His faculties unfolded; pointed out,
Where lavish Nature the directing hand
Of Art demanded; fhew'd him how to raise
His feeble force by the mechanic powers,
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth,
On what to turn the piercing rage of fre,
On what the torrent, and the gather'd blast;
Gave the tall ancient foreft to his ax;
Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone,
Till by degrees the finish'd fabric rofe;
Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur,
And wrapt them in the woolly veftment warm, 85
Or bright in glofy filk, and flowing lawn;
With wholefo.ne viands fill'd his table, pour'd
The generous glafs around, infpir'd to wake
The life-refining foul of decent wit:
Nor ftopp'd at barren bare neceffity;
But ftill advancing bolder, led him on,
To pomp, to pleasure, elegance, and grace;
And, breathing high ambition thro' his foul,
Set fcience, wisdom, glory, in his view,
And bad him be the Lord of all below.
THEN gathering Men their natural powers combin'd, And form'd a Publick; to the general good Submitting, aiming, and conducting all. For this the Patriot-Council met,' the full, The free, and fairly reprefented Whole;
For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws,
Distinguish'd orders, animated arts,
And with joint force Oppreffion chaining, set
Imperial Justice at the helm; yet still
To them accountable: nor flavish dream'd
That toiling millions must refign their weal,
And all the honey of their fearch, to fuch
As for themfelves alone themselves have rais'd.
HENCE every form of cultivated life In order fet, protected, and infpir'd, Into perfection wrought. Uniting all, Society grew numerous, high, polite, And happy. Nurse of art! the city rear'd In beauteous pride her tower-encircled head; And, ftretching street on street, by thoufands drew, From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew 116 To bows strong-straining, her aspiring fons.
THEN COMMERCE brought into the publick walk The busy merchant; the big ware-house built; Rais'd the ftrong crane; choak'd up the loaded ftreet With foreign plenty; and thy ftream, OTHAMES, Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods! 125 Chofe for his grand refort. On either hand, Like a long wintry foreft, groves of mafts Shot up their spires; the bellying sheet between Poffefs'd the breezy void; the footy hulk
Steer'd fluggish on; the fplendid barge along
Row'd, regular, to harmony; around,
The boat, light-skimming, ftretch'd its oary wings;
While deep the various voice of fervent toil
From bank to bank increas'd; whence ribb'd with oak, To bear the BRITISH THUNDER, black, and bold, 136 The roaring veffel rush'd into the main.
THEN too the pillar'd dome, magnific, heav'd Its ample roof; and Luxury within 139 Pour'd out her glittering ftores: the canvas smooth, With glowing life protuberant, to the view Embodied rofe; the ftatue feem'd to breathe, And soften into flesh, beneath the touch Of forming art, imagination-flufh'd.
ALL is the gift of INDUSTRY; whate'er
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life
Delightful. Penfive Winter chear'd by him
Sits at the focial fire, and happy hears
Th' excluded tempeft idly rave along;
His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring;
Without him Summer were an arid waste;
Nor to the autumnal months could thus tranfmit
Thofe full, mature, immeafureable stores,
That, waving round, recal my wandering song.
Soon as the morning trembles o'er the fky, 155 And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the fpreading day; Before the ripened field the reapers ftand,
In fair array; each by the lafs he loves,
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate
By nameless gentle offices her toil.
At once they stoop and fwell the lufty fheaves;
While thro' their chearful band the rural talk,
The rural fcandal and the rural jeft
Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And steal unfelt the fultry hours away.
Behind the master walks, builds up the fhocks;
And, confcious, glancing oft on every fide
His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners spread around, and here and there,
Spike after fpike, their fparing harvest pick.
Be not to narrow, husbandmen! but fling
From the fall fheaf, with charitable stealth,
The liberal handful. Think, oh grateful think!
How good the GOD of HARVEST is to you;
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields; 175
While these unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask their humble dole. The various turns
Of fortune ponder; that your fons may want
What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give: 180
THE lovely young LAVINIA once had friends;
And Fortune imil'd, deceitful on her birth.
For in her helpless years depriv'd of all,
Of every stay, save Innocence and HEAVEN,
She with her widow'd mother, feeble, old,
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd
Among the windings of a woody vale;
By folitude and deep furrounding fhades,
But more by bashful modefty, conceal'd.
Together thus they fhunn'd the cruel fcorn
Which virtue, funk to poverty, would meet
From giddy paffion and low-minded pride:
Almoft on Nature's common bounty fed;
Like the gay
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare.
birds that fung them to repose,
Her form was fresher than the morning rofe,
When the dew wets its leaves; unftain'd, and pure,
As is the lily, or the mountain fnow.
The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes,
Still on the ground dejected, darting all
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers:
Or when the mournful tale her mother told,
Of what her faithlefs fortune promis'd once,
Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy ftar
Of evening, fhone in tears. A native grace
Sat fair-proportion'd on her polifh'd limbs,
Veil'd in a fimple robe, their best attire,
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