDE.

Hail, mildly plcasintx Solitude,
Comj)anion oi the wi^r and good ;
But from whose lioly, |)i('iciiig eye,
The her<l of fools and villains fly.

Dr Patrick Murdoch.

114 HYMN ON SOLITUDE.

Oh ! how I love with thee to walk,
And listen to thy whispered talk,
Which innocence and truth imparts,
And melts the most obdurate hearts.

A thousand shapes you wear with ease»
And still in every shape you please :
Now wrapt in some mysterious dream,
A lone phik>*opher you seem ;
Now quick from hill to vale you fly,
And now you sweep the vaulted sky ;
A shepherd next, you haunt the plain,
And warble forth youi- oaten strain ;
A lover now with all the grace
Of that sweet passion in your face ;
Then, calmed to friendship, you assume
The gentle looking Hertford's bloom,
As, with her Musidora, she
(Her Musidora fond of thee)
Amid the long- withdrawing vale.
Awakes the rivaled nightingale.

Thine is the balmy breath of mom,
Just as the dew-be)it rose is born ;
And while meridian fervors beat,
Thine is the woodland dumb retreat ;
But chief, when evening scenes decay.
And the faint landscape swims away,
Thine is the doubtful soft decline,
And that best hour of musing thine.

Descending angels bless thy train.
The virtues of the sage, and swain ;
Plain Innocence in white arrayed
Before tliee lifts her fearless head ;
Religion's beatns around thee shine.
And cheer thy glooms witli light divine .';
About thee sports sweet Liberty ;
And rapt Urania sings to thee.

BRITANNIA

Oh, let me pierce thy secret cell !
And in thy deep recesses dwell.
Perhaps from Norwood's oak-clad hill.
When meditation has her fill.
I just may cast my careless eyes,
Where London's spiry turrets rise ;
Think of its crimes, it cares, its jiain, —
Then shield me in the woods again.

BRITANNIA.*

-^— Et tantas audetis toUere moles ?

Quos ego — sed motos prsestat componere fluctUB.

Post mihi non simili poena comniisn luelis.

Maturate fugam, regique hsec dicite vestro :

Non illi imperiuni pelagi, ssevumque tridentem.

Sed mihi sorte datum. ViRGlL.

As on the sea-beat shore Britannia sat,
Of her degenerate sons the faded fame,

* The circumstances to which the poem refers are as follows :
—In the summer of 1726, Admiral Hosier- had been sent to the
Spanish West Indies to protect our commerce, with strict in-
junctions to avoid reprisals ; and soon afterwards the Spanish
minister was abrui)t]y recalled from the court of Si. James'
leaving behind him a memorial which was desciibed in the
King's Speech, on opening the Parliament in January, 1727, as
Tery little short of a declaration of war. The Spaniards were
the first to commence hostilities, by investing Gibraltar, and
attacking the English (iag in American waters. Early in 1728,
however, preliminaries of peace were iiri'anged and ratified at
Madrid, to the undisguised delight of the English minister,
who was thus enabled to close an arduous session amidst the
acclamations of the people. But tlie exultation was brief ; for,
notwithstanding that this peace was formally agreed to, and
the preliminaries signed, tiie Spaniards continued to ob.struct
our trade, and make prizes of our nicnhanl shii)s. When Par-
liament met in January, 172!), it was besieged by petitions from
.he inerchanlile interest, demanding icdicss. A committee
was api)ointed to investigate tlu; subject ; Spain was dcchireti
by » unanimous resolution to have violatcii tiie treaty ; and an
address was vot (id to his Majesty, praying tiiat he would olv
tain satisfaction for the depredations conunitled on his subjects
It was at this juncture Britannia nppeared.

Mt BRITANNIA.

Deep in her anxious heart, revolving sad :

Bare was her throbbing bosom to the gale,

That, hoarse and hollow, from the bleak surge blew ;

Loose flowed her tresses; rent her azure robe

Hung o'er the deep ; from her majestic brow

She tore the laurel, and she tore the bay ;

Nor ceased the copious grief to bathe her cheek,

Nor ceased her sobs to murmur to the main.

Peace discontented nigh, departing, stretched

Her dove-like wings : and War, though greatly roused,

Yet mourns his fettered hands. While thus the Queen

Of nations spoke ; and what she said the muse

Recorded, faithful, in unbidden verse.

" E'en not yon sail, that, from the sky-mixed wave,
Dawns on the sight, and wafts the Royal Youth,*
A freight of future glory to my shore ;
E'en not the flattering view of golden days.
And rising periods yet of bright renown,
Beneath the Parents, and their endless line
Through late revolving time, can soothe my rage ;
While, unchastised, the insulting Spaniard dares
Infest the trading flood, full of vain war.
Despise my navies, and iny merchants seize,
As, trusting to false peace, they fearless roam
The world of waters wild ; made, by the toil.
And liberal blood of glorious ages, mine :
Nor bursts ray sleeping thunder on their head.
Whence this unwonted patience ? this weak doubt f
This tame beseeching of rejected peace ?
This meek forbearance ? this unnative fear.
To generous Britons never known before ?
And sailed my fleets for this ; on Indian tides
To float, inactive, with the veering winds ?
The mockery of war ! while hot disease,
And sloth distempered, swept off burning crowds,
For action ardent ; and amid the deep,
Inglorious, sunk them in a water}' grave.
There now they lie beneath the rolling flood,

* Frederick, i^rince of Wales, then lately arrived.

BRITANNIA. 887

Far from their friends, and country, unavenged ;
And back the droo|.ing war-ship comes again,
Dispirited and thin ; her sons ashamed
Thus idly to review their native shore.
With not one glory sparkling in their eye.
One triumph on their tongue. A passenger,
The violated merchant comes along ;
That far sought wealth for which the noxious gale
He drew, and sweat beneath equator suns.
By lawless force detained ; a force that soon
VVould melt away, and every spoil resign.
Were once the British lion lionid to roar.
Whence is it that the proud Iberian thus,
In their own well asserted element,
Dares rouse to wrath the mnsters of the main?
Who told him that the big incumbent war
Would not, ere this, have rolled his trembling porta
In smoky ruin ? and his guilty stores.
Won by the ravage of a })utchered world,
Yet unatoned, sunk in the swallowing deep,
Or led, the glittering prize, into the Thames?
" There was a time (Oh, let my languid sons
Resume their spirit at tlie rousing thought ! )
When all the pride of S]>ain, in one dread fleet.
Swelled o'er the laboring surge ; like a whole heaven
Of clouds, wide rolled before the boundless breeze.
Gayly the splendid armament along
Exultant plowed, reflecting a red gleam.
As sunk the sun, o'er all the flaming Vast ;
Tall, gorgeous, and elate ; drunk with the dream
Of easy conquest ; while their bloated war.
Stretched out from sky to sky, their gathered force
(3f ages held in its capacious woml).
But, soon, regardless of the cumbrous pomp,
My dauntless Britons came, a gloomy few,
\V ith tempest black, the goodly scene deformed,
And laid their glory waste. Tiie bolts of fate
Resistless thundered through their yielding sides ;
Fierce o'er their l>cauty blazed tlu^ lurid flame ;
And seized in horrid grasp, or shattered wide,

988 BRITANNIA.

Amid the mighty waters, deep they sunt
Then too from every promontory chill,
Rank fen, and cavern where the wild wave works,
I swept confederate winds, and swelled a storm.
Round the glad isle, snatched by the vengeful blast,
The scattered remnants drove ; on the blind shelve,
And pointed rock, that marks tlie indented shore,
Relentless dashed, where loud the northern main,
Howls through the fractured Caledonian isles.

" Such were the dawnings of my watery reign ;
But since how vast it grew, how absolute,
E'en in those troubled times, when dreadful Blake
Awed angry nations with the British name,
Let every humbled state, let Europe say,
Sustained, and balanced, by my naval arm.
Ah, what must those immortal spirits think
Of your poor shifts ? Those, for their country's good,
Who faced the blackest danger, knew no fear,
No mean submission, but commanded peace.
Ah, how with indignation must they burn !
(If aught but joy can touch ethereal breasts)
With shame ! with grief ! to see their feeble sons
Shrink from that empire o'er the conquered seas,
For which their wisdom planned, their council glowed
And their veins bled through many a toiling age ! *

" Oh, first of human blessings ! and supreme !
Fair Peace ! how lovely, how delightful thou !
By whose wide tie the kindred sons of men
Like brothers live, in amity combined
And unsuspicious faith ; while honest toil
Gives every joy, and to those joys a right.
Which idle, barbarous rapine but usurps.
Pure is thy reign ; when, unaccursed by blood.
Naught, save the sweetness of indulgent showers,
Trickling distills into the verdant glebe ;
Instead of mangled carcasses, sad-seen,

• It is the ministry of Waipole, recently liiuded to the skieg
for transcendent patriotism, in tlie dcdiciition of tiie lines to
the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, that is here cimiged with
having brought England to this condition of degradation.

BRITANNIA. ^d

"When the blithe sheaves lie scattered o'er the field ;

When only shining shares, the crooked knife,

And hooks imprint the vegetable wound ;

When the land blushes with the rose alone,

The failing fruitage, and the bleeding vine,

Oh, Peace ! thou source and soul of social life,

Beneath whose calm inspiring influence,

Science his views enlarges. Art refines,

And swelling Commerce opens all her ports ;

Blessed be the man divine who gives us thee !

Who bids the trumpet hush its horrid clang,

Nor blow the giddy nations into rage ;

Who sheaths the murderous blade ; the deadly gun

Into the well-piled armory returns ;

And every vigor, from the work of death

To grateful industry converting, makes

The country flourish, and the city smile.

Unviolated, him the virgin sings ;

And him the smiling mother to her train ;

Of him the shepherd, in the peaceful dale.

Chants ; and, the treasures of liis labor sure,

The husbandman of him, as at the plow,

Or team, he toils ; with him the sailor soothes,

Beneath the trembling moon, the midnight wave ;

And the full city, warm, from street to street,

And shop to shop, responsive, rings of him.

Nor joys on land alone : his praise extends

Far as the sun rolls the diffusive day ;

Far as the breeze can bear the gifts of peace,

Till all the happy nations catch the song.

" What would not. Peace ! the patriot bear foi
thee ?
What painful paiicncc? What incessant care?
What mixed anxiety ? What sleepless toil ?
E'en from the rash protected wiiat reproach?
For he thy value knows ; thy friendship he
To human nature ! but the better thou.
The richer of delight, suriietiines the moro
Inevitable, war, wlieii rufliaii force
Awakes the fury of an injured state.

Ulb BRITANNtA.

E'en the good patient man whom reason rules,
Roused by bold insult, and injurious rage,
With sharp and sudden check the astonished sons
Of violence confounds ; firm as his cause,
His bolder heart, in awful justice clad ;
His eyes effulging a peculiar fire ;
And as he charges through the prostrate war,
His keen arm teaches faithless men no more
To dare the sacred vengeance of the just.

" And what, my thoughtless sons, should fire you
more
Than when your well-earned empire of the deep
The least beginning injury receives?
What better cause can call your lightning forth?
Your thunder wake ? your dearest life demand ?
What better cause, than when your country sees
The sly destruction at her vitals aimed ?
For oh ! it much imports you, 'tis your all,
To keep your trade entire, entire the force
And honor of your fleets ; o'er that to watch,
E'en with a hand severe, and jealous eye.
In intercourse be gentle, generous, just,
By wisdom polished, and of manners fair ;
But on the sea be terrible, untamed.
Unconquerable still : let none escape,
Who shall but aim to touch your glory there.
Is there the man into the lion's den
Who dares intrude, to snatch his young away ?
And is a Briton seized ? and seized beneath
The slumbering terrors of a British fleet ?
Then ardent rise ! Oh, great in vengeance rise I
O'erturn the proud, teach rapine to restore.
And as you ride sublimely round the world,
Make every vessel stoop, make every state
At once their welfare and their duly know.
This is your glory ; this your wisdom ; this
'I'he native power for whi(;h you were designed
By fate, when fate designed the firmest state
That e'er was seated on the siibjct sea ;
A state, alone, where Liberty should live.

BRITANNIA. 84J

In these late times, this eveninj? of mankind,

When Athens, Rome, and Carlhage are no more,

The world almost in slavisli sloth dissolved.

For this, these rocks around your coast wore throw* :

For this, yoiir oaks, peculiar liardcncd, shoot

Strong into sturdy growth ; for this, your liearts

Swell wdth a sullen courage, growing still

As danger grows ; and strength, and toil for thLi

Are liberal poured o'er all the fervent land.

Then cherish this, this unexpeusive power,

Undangerous to the public, ever prompt.

By lavish nature thrust into your hand ;

And, unencumbered with the bulk immense

Of conquest, whence huge empires rose and fell

Self-crushed, extend your reign from shore to sjjor*,

Where'er the wind your high behests can blow.

And fix it deep on this eternal base.

For should the sliding fabric once give way.

Soon slackened quite, and past recovery broke,

It gathers ruin as it rolls along,

Steep rushing down to that devouring gulf,

WTiere many a mighty em})ire ])uried lies.

And should the big redundant flood of trade.

In which ten thousand thousand labors join

Their several currents, till the boandk'ss tide

Rolls in a radiant deluge o'er the land ;

Should this bright stream, the least infected, point

Its course another way, o'er otlier lands

The various treasure would resistless pour

Ne'er to be won again ; its ancient tract

Left a vih; channel, desolate, and dead.

With all around a miserabh' waste.

Not Egypt, were her bettei' heaven, the Nile,

Turned in the pride of flow ; when o\'r his rocks,

And roaring eatai-acts, beyond the reaeli

Of diz/y vision ]»i!ed, in one wide Hash

An Krhioj/ian deluge foiuns amain

(Whence wondering f;ible tra'-i'd him from the sky);

E'l'U not that prime; of earth, where iiarvests crowd

On untilji'd harvests, all the teeming year,

S49 BRITANNIA.

If of the fat o'erflowing culture robbed,
Were then a more uncomfortable wild,
Sterile, and void, than, of her trade deprived,
Britons, your boasted isle : her princes sunk ;
Her high built honor raoldered to the dust ;
Unnerved her force ; her spirit vanquished quite ;
With rapid wing her riches fled away ;
Her unfrequented ports alone the sign
Of what she was ; her merchants scattered wide ;
Her hollow shops shut up ; and in her streets,
Her fields, woods, markets, villages, and roads.
The cheerful voice of labor heard no more.

" Oh, let not then waste luxury impair
That manly soul of toil which strings your nerves,
And your own proper happiness creates !
Oh, let not the soft, penetrating plague
Creep on the freeborn mind ! and working there.
With the sharp tooth of many a new-formed want^
Endless, and idle all, eat out the heart
Of liberty ; the liigh conception blast
The noble sentiment, the impatient scorn
Of base subjection, and the swelling wish
For general good, erasing from the mind ;
While naught save nai'row selfishness succeeds.
And low design, the sneaking passions all
Let loose, and reigning in the rankled breast.
Induced at last, by scarce perceived degrees,
Sapping the very frame of government
And life, a total dissolution comes ;
Sloth, ignorance, dejection, flattery, fear.
Oppression raging o'er the waste he makes ;
The human being almost quite extinct :
And the whole state in broad corruption sinki.
Oh, shun that gulf : that gaping ruin shun !
And countless ages roll it far away
From you, ye heaven beloved ! May liberty,
The light of life ! the sun of humankind !
Whence heroes, bards, and patriots borrow flame,
E'en where the keen depressive norLii descends,
*Still spread, exalt, and actuate your powers,

tN THE DEA TH OF MR. AIKMAN. Sa

While slavish southern climates beam in vain ;
And may a public spirit from the throne,
Where every virtue sits, go copious forth,
Live o'er the land ; the finer arts inspire ;
Make thoughtful Science raise his pensive head ;
IJlow the fresh bay, bid Industry rejoice.
And the rough sons of lowest labor smile :
As when, profuse of Spring, the loosened West
Lifts up the pining year, and balmy breathes
Youth, life, and love, and beauty o'er the world.

" But haste we from these melancholy shores,
Nor to deaf winds, and waves, our fruitless plaint
Pour weak ; the country claims our active aid ;
Then let us roam : and where we find a spark
Of public virtue, blow it into flame.
Lo ! now, my sons, the sons of freedom ! meet
\\\ awful senate ; thither let us fly ;
Burn in the patriot's thought, flow from his tongue
In fearless truth ; myself transformed, preside,
And shed the spirit of Britannia round."

This said ; her fleeting form and airy train
Sunk in the gale ; and naught but ragged rocks
Rushed on the broken eye ; and naught was heard
But the rough cadence of the dashing wave.

ON THE DEATH OF MR. AIRMAN.*

Oh, couhl I draw, ray friend, my genuine mind.
Just as tlie living forms by thee designed ;
Of Rai^hael's figures none sliould fairer shine.
Nor Titian's colors longer last than mine.
A mind in wisdom old, in lenience young.

* Mr. Williiini Aikmaii was n native of Scotland, where he
waH Ijorii in ]()82. 1I(; studied under Mcdinda ; afterwards
visited London, fiavelcd lo Italy and Turkey, and returned to
S<;otland. n(; Huhse()uent.ly setllcd in liondon, hut, fulling into
a ianj^uisliint,^ diHteniixM', lie died at iiw liou.se in Leicester-fleld*
in Jiuie 1721. Aikinan painted the portraits of many of lb*
nobility.

tU ON THE DEA TH OF MR. AlKMAff.

From fervent truth where every virtue sprang ;

Where all was real, modest, plain, sincere ;

Worth above show, and goodness unsevere.

Viewed round and round, as lucid diamonds throw

Still as you turn them a revolving glow,

So did his mind reflect with secret ray,

In various virtues. Heaven's internal day ;

Whether in high discourse it soared sublime,

And sprung impatient o'er the bounds of Time,

Or wandering nature through with raptured eye,

Adored the hand that turned the azure sky ;

Whether to social life he bent his thought.

And the right poise of mingling passions sought

Gay converse blessed ; or in the thoughtful grove

Bid the heart open every source of love ;

New varying lights still set before your eyes

The just, the good, the social, or the wise.

For such a death who can, who would refuse

The friend a tear, a verse the mournful muse ?

Yet pay we just acknowledgment to heaven,

Though snatched so soon, that Aikman e'er was given,

A friend, when dead, is but removed from sight,

Hid in the luster of eternal light ;

Oft with the mind he wonted converse keeps

In the lone walk, or when the body sleeps

Lets in a wandering ray, and all elate

Wings and attracts her to another state ;

And, when the parting storms of life are o'er.

May yet rejoin him in a happier shore.

As those we love, decay, we die in part,

String after string is severed from the heart ;

Till loosened life at last — but breathing clay.

Without one pang, is glad to fall away.

Unhappy he who latest feels the blow.

Whose eyes have wept o'er every friend laid low,

Dragged lingering on from partial death to death \

And dying, all he can resign is breath.

ON MJiS. MENDEZ: BIRTHDAY, 8-16

ON MRS. MENDEZ' BIRTHDAY.

WHO WAS BOBN ON VALENTINb's DAT.

Think is the gentle day of love,

When youths and virgins try their fate j

When, deep retiring to the grove,

Each feathered songster weds his mate.

With tempered beams the skies are bright.
Earth decks in smiles her pleasing face ;

Such is the day that gave thee light,
And speaks as such thy every grace.

ON THE REPORT THAT A WOODEN BRIDGB

WAS TO BE BUILT AT WESTMINSTBE.

By Rufus' hall, where Thames polluted flows.
Provoked, the Genius of the river rose,
And thus exclaimed : " Have I, ye British swains,
Have I for ages laved your fertile plains ?
Given herds, and flocks, and villages increase,
And fed a richer than a golden fleece ?
Have I, ye merchants, with each swcljing tide,
Poured Afric's treasure in, and India's pride ?
Lent you the fruit of every nation's toil ?
Made every climate yours and every soil ?
Yet, pilfered from the poor, by gaming base.
Yet must a wooden bridge by waves disgrace?
Tell not to foreign streams llio shameful tale.
And be it published in no (4allic vale."
He said ; and j)lunging to his crystal dome,
While o'er his head the circling waters foam.

846 TO THE PRINCE OF WALES.

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF
WALES.

While secret-leaguing nations frown around,
Ready to pour the long-expected storm ;

While she, who wont the restless Gaul to bound,
Brittania, drooping, grows an empty form ;

While on our vitals selfish parties prey.

And deep corruption eats our soul away ;

Yet in the Goddess of the Main appears
A gleam of joy, gay-flushing every grace,

As she the cordial voice of millions hears,
Rejoicing, zealous, o'er thy rising race :

Straight her rekindling eyes resume their fire.

The Virtues smile, the Muses tune the lyre.

But more enchanting than the Muse's song.
United Britons thy dear offspring hail ;*

The city triumphs through her glowing throng,
The shepherd tells his transport to the dale ;

The sons of roughest toil forget their pain.

And the glad sailors cheer the midnight main.

Can aught from fair Augusta's f gentle blood.

And thine, thou friend of liberty ! be born ;
Can aught save what is lovely, generous, good ;

What will, at once, defend us, and adorn ?
From thence, prophetic joy ! new Edwards eyes,
Kew Henries, Annas, and Elizas rise.

May fate my fond devoted days extend

To sing the promised glories of thy reign !
What though, by years depressed, my muse might
bend,

* The elder brotlier of George III.

f The Princess Augusta of 8axe Gotlia, maiTied to Fred
•rick. Priuce of Wales.

TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT. 34"

My heart will teacli her still a noble strain :
How, with recovered Britain, will she soar.
When France insults, and Spain shall rob no mor«.

TO THE

MEMORY OF THE RIGHT HON. LORD
TALBOT,*

LATE CHANCELLOR OP GREAT BBITAHT.
ADDRESSED TO HIS SON.

While with the public, you, my Lord, lament

A friend and father lost ; permit the muse.

The muse assigned of old a double tbeme.

To praise dead worth and humble living pride,

Whose generous task begins where interest ends ;

Permit her on a Talbot's tomb to lay

This cordial verse sincere, by truth inspired.

Which means not to bestow but borrow fame.

Yes, she may sing his matchless virtues now —

Unhappy that she may. — But where begin ?

How from the diamond single out each ray.

Where all, though trembling with ten thousand iMiesi

Effuse one dazzling undivided light ?

Let the low-minded of these narrow days
No more presume to deem the lofty tale
Of ancient times, in pity to their own,
Romance. In Talbot we united saw
The piercing eye, the quick enlightened soul.
The graceful ease, the lowering tongue of Greeofl^
Joined to the virtues and the force of Rome.

Eternal wisdom, that all-<iiiickeiiiiig sun,
Whence every life, in just ])roporti()ii. draws

* Lord Talbot received the great seal on the 29lh of Novem-
ber, 1733. He was born in 1G84. lie was 8eizecl with aspasoi
la the heart, aud expired oix the 14lh Fehruary, 1737

848 TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT.

Directing light and actuating flame,
Ne'er with a larger portion of its beams
Awakened mortal clay. Hence steady, calm.
Diffusive, deep, and clear, his reason saw,
With instantaneous view, the truth of things ;
Chief what to human life and human bliss
Pertains, that noblest science, lit for man :
And hence, responsive to his knowledge, glowed
His ardent virtue. Ignorance and vice.
In consort foul, agree ; each heightening each ;
While virtue draws from knowledge brighter fire.

What grand, what comely, or what tender sensej
What talent or what virtue was not his ;
What that can render man or great, or good,
Give useful worth, or amiable grace ?
Nor could he brook in studious shade to lie,
In soft retirement, indolently pleased
With selfish peace. The siren of the wise
(Who steals the Aonian song, and, in the shape
Of Virtue, woos them from a worthless world),
Though deep he felt her charms, could never melt
His strenuous spirit, recollected, calm.
As silent night, yet active as the day.
The more the bold, the bustling, and the bad.
Press to usurp the reins of power, the more
Behooves it virtue, with indignant zeal.
To check their combination. Shall low views
Of sneaking interest or luxurious vice.
The villain's passions, quicken more to toil.
And dart a livelier vigor through the soul,
Than those that, mingled with our truest good
With present honor and immortal fame,
Involve the good of all ? An empty form
Is the weak Virtue, that amid the shade
Lamenting lies, with future schemes amused,
Wliiie wickedness and I^^olly, kindred powers,
Confound the world. A Talbot's, different far,
Sprung ardent into action ; action, that disdained
To lose in deathlike sloth one pulse of life,
That might be saved ; disdained for coward ease.

rO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT. 84d

And her insipid pleasures, to resign
The prize of glory, tlie keen sweets of toil,
And those high joys that teaeli tlie truly great
To live for others, and for olhei-s die.

Early, behold ! he breaks benign on life.
Not breathing more beneficence, the Spring
ijeads in her swelling train the gentle airs ;
While gay, behind her, stniles the kindling waste
Of ruffian storms and Winter's lawless rage.
In him Astrea, to this dim abode
Of ever wandering men, returned ajram :
To bless them his delight, to bring them back
From thorny error, from unjoyous wrong,
Into the paths of kind primeval faith.
Of happiness and justice. All his ])arts,
His virtues all, collected, sought the good
Of humankind. For that he, fervent, felt
The throb of patriots, when they model states ;
Anxious for that, nor needful sleep could hold
His still-awakened soul ; nor friends had charms
To steal, with pleasing guile, one useful hour ;
Toil knew no languor, no attraction joy.
Thus with unwearied steps, by Virtue led,
He gained the summit of that sacred hill,
Where, raised above })Iack Envy's darkening clouds,
Her spotless temj)le lifts its radiant front.
Be named, victorious ravagers, no more !
Vanish, ye human comets ! shrink your blaze 1
Ye that your glory to your terrors owe,
A.8, o'er the gazing desolated earlh,
STou scatter famine, pestilence and war ;
Vanish ! before this vernal sun of fame ;
Effulgent sweetness ! beaming life and joy.

How the heart listened while he, pleading, spoke J
While on the enlightened mind, with wiiming art,
His gentle reason so ])ersuasive stole.
That the charmed hearer tiioiight it was his own.
Ah ! when, ye studious of the laws, again
Shall such enchanting lessons bless your ear?
When shall again the darkest truths, perplexed,

860 TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT.

Be set in ample day ? when shall the harsh

And arduous open into smiling ease ?

The solid mix with elegant delight ?

His was the talent, with the purest light

At once to pour conviction on the soul,

And warm with lawful tiame the impassioned heart

That dangerous gift with him was safely lodged

By heaven — He, sacred to his country's cause,

To trample want and worth, to suffering right,

To the lone widow's and her orphan's woes.

Reserved the mighty charm. With equal brow,

Despising then the smiles or frowns of power,

He all that noblest eloquence effused,

Which generous passion, taught by reason, breathe*

Then spoke the man ; and. over barren art,

Prevailed abundant nature. Freedom then

His client was, humanity and truth.

Placed on the seat of justice, there he reigned.
In a superior sphere of cloudless day,
A pure intelligence. No tumult there,
No dark emotion, no intemperate heat.
No passion e'er disturbed the clear serene
That round him spread. A zeal for right alone.
The love of justice, like the steady sun.
Its equal ardor lent ; and, sometimes, raised
Against the sons of violence, of pride,
And bold deceit, his indignation gleamed.
Yet still by sober dignity restrained.
As intuition quick, he snatched the truth,
Yet with progressive patience, stej) by step.
Self-diffident, or to the slower kind.
He through the maze of falsehood traced it on.
Till, at the last, evolved, it full appeared,
And e'en the loser owned the just decree.

But when in senates, he, to freedom firm.
Enlightened freedom, planned salubrious laws,
His various learning, his wide knowledge, then,
His insight deep into Britannia's weal,
Spontaneous seemed from simple sense to flow,
And the plain patriot smoothed the brow of law.

TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT. 361

No spacious swell, no frothy pomp of word^*
Fell on the cheated ear : no studied maze
Of declamation, to perplex the right.
He darkening threw around ; safe in itself,
In its own force ; all-powerful Reason spoke ;
While on the great, the ruling point, at once,
lie streamed decisive day, and showed it vain
To lengthen further out the clear debate.
Conviction breathes conviction ; to the heart.
Poured ardent forth in eloquence unbid.
The heart attends : for let the venal try
Their every hardening, stupefying art.
Truth must prevail, zeal will enkindle zeal,
And Nature, skillful touched, is honest still.

Behold him in the councils of iiis prince.
What faithful light he lends ! How rare, in uourta
Such wisdom ! such abilities ! and joined
To virtue so determined, ])ublic zeal,
And honor of such adamantine proof,
As e'en corruption, hopeless, and o'erawed,
Durst not have tempted ! yet of manners mild.
And winning every heart he knew to please,
Nobly to please ; while equally he scorned
Or adulation to receive, or give.
IIa{>py the state, where wakes a ruling eye
Of such inspection keen, and general care J
Beneath a guard so vigilant, so pure,
Toil may resign his careless head to rest,
And ever-jealous freedom sleep in peace.
Ah ! lost untimely ! lost in downward days I
And many a ])atriot-counsel M'illi him lost !
Counsels, that might have hiiiiiblcil Britain's foe
Her nativ^e f(K', from eldest time by fate
Am>oii)ted, as did once a Talbot's arms.

Let learning, arts, let universal worth,
Lament a patron lost, a friend and judge,
Unlike the sons of vanity, that, veiled
Beneath the ])atron's jirostitutcd n.'ime,
Dare sacri<ic(! a worthy man to j)ri<ie,
And flush confusion o'er an honest cheek.

85S TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT.

When he conferred a grace, it seemed a debt

Which he to merit, to the public, paid,

And to the great all-bounteous Source of good !

His sympathizing heart itself received

The generous obligation he bestowed.

This, this indeed, is patronizing worth.

Their kind protector him the Muses own,

But scorn with noble pride the boasted aid

Of tasteless vanity's insulting hand.

The gracious stream, that cheers the lettered worl^

Is not the noisy gift of summer's noon,

Whose sudden current, from the naked root,

Washes the little soil which yet remained.

And only more dejects the blushing flowers :

No, 'tis the soft-descending dews at eve,

The silent treasures of the vernal year,

Indulging deep their stores, the still night long ;

Till, with returning morn, the freshened world,

Is fragrance all, all beauty, joy, and song.

Still let me view him in the pleasing light
Of private life, where pomp forgets to glare,
And where the plain unguarded soul is seen.
There, with the truest greatness he appeared.
Which thinks not of appearing ; kindly veiled
In the soft graces of the friendly scene,
Inspiring social confidence and ease.
As free the converse of the wise and good,
As joyous, disentangling every power.
And breathing mixed improvement with delight
As when amid the various-blossomed spring,
Or gentle beaming autumn's pensive shade,
The philosophic mind with nature talks.
Say ye, his sons, his dear remains, with whom
The father laid superfluous state aside,
Yet raised your filial duty thence the more,
With friendship raised it, with esteem, with loviv
Beyond the ties of love, oh ! speak the joy,
The pure serene, the cheerful vision mild.
The virtuous spirit, which his vacant hours,
In aemblance of amusement, through the breait,

TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT. 358

Infused. And thou, O Bundle ! * lend thy strain,
Thou darling friend ! thou brother of his soul !
In whom the head and heart their stores unite ;
Whatever fancy paints, invention pours,
Judgment digests, the well-tuned bosom feelg,
Truth natural, moral, or divine, has taught,
The virtues dictate, or the Muses sing,
Lend me the plaint, which, to the lonely main,
With memory conversing, you will pour,
As on the pebbled shore you, pensive, stray.
Where Derry's mountains a bleak crescent form.
And mid their ample round receive the waves.
That from the frozen pole, resounding, rush,
Impetuous. Though from native sunshine driven,
Driven from your friends, the sunshine of the soul^
By slanderous zeal, and politics infirm,
Jealous of worth ; yet will you bless your lot.
Yet will you triumph in your glorious fate,
Whence Talbot's friendship glows to future times,
Intrepid, warm ; of kindred tempers born ;
Nursed, by experience, into slow esteem.
Calm confidence unbounded, love not blind.
And the sweet light from mingled minds disclosed,
From mingled chymic oils as burst the fire.

I too remember well that cheerful bowl,
Which round his table flowed. The serious there
Mixed with the sportive, with the learned the plain
Mirth softened wisdom, candor tempered mirth ;
And with its honey lent, without the sting.
Not simple nature's unaffected sons.
The blameless Indians, round their forest-che«r.
In sunny lawn or shady covert set,
Hold more unspotted converse ; nor of old,
Rome's awful consuls, her dictator swains.
As on the product of their Sabine r.u-iiiH
They fared, with stricter virtue fed the soul,
Nor yet in Athens, at an Attic meal,
Where Socrates presided, fairer truth,
More elegant humanity, mon; grace.

Dr. Kundic, Bislidp of Dcrrv, in lielaud.

154 TO THE AfEMOR Y OF LORD TALBOT.

Wit more refined, or deeper science reigned.

But far beyond the little vulgar bounds
Of family, or friends, or native land,
IJy just degrees, and with proportioned flame
Extended his benevolence : a friend
To humankind, to parent nature's works.
Of free access, and of engaging grace,
Such as a brother to a brother owes,
He kept an open judging ear for all,
And spread an open countenance, whgre smiled
The fair effulgence of an open heart ;
While on the rich, the poor, the high, the low,
With equal ray, his ready goodness shone :
For nothing human foreign was to him.

Thus to a dread inheritance, my Lord,
And hard to be supported, you succeed :
But, kept by virtue, as by virtue gained.
It will, through latest time, enrich your race,
When grosser wealth shall molder into dust,
And with their authors in oblivion sunk
Vain titles lie, the servile badges oft
Of mean submission, not the meed of worth.
True genuine honor its large patent holds
Of all mankind, through every land and age,
Of universal reason's various sons.
And e'en of God himself, sole perfect Judge t
Yet know, these noblest honors of the mind
On rigid terms descend : the high -placed heir,
Scanned by the public eye, that, with keen gaxc^
Malignant seeks out faults, cannot through life,
Amid the nameless insects of a court.
Unheeded steal ; but, when his sire compared.
He must be glorious, or he must be scorned.
This truth to you, who merit well to bear
A name to Britons dear, the officious Muse
May safely sing, and sing without reserve.

Vain were the plaint, and ignorant the tear
That should a Talbot mourn. Ourselves, indeed,
Our country robbed of her delight and strength.
We may lament. Yet let us, grateful, ioy

TO THE MEMORY OF LORD TALBOT. 865

rhat we such virtues knew, such virtues felt,
And feel them still, teaching our views to rise
Through ever-brightening scenes of future world*.
Be dumb, ye worst of zealots ! ye that, prone
To thoughtless dust, renounce that generous hope.
Whence every joy below its spirits draws,
And every pain its balm : a Talbot's light,
A Talbot's virtues, calm another source.
Than the blind maze of undesigniiig blood ;
Nor when that vital fountain plays no more.
Can they be quenched beneath the gelid stream
Methinks I see his mounting spirit, freed
From tangling earth, regain the realms of day.
Its native country ; whence to bless mankind,
Eternal goodness on this darksome spot
Had rayed it down a while. Behold ! approved
By the tremendous Judge of heavCi and earth,
And to the Almighty Father's presence joined,
He takes his rank, in glory, and in bliss,
Amid the human worthies. Glad around
Crowd his compatriot shades, and point him out,
With joyful pride, Britannia's blameless boast.
Ah ! who is he, that with a fonder eye
Meets thine enraptured? — 'Tis the best of sons f
The best of friends ! — Too soon is realized
That hope, which once forbade thy tears to flow
Meanwhile the kindred souls of every land,
(Howe'er divided in the fretful days
Of prejudice and error) mingled now,
In one selected, never-jarring state.
Where God himself there only monanih reigni,
Partake the joy ; yet, such the sense that still
Remains of earthly woes, for us bflow.
And tor our loss, they dro[) a ])itying tear.
But cease, presumptuous Muse, nor vainly strive
To quit this cloudy sphere, that binds thee down ;
'Tis not for mortal hand to trace these scenes —
Scenes, that our gross ideas groveling cast
Behind, and strike our boldest language! dumb.
Forgive, immortal shade ! if aught from earth.

8M ON jEOL USrs HARP.

From dust low warbled, to those groves can ris*,

Where flows celestial harmony, forgive

This fond superfluous verse. With deep-felt voicCi

On every heart impressed, thy deeds themselves

Attest thy praise. Thy praise the widow's sighs,

And orphan's tears, embalm. The good, the bad,

The sons of justice and the sons of strife,

All who or freedom or who interest prize,

A deep-divided nation's parties, all,

Conspire to swell thy spotless praise to Heaven.

Glad Heaven receives it, and seraphic lyres

With songs of triumph thy arrival hail.

How vain this tribute then ! this lowly lay I

Yet naught is vain that gratitude inspires.

The Muse, besides, her duty thus approves

To virtue, to her country, to mankind.

To ruling nature, that, in glorious charge

As to her priestess, gives it her to hymD

Whatever good and excellent she f ormf

ON BOLUS'S HARP.

Etherbal race, inhabitants of air,

Who hymn your god amid the secret grore ;

Ye unseen beings, to my harp repair.

And raise majestic strains, or melt in love.

Those tender notes, how kindly they upbraid.
With what soft woe they thrill the lover's heart I

Sure from the hand of some unhappy maid,

Who died for love, these sweet complainings part.

But hark ! that strain was of a graver tone,

On the deep strings his hand some hermit throws;

Or he, the sacred Bard, who sat alone

In the drear waste, and wept his people's woes.

HYMN TO GOD'S POWER. 3.'i/

Such was the song which Zion's children sung,

When by Euphrates' stream they made their plaint

And to such sadly solemn notes are strung
Angelic harps, to sootlie a dying saint.

Methinks I hear the full celestial choir,

Through Heaven's high dome their awful anthem
raise ;
Now chanting clear, and now they all conspire

To swell the lofty hymn from praise to praise.

Let me, ye wandering spirits of the wind,

Who, as wild fancy prompts you, touch the string,

Smit with your theme, be in your chorus joined,
For, till you cease, my Muse forgets to sing.

HYMN TO GOD'S POWER.

Hail ! Power Divine, who by the sole command.

From the dark empty space.
Made the broad sea and solid land

Smile with a heavenly grace.

Made the high mountain and firm rock.

Where bleating cattle stray ;
And the strong, stately, spreading oak.

That intercepts the day.

The rolling planets thou madest move.

By thy effective will ;
And the revolving globes above

Their destined course fiillill.

His mighty power, ye thunders, praise.

As through the lieavens ye roll ;
And his great name, ye iiglitnings, blaze,

Unto the distant pole.

^o8 COMPLAINT ON THE MISERIES OF LiFB,

Ye seas, in your eternal roar,
His sacred praise proclaim ;

While the inactive sluggish shore
Re-echoes to the same.

Ye howling winds, howl out his praise,

And make the forests bow ;
While through the air, the earth and seas,
His solemn praise ye blow.

O yon high harmonious spheres,

Your powerful mover sing ;
To him your circling course that steers,

Your tuneful praises bring.

Ungrateful mortals, catch the sound.

And in your numerous lays,
To all the listening world around,

The God of nature praise.

A COMPLAINT ON THE MISERIES OF LIFE.

I LOATHK, O Lord, this life below,
And all its fading, fleeting joys ;

*Ti8 a short space that's filled with woe,
Which all our bliss by far outweighs.

When will the everlasting morn

With dawning light the skies adorn ?

Fitly this life's compared to night,

When gloomy darkness shades the sky ;

Just like the morn's our glimmering light,
Reflected from the Deity.

When will celestial morn dispel

The dark surrounding shades of hell ?

I'm sick of this vexatious state,

Where cares invade my peaceful hours ;

TO THE REV. PATRICK MURDOCH. 859

Strike the last blow, O courteous fate,
I'll smiling fall like mowed flowers ;
I'll gladly spurn this clogging clay,
And, sweetly singing, soar away.

What's money but refined dust ?

What's honor but an empty name?
And what is soft enticing lust,

But a consuming idle flame ?
Yea, what is all beneath the sky
But emptiness and vanity ?

With thousand ills our life's oppressed.
There's nothing here worth living for ;

In the lone grave I long to rest,
And [to] be harassed here no more,

Where joy's fantastic, grief's sincere,

And where there's naught for which I care.

Thy word, O Lord, shall be my guide.

Heaven, where thou dwclle.st, is my goal ;

Through corrupt life grant I may glide
With an untainted upward soul.

Then may this life, this dreary night.

Dispelled be by morning light.

TO THE REVEREND PATR ( ' ylUTRDOCH,*

EECTOE OF STRAPiHlALL, IN SUFFOLK.

Thus safely low, my friend, thou canst not fall '

Here reigns a deep tranquillity o'c; • all ;

No noise, no care, no vanity, no strife ;

Men. woods, and fields, all breathe untroubled life

Then keep each passion down, lunv vcr dear ;

Trust me the tender arc the most severe.

Guard, while 'tis tiiiiu', philosophi;. case,

* The friend aud lji(jgrupUer ol Thomson.

atO EPITAPH ON MISS STANLEY.

And ask no joy but that of virtuous peace ;
That bids defiance to the storms of fate :
High bliss is only for a higher state 1

EPITAPH ON MISS STANLEY,

IN HOLTWOOB CHUKCH, SOUTHAMPTOK.

E. S.

Once a lively image of human nature,
Such as God made it
When he pronounced every work of his to be good,
To the memory of Elizabeth Stanley,
Daughter of George and Sarah Stanley ;
Who to all the beauty, modesty,
And gentleness of nature,
That ever adorned the most amiable ■woman,
Joined all the fortitude, elevation.
And vigor of mind.
That ever exalted the most heroic man ;
Who having lived the pride and delight of her
parents,
The joy, the consolation, and pattern of her friends,
A mistress not only of the English and French,
But in a high degree of the Greek and Roman
learning.
Without vanity or pedantry,
At the age of eighteen.
After a tedious, painful, desperate illness,
Which, with a Roman spirit.
And a Christian resignation,
She endured so calmly, that she seemed inrfensible
To all pain and suffering, except that of her friends.

Gave up her innocent soul to her Creator,
And left to her mother, who erected this monument,
The memory of her virtues for her greatest support ;
Virtues which, in her sex and station of life.

STANZAS. m,

Were all that could be practiced,
And more than will be believed,
Except by those who know what this inscription re-
lates.

Hkrk, Stanley, rest ! escaped this mortal strife,
Above the joys, beyond the woes of life.
Fierce pangs no more thy lively beauties stain.
And sternly try thee with a year of pain ;
No more sweet patience, feigning oft relief,
Lights thy sick eye, to cheat a parent's grief ;
With tender art to save her anxious groan,
No more thy bosom presses down its own ;
Now well-earned peace is thine, and bliss sincere :
Ours be the lenient, not unpleasing tear !

O born to bloom, then sink beneath the storm ;
To show us virtue in her fairest form ;
To show us artless reason's moral reign,
What boastful science arrogates in vain ;
The obedient passions knowing each their part ;
Calm light the head, and harmony the heart ;

Yes, we must follow soon, will glad obey ;
When a few suns have rolled their cares away.
Tired with vain life, will close the willing eye :
'Tis the great birthright of mankind to die.
Blessed be the bark that wafts us to the shore.
Where death-divided friends shall part no more ;
To join thee there, here with thy dust repose.
Is all the hope thy hapless mother knows.

STANZAS

WKITTEN BY THOMSON ON TUK BLANK LEAF OF A
COPY OF niK " KKASONS " SENT BY HIM TO MS.
LYTTLKTON, SOON AFTKR TIIK DEATH OF HItJ WDfS.

Go, little book, and find our Friend,
Who nature and the Miisch loves,

Whose cares the public- virtues blend
With all the softneHu of the groves.

8tt PASTORALS.

A fitter time thou canst not chooM,
His fostering friendship to repay ;

Go then, and try, my rural muse,
To steal his widowed hours aw»y.

PASTORALS.

A PASTORAL BETWIXT DAVID, THIRSIS
AND THE ANGEL GABRIEL, UPON THE
BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOR.

DAVID.

Wh. t means yon apparition in the sky,
Thirsis, that dazzles every shepherd's eye :
I slumbering was when from yon glorious cloud
Came gliding music, heavenly, sweet, and loud,
With sacred raptures which my bosom fires,
And with celestial joy my soul inspires ;
It soothes the native horrors of the night,
And gladdens nature more than dawning light.

THIBSIS.

But hold, see hither through the yielding air.
An angel comes : for mighty news prepare.

ANGEL GABRIEL.

Rejoice, ye swains, anticipate the mom

With songs of praise ; for lo ! a Savior's bom.

With joyful haste to Bethlehem repair,

And you will find the Almighty infant there ;

Wrapped in a swaddling-band you'll find yomr king.

And in a manger laid ; to him your praises bring.

PASTORALS.

CHORUS OF ANGKLS

To God who in the highest dwelU,

Immortal glory be ;
Let peace be in the humble cells

Of Adam's progeny.

DAVID,

No more the year shall wintry horrors bring ;
Fixed in the indulgence of eternal spring,
Immortal green shall clothe tlie hills and vales,
And odorous sweets shall load the balmy gales \
The silver brooks shall in soft murmurs tell
The joy that shall their oozy channels swell.
Feed on, my flocks, and crop the tender grass.
Let blooming joy appear on every face ;
For Jo ! this blessed, this propitious morn.
The Savior of lost mankind is born.

THIRSIS.

Thou fairest morn that ever sprang from night,
Or decked the opening skies with rosy light.
Well mayest thou shine with a distinguished ray,
Since here Emmanuel condescends to stay.
Or fears, our guilt, or darkness to dispel,
And save us from the horrid jaws of hell.
Who from his throne descended, matchless love J
To guide poor mortals to ])l('sscd seats above :
But come without delay, let us be gone,
Shepherd, let's go, and humbly kiss the Son,

M4 PASTORALS.

A PASTORAL BETWEEN THIRSIS AND
CORYDON ;

UPON THS DEATH OF DAMON, BY WHOM IS MEANT MB,
W. RIDDELL,

THIRSIS.

Say, tell me true, what is the doleful cause
That Corydon is not the man he was ?
Your cheerful presence used to lighten cares,
And from the plains to banish gloomy fears.
Whene'er unto the circling swains you sung,
Our ravished souls upon the music hung ;
The gazing, listening flocks forgot their meat.
While vocal grottos did your lays repeat :
But now your gravity our mirth rebukes,
And in your downcast and desponding looks
Appears some fatal and impending woe ;
I fear to ask, and yet desire to know.

CORYDON.

The doleful news how shall I, Thirsis, tell !
In blooming youth the hapless Damon fell :
He's dead, he's dead, and with him all my joy ;
The mournful thought does all gay forms destroy
This is the cause of my unusual grief,
Which sullenly admits of no relief.

THIB8I8.

Begone all mirth ! begone all sports and play.
To a deluge of grief and tears give way.
Damon the just, the generous, and the young.
Must Damon's worth and merit be unsung ?
No, Corydon, the wondrous youtli you knew,
How as in years so he in virtue grew ;
Embalm his fame in never-v .ying verse,
A» a just tribute to his doleful hearse.

fAST\>ltALS. 86d

COBYDON.

Assist me, mighty grief, my breast inspire
With generous heats, and with thy wildest fire,
While in a solemn and a mournful strain,
Of Damon gone forever I complain.
Ye muses, weep ; your mirth and songs forbear,
And for him sigh and shed a friendly tear ;
He was your favorite, and by your aid
In charming verse his witty thoughts arrayed ;
He had of knowledge, learning, wit, a store,
To it denied he still pressed after more.
He was a pious and a virtuous soul.
And still pressed forward to the heavenly goal ;
He was a faithful, true, and constant friend.
Faithful, and true, and constant to the end.
Ye flowers, liang down and droop your heads,
No more around your grateful odors spread ;
Ye leafy trees, your blooming lienors shed,
Damon forever from your shade is fled ;
Fled to the mansions of eternal light.
Where endless wonders strike bis happy sight.
Ye birds, be mute, as through the trees you fly.
Mute as the grave wherein my friend does lie.
Ye winds, breathe sighs as tiirough the air you rove^
And in sad pomp the trembling branches move.

Ye gliding brooks, O weep your channels dry.
My flowing tears them fully shall supj)ly ;
You in soft murmurs may your grief express,
And yours, you swains, in mournful songs confeaa j
I to some dark and gloomy shade will fly,
Dark as the grave wherein i«y friend does lie ;
And for his death to lonely ro(;ks complain.
In mournful accents and a dying straio,
While pining echo answers me again.

IM PASTOJiALS.

A PASTORAL ENTERTAINMENT.

While in heroic numbers some relate

"J'he amazing turns of wise eternal fate ;

Exploits of heroes in the dusty field,

That to her name immortal honor yield ;

Grant me, ye powers, fast by the limpid spring

The harmless reveL of the plain to sing.

At a rich feast, kept each revolving year,

Their fleecy care when joyful shepherds shear,

A wreath of flowers nulled from the neighboring

lands
Is all the prize my humble muse demands.

Now blithesome shepherds, by the early dawn,
Their new-shorn flocks drive to the dewy lawn ;
While, in a bleating language, each salutes
The welcome morning, and their fellow brutes ;
Then all prepared for the rural feast.
And in their finest Sunday habits drest ;
The crystal brook supplied the mirror's place,
. . .they bathed and viewed their cleanly face,

and nymphs resortid to the fields

pomp the country yields.

The place appointed was a spacious vale,
Fanned always by a cooling western gale.
Which in soft breezes through the meadows stray,
And steal the ripened fragrances away ;
With native incense all the air perfumes.
Renewing with its genial breath the blooms ,
Here every shepherd might his flocks survey,
Securely roam, and take his harmless play ;
And here were flowers each shepherdess to graoi^
On her fair bosom courting but a place.

Here in this vale, beneath . grateful shade,
By twining boughs of spreading beeches mad«,
On seats of homely turf themselves they rest.
And cheerfully enjoyed their rural feast.
Consisting of the produce of tlie fields.
And all the luxury the country yields.

SONGS. Wt

So maddening liquors spoiled their harmless mirth,*
But an untainted spring their thirst allayed,
Which in meanders through the valley strayed.
Thrice happy swains, who spend your golden day*
In country pastime ; and when night displays
Her sable shade, to peaceful huts retire ;
Can any man a sweeter bliss desire ?
In ancient times so passed the smiling hour,
When our first parents lived in Eden's bower,
Ere care and trouble were pronounced on.
Or sin had blasted the creation's bio ....

SONGS.

A NUPTIAL SONG.

Come, gentle Venus ! and assuage
A warring world, a bleeding age.
For nature lives beneath thy ray,
The wintry tempests haste away,
A lucid calm invests the sea, ,
Thy native deep is full of thee ;
The flowering earth where'er you fly,
Is all o'er spring, all sun the sky ;
A genial spirit warms the breeze,
Unseen among the blooming trees,
The feathered lovers tune their throat.
The desert growls a softened note,
Glad o'er the meads the cattle bound.
And love and harmony gu round.

But chief into the human heart
Fou strike the dear dt'licious dart ;
You teach us pleasing i)aiigs to know,
T« languish in luxurious woe,
To feel the generous passions rise,
Grow good by gazing ; mild by sighs ;

A line to complete the couplet, uppeara to i)e deflcieat b«r«k

868 SONGS.

Each happy moment to improve.
And fill the perfect year with love.

Come, thou delight of heaven and eartk
To whom all creatures owe their birth ;
Oh, come, sweet smiling ! tender, come !
And yet prevent our final doom.
For long the furious god of war
Has crushed us with his iron car,
Has raged along our ruined plains,
Has soiled them with his cruel stains,
Has sunk our youth in endless sleep,
And made the widowed virgin weep.
Now let him feel thy wonted charms.
Oh, take him to thy twining arms !
And, while thy bosom heaves on his,
While deep he prints the humid kiss.
Ah, then I his stormy heart control.
And sigh thyself into his souL

TO HER I LOVE.

Tkll me, thou soul of her I love,
Ah I tell me, whither art thou fled ;

To what delightful world above,
Appointed for the happy dead ?

Or dost ,hou, free, at pleasure, roam
And sometimes share thy lover's woe

Where, v^oid of thee, his cheerless hom«
Can now, alas ! no comfort know :

Oh 1 if thou hoverest round my walk,
While, under every well-known tree^

I to hy fancied shadow talk,
And every tear is full of thee ;

Should then the weary eye of grief,
Reside some sympathetic stream,

In h1 umber find a short relief,

Or visit thou my scathing dream I

soj\rGs. am

TO THE GOD OF FOND DESIRE.

Okb day the God of fond desire,

On mischief bent, to Damon said,
" Why not disclose yoixr tender fire,

Nor own it to the lovely maid ? "

The shepherd marked his treacherous art,

And, softly sighing, thus replied :
" ^Tis true you have subdued my lieart.

But shall not triumph o'er ray pride.

** The slave, in private only bears

Your bondage, who his love conceals ;

But when his passion he declares,

You drag him at your chariot wheels."

THE LOVER'S FATE.

Hard is the fate of him who loves.
Yet dares not tell his trembling pain,

But to the sympathetic groves.
But to the lonely listening plain.

Oh ! when she blesses next your shade,
Oh ! when her footsteps next are seen

In flowery traots along the mead,
In fresner mazes o'er the green ;

Ye gentle spirits of the vale.

To whom the tears of love are dear,

From dying lilies waft the gale,
And sigh my sorrows in her car.

Oh ! tell her what slu; cannot blame,

Though fear my tongue must ever bind }

Oh, tell her, that my virtuous tlatru!
Is, as her spotless soul, rc^fiucd.

Not her own guardian-angel eyes
With chapter tenderness his care.

tW SONGS.

Not purer her own wishes rise,

Not holier her own sighs in prayer.

But if, at first, her virgin fear

Should start at love's suspected name,

With that of friendship soothe her ear —
True love and friendship are the same.

TO THE NIGHTINGALE.

O NiGHTiNGALB, best poet of the grove,

That plaintive strain can ne'er belong to thee,
Blessed in the full possession of thy love :

0 lend that strain, sweet Nightingale, to me !

*Ti8 mine, alas ! to mourn a wretched fate :

1 love a maid who all my bosom charms,
Yet lose my days without this lovely mate ;

Inhuman fortune keeps her from my arms.

You happy birds ! by nature's simple laws

Lead your soft lives, sustained by nature's fare ;

You dwell wherever roving fancy draws,
And love and song is all your pleasing care :

But we, vain slaves of interest and of pride.
Dare not be blessed, lest envious tongue should
blame ;

And hence, in vain I languish for my bride !

O mourn with me, sweet bird, my hapless flamg

TO MYRA.

O THOU, whose tender serious eyes
Expressive speak the mind I love :

The gentle azure of the skies.

The pensive shadows of the grove ;

SONGS. m

O mix their beauteous beams with mine,
And let us interchange our hearts ;

IiCt all their sweetness on me shiae,

Poured through my soul be all their darta.

Ah ! 'tis too much ! I cannot bear

At once so soft, so keen a ray :
In pity then, my lovely fair,

O turn those killing eyes away I

But what avails it to conceal

One charm, where naught but charms I wm f
Their luster then again reveal,

And let me, Myra, die of thee I

SONG.

When blooming spring
Arrays the laughing fields in green,
Then flowers in open air are seen.
And warbling birds are heard to sing.
Almighty love
Doth sweetly move
All nature through ;
Then tell me, Chloe, why are you
Averse thereto ;
Wlien blooming charms
Invite your lovei's circling armaV
O be no longer coy

to love and share of joy.

9M AMANDA.

AMANDA.

TO LOVE.

SwBET tyrant Love, — but hear me now f
And cure while young this pleasing smart j

Or rather aid my trembling vow,
And teach me to reveal my heart.

Tell her, whose goodness is my bane.

Whose looks have smiled my peace away,

Oh ! whisper how she gives me pain.
Whilst undesigning, frank, and gay.

nris not for common charms I sigh.
For what the vulgar beauty call ;

'Tis not a cheek, a lip, an eye,

But 'tis the soul that lights them all I

For that I drop the tender tear.
For that I make this artless moan ;

Oh ! sigh it Love ! into her ear.
And makes the bashful lover known.

TO AMANDA.

Comb, dear Amanda, quit the town,

And to the rural hamlets fly ;
Behold ! the wintry storms are gone ;

A gentle radianct* glads the sky.

The birds awake, the flowers appear.

Earth spreads a verdant couch for thee;

'TIS joy and music all we hear,
*Ti8 love and beauty all we see.

AMANDA, S78

Come, let us mark the gradual spring,
How peeps the bud, the blossom blowi ;

Till Philomel begins to sing,

And perfect May to swell the rose.

E'en so thy rising charms improve,

As life's warm season grows more bright ;

And, opening to the sighs of love,
Thy beauties glow with full delight.

TO AMANDA.

Unlkss with my Amanda blessed.

In vain I twine the woodbine bower ;
Unless to dock her sweeter breast.

In vain I rear the breathing flower.
Awakened by the genial year,

In vain the birds around me sing ;
In vain the freshening fields a])pear : —

Without my love there is no Spring.

VERSES ADDRESSED TO AMANDA.

Ah, urged too late ! from beauty's bondage free,

Why did I trust my liberty with thee ?

And thou, why didst thou, with inhuman art,

If not resolved to take, seduce my heart?

Yes, yes, you said, for lover's eyes speak true ;

You must have seen how fast my [)assio?i grew :

And. when your glances elianced on mo to shine.

How my fond soul ecstatic sprimg to iMne !

But mark me, fair one — what 1 now declare

Thy deep attentioTi claims and serious care :

It is no common passion lires iny breast ;

I must be wretched, or I must be l)l('ssed I

My woes all other rcinudy deny ;

Or, pitying, give mc; hope, or bid me di« 1

AMANDA.
TO THE SAME,

WITH A COPY OF THB " SEASONS.'

AccBPT, loved Nymph, this tribute due
To tender friendship, love, and you :
But with it take what breathed the whole^
O take to thine the poet's soul.
If Fancy here her power displays,
And if a heart exaits these lajs —
You, fairest, in tha' fancy shine,
And all that heart is fondly thine.

TO FORTUNE.

Forever, Fortune, wilt thou prove
An unrelenting foe to love,
And when we meet a mutual heart
Come in between, and bid us part ;

Bid us sigh on from day to day,
And wish, and wish the soul away ;
Till youth and genial years are flown.
And all the love of life is gone ?

But busy, busy still art thou.
To bind the loveless, joyless vow.
The heart from pleasure to delude,
And join the gentle to the rude.

For pomp, and noise, and senseless show
To make us Nature's joys forego.
Beneath a gay dominion groan,
And put the golden fetter on !

For once, O Fortune, hear my prayer,
And I absolve thy future care ;
Al. vUher blessings I resicyn,
Make but the dear Amanda mine.

SO/^GS IH THE MASQUE OF A LP RED. S<A

COME, GENTLE GOD

Come, gentle God of soft desire,
Come and possess my happy breast.

Not fury-like in flames and fire,
Or frantic folly's wildness dressed ;

But come in friendship's angel-guise ;

Yet dearer thou than friendship art,
More tender spirit in thy eyes,

More sweet emotions at thy heart.

O, come with goodness in thy train,
With peace and pleasure void of storm.

And wouldst thou me forever gain.
Put on Amanda's winning form.

SONGS IN THE MASQUE OF
ALFRED*

TO PEACE.

O PEACE ! the fairest child of heaven,
To whom the sylvan reign was given.
The vale, the fountain, and the grove,
With every softer scene of love :
Return, sweet Peace ! and cheer the weeping swain J
Return, with Ease and Pleasure in thy train.

* This masque was the juliit pr^xluction of Thomson and
Mallet, and it is now iii.poHsihIf to (l(,'t(;rinine llieii individual
cluinm lo the authorship of these uongs.

I7« SONGS IN TH£. MASQUE OF ALFRED,
TO ALFRED.

FIRST SPIRIT.

Hear, Alfred, father of the state,

Thy genius Heaven's high will declare I

What proves the hero truly great,
Is never, never to despair :
Is never to despair.

SECOND SPIRIT.

Thy hope awake, thy heart expand,
with all its vigor, all its fires.

Arise ! and save a sinking land !

Thy country calls, and heaven inspires.

BOTH SPIRITS.

Earth calls, and Heaven inspires.

SWEET VALLEY, SAY.

Sweet valley, say, where, pensive lying,
For me, our children, England, sighing,
The best of raoi'tals leans his head.
Ye fountains, dimpled by my sorrow.
Ye brooks that my complainings borrow,

0 lead me to his lonely bed ;

Or if my lover.
Deep woods, you cover.
Ah whisper where your shadows o'er him spreacL

'Tls not the loss of pomp and pleasure,
Of empire or of tinsel treasure.

That drops this tear, that swells this groan :
No ; from a nobler cause proceeding,
A heart with love and fondness bleeding,

1 breathe my sadly pleasing moan,

With other anguish
I scorn to languish,
For love will feel no sorrows but his own.

SONGS IN THE MASQUE OF ALFRED. 87'

FROM THOSE ETERNAL REGIONS.

From those eternal regions briglit,

Where suns, that never set in night,

Diffuse the golden day ;
Where Spring, unfading, pours around,
O'er all the dew-impearled ground,

Her thousand colors gay ;
O whether on the fountain's flowery side,

Whence living waters glide,

Or in the fragrant grove,
Whose shade embosoms peace and love.
New pleasures all our hours employ,
And ravish every sense with every joy I

Great heirs of empire ! yt-t unborn.

Who shall this island late adorn ;
A monarch's drooping thought to cheer,

Appear ! appear ! appear !

CONTENTMENT.

If those who live in shepherd's bower,
Press not the rich and stately bed ;

The new-mown hay and breathing flower
A softer couch beneath them spread.

If those who sit at shepherd's board.
Soothe not their taste by wanton art ;

They take what Nature's gifts afford.
And take it with a cheerful heart.

If those who drain the shepherd's Ijowl,
No high and sparkling wiTies can boast ;

With wholesome cups they chcci- the soul,
And crowns them witli the village toast.

If those who join in shepherd's sports,
Gay dancing on the <laisied ground,

Have not the splendor of a court ;
Yet love adorns the merry round.

378 SONGS IN THE MASQUE OF ALFRED.

RULE, BRITANNIA!

WITH VARIATIONS.

When Britain first, at, Heaven's command.

Arose, from out the azure main,
This was the charter of the land,

Afid guardian angels sung this strain,
"Rule, Britannia, rule the waves,
Britons never will be slaves."

The nations, not so blessed as thee.
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall,

While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
"Rule," &c.

Still more majestic shalt thou rise,

More dreadful from each foreign stroke

As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak.
" Rule," &c.

Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame;

All their attempts to bend tliee down
Will but arouse thy generous flame,

But work their woe, and thy renowm.
"Rule,"&c.

To thee belongs the rural reign;

Thy cities shall with commerce shine;
All thine shall be the subject main;

And every shore it circles thine.
" Rule," &c.

The Muses, still with freedom found.

Shall to thy happy coast repair;
Blessed isle ! with matchless beauty crowned
And manly hearts to guard the fair:
" Hule, Britannia, rule the waves,
Britons never will be slaves."

PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. 379

PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES.

EPILOGUE TO ''AGAMEMNON."

Our bard, to modern epilogue a foe,

Thinks such mean mirth but deadens generous woe;

Dispels in idle air the moral sigh,

And wipes the tender tear from Pity's eye:

No more with social warmth the bosom burns;

But all the unfeeling selfish man returns.

Thus he began: — And you approved tlie strain;
Till the next couplet sunk to light and vain.
You checked him there. — To you, to reason just.
He owns he triumphed in your kind disgust.
Charmed by your frown, by j'our displeasure graced.
He hails the rising virtue of your taste.*
Wide will its influence spread as soon as known;
Truth to be loved, needs only to be shown.
Confirm it once, the fashion to be good
(Since fashion leads the fool, and awes the rude),
X(j petulance shall wound the public air;
No hand applaud what honor shuns to hear;
No ])aiiiful blush the modest cheek shall stain;
The worthy breast shall heave with no disdain.
Chastised to decency the British stage
Shall oft invite the fair, invite the sage:
Both shall attend well ])leased, well pleased depart;
Or if they doom the verse, absolve the heart.

PROLOGUE TO MALLET'S "MUSTAPHA."t

SiNCK Athens first began to draw mankind,
To picture life, and show the impassioned mind;
The truly wise have ever deemed the stage,
TIjo moral school of each enli<rhtoned atre.

• Sir riurria Nicholas concludes, from these Hnes, that th«
jri(.;iiml epilogue was (jtlcnHivo from itn indehcacy.
t rroducbd at Drury Liiui:, KUh February 173y.

ddO PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES.

There, in fall pomp, the Tragic Muse appears

Queen of soft sorrows, and of useful fears.

Faint is the lesson reason's rules impart ;

She pours it strong, and instant through the heart

If virtue is her theme, we sudden glow

With generous flame ; and what we feel we grow.

If vice she paints, indignant passions rise ;

The villain sees himself with loathing eyes,

His soul starts, conscious, at another's groan,

And the pale tyrant trembles on his throne.

To-night, our meaning scene attempts to show
What fell events from dark suspicion flow ;
Chief wken it taints a lawless monarch's mind,
To the false herd of flattering slaves confined.
The soul sinks gradual to so dire a state.
E'en excellence but serves to feed its hate ;
To hate remorseless cruelty succeeds.
And every worth, and every virtue bleeds.

Behold, our author at your bar appears.
His modest hopes depressed by conscious fears.
Faults he has many — but to balance those.
His verse with heart-felt love of virtue glows.
All slighter errors let indulgence spare.
And be his equal trial full and fair.
For this best British privilege we call.
Then — as he merits, let him stand or fall.

PROLOGUE TO "TANCRED AND SIGIS
MUNDA."

BoLj) I3 the man ! who, in this nicer age,
Presumes to tread the chaste corrected stage.
Now, with gay tinsel arts, we can no more
Conceal the want of Nature's sterling ore.
Our spells are vanished, broke our magic wand.
That used to waft you over sea and land.
Before your light the fairy people fade,
The demons fly — the ghost itself is laid.

PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES. Ml

In vain of martial scenes the loud alarms,
The mighty prompter thundering out to arms.
The playhouse posse clattering from afar,
The close-wedged battle, and the din of war.
Now, even the senate seldom we convene ;
The yawning fathers nod behind the scene.
Your taste rejects the glittering false sublime,
To sigh in metaphor, and die in rhyme.
High rant is tumbled from his gallery throne ;
Description dreams — nay, similes are gone.

What shall we then ? to please you how devise,
"Whose judgment sits not in your ears and eyes ?
Thrice happy ! could we catcii great Shakespeare's art^
To trace the deep recesses of the heart ;
His simple plain sublime, to which is given
To strike the soul with darted flame from heaven ;
Could we awake soft Otway's tender woe,
The pomp of verse and golden lines of Rowe.

We to your hearts apply ; let them attend ;
Before their silent, candid bar we bend.
If warmed, they listen, 'tis our noblest praise ;
If cold they wither all the muse's bays.

EPILOGUE TO "TANCRED AMD SIGJ«'
MUNDA."

Crammed to the throat with whoh-sonie moral stuff,

Alas ! y)Oor audience ! you have had enough.

Was ever hapless h(;rouie of a play

III siH^h a {)iteouK ))light as ours to-day ?

Was ever woinin so hv h)ve betrayed V

Matched by two husl)ands, ami yet - die a maid.

But bless nie ! — lioid — What sounds are these I

hear ! —
I see the Tragic Muse herself appear.

3S3 PROLOGUES AND EPILOGUES,

\Theha/6k Mtne opens, and discovers a romantic sylvan land
teape ; from which Mrs. Gibber, in the character of the Traai
Mtue, advances slowly to music, and speaks tliefollowiiw Unts '

Hence with your flippant epilogue, that tries
To wipe th« virtuous tear from British eyes ;
That darwi my moral, tragic scene profane,
With strains — at best, unsuiting, light and vam
Hence from the pure unsullied beams that play
In yon fair eyes where virtue shines — Away !

Britons to you from chaste Castalian groves.
Where dwell the tender, oft unhappy loves !
Where shades of heroes roam, each mighty name.
And court my aid to rise again to fame :
To you I come, to Freedom's noblest seat,
And in Britannia fix my last retreat.

In Greece and Rome, I watched the public weal,
The purple tyrant trembled at my steel ;
Nor did I less o'er private sorrows reign,
And mend the melting heart, with softer pam.
On France and you then rose my brightening star,
With social ray — the arts are ne'er at war.
O, as your fire and genius stronger blaze,
\8 yours ai-e generous Freedom's bolder lars
Let not the Gallic taste leave your's behind,
In decent manners and in life refined ;
Banish the motley mode to tag low verse,
The laughing ballad to the mournful hearse,
^hen through five acts your hearts have learnt i

glow,
Touched with the sacred force of honest woe ;
O keep the dear impression on your breaat,
N^or idly lose it for a wretched jest.

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