Th' impov'rish'd earth; an overbearing race,
That, like the multitude made faction-mad,
Disturb good order, and degrade true worth,

Oh, blest seclusion from a jarring world,
Which he, thus occupied, enjoys! Retreat
Cannot indeed to guilty man restore

Lost innocence, or cancel follies past;
But it has peace, and much secures the mind
From all assaults of evil; proving still

A faithful barrier, not o'erleap'd with ease
By vicious custom, raging uncontroll'd
Abroad, and desolating public life.

When fierce temptation, seconded within
By traitor appetite, and arm'd with darts
Temper'd in hell, invades the throbbing breast,
To combat may be glorious, and success

Perhaps may crown us; but to fly is safe.
Had I the choice of sublunary good,

What could I wish that I possess not here?

זי

Health, leisure, means t' improve it, friendship,

peace,

No loose or wanton, though a wand'ring, muse,

And constant occupation without care.

Thus blest, I draw a picture of that bliss;

Hopeless, indeed, that dissipated minds,
And profligate abusers of a world

Created fair so much in vain for them,

Should seek the guiltless joys that I describe,
Allur'd by my report: but sure no less,

That, self-condemn'd, they must neglect the prize,
And what they will not taste must yet approve.
What we admire we praise; and, when we praise,
Advance it into notice, that, its worth

Acknowledg'd, others

may admire it too.

I therefore recommend, though at the risk

Of popular disgust, yet boldly still,

The cause of piety and sacred truth,

And virtue, and those scenes which God ordain'd

Should best secure them and promote them most;

Scenes that I love, and with regret perceive

Forsaken, or through folly not enjoy'd.
Pure is the nymph, though lib'ral of her smiles,
And chaste, though unconfin'd, whom I extol.

Not as the prince in Shushan, when he call'd,
Vain-glorious of her charms, his Vashti forth

To

grace the full pavilion. His design

Was but to boast his own peculiar good,
Which all might view with envy, none partake.

My charmer is not mine alone; my sweets,
And she that sweetens all my bitters too,

Nature, enchanting Nature, in whose form
And lineaments divine I trace a hand

That errs not, and find raptures still renew'd,
Is free to all men-universal prize.

Strange that so fair a creature should yet want Admirers, and be destin'd to divide

With meaner objects ev'n the few she finds! Stripp'd of her ornaments, her leaves and flow'rs,

She loses all her influence. Cities then

Attract us, and neglected Nature pines,

Abandon'd, as unworthy of our love.

But are not wholesome airs, though unperfum'd By roses; and clear suns, though scarcely felt; And groves, if unharmonious, yet secure

From clamour, and whose very silence charms; To be preferr❜d to smoke, to the eclipse

That Metropolitan volcanos make,

Whose Stygian throats breathe darkness all day

long;

1

A

And to the stir of commerce, driving slow,
And thund'ring loud, with his ten thousand wheels?
They would be, were not madness in the head,
And folly in the heart; were England now
What England was; plain, hospitable, kind,
And undebauch'd. But we have bid farewell
To all the virtues of those better days,
And all their honest pleasures. Mansions once
Knew their own masters; and laborious hinds,

Who had surviv'd the father, serv'd the son.

Now the legitimate and rightful lord

Is but a transient guest, newly arriv'd,
And soon to be supplanted. He that saw
His patrimonial timber cast its leaf,

Sells the last scantling, and transfers the price
To some shrewd sharper, ere it buds again.
Estates are landscapes, gaz'd upon a while,
Then advertis'd, and auctioneer'd away.

The country starves, and they that feed th' o'ercharg'd

And surfeited lewd town with her fair dues,
By a just judgment strip and starve themselves.
The wings that waft our riches out of sight
Grow on the gamester's elbows; and th' alert
And nimble motion of those restless joints,
That never tire, soon fans them all away.
Improvement too, the idol of the age,

Is fed with many a victim. Lo, he comes!
Th' omnipotent magician, Brown, appears!
Down falls the venerable pile, th' abode