Blue thro' the dusk, the fmoaking currents shine
355
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, awkward; while along the foreft glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic 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 molly cottage, where with peace he dwells;
And from the crouded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.
Falfely luxurious, will not man awake;
And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?

For is there ought in fleep can charm the wife? 79
To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half
The fleeting moments of too thort a life?
Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul!
Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Day?

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 pleafure wait without,
To bless the wildly-devious morning-walk?
But yonder comes the powerful King of
Rejoicing in the east. The leffening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo! now apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air, 85
He looks in boundless majetty abroad:

99

And theds the fhining day, that burnished plays
On rock s,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, Q Sun!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee!

Tis by thy fecret, strong, attractive force,

95

44

As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy fyftem rolls entire: from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whofe disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
Informer of the planetary train!

[orbs

106

Without whofe quickening glance their cumbrous
Were brute unlovely mafs, inert and dead,
And not as now the green abodes of life
How many forms of being wait on thee?
Inhaling fpirit; from th' unfettered 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 ecl ptic 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

115

120

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 fluth'd the vernal year.
Nor to the furface of enliven'd earth,

126

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.

130

Effulgent, hence the veiny marble thines;

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.

136

Th'

Th' unfruitful rock itself impregn'd by thee,
In dark retirement, forms the lucid ftone.
The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays,

Collected light, compact; that polish'd bright, 140 And all its native luftre let abroad,

145

150.

155

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 faphire, folid ether, takes Its hue cerulean; and of evening tinct, The purple freaming amethyst is thine. With thy own fmile the yellow topaz burns. Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Sping, When firft the gives it to the southern gale, Than the green emerald fhews. 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 ftream 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, Reftless, reflects a floating gleam. But this, And all the much-tranfported Mufe can fing, Are to thy beauty, dignity, and ufe,

165

Unequal far; great delegated fource

179

Of light, and life, and grace, and joy below!
How fhall then attempt to fing of him,

Who, Light Himself, in uncreated light
Invefted deep, dwells awfully retir'd
From mortal eye, or angels purer ken;
Whofe fingle fmile has, from the first of time,
Fill'd, overflowing, all thofe lamps of heaven,
That beam for ever thro' the boundless sky;

175

But,

But, thould he hide his face, th astonish'd fun,
And all th' extinguish'd stars, would loofening reel
Wide from their spheres, and chaos come again. 181
And yet was every faultering tongue of Man,
Almighty Father! filent in thy praife;

Thy works themselves would raise a general voice,
Even in the depth of folitary woods

By human foot untrod, proclaim thy power,
And to the choir celeftial Thee refound,
Th' eternal caufe, fupport, and end of all;
To me be Nature's volume broad difplay'd;
And to perufe its all-inftructing page,
Or, haply catching infpiration thence,
Some eafy paffage, raptur'd, to tranflate,
My fole delight; as thro' the falling glooms
Penfive I stray, or with the rifing dawn
On fancy's eagle-wing excurfive foar,

185

190

195

Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent fun Melts into limpid air the high rais'd clouds, And morning fogs, that hover'd round the hills. In party-colour'd bands; till wide unveil'd The face of Nature fhines, from where earth feems Far ftretch'd around, to meet the bending sphere. 201 Half in a bluth of clustering rofes loft, Dew-dropping Coolness to the fhade retires; There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed, By gelid founts and careless rills to muse: While tyrant Heat, difpreading thro' the sky, With rapid fway, his burning influence darts On Man, and beaft, and herb, and tepid ftream.

205

Who can unpitying fee the flowery race, Shed by the morn, their new fluth'd bloom refign, Before the parching beam? So fade the fair, When fevers revel thro' their azure veins.

the lofty follower of the fun,

211

But one,
Sad when he fets, shuts up her yellow leaves,
Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamour'd bofom to his ray.

216
Home, from his morning task, the fwain retreats:
His flock before him ftepping to the fold:
While the full udder'd mother lows around

The chearful cottage, then expecting food,

220

The

The food of innocence, and health! The daw,
The rook and magpye, to the grey-grown oaks
(That the calm village in their verdant arms,
Sheltering, embrace) direct their lazy flight;
Where on the mingling boughs they fit embower'd
All the hot noon, till cooler hours arife, 226
Faint, underneath, the houthold fowls convene :
And, in a corner of the buzzing thade,

The houfe-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies,
Out-stretch'd and fleepy. In his flumbers one 230
Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults
O'er hill and dale, till waken'd by the wafp,
They starting fnap. Nor fhall the Mufe difdain
To let the little noify fummer race

235

Live in her lay, and flutter thro' her fong:
Not mean tho' fimple; to the fun ally'd
From him they draw their animating fire.
Wak'd by his warmer ray, the reptile young
Come wing'd abroad; by the light air upborn,
Lighter and full of foul. From every chink, 240
And fecret corner, where they slept away
The wintry forms; or riting from their tombs,
To higher life; by myriads forth at once,
Swarming they pour; of all the vary'd hues
Their beauty beaming parent can difclofe. 245
Ten thousand forms! Ten thousand different tribes!
People the blaze. To funny waters fome
By fatal inftinet fly; where on the pool

255

They sportive wheel; or, failing down the fiream, Are fnatch'd immediate by the quick-ey'd trout, 250 Or darting falmon. Thro' the green-wood glade Some love to ftray; there lodg'd, amus'd and fed, In the freth leaf. Luxurious, others make The meads their choice, and vifit every flower, And every latent herb: for the fweet task, To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap, 6 In what foft beds, their young yet undisclos'd, Employs their tender care. Some to the house, The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight; Sip round the pail, or tafte the curdling cheese: 260 Oft inadvertent, from the milky ftream They meet their fate; or, weltering in the bowl

With