Marching and countermarching, with an eye
As fixt as marble, with a forehead ridged
And furrowed into storms, and with a hand
Trembling, as if eternity were hung
In balance on his conduct of a pin ?
Nor envies he aught more their idle sport,
Who pant with application misapplied
To trivial toys, and, pushing ivory bails
Across a velvet level, feel a joy
Akin to rapture, when the bauble finds
Its destined goal, of difficult access.
Nor deems he wiser him, who gives his noon
To miss, the mercer's plague, from shop to shop
Wandering, and littering with unfolded filks
The polished counter, and approving none,
Or pron ing with smiles to call again.
Nor him, who by his vanity feduced,
And soothed into a dream that he discerns
The difference of a Guido from a daub,
Frequents the crowded auction : ftationed there
As duly as the Langford of the show,
With glass at eye, and catalogue in hand,
And tongue accomplished in the fulsome cant
And pedantry, that coxcombs learn with ease;
Oft as the price-deciding hammer falls
He notes it in his book, then raps his box,

Swears ’tis a bargain, rails at his hard fate
That he has let it pass—but never bids.

Here unmolefted, through whatever fign The sun proceeds, I wander. Neither mist, Nor freezing sky nor sultry, checking me, Nor stranger intermeddling with my joy. Ev'n in the spring and play-time of the year, That calls the unwonted villager abroad With all her little ones, a sportive train, To gather king-cups in the yellow mead, And prink their hair with daisies, or to pick A cheap but wholesome fallad from the brook, These shades are all my own. The timorous hare, Grown fo familiar with her frequent guest, Scarce shuns me;' and the stock-dove unalarmed Sits cooing in the pine-tree, nor suspends His long love-ditty for my near approach. Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm, That age or injury has hollowed deep, Where, on his bed of wool and matted leaves, He has outslept the winter, ventures forth To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm fun, The squirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play: He sees me, and at once, swift as a bird, Ascends the neighbouring beech; there whisks his brus,

And perks his ears, and stamps and cries aloud,
With all the prettinefs of feigned alarm,
And anger insignificantly fierce.

The heart is hard in nature, and unfit For human fellowship, as being void Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike To love and friendship both, that is not pleased With fight of animals enjoying life, Nor feels their happiness augment his own. The bounding fawn, that darts across the glade When none pursues, through mere delight of heart, And spirits buoyant with excess of glee; The horse as wanton, and almost as fleet, That skims the spacious meadow at full speed, Then stops and snorts, and throwing high his heels Starts to the voluntary race again; The very kine, that gambol at high noon, The total herd receiving first from one, That leads the dance a summons to be gay, Though wild their strange vagaries, and uncouth Their efforts, yet resolved with one consent To give such act and utterance as they may To ecstasy too big to be suppressed These, and a thoufand images of bliss, With which kind nature graces every scene,

Where cruel man defeats not her design,
Impart to the benevolent, who wish
All that are capable of pleasure pleased,
A far superior happiness to their's,
The comfort of a reasonable joy.

Man scarce had risen, obedient to his call, Who formed him from the duft, his future grave, When he was crowned as never king was fince. God set the diadem upon his head, And angel choirs attended. Wondering stood The new-made monarch, while before him paffed, All happy, and all perfect in their kind, The creatures, fummoned from their various haunts To see their sovereign, and confess his sway. Vaft was his empire, absolute his power, Or bounded only by a law, whose force 'Twas his sublimeft privilege to feel And own, the law of universal love. He ruled with meekness, they obeyed with joy; No cruel purpose lurked within his heart, And no diftruft of his intent in their's. So Eden was a scene of harmlefs sport, Where kindness on his part, who ruled the whole, Begat a tranquil confidence in all, And fear as yet was not, nor cause for fear.

But sin marred all; and the revolt of man,
That source of evils not exhausted yet,
Was punished with revolt of his from him.
Garden of God, how terrible the change
Thy groves and lawns then witnessed ! Every heart,
Each animal of every name, conceived
A jealousy and an instinctive fear,
And, conscious of some danger, either Aled
Precipitate the loathed abode of man,
Or growled defiance in such angry sort,
As taught him too to tremble in his turn.
Thus harmony and family accord
Were driven from Paradise; and in that hour
The seeds of cruelty, that fince have swelled
To such gigantic and enormous growth,
Were sown in human nature's fruitful foil.
Hence date the perfecution and the pain,
That man inflicts on all inferior kinds,
Regardless of their plaints. To make him sport,
To gratify the frenzy of his wrath,
Or his base gluttony, are causes good
And just in his account, why bird and beast
Should suffer torture, and the streams be dyed
With blood of their inhabitants impaled.
Earth groans beneath the burden of a war
Waged with defenceless innocence, while he,