Is this complex stupendous scheme of things. 855 But, tho' conceal'd, to every purer eye Th' informing Author in his works appears: Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes, The SMILING GOD is seen; while water, earth, And air attest his bounty; which exalts 860 STILL let my song a nobler note assume, And sing th' infusive force of Spring on Man, 865 When heaven and earth, as if contending, vye To raise his being, and serene his soul. Can he forbear to join the general smile Of Nature? Can fierce passions vex his breast, While every gale is peace, and every grove 870 Is melody? Hence! from the bounteous walks Of flowing spring, ye sordid sons of earth, Hard, and unfeeling of another's woe;' Or only lavish to yourselves; away! But come, ye generous minds, in whose wide Of all his works, thought, CREATIVE burns BOUNTY 876 With warmest beam; and on your open frent And liberal eye, sits, from his dark retreat Inviting modest Want. Nor, till invok'd, Leaves no cold wintry corner unexplor'd; clouds Descend in gladsome plenty o'er the world; 885 days, Reviving Sickness lifts her languid head; To purchase. Pure Serenity apace Induces thought, and Contemplation still. We feel the present DEITY, and taste The joy of GOD to see a happy world! THESE are the sacred feelings of thy heart, 900 Thy heart inform'd by reason's purer ray, O LYTTELTON, the friend! thy passions thus And meditations vary, as at large, Courting the Muse, thro' HAGLEY-PARK thou strayest; Thy British Temple! There along the dale, 905 With woods o'er-hung, and shagg'd with mossy rocks, Whence on each hand the gushing waters play, And down the rough cascade white-dashing fall, Or gleam in lengthen'd vista' thro' the trees, You silent steal; or sit beneath the shade 910 Of solemn oaks, that tuft the swelling mounts Thrown graceful round by Nature's careless hand, And pensive listen to the various voice Of rural peace: the herds, the flocks, the · birds, The hollow-whispering breeze, the plaint of rills, That, purling down amid the twisted roots 916 Which creep around, their dewy murmurs shake On the sooth'd ear. From these abstracted oft, You wander thro' the philosophic world; Where in bright train continual wonders rise, 920 Or to the curious or the pious eye. To raise her virtue, and her arts revive. thy view, these graver thoughts The Muses charm: while, with sure taste refin'd, You draw th' inspiring breath of ancient song; 930 935 Till nobly rises, emulous, thy own. eyes, Where meeken'd sense, and amiable grace, 940. And lively sweetness dwell, enraptur'd, drink That nameless spirit of ethereal joy, Inimitable happiness! which love, Alone, bestows, and on a favour'd few. 945 Meantime you gain the height, from whose fair brow The bursting prospect spreads immense around; And snatch'd o'er hill and dale, and wood and lawn, And verdant field, and darkening heath between, And villages embosom'd soft in trees, 950 And spiry towns by surging columns mark'd Of houshold smoak, smoak, your eye excursive roams: Wide-stretching from the Hall, in whose kind haunt The Hospitable Genius lingers still, To where the broken landskip, by degrees, 955 Ascending, roughens into rigid hills; O'er which the Cambrian mountains, like far clouds That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise. FLUSH'D by the spirit of the genial year, Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom 960 Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round: |