And every beauty, delicate or bold, sense, Diffusive painted on the rapid mind. TUTOR'd by thee, hence POETRY exalts Her voice to ages; and informs the page' 1755 With music, image, sentiment, and thought, Never to die! the treasure of mankind! Their highest honour, and their truest joy! WITHOUT thee what were unenlightened A savage roaming thro' the woods and wilds, 1760 In quest of prey; and with th' unfashioned furr Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art, skill To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool The burning line, or dares the wintry pole; 1770 Mother severe of infinite delights! thee, 1775 Ours are the plans of policy, and peace; NOR to this evanescent speck of earth Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high Are her exalted range; intent to gaze 1785 Creation thro'; and, from that full complex Of never-ending wonders, to conceive Of the SOLE BEING right, who spoke the Word, And Nature mov'd compleat. With inward view, Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns 1790 Her eye; and instant, at her powerful glance, Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear; Compound, divide, and into order shift, Each to his rank, from plain perception up To the fair forms of fancy's fleeting train: 1795 To reason then, deducing truth from truth;; And notion quite abstract; where first begins The world of spirits, action all, and life Unfettered, and unmix'd. But here the cloud, So wills ETERNAL PROVIDENCE, deep. sits 1800 Enough for us to know that this dark state, And ever rising with the rising mind. 1805 AUTUMN. The ARGUMENT. Reflexions in Reaping. A Shooting and The subject proposed. Addressed to Mr. ONSLOW. A prospect of the fields ready for harvest. praise of industry rais'd by that view. tale relative to it. A harvest storm. hunting, their barbarity. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A view of an orchard. A description of fogs, whence a frequent in the latter part of Autumn: digression, enquiring into the rise of fountains nnd 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, moonlight. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which succeeds calm, pure, sun-shiny day, such as usually the season. The harvest being gathered in, the country dissolv'd in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philosophical country life. shuts up |