WHEN now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd, And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, Mother of dews,
At first faint gleaming in the dappled east:
Till far o'er ether fpreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quicken'd ftep,
Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny profpect wide.
The dripping rock the mountain's misty top
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue thro' the dusk, the fmoaking currents fhine; 55
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward: while along the forest-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufick awakes,
The native voice of undiffembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arife.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crouded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.
FALSELY luxurious, will not Man awake;
And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy
D 3
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To meditaton due and facred fong?
For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife? 70
To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half
The fleeting moments of too short a life?
Total extinction of th' enlightened foul!
Or elfe to feverish vanity alive,
Wildered, and toffing thro' diftemper'd dreams? 75
Who would in fuch a gloomy ftate remain, ⚫
Longer than Nature craves; when every Mufe
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly-devious morning-walk?
BUT yonder comes the powerful King of Day, 80 Rejoicing in the eaft. The leffening cloud, 'The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach Betoken glad.
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air, ́ 85
He looks in boundlefs majefty abroad;
And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering ftreams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime chearer Light!
Of all material beings firft, and best!
Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe!
Without whofe vefting beauty all were wrapt
In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Sun!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom beft feen
Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee?
"Tis by thy fecret, strong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy System rolls entire: from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whose disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
INFORMER of the planetary train!
Without whofe quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mass, inert and dead,
And not as now the green abode, of life;
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling fpirit; from th' unfetter'd mind,
By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam.
The vegetable world is alfo thine,
Parent of Seafons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as thro' thy vaft domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic-road,
In world-rejoicing ftate, it moves fublime.
Mean-time th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up
A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car,
High-feen, the Seafons lead, in fprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours,
The zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed Dews,
And foftened into joy the furly Storms.
'Thefe, in fucceffive turn, with lavish hand,
Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower,
Herbs, flowers, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch,
From land to land is flufh'd the vernal year.
NOR to the furface of enliven'd earth,
Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods,
Her liberal treffes, is thy force confin'd:
But, to the bowel'd cavern darting deep,
The mineral kinds confefs thy mighty power.
Effulgent, hence the veiny marble fhines;
Hence Labour draws his tools; hence burnish'd War Gleams on the day; the nobler works of Peace Hence blefs mankind, and generous Commerce binds The round of nations in a golden chain.
TH' unfruitful rock itself impregn'd by thee, In dark retirement, forms the lucid stone. The lively Diamond drinks thy pureft rays, Collected light, compact; that polish'd bright, 140 And all its native luftre let abroad,
Dares, as it fparkles on the fair-one's breaft,
With vain ambition emulate her eyes,
At thee the Ruby lights its deepening glow,
And with a waving radiance inward flames,
From thee the Saphire, folid ether, takes
Its hue cerulean; and, of evening tinct,
The purple-streaming Amethyst is thine
With thy own smile the yellow Topaz burns.
Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring,
When first she gives it to the fouthern gale,
Than the green Emerald shows. But, all combin'd, Thick thro' the whitening Opal play thy beams;
Or, flying feveral from its furface, form
A trembling variance of revolving hues,
As the fite varies in the gazer's hand.
THE very dead creation, from thy touch,
Affumes a mimic life. By thee refin'd,
In brighter mazes, the relucent stream
Plays o'er the mead. The precipice abrupt,
Projecting horror on the blacken'd flood,
Softens at thy return. The defart joys
Wildly, thro' all his melancholy bounds.
Rude ruins glitter; and the briny deep,
Seen from fome pointed promontory's top,
Far to the blue horizon's utmost verge,
Reftlefs, reflects a floating gleam. But this,
And all the much-transported Muse can fing,
Are to thy beauty, dignity, and use,
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