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 deftined goal, of difficult accefs.

Nor deems he wifer him, who gives his noon
To mifs, the mercer's plague, from shop to shop
Wandering, and littering with unfolded filks
The polished counter, and approving none,
Or promifing with fmiles to call again.
Nor him, who by his vanity feduced,
And foothed into a dream that he difcerns
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 fulfome cant
And pedantry, that coxcombs learn with eafe;
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 fun proceeds, I wander. Neither mift,
Nor freezing sky nor fultry, checking me,
Nor ftranger 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 fportive 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 gueft,
Scarce fhuns 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 fome lonely elm,
That age or injury has hollowed deep,
Where, on his bed of wool and matted leaves,
He has outflept the winter, ventures forth
To frik awhile, and bask in the warm fun,
The fquirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play:
He fees me, and at once, swift as a bird,

Afcends the neighbouring beech; there whisks his brush,

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

The heart is hard in nature, and unfit
For human fellowship, as being void
Of fympathy, 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 fpacious meadow at full speed,

Then ftops and fnorts, 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 fummons to be gay,

Though wild their strange vagaries, and uncouth
Their efforts, yet resolved with one confent
To give fuch act and utterance as they may
To ecftafy too big to be fuppreffed-
These, and a thousand images of bliss,

With which kind nature graces every scene,

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

Man scarce had rifen, obedient to his call, Who formed him from the duft, his future grave, When he was crowned as never king was fince. God fet the diadem upon his head,

And angel choirs attended. Wondering ftood
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 fovereign, and confefs his sway.
Vaft was his empire, abfolute his power,
Or bounded only by a law, whofe force
'Twas his fublimeft privilege to feel
And own, the law of univerfal 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 harmless sport,

Where kindness on his part, who ruled the whole,

Begat a tranquil confidence in all,

And fear as yet was not, nor caufe for fear.

But fin marred all; and the revolt of man,
That fource of evils not exhaufted yet,
Was punished with revolt of his from him.
Garden of God, how terrible the change

Thy groves and lawns then witneffed! Every heart,
Each animal of every name, conceived

A jealoufy and an inftinctive fear,
And, confcious of fome danger, either fled
Precipitate the loathed abode of man,

Or growled defiance in fuch angry fort,
As taught him too to tremble in his turn.
Thus harmony and family accord

Were driven from Paradife; and in that hour
The feeds of cruelty, that fince have fwelled
To fuch gigantic and enormous growth,
Were fown 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 fport,
To gratify the frenzy of his wrath,

Or his bafe gluttony, are caufes good

And juft in his account, why bird and beaft
Should fuffer torture, and the ftreams be dyed
With blood of their inhabitants impaled.
Earth groans beneath the burden of a war
Waged with defenceless innocence, while he,