The fiddle sounds; the rustic train advance PUBLIC BENEFACTORS. Ye, by whose gift these short enjoyments live, Ye taste the rapture that your bounties give : Blest, ye unite upon the happy spot The rich and poor, the castle and the cot; New pleasures ye create, and comfort pain; Of social life ye nearer draw the chain; And, pleased with all, of no regret afraid, [made. With God pronounce, That's good which I have CANTO II. ARGUMENT. Virgil the author. Culture, wonders of. Manners various. Anecdote. Modish culture ridiculous. Imitation of foreign manners servile. Exotics to be encouraged. Beasts that degenerate in strange climates. Country scenes, pleasures of. Author's wishes disappointed. Rocks blown up. Artful soils. Gemenos, description of. Waters, benefits arising from. Lima, description of. Languedoc, canal of. Achelous, allegory of. Holland, labors of. Egeria: episode. BLESSINGS OF RURAL LIFE. CIVIL WAR. VIRGIL'S RURAL POSSESSIONS RESTORED. Thrice blest the man from public storms aloof, Who then had dared with war's tumultuous sound THE AUTHOR'S RURAL CHOICE. Like him, alas! of birthright land bereaved, I leave to God the little I received; Like him, to groves from civil discord flown, I shun the tumult of the frantic town, Pleased if my Muse, that loves the sylvan strain, Instruct the labor of th' industrious swain. Ye then, who fain, profaning his retreat, POETRY AND FARMING. TRIUMPHS OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. No more my Muse, confined to Virgil's trace, Gives Roman lessons to the Gallic race, But, boldly daring in herself confide, Her footstep ventures on a way untried, In native strains her much-loved art to sing, And deck the ploughshare with the flowers of Spring. No more in hackneyed numbers shall be found The vulgar methods to enrich the ground; No more I tell beneath what prosperous sign To plant the sapling, or to wed the vine; Where olives thrive, or in what happy soil Ceres may flourish, or Pomona smile. WONDERS OF CULTIVATION. Since countless wonders Culture now displays, I leave her labors, and those wonders praise; Her efforts vast, the bounty of her hand, Her potent causes, and effects as grand ; No more the simple power our fathers knew She deigns each ancient maxim to pursue ; Like some enchantress, with her magic wand, In treasures new she decks the smiling land; Subdues the rock, and clothes the mountain's face, Fattens the soil, and gives its offspring grace; Frees from their chain the long-imprisoned tides, And streams astonished to each other guides: Her magic power, triumphant over times, Together blends or seasons, worlds, or climes. HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE FARMING ART. When primal man first tilled the fruitless soil, MANURING. LIMING. MARLING, ETC. MIXING OF SOILS. CULTURE COINS GOLD. Here wouldst thou feed the hunger of thy land, Blend the fat clay amidst the cutting sand; Or that the plough the stubborn loom may bend, THE SUCCESSFUL FARMER. — THE WITCHCRAFT OF SPADE AND A toilsome swain, that taught the fattened field, With grateful kindness, double crops to yield, Skilled in the fruitful art of Albion's isle, Fallowed, concocted, and composed the soil: New meadows rose beneath his careful hand, And richest sainfoin blossomed o'er his land; His new-born flow'rets bloomed with double crown, And Autumn's season blushed with fruits unknown. No rest he knew, till, by his labor tired, Th' exhausted soil some interval required. An envious neighbor marked his rising store, Charged him with witchcraft, and to judgment bore. He there displays, instead of spells or charms, His rakes, his harrow, and laborious arms: 'Behold!' cries he, the only arts I use!' He spoke, and well-deserved applause ensues. His potent skill, that late the earth subdued, Alike triumphant over envy stood. PURSUE APPROVED METHODS IN FARMING. ROZIER. Follow his secret; let thy skilful hand, DISTINGUISH BETWEEN NOVELTIES AND IMPROVEMENTS. Yet shun extremes, nor let thy servile care Too close a copy of our fathers bear; Give new resources to the rustic art, Try other schemes, and other views impart. Who knows what meed thy labor may await, What fruits unknown thy conquests may create! Of old, the rose on lowly bramble sprung, While high in air the ruddy apple hung! Now, strange reverse! the rose-tree climbs the skies, While scarce from earth our apple-trees arise ! 1 A French newspaper so called. What various flowers, in richest colors gay, PATRIOTISM SHOULD VALUE NATIVE PRODUCTS AND FASHIONS. But shun the man, whose proud disgust and scorn Detest those treasures which at home are born; Who feels no joy, though, spreading to the air, His pompous trees their verdant branches rear, Unless from Afric's soil their rise they boast, From India's deserts or Columbia's coast. When Paris late, with wishes still misplaced, Of rival London caught the reigning taste, Our town and court, our houses and the scene, Each paid its tribute to the humor mean ; Inventors once to clumsy copies sunk, Our clubs with punch and politics were drunk ; Beneath the awkward jockey horses groaned, And each his whiskey, tea, and vapors owned ; While proud Versailles the public rage partook, Our banished arts their native rights forsook. THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH STYLES OF GARDENING COMPARED. Between our garden and the English park, I'm still suspended when their scenes I mark: Not that my muse the latter would suppress ; She loves its practice, but proscribes excess. Struck with the beauty of our Gallic trees, Spite of their antique forms, that still can please, The skilful farmer from his verdant woods Nor oak or beeches or the elm excludes. But if some foreign tree, of noble size, With boughs majestic should adorn the skies, Our forest natives, with attention meet And hospitable care, the stranger greet; Pleased 'mongst themselves his future dwelling Not for his scarceness, but his beauty's sake; [make, If haply profit too should join with grace, PLANTING OF FOREST TREES. EACH TREE RECALLS ITS Cheered by the prospect of your vassal trees, How shall your walks amidst the country please! Through them thy thought, that wanders from its To distant climates shall in safety roam. [home, Yon verdant pines, that midst the Winter smile, Offspring of Scotia or Virginia's soil, The world's extremes within their branches joined, 1 Of purple hue, to Fancy's eye it shows The fertile banks where hallowed Jordan flows. While daily thus you soil and climate change, O'er rude or polished scenes alike you range; Each plant you see presents a country new, And every thought affords a voyage too. EDUCATION OF TREES AND OF CHILDREN COMPARED. Thrice blest the man, whom subject woods sur- Or when with foreign trees he decks his ground, HOW TO IMPROVE BREEDS OF ANIMALS. If equal care thy bestial troop should find, To those who bless thee with their native stores, CURIOUS ANOMALIES IN BREEDING. Moved from the precinct of his native plains, WHAT BREEDS COMBINE. CATTLE; GOATS; SHEEP ; HORSES. Adopt those tribes alone whose yielding bent The venturous kid that climbs the mountain's breast With mutual challenge lead the rival chase, And weave the mazes of their sportive race. THE QUIET, HOPEFUL LIFE OF THE RETIRED AGRICULTURIST. Ye blissful sights! ye landscapes ever gay! Is there a sweeter toil, where calm, yet still employed, THE AUTHOR'S RURAL WISHES. Such joys I wished, ere life should quite expire, And hope already, winged by my desire, Though small the heritage she wished to gain, Installed my fancy in her proud domain. [waved, While bowers and groves and orchards round me What verdant banks my winding streamlet laved! How dear my flow'rets, and my cooling shade! What fattening flocks along my pasture strayed! All laughed around me, and my fancy dreams O'erflowed with fields of corn and milky streams! HIS DISAPPOINTMENTS SOLACED BY POETRY. Short-lived chimeras! impotent and vain! The broils of state, that o'er my country reign, Have left me nothing but my sylvan reed. Adieu, my flocks, my fruits, and flowery mead! Ye groves of Pindus, shades forever green, Transport me now to your poetic scene! If Fate forbids to cultivate the plains, To them at least I consecrate my strains : Each rustic god his prosperous aid supplies, The mountains listen, and the wood replies. NATURAL DISADVANTAGES TO BE CONQUERED BY ART. THE ARID HILL CHANGED TO A VINEYARD. Like me, enamored of the sylvan art, Of sylvan honors wouldst thou claim thy part, Let not thy efforts seek a worthless meed ; The fields to combat and to conquest lead. Seest thou yon barren hill, that, southward turned, Feels its bare rock by raging Phoebus burned! Haste to its aid; and let thy useful toil From sterile cliffs create a fruitful soil. Wide o'er its vanquished steep to plant the vine, Mars, lend thy thunder to the god of wine! THE RECLAIMING OF MOVING SANDS. MALTA'S GARDENS. On yonder side, a lose and moving land, NAKED CLIFFS MADE FERTILE.-VALE OF GEMENOS. -HAPPY Dare, if thou canst, this prosperous toil pursue Enrich the cliffs, where never verdure grew, With lowland soil; so shall a fruitful stock Conceal the sadness of the naked rock; But when the winds and seas exert their rage, Let low-built walls the dread attack assuage. O! laughing Gemenos,' with pleasures crowned, So from thy sides the vine-tree nods around; The fig and olive, amorous of thy land, Their richest verdure o'er the vale expand. Their borrowed earth, procured by costly toil, Displays the produce of a virgin soil. Happy the man, that in thy blooming vale, With softer breath where blows the wintry gale, Beneath thy orange shades enjoys the day, When vermeil skies emit the solar ray, Inhales their sweets, and, like their verdant bowers, In Winter's bosom mocks the freezing hours! MOUNTAINS; RESERVOIRS OF WATER FOR USE. The noble Art, that animates my strain, Its fame confines not to manure the plain, 1 A beautiful valley of Provence. But bids, to call its treasures into use, NECESSITY, LABOR, AND SKILL, PUT TO USE THE FORCES OF NATURE. MANUFACTURES. The time is fled, when from the mountain's height I wooed fair Science to my longing sight. Contented now to teach the industrious swain, I call on Skill, Necessity, and Pain: I bid him stop the flood's tumultuous tide, There, launched like lightning, o'er the surgy deep, ARTIFICIAL IRRIGATION IN DRY CLIMATES. [flow, Each stream or streamlet, round thy lands that Some salutary aid should still bestow. The rustic gods, and Dryads, in their turn, Derive their treasures from the Naiad's urn. — Most in those climates, where the burning god Darts to the bottom of the dying sod; Where scarce the seasons for the soil prepare A scanty dew-drop from the thirsty air. TUNNELLING FOR IRRIGATION. EFFECTS. Not distant far a running stream is found, That lurks behind the mountain's jealous mound. Quick o'er the hill a nobler conquest dare; Lo! to the spot thy pioneers repair! The mountain crumbles from the frequent stroke ; Whilst, by themselves an easy passage broke, The long-armed barrows, groaning as they reel, In active movement ply their single wheel; Return and go: still filled and emptied still, They bear the ruins of the falling hill. At length it yields; and through its vaulted side Another channel for the wave's supplied. While spreading wide, and branched in different CONQUESTS OF ART OVER NATURE IN PERU. IRRIGATION. In Lima's valleys, where the orb of day Downward and near directs his potent ray, Where, morn and ev'n, the champaign and the vale Alternate catch the sea or mountain gale, With art inferior, and with less expense, Man knows his watery riches to dispense, And, as their source he opens or restrains, Hastes or retards the harvest of his gains. Close to the blushing fruit new blossoms ope; Trees give and promise; men receive and hope. Here from the knife the obedient vine-shoot grows, While there with golden grapes the vineyard glows. What though the drops of heaven are still denied, Man forms his seasons from the river's tide. Delightful scenes, 'midst skies without a cloud, That owe no treasures to the tempest loud! Such is the force of Art, when mortals dare To vanquish nature and correct the air! CANALLING FOR DRAINING, IRRIGATION, AND TRANSport. Canst thou not carry from yon marshy ground Show heaven the fields it never saw before? GIZED. High in this art Riquet sublimely stands, Who, on the labor of monastic hands, Though Rome from error had obtained the praise, Still greater wonders by his skill could raise; O'er each obstruction rose his daring mind, And of two seas the distant billows joined. Not Egypt's lakes, or Nile with wonders crowned, E'er told such marvels to the countries round! THE CANAL OF LANGUEDOC DESCRIBED. Some magic art presents the wondering eye. Streams above bridges, vessels near the sky; Roads beneath hills, and rocks to vaults that change, Where countless streams in darksome caverns range. At first the waves, that view the steepy height, HOW TO REGULATE WATER-COURSES. But lest these waters, breaking from their bed, With force destructive o'er your fields should spread, Taught by example drawn from earliest age, Learn to suppress their desolating rage. Seek'st thou the means? In emblematic guise Ingenious Ovid well those means supplies. STORY OF THE RIVER ACHELOUS AND HERCULES; THE SERPENT; THE BULL; THE CORNUCOPIA. Stern Achelous, bursting from his bounds, Swept herds and cattle from their peaceful grounds, Beneath his wave o'erwhelmed the golden grain, And razed whole hamlets from their native plain; With dreadful rage unpeopled cities vast, And changed the country to a gloomy waste. Alcides came, and, burning to subdue The billowing waves, himself among them threw : Stemmed by his nervous arm their tumults cease, And boiling whirlpools too subside in peace. Indignant at his shame, the vanquished flood, Clothed in a serpent's form, before him stood : Hissing and swollen, with many an opening fold, Along the trembling sand his bulk he rolled. But, scarce perceived, Alcmena's valiant son Seized in his vigorous gripe, and chained him down: Till, pressed and stifled in the potent grasp, His dying folds emit their latest gasp. The god exults: 'What! could thy rashness hope With me in deeds of hardihood to cope? Hadst thou forgot, that, in my cradle laid, Two vanquished snakes my infant force displayed?' The river, furious with redoubled shame, Still boldly dares to vindicate his fame, And rushes on the god but now no more His scaly volumes wind along the shore. A lordly bull, with forehead dark and stern, The trembling bank his heels indignant spurn, His head is tossed in air; lighten his eyes; He roars, and thunder bellows to the skies: The god undaunted sees the war arise, With active fury on the foe he flies, And prostrate throws; each vigorous knee imprest Full on his panting neck, and nervous chest ; |