Hies, merry-hearted; and by turns relieves
The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail;
The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart,
Unknowing what the joy-mixt anguish means,
Sincerely loves, by that beft language fhewn
Of cordial glances, and obliging deeds.
Onward they pass, o'er many a panting height, 1670
And valley funk, and unfrequented; where
At fall of eve the fairy people throng,
In various game, and revelry, to pass
The fummer-night, as village-ftories tell.
But far about they wander from the grave
Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urg'd
Against his own fad breaft to lift the hand
Of impious violence. The lonely tower
Is alfo fhun'd; whofe mournful chambers hold,
So night-ftruck Fancy dreams, the yelling ghoft. 1680
AMONG the crooked lanes, on every hedge, The glow-worm lights his gem; and, thro' the dark, A moving radiance twinkles. Evening yields The world to Night; not in her winter-robe Of maffy Stygian woof, but loose array'd In mantle dun. A faint erroneus ray;
Glanc'd from th' imperfect furfaces of things,
Flings half an image on the straining eye;
While wavering woods, and villages, and streams, And rocks, and mountain-tops, that long retain❜d 1690 Th' ascending gleam, are all one swimming scene, Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heaven
Thence weary vifion turns; where, leading foft
The filent hours of love, with pureft ray
Sweet Venus fhines; and from her genial rise,
When day-light fickens till it springs afresh,
Unrival'd reigns, the fairest lamp of night.
As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink,
With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings fhoot
Across the sky; or horizontal dart
In wondrous shapes: by fearful murmuring crouds
Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs,
That more than deck, that animate the sky,
The life-infufing funs of other worlds;
Lo! from the dread immensity of space
Returning, with accelerated course,
The rufhing comet to the fun descends;
And as he finks below the fhading earth,
With awful train projected o'er the heavens,
The guilty nations tremble. But, above
Those fuperftitious horrors that enflave
The fond fequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, the enlightened few,
Whofe godlike minds philosophy exalts,
The glorious ftranger hail. They feel a joy 1715
Divinely great; they in their powers exult,
That wondrous force of thought, which mounting spurnş This dusky spot, and measures all the sky;
While, from his far excurfion thro' the wilds
Of barren ether, faithful to his time,
They see the blazing wonder rife anew,
In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent
To work the will of all-fuftaining Love:
From his huge vapoury train perhaps to fhake
Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs,
Thro' which his long ellipfis winds; perhaps
To lend new fuel to declining funs,
To light up worlds, and feed th' eternal fire.
WITH thee, ferene PHILOSOPHY, with thee,
And thy bright garland, let me crown my song! 1730 Effufive fource of evidence, and truth!
A luftre fhedding o'er th' ennobled mind,
Stronger than fummer-noon; and pure as that,
Whofe mild vibrations footh the parted foul,
New to the dawning of celeftial day.
Hence thro' her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by thee,
She fprings aloft, with elevated pride,
Above the tangling mafs of low defires,
That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-wing'd,
The heights of science and of virtue gains,
Where all is calm and clear; with Nature round,
Or in the starry regions, or th' abyfs,
To Reason's and to Fancy's eye display'd:
The First up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of caufes and effects to HIM,
The world-producing ESSENCE, who alone
Poffeffes being; while the Laft receives
The whole magnificence of heaven and earth,
And every beauty, delicate or bold,
Obvious or more remote, with livelier fenfe,
Diffufive painted on the rapid mind,
TUTOR'D by thee, hence POETRY exalts
Her voice to ages; and informs the page
With mufic, image, fentiment, and thought,
Never to die! the treafure of mankind!
Their highest honour, and their trueft joy!
K4
WITHOUT thee what were unenlightened Man?
A favage roaming thro' the woods and wilds,
In queft of prey; and with th' unfashioned fur
Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art,
And elegance of life. Nor happiness
Domeftic, mix'd of tenderness and care,
Nor moral excellence, nor focial blifs,
Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool
Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line or dares the wintry pole;
Mother fevere of infinite delights!
Nothing, fave rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train !
Whofe horrid circle had made human life
Than non-existence worfe; 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, invifible, the fail
Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along, 1780
|