VI.

As he one morning, long before the dawn,
Prick'd through the forest to dislodge his prey,
Deep in the winding bosom of a lawn,

With wood wild-fring 'd, he mark'd a taper's ray,
That from the beating rain and wintry fray
Did to a lonely cot his steps decoy :

There, up to earn the needments of the day,
He found dame Poverty, nor fair nor coy:
Her he compress'd, and fill'd her with a lusty boy.

VII.

Amid the greenwood shade this boy was bred,
And grew at last a knight of muchel fame,
Of active mind and vigorous lustyhed,

"The Knight of Arts and Industry" by name.
Earth was his bed, the boughs his roof did frame;
He knew no bev'rage but the flowing stream;
His tasteful well-earn'd food the sylvan game,

Or the brown fruit with which the woodlands teem: The same to him glad Summer, or the Winter breme.

VIII.

So pass'd his youthful morning, void of care,
Wild as the colts that through the commons run:
For him no tender parents troubled were;

He of the forest seem'd to be the son;
And certes had been utterly undone,

But that Minerva pity of him took,

With all the gods that love the rural wonne,
That teach to tame the soil and rule the crook;

Ne did the sacred Nine disdain a gentle look.

IX.

Of fertile genius, him they nurtur'd well
In every science and in every art

By which mankind the thoughtless brutes excel,
That can or use, or joy, or grace impart,
Disclosing all the pow'rs of head and heart:
Ne were the goodly exercises spar'd

That brace the nerves, or make the limbs alert,
And mix elastic force with firmness hard:

Was never knight on ground mote be with him compar'd

X.

Sometimes, with early morn, he mounted gay
The hunter-steed, exulting o'er the dale,
And drew the roseate breath of orient day:
Sometimes, retiring to the secret vale,

Yclad in steel, and bright with burnish'd mail,
He strain'd the bow, or toss'd the sounding spear,
Or, darting on the goal, outstripp'd the gale,

Or wheel'd the chariot in its mid career,

Or strenuous wrestled hard with many a tough compeer.

XI.

At other times he pry'd through Nature's store,
Whate'er she in th' ethereal round contains,
Whate'er she hides beneath her verdant floor,

The vegetable and the mineral reigns;

Or else he scann'd the globe,-those small domains, Where restless mortals such a turmoil keep,—

Its seas, its floods, its mountains, and its plains: But more he search'd the mind, and rous'd from sleep Those moral seeds whence we heroic actions reap.

XII.

Nor would he scorn to stoop from high pursuits Of heavenly Truth, and practise what she taught. Vain is the tree of knowledge without fruits! Sometimes in hand the spade or plough he caught, Forth-calling all with which boon earth is fraught ; Sometimes he plied the strong mechanic tool, Or rear'd the fabric from the finest draught; And oft he put himself to Neptune's school, Fighting with winds and waves on the vex'd ocean-pool

XIII.

To solace then these rougher toils, he tried To touch the kindling canvas into life; With Nature his creating pencil vied, With Nature joyous at the mimic strife : Or to such shapes as grac'd Pygmalion's wife He hew'd the marble: or, with varied fire, He rous'd the trumpet and the martial fife, Or bade the lute sweet tenderness inspire, Or verses fram'd that well might wake Apollo's lyre.

XIV.

Accomplish'd thus, he from the woods issú 'd,
Full of great aims, and bent on bold emprize :
The work, which long he in his breast had brew'd,
Now to perform he ardent did devise;

To wit, a barbarous world to civilize.

Earth was till then a boundless forest wild;
Naught to be seen but savage wood, and skies:
No cities nourish'd arts, no culture smil❜d,

No government, no laws, no gentle manners mild.

XV.

A rugged wight, the worst of brutes, was Man;
On his own wretched kind he, ruthless, prey'd :
The strongest still the weakest over-ran;
In every country mighty robbers sway'd,
And guile and ruffian force were all their trade.
Life was a scene of rapine, want, and woe :
Which this brave knight, in noble anger, made
To swear, he would the rascal rout o'erthrow ;
For, by the Pow'rs Divine, it should no more be so!

XVI.

It would exceed the purport of my song,
To say how this best sun, from orient climes
Came, beaming life and beauty all along,
Before him chasing indolence and crimes.
Still, as he pass'd, the nations he sublimes,
And calls forth arts and virtues with his ray:
Then Egypt, Greece, and Rome, their golden times,
Successive, had; but now in ruins grey
They lie, to slavish Sloth and Tyranny a prey.

XVII.

To crown his toils, Sir Industry then spread
The swelling sail, and made for Britain's coast.
A sylvan life till then the natives led,

In the brown shades and greenwood forest lost,
All careless rambling where it lik'd them most:
Their wealth the wild-deer bouncing through the glade;
They lodg'd at large, and liv'd at Nature's cost;:
Save spear and bow, withouten other aid;

Yet not the Roman steel their naked breast dismay'd.

XVIII.

He lik'd the soil, he lik'd the clement skies,
He lik❜d the verdant hills and flow'ry plains.
"Be this my great, my chosen isle," he cries:
This, whilst my labours Liberty sustains,

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This queen of ocean all assault disdains.” Nor lik'd he less the genius of the land, To freedom apt and persevering pains, Mild to obey, and generous to command, Temper'd by forming Heaven with kindest, firmest hand.

XIX.

Here by degrees his master-work arose,
Whatever arts and industry can frame;
Whatever finish'd Agriculture knows,

Fair queen of arts! from heav'n itself who came,
When Eden flourish'd in unspotted fame :

And still with her sweet Innocence we find,
And tender Peace, and joys without a name,
That, while they ravish, tranquillize the mind:
Nature and Art at once, delight and use, combin'd.

XX.

Then towns he quicken'd by mechanic arts,
And bade the fervent city glow with toil;
Bade social Commerce raise renowned marts,
Join land to land, and marry soil to soil,
Unite the poles, and without bloody spoil
Bring home of either Ind the gorgeous stores;
Or, should despotic rage the world embroil,
Bade tyrants tremble on remotest shores,

While o'er th' encircling deep Britannia's thunder roars..