Responsive to the sprightly pipe, when all In sprightly dance the village youth were join❜d, From the rude gambol far remote reclin'd, To the pure soul by Fancy's fire refin'd, When with the charms compar'd of heavenly melancholy! Is there a heart that music cannot melt? Is there, who ne'er those mystic transports felt He needs not woo the Muse; he is her scorn. The sophist's rope of cobwebs he shall twine; Mope o'er the schoolman's peevish page; or mourn, For Edwin, Fate a nobler doom had plann'd; It will be seen from the last stanza that Beattie intended to continue this poem, and he did in fact write a second canto sometime afterwards, but it is very inferior to the first. Edwin having attained manhood, takes walks "of wider circuit" than before. "One evening, as he fram'd the careless rhyme, It was his chance to wander far abroad, And o'er a lonely eminence to climb, Which heretofore his foot had never trod; A vale appear❜d below, a deep retired abode. Thither he hied, enamour'd of the scene, Along this narrow valley you might see The wild deer sporting on the meadow ground, Or mossy stone, or rock with woodbine crown'd. One cultivated spot there was, that spread When slowly on his ear these moving accents stole." * It is the voice of an aged hermit, who, after having known the illusions of the world, has buried himself in this retreat, for the purpose of indulging in meditation, and singing the praises of his Creator. This venerable old man instructs the young troubadour, and reveals to him the secret of his own genius. It is evident that this was a most happy idea, but the execution has not answered the first design of the author. The hermit speaks too long, and makes very trite observations with regard to the grandeur and misery of human life. Some pas sages are, however, to be found in this second book which recal the charm created by the first. The last strophes of it are consecrated to the memory of a friend, whom the poet had lost. It appears that Beattie was often destined to feel the weight of sorrows. The death of his only son affected him deeply and withdrew him entirely from the service of the Muses. He still lived on the rocks of Morven, but these rocks no longer inspired his song. Like Ossian, after the death of Oscar, he suspended his harp on the branches of an oak. It is said that his son evinced great poetical talents; perhaps he was the young minstrel, whom a father had feelingly described, and whose steps he too soon ceased to trace upon the summit of the mountain. |