Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek;
Unpierc'd, exulting in the widow's wail,
The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry.
Let some, far-distant from their native soil,
Urg'd or by want or harden'd avarice,
Find other lands beneath another sun.
Let this through cities work his eager way,
By legal outrage and establish'd guile,
The social sense extinct; and that ferment
Mad into tumult the seditious herd,
Or melt them down to slavery. Let these
Ensnare the wretches in the toils of law,
Fomenting discord, and perplexing right,
An iron race! and those of fairer front,
But equal inhumanity, in courts,

Delusive pomp, and dark cabals, delight;

Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile,

And tread the weary labyrinth of state.

While he, from all the stormy passions free

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That restless men involve, hears, and but hears, 1300
At distance safe, the human tempest roar,

Wrapt close in conscious peace. The fall of kings,
The rage of nations, and the crush of states,
Move not the man who, from the world escap'd,
In still retreats, and flowery solitudes,

To Nature's voice attends, from month to month,
And day to day, through the revolving year;
Admiring, sees her in her every shape;

Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart;

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Takes what she liberal gives, nor thinks of more. 1310
He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems,
Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale
Into his freshen'd soul; her genial hours

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He full enjoys; and not a beauty blows,
And not an opening blossom breathes, in vain.
In Summer he, beneath the living shade,
Such as o'er frigid Tempè * wont to wave,
Or Hæmus coolf, reads what the muse, of these
Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung ;
Or what she dictates writes; and oft, an eye
Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.
When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world,
And tempts the sickled swain into the field,
Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart distends
With gentle throes; and, through the tepid gleams
Deep-musing, then he best exerts his song.

Even Winter wild to him is full of bliss.

The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste,

Abrupt and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth,
Awake to solemn thought.

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At night the skies, 1330

Disclos'd, and kindled, by refining frost,

Pour every lustre on the exalted eye.

A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure,

And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing,

O'er land and sea imagination roams;

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Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers;

Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.

The touch of kindred too and love he feels;
The modest eye, whose beams on his alone

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*This celebrated Thessalian vale, watered by the river Peneus, the theme of many a poet, is a wild, irregular pass; for the term vale is wholly inapplicable to it. The cliffs are lofty and precipitous, rising in some places from 600 to 800 feet above the level of the river, which flows under the shade of numberless trees, producing that feeling of coolness and repose which well accords with the epithet frigid, employed by our author.

† A mountain in Thessaly.

Ecstatic shine; the little strong embrace
Of prattling children, twin'd around his neck,
And emulous to please him, calling forth
The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay,
Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns;
For happiness and true philosophy

Are of the social still, and smiling kind.

This is the life which those who fret in guilt,
And guilty cities, never knew; the life
Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,

When angels dwelt, and God himself, with man!
O Nature! all-sufficient! over all!

Enrich me with a knowledge of thy works!
Snatch me to heaven; thy rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scatter'd o'er the void immense,
Show me; their motions, periods, and their laws,
Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep
Light my
blind way the mineral strata there;
Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world;
O'er that the rising system, more complex,
Of animals; and, higher still, the mind,
The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,
And where the mixing passions endless shift-
These ever open to my ravish'd eye;

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust!*

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* If it be admitted, as undoubtedly it must be, that the happiness of mankind depends, in a great measure, on mind in conjunction with bodily health, it is evident that this desirable condition must, necessarily, be in proportion to the degree of perfection to which the mental powers have attained. This opinion not inconsistent with the fact, that much happiness is frequently seen to be the lot of those born to labour, and to the employment exclusively of their physical powers, and, although in them, scarce one principle of the soul, in reference to mind, has been even moderately developed,

But if to that unequal—if the blood,
In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That best ambition-under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,

And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin,
Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song;
And let me never, never stray from thee!

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we are led almost to conclude that a beneficent Providence has so confined the extent of their mental powers, as to prevent them from perceiving the higher and more permanent enjoyment, which results from intellectual improvement; and, consequently, to enable them to derive their chief enjoyment from contentment. But this does not lessen the importance of mental cultivation in promoting rational happiness; and it is difficult to form any idea of the degree of perfection to which the moral and intellectual powers of man are capable of being raised. Its investigation is truly, as the poet has described it,

"A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust !"

It is a conviction of this truth which has led to the efforts, that happily distinguish the present period, for the advancement of general education. The consideration of the question cannot be entered into in this place; but, in agreeing with the idea of its vital importance, I shall only add, that the good fruit anticipated from the improved culture can only be obtained when the conductors, and directors of the labourers, in the field, are enlightened individuals; men capable of distinguishing truth from error, and of drawing the line between those early prejudices, which we all imbibe, that are harmless, and those hostile to the cause of real religion, and the interests of virtue; consequently, to the welfare of society.

WINTER.

ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Address to the Earl of Wilmington. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the season, various storms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the snows: a man perishing among them; whence reflections on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves descending from the Alps and Apennines. A winter evening described: as spent by philosophers; by the country people; in the city. Frost. A view of Winter within the polar circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future state.