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Still paints th' illufive form; the kindling grace;
Th' inticing (mile; the modeft-seeming eye, 986
Beneath whofe beauteous beams, belying heaven,
Lurk fearchlefs cunning, cruelty, and death:
And itll, falfe warbling in his cheated ear,
Her fyren voice, enchanting, 'draws him on
To guileful thores, and meads of fatal joy.
Even prefent, in the very lap of love
Inglorious laid; while mufic flows around,
Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours;
Amid the rofes fierce repentance rears

Her faaky crest: a quick returning pang

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Shoots thro' the confcious heart; where honour fill,
And great defign, against the oppreflive load
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave,

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But abfent, what fantallic woes, arous'd, Rage in each thought, by refless mufing fed, Chill the warm cheek, and blaft the bloom of life? Neglected fortune flies; and fliding fwift,

Prone into ruin, fall his fcorn'd affairs.

'Tis nought but gloom around: the darken'd fun. Lofes his light. The rofy-bofom'd Spring

To weeping fancy pines; and yon bright arch,
Contracted, bends into a dufky vault.

All Nature fades extinct; and the alone

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Heard, felt, and feen, poffeffes every thought, 1010
Fills every fenfe, and pants in every vein.
Books are but formal Dulness, tedious friends;
And fad amid the focial band he fits,

Lonely and unattentive. From the tongue
The unfinish'd period falls; while borne away, 1015
On fwelling thought, his wafted fpirit flies
To the vain bofom-of his diftant fair;
And leaves the femblance of a lover, fix'd
In melancholy fite, with head declin'd,

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And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts, 1010
Shook from his tender trance, and refiless runs
To glimmering thades, and fympathetic glooms;
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling ftream,
Romantic, hangs; there thro' the penfive dufk
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft,
Indulging all to love: or on the bank
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Thrown

Thrown, amid drooping lillies, fwells the breeze
With fighs unceafing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in foft anguifh he confumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon 1030
Peeps thro' the chambers of the fleecy eaft,
Enlighten'd by degrees, and in her train

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Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks,
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam,
With foften'd foul, and woos the bird of eve
To mingle woes with his or while the world
And all the fons of care lie hufh'd in fleep,
Affociates with the midnight fhadows drear;
And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours
His idly-tortur'd heart into the page,
Meant for the moving meffenger of love;
Where rapture burns on rapture, every line
With rifing frenzy fir'd. But if on bed
Delirious flung, fleep from his pillow flies.
All night be toffes, nor the balmy power
In any pofture finds; till the grey morn
Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch,
Exanimate by love and then perhaps
Exhaufted Nature finks a while to reft,
Still interrupted by distracted dreams,
That o'er the fick imagination rife,

And in black colours paint the mimic scene.
Oft with th' enchantress of his foul he talks;
Sometimes in crouds diftrefs'd; or if retir'd
To fecret-winding flower-enwoven bowers,
Far from the dull impertinence of man,
Just as he, credulous, his endlefs cares
Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love,

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Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Thro' forefts huge, and long untravel'd heaths 1060
With defolation brown, he wanders wafte,
In night and tempeft wrapt; or fhrinks aghaft,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and strives to reach
The farther thore; where fuccourlefs and fad, 1065
She with extended arms his aid implores;
But ftrives in vain : borne by th' outrageous flood
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,

Or

5

Or whelm'd beneath the boiling eddy finks.
Thefe are the charming agonies of love,
Whofe mifery delights. But thro' the he it
Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful mifery no more,

But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall,

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Corroding every thought, and blafting all 1075
Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then, `
Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace,
Shine out your laft the yellow-tinging plague
Internal vifion taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps.

Ah then! inftead of love-enliven'd cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes

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With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed;
Suffus'd, and glaring with untender fire;
A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,
Where the whole poifon'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thoufand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondness, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and refolution frail,

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Giving falfe peace a moment. Fancy pours, 1095
A fresh, her beauties on his bufy thought,
Her first endearments, twining round the foul,
With all the witchcraft of enfnaring love.

Strait the fierce ftorm involves his mind anew, 1099
Flames thro' the nerves, and boils along the ve ns;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For even the fad affurance of his fears

Were peace to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds,
Thro' flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life 1105
Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care;

His brightest aims extinguifh'd all, and all
His lively moments running down to waste.
But happy they! the happiest of their kind!
Whom gentler ftars unite, and in one fate
B 4

Their

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their paffions into love;
Where friendship full exerts her fofteft power,
Perfect esteem enliven'd by defire

Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;

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Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence: for nougat but love
Can anfwer love, and render blifs fecure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To blefs himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,

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Well-merited, confume his nights and days: 1125
Let barbarous nations, whofe inhuman love
Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel;
Let eaftern tyrants from the light of heaven
Seclude their bofom flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a meer, lifelefs, violated form;
While thofe whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal tranfport, free as Nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonfenfe all !
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
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High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can with;
Something than beauty dearer, thould they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,'
The richest bounty of indulgent heav'n.
Meantime a fimiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom. 1145
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

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To pour the freth instruction o'er the mind, 1150 To breathe th' enlivening fp rit, and to fix

The generous purpose in the glowing breast.

Oh

Oh fpeak the joy! ye, whom the fudden tear
Surprizes often, while you look around,
And nothing frikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various Nature preffing on the heart:
An elegant fufficiency, content,

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Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, ufeful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving heaven.
Thefe are the matchlefs joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceafclefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads : 1165
'Till evening comes at laft, ferene and mild;
When after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in focial fleep;
Together freed, their gent'e fpirits fly
To fcenes where love and bliss immortal reign.

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