The ARGUMENT. The fubject propofed. Addreffed to Mr. ONS LOW. A. profpect of the fields ready for harvest. Reflexions in praife of industry rais'd by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest form. Shooting and bunting, their barbarity. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A defcription of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn: whence a digreffion, enquiring into the rife of fountains and rivers. Birds of feafon confidered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that over the northern and western ifles of SCOTLAND. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the difcoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dufky day, moonlight. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which fucceeds a calm, pure, fun-fhiny day, fuch as ufually fouts up the feafon. The harvest being gathered in, the country diffolv'd in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philofophical country life. AUTUM N. ROWN'D with the fickle, and the wheaten fheaf, While AUTUMN, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more, Well pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the wintry froft Nitrous prepar'd; the various bloffom'd spring Put in white promise forth; and fummer-funs Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme. ONSLOW! the Mufe, ambitious of thy name, To grace, infpire, and dignify her fong, Would from the Publick Voice thy gentle ear A while engage. Thy noble cares fhe knows, The patriot-virtues that diftend thy thought, Spread on thy front, and in thy bofom glow; While liftening fenates hang upon thy tongue, Devolving thro' the maze of eloquence A rowl of periods, fweeter than her song. But she too pants for public virtue, fhe, Tho' weak of power yet ftrong in ardent will, G 2 Whene'er Whene'er her country rushes on her heart, 20 WHEN the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, And Libra weighs in equal fcales the year; From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence shook Of parting Summer, a ferener blue, With golden light enlivened wide invests 26 The happy world. Attemper'd funs arife, Rich, filent, deep, they ftand; for not a gale Falls from its poife, and gives the breeze to blow. 35 The clouds fly different; and the fudden fun 40 THESE are thy bleffings, INDUSTRY! rough power! Whom labour fill attends, and fweat, and pain; Yet the kind fource of every gentle art, 45 And And all the foft civility of life: 50 55 Raiser of human kind! by Nature caft, For home he had not; home is the resort 65 Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where, Supporting and fupported, polish'd friends, And dear relations mingle into blifs. But this the rugged favage never felt, G 3 70 His |