To him the long review of order'd life 1645 Is inward rapture, only to be felt.

CONFESS'D from yonder slow-extinguish'd
clouds,

All aether softening, sober Evening takes
Her wonted station in the middle air;

A thousand shadows at her beck. First

this.

1650 She sends on earth; then that of deeper dye Steals soft behind; and then a deeper still, In circle following circle, gathers round, To close the face, of things. A fresher gale Begins to wave the wood, and stir the

stream,

1655 Sweeping with shadowy gust the fields of

corn;

While the quail clamours for his running

mate.

Wide, o'er the thistly lawn, as swells the breeze,

A whitening shower of vegetable down Amusive floats. The kind impartial care 1660 Of Nature nought disdains: thoughtful to feed

Her lowest sons, and clothe the coming g

year,

From field to field the feathered seeds. she

1665

The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail; The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart, Unknowing what the joy-mixt anguish means, Sincerely loves, by that best language shewn Of cordial glances, and obliging deeds. 1670 Onward they pass, o'er many a panting height, And valley sunk, and unfrequented; where At fall of eve the fairy people throng, In various game, and revelry, to pass The summer-night, as village-stories tell. 1675 But far about they wander from the grave Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urg'd Against his own sad breast to lift the hand Of impious violence. The lonely tower Is also shunn'd, whose mournful chambers hold, 1680 So night-struck Fancy dreams, the yelling ghost,

AMONG the crooked lanes, on every hedge, The glow-worm, lights his gem; and, thro'

the dark,

A moving radiance twinkles.

Evening yields The world to Night; not in her winter

Of massy Stygian woof, but loose array'd
In mantle dun. A faint erroneous ray,
Glanc'd from th' imperfect surfaces of things,
Flings half an image on the straining eye;
While wavering woods, and villages, and
1690
And rocks, and mountain-tops, that long re-

streams,

tain'd

Th' ascending gleam, are all one swimming

scene,

Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heaven Thence weary vision turns; where, leading

soft

The silent hours of love, with purest ray 1695
Sweet Venus shines; and from her genial rise,
When day-light sickens till it springs afresh,
Unrival'd reigns, the fairest lamp of night.
As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink,
With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings

shoot

Across the sky; or horizontal dart,

1700

In wondrous shapes: by fearful murmuring

crouds

Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs,
That more than deck, that animate the sky,
The life-infusing suns of other worlds; 1705
Lo! from the dread immensity of space
Returning, with accelerated course,
The rushing comet to the sun descends;

And as he sinks below the shading earth,
With awful train projected o'er the heavens, 1710
The guilty nations tremble. But, above.
Those superstitious horrors that enslave
The fond sequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, the enlightened
few,

Whose godlike minds philosophy exalts, 1715
The glorious stranger hail. They feel a joy
Divinely great; they in their powers exult,
That wondrous force of thought, which mount-
ing spurns

This dusky spot, and measures all the sky; While, from his far excursion thro' the

Of barren aether, faithful to his time,
They see the blazing wonder rise anew,
In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent.
To work the will of all-sustaining LOVE:
From his huge vapoury train perhaps to

shake

1725 Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs, Thro' which his long ellipsis winds; perhaps To lend new fuel to declining suns,

To light up worlds; and feed th' eternal

fire.

WITH thee, serene PHILOSOPHY, with

thee,

1730,

ΙΑΙ

And thy bright garland, let me crown my song!

that,

Effussive source of evidence, and truth!
A lustre shedding o'er th' ennobled mind,
Stronger than summer-noon; and pure as
1735
Whose mild vibrations sooth the parted soul,
New to the dawning of celestial day.
Hence thro' her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd
by thee,

She springs aloft, with elevated pride,

Above the tangling mass of low desi

res,

1740 That bind the fluttering croud; and, angel

wing'd,

The heights of science and of virtue

gains,

Where all is calm and clear; with Nature round,

Or in the starry regions, or th' abyss,
To Reason's and to Fancy's eye display'd: 1745
The First up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of causes and effects to HIM,
The world producing ESSENCE, who

alone

Possesses being; while the Last receives The whole magnificence of heaven

earth,

and

1750