Flames not with costly juice; nor, sunk in beds
Oft of gay care, he tosses out the night,

1250

Or melts the thoughtless hours in idle state?
What, though he knows not those fantastic joys
That still amuse the wanton, still deceive;
A face of pleasure, but a heart of pain;
Their hollow moments undelighted all?
is his; a solid life, estranged

Sure peace

To disappointment and fallacious hope;

1255

Rich in content, in Nature's bounty rich,

In herbs and fruits; whatever greens the Spring

1260

When heaven descends in showers, or bends the bough

When Summer reddens and when Autumn beams,

Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies

Conceal'd, and fattens with the richest sap,

These are not wanting; nor the milky drove,

1265

Luxuriant, spread o'er all the lowing vale;

Nor bleating mountains; nor the chide of streams,

And hum of bees, inviting sleep sincere

Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade,

Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay;

1270

Nor aught besides of prospect, grove, or song,
Dim grottoes, gleaming lakes, and fountain clear.
Here too dwells simple Truth, plain Innocence,

Unsullied Beauty, sound unbroken Youth,

Patient of labour, with a little pleased,

127€

Health ever-blooming, unambitious Toil,

Calm Contemplation, and poetic Ease.

LET others brave the flood in quest of gain,

And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wave.

Let such as deem it glory to destroy,

1280

Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek,

Unpierced, exulting in the widow's wail,
The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry.
Let some, far-distant from their native soil,
Urged or by want or harden'd avarice,
Find other lands beneath another sun.
Let this through cities work his eager way
By legal outrage and establish'd guile,
The social sense extinct; and that ferment
Mad into tumult the seditious herd,
Or melt them down to slavery. Let these
Ensnare 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,

1285

1290

1295

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,

1300

At distance safe, the human tempest roar,

Wrapt 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,

1305

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.

1310

He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems,

Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale

Into his freshen'd 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 Tempè wont to wave,
Or Hæmus cool, reads what the Muse, of these
Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung;
Or what she dictates writes; and oft, an eye
Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.
When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world,
And tempts the sickled swain into the field,
Seized by the general joy, his heart distends

1315

1320

With gentle throes; and, through the tepid gleams

1325

Deep-musing, then he best exerts his song.

Even Winter wild to him is full of bliss.

The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste,

Abrupt and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth,

Awake to solemn thought. At night the skies,
Disclosed and kindled by refining frost,

1330

Pour every lustre 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 imagination roams;

1335

Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds nis powers;

Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.
The touch of kindred, too, and love he feels;
The modest eye, whose beams on his alone
Ecstatic shine; the little strong embrace

1340

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;

1345

For happiness and true philosophy

Are of the social still and smiling kind.

P

This is the life which those who fret in guilt

And guilty cities never knew; the life

Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,

1350

When angels dwelt, and God himself, with man!

O NATURE, all-sufficient, over all,

Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works!

Snatch me to heaven; thy rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scatter'd o'er the void immense,

1355

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 quick-compounded thought,

1360

And where the mixing passions endless shift ;-
These ever open to my ravish'd eye;

1365

A search the flight of time can ne'er exhaust!

But if to that unequal, if the blood

In sluggish streams about my heart forbid

That best ambition, under closing shades

Inglorious lay me by the lowly brook,

1370

And whisper to my dreams. From Thee begin,
Dwell all on Thee, with Thee conclude my song;
And let me never, never stray from Thee!

WINTER.

Horrida cano

Bruma gelu.-VIRGILII Georgic. iii. 442.