ARGUMENT. The subject proposed. Addressed to Mr. ONSLOW. A prospect of the fields ready for harvest. Reflections in praise of industry raised by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest storm. Shooting and hunting, their barbarity. A ludicrous account of foxhunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn: whence a digression, enquiring into the rise of fountains and rivers. Birds of season considered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western isles of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the discoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dusky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which succeeds a calm, pure, sun-shiny day, such as usually shuts up the season. The harvest being gathered in, the country dissolved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philosophical country life. AUTUMN. ·000 CROWN'D with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf, Onslow! the Muse, ambitious of thy name, Though weak of power, yet strong in ardent will, Whene'er her country rushes on her heart, When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, With golden light enlivened, wide invests The happy world Attemper'd suns arise, Sweet beam'd, and shedding oft through lucid clouds Rich, silent, deep, they stand; for not a gale Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow. The clouds fly different; and the sudden sun These are thy blessings, Industry! rough power! And all the soft civility of life: Raiser of human kind! by Nature cast, Naked, and helpless, out amid the woods And wilds, to rude inclement elements; Still unexerted, in the unconcious breast, |