They had engag'd their wandering steps too far,
And envious darknefs, ere they could return,
Had ftole them from me; elfe, O thievish Night, 195
Why should't thou, but for fome felonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus clofe up the stars,
That nature hung in Heav'n, and fill'd their lamps
With everlafting oil, to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller?
This is the place, as well as I may guess,
Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth
Was rife, and perfect in my listening ear,
Yet nought but fingle darkness do I find.
What might this be? A thousand fantafies
Begin to throng into my memory,
Of calling fhapes, and beckoning shadows dire,
And aery tongues, that fyllable mens names
On fands, and fhores, and defert wildernesses.
These thoughts may startle well, but not astound 210
The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended
By a ftrong fiding champion, confcience.-
O welcome pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope,
Thou hovering Angel girt with golden wings,
And thou unblemish'd form of Chastity;
I fee you vifibly, and now believe
That he, the Supreme Good, t' whom all things ill
Are but as flavish officers of vengeance,
Would fend a glistering guardian, if need were,
To keep my life and honor unassail’d.
Was I deceiv'd, or did a fable cloud
Turn forth her filver lining on the night?
I did not err, there does a fable cloud
Turn forth her filver lining on the night,
And cafts a gleam over this tufted grove.
I cannot hallow to my Brothers, but
Such noife as I can make to be heard fartheft
I'll venture, for my new inliven'd spirits
Prompt me; and they perhaps are not far off.
SWEET Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'ft unseen
Within thy aery shell,
By flow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroider'd vale,
Where the love-lorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her fad fong mourneth well;
Canft thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likeft thy Narciffus are?
Hid them in fome flowery cave,
Tell me but where,
Sweet queen of parly, daughter of the sphere,
So may'st thou be tranflated to the skies,
And give 1efounding grace to all Heav'n's harmonies.
COм. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mold
Breathe fuch divine inchanting ravishment?
Sure fomething holy lodges in that breaft,
And with these raptures moves the vocal air
To teftify his hidden refidence:
How fweetly did they flote upon the wings
VOL. XII.
Of filence, through the empty-vaulted night,
At every fall fmoothing the raven down
Of darkness till it fmil'd! I have oft heard
My mother Circe with the Syrens three,
Amidst the flowery-kirtled Naiades
Culling their potent herbs, and baleful drugs,
Who as they fung, would take the prison'd soul,
And lap it in Elyfium; Scylla wept,
And chid her barking waves into attention,
And fell Charybdis murmur'd foft applause:
Yet they in pleafing flumber lull'd the fenfe,
And in fweet madness robb'd it of itself;
But such a facred, and home-felt delight,
Such fober certainty of waking blifs,
I never heard till now. I'll speak to her,
And she shall be my queen. Hail, foreign wonder, 265 Whom certain these rough shades did never breed,
Unless the Goddess that in rural shrine
Dwell'ft here with Pan, or Sylvan, by bleft fong
Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog
To touch the profperous growth of this tall wood. 270
LA. Nay, gentle Shepherd, ill is lost that praise
That is addrefs'd to unattending ears;
Not any boaft of fkill, but extreme fhift
How to regain my fever'd company,
Compell'd me to awake the courteous Echo
To give me answer from her moffy couch.
COм. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you LA. Dim darkness, and this leafy labyrinth.
COM. Could that divide you from near-ushering
LA. They left me weary on a grassy turf.
Coм. By falfhood, or difcourtesy, or why?
LA. To feek i'th' valley fome cool friendly fpring.
Coм. And left your fair fide all unguarded, Lady?
LA. They were but twain, and purpos'd quick re-
COм. Perhaps fore-ftalling night prevented them.
LA. How eafy my misfortune is to hit!
Coм. Imports their lofs, befide the prefent need?
LA. No less than if I fhould my Brothers lofe.
COм. Were they of manly prime, or youthful
bloom!
LA. As fmooth as Hebe's their unrazor'd lips. 290
COм. Two fuch I faw, what time the labor'd ox
In his loofe traces from the furrow came,
And the fwinkt hedger at his fupper fat;
I faw them under a green mantling vine
That crawls along the fide of yon fmall hill,
Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots;
port was more than human, as they flood:
I took it for a faëry vision
Of fome gay creatures of the element,
That in the colors of the rainbow live,
And play i'th' plighted clouds. I was aw-struck,
And as I paft, I worthipt; if thofe you feek,
It were a journey like the path to Heaven,
To help you find them.
What readieft way would bring me to that place? 305
COM. Due weft it rifes from this fhrubby point.
LA. To find out that, good Shepherd, I suppose,
In fuch a fcant allowance of ftar-light,
Would overtafk the beft land-pilot's art,
Without the fure guefs of well-practis'd feet.
COM. I know each lane, and every alley green,
Dingle, or bufhy dell of this wild wood,
And every bofky bourn from fide to fide,
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood;
And if your ftray-attendence be yet lodg'd,
Or fhroud within thefe limits, I fhall know
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roofted lark
From her thatcht pallat roufe; if otherwise,
I can conduct you, Lady, to a low
But loyal cottage, where you may be safe
Till further queft.
LA. Shepherd, I take thy word,
And truft thy boneft offer'd courtesy,
Which oft is fooner found in lowly sheds
With fmoky rafters, than in tap'stry halls
And courts of princes, where it first was nam'd, 325
And yet is moft pretended: In a place
Lefs warranted than this, or lefs fecure,
I cannot be, that I fhould fear to change it.
Eye me, bleft Providence, and square my trial
To my proportion'd ftrength! Shepherd, lead on. 330
The two BROTHERS.
I BRO. Unmuffle, ye faint Stars, and thou fair Moon, That wont'ft to love the traveller's benizon,
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