Meantime a fmiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhows fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful talk! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to fhoot,
To pour the fresh inftruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix
The generous purpofe in the glowing breast.
Oh, fpeak the joy! ye, whom the fudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing ftrikes your eye but fights of blifs,
All various nature preffing on the heart:

An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, ufeful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving heaven.
Thefe are the matchlefs joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly, The Seafons thus,
As ceafclefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads:
Till evening comes at laft, ferene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in focial fleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly
To fcenes where love and blifs immortal reign.

FROM brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd,
Child of the fun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth:
He comes attended by the fultry bours,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blufhful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.

Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood fhade, Where fcarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom;

And on the dark-green grafs, befide the brink
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,
And fing the glories of the circling year.

Come, infpiration! from thy hermit-feat,
By mortal feldom found: may fancy dare,
From thy fix'd serious eye, and raptur'd glance
Shot on furrounding heaven, to steal one look
Creative of the poet, every power
Exalting to an ecftafy of foul.

And thou, my youthful mufe's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite:
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wifdom; the gay focial fenfe,
By decency chaftis'd; goodnefs and wit,
In feldom-meeting harmony combin'd;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, liberty, and man:
O Doddington! attend my rural fong,

Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.

With what an aweful world-revolving power
Were first th' unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,
That oft has fwept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away.
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, in their courfe;
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the feafons ever ftealing round,
Minutely faithful: Such th' all-perfect hand!
That pois'd, impels, and rules the fteady whole.

When now no more th' alternate twins are fir'd, And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze, Short is the doubtful empire of the night;. And foon, obfervant of approaching day, The meek-cy'd morn appears, mother of dews, At first faint-gleaming in the dappled eaft: Till far o'er ether fpreads the widening glow; And, from before the luftre of her face, White break the clouds away. With quicken'dftep, Brown night retires: Young day pours in apace, And opens all the lawny profpect wide. The dripping rock, the mountain's mifty top Swell on the fight, and brighten with the daws. Blue, through the dusk, the fmoking currents fhine; 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. Mafic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy;

And thick around the woodland hymns arife.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon clad fhepherd leaves
lis mofly cottage, where with peace he dwells;
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives
His Bock, to talte 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 aught in fleep can charm the wife?
To lie in dead oblivion, lofing half
The fleeting moments of too short a life;
Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul!
Or elfe to feverish vanity alive,

Wilder'd, and toffing through diftemper'd dreams?
Who would in fuch a gloomy ftate remain
Longer than nature craves; when every muse
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly devious morning walk?

But yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The leffening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
and with fluid gold, his near approach
Boken glad. Lo; now, apparent all,
Aat the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He locks in boundiefs majefty abroad;

And heds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering
Atreams,

hgleaming from afar. Prime cheerer light! Of all material beings firft, and best! fax divine! nature's refplendent robe! thout whofe vefling beauty all were wrapt nential gloom; and thou, O fun!

of furroun sing worlds! in whom best seen es out thy Maker! may 1 fing of thee? Ts by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force, th a chain indiffoluble bound,

fyilem rolls entire; from the far bourne amott Saturn, wheeling wide his round thirty years; to Mercury, whofe difk farce be caught by philofophic eye, en the near effulgence of thy blaze. rformer of the planetary train!

[orbs

hout 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!

img fpirit; from th' unfetter'd mind, Bythee fublim'd, down to the daily race, The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam. The vegetable world is also thine, Purent of Scafons! who the pomp precede That waits thy throne, as through thy vaft domain, Antal, along the bright ecliptic road,

ord-rejoicing flate, it moves fublime. Mattime th' expecting nations, circled gay With all the various tribes of foodful earth, more thy bounty, or fend grateful up A common

hymn: while, round thy beaming car, High-feen, the Seafons lead, in fprightly dance Harmonious knit, the Tofy-finger'd hours, The zephyrs floating loofe, the timely rains, Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews, And foften'd into joy the furly ftorms. Tfe, 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 flush'd the vernal year.

Nor to the furface of enliven'd earth, 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. Effulgent, hence the veiny marble fhines; 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.

Th' unfruitful rock itself, impregn'd by thee, In dark retirement forms the lucid ftone. The lively diamond drinks thy pureft rays, Collected light, compact; that, polish'd bright, And all its native luftre let abroad, Dares, as it fparkles on the fair-one's breast, With vain ambition emulate her eyes. At thee the ruby lights its deepening glow, And with a waving radiance inward flames. From thee the fapphire, folid ether, takes Its hue cerulean; and, of evening tinct, The purple-ftreaming amethyft is thine. With thy own fmile the yellow topaz burns, Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring, When first fhe gives it to the fouthern gale, Than the green emerald fhows. But, all combin'd Thick through 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, through 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, Restlefs, reflects a floating gleam. But this, And all the much-tranfported muse can ûng, Are to thy beauty, dignity, and use, Unequal far; great delegated fource Of light, and life, and grace, and joy below! How shall I then attempt to fing of him! Who, light himself, in uncreated light Invested deep, dwells awefully retir'd From mortal eye, or angel's purer ken; Whofe fingle fimile has, from the first of time, Fill'd, o'erflowing, all thofe lamps of heaven, That beam for ever through the boundless sky: But, fhould he hide his face, th' astonish'd fun, And all th' extinguifh'd ftars, would loofening reel Wide from their spheres, and Chaos come again.

And yet was every faultering tongue of man,
Almighty Father! filent in thy praise,
Thy works themselves would raise a general voice,
Ev'n in the depth of folitary woods

By human foot untrod; proclaim thy power,
And to the quire celeftial thee refound,
Th' eternal caufe, fupport, and end of all!

To me be nature's volume broad-display'd;
And to perufe its all-inftructing page,
Or, haply catching inspiration thence,

Some eafy paffage, raptur'd, to tranflate,
My fole delight; as through the falling glooms
Pentive I ftray, or with the rifing dawn
On fancy's eagle-wing excurfive foar.

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 fphere.
Half in a blush of clustering rofes loft,
Dew-drooping coolness to the fhade retires;
There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed,
By gelid founts and careless rills to mufe;
While tyrant heat, difpreading through the sky,
With rapid fway, his burning influence darts
On man, and beast, and herb, and tepid stream.
Who can unpitying fee the flowery race,
Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom refign,
Before the parching beam? So fade the fair,
When fevers revel through their azure veins.
But one, the lofty follower of the fun,
Sad when he fits, fhuts up her yellow leaves,
Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamour'd bofom to his ray.

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 cheerful cottage, then expecting food,
The food of innocence and health! The daw,
The rook and magpie, 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 arise.
Faint, underneath, the household fowls convene;
And, in a corner of the buzzing fhade,
The house-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies,
Out-stretch'd, and fleepy. In his flumbers, one
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

Live in her lay, and flutter through her fong:
Not mean, though 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,
And fecret corner, where they flept away
The wintery ftorms; or rifing 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 disclose.
'Ten thousand forms! ten thousand different tribes!
People the blaze. To funny waters fome
By fatal instinct fly; where on the pool
They, fportive, wheel; or, failing down the ftream,
Are fnatch'd immediate by the quick-ey'd trout,
Or darting falmon. Through the green-wood glade
Some love to ftray; there lodg'd, amus'd and fed,
In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make
The meads their choice, and vifit every flower,
And every latent herb: for the fweet tafk,
To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap,
In what foft beds, their young yet undifclos'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 cheeke:
Oft, inadvertent, from the milky ftream
They meet their fate; or, weltering in the bow
With powerlefs wings around them wrapt, expire

But chief to heedlefs fiies the window proves
A conftant death; where, gloomily retir'd,
The villain fpider lives, cunning, and fierce,
Mixture abhorr'd! Amid a mangled heap
Of carcafes, in eager watch he fits,
O'erlooking all his waving fnares around.
Near the dire cell the dreadlefs wanderer oft
Paffes, as oft the ruffian fhows his front;
The prey at laft enfnar'd, he dreadful darts,
With rapid glide, along the leaning line;
And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs, [w
Strikes backward, grimly pleas'd: the flutteri
And fhriller found declare extreme diftrefs,
And afk the helping hofpitable hand.

Refounds the living furface of the ground: Nor undelightful is the ceafele fs hum, To him who mufes through the woods at noo Or drowsy fhepherd, as he lies reclin'd, With half-fhut eyes, beneath the floating fhade Of willows gray, clofe-crowding o'er the book. Gradual, from these what numerous kinds Evading ev'n the microscopic eye! [fee Full Nature fwarms with life; one wondrous Of animals, or atoms organiz'd, Waiting the vital Breath, when Parent-Heaven Shall bid his fpirit blow. The hoary fen, In putrid fteams, emits the living cloud Of peftilence. Through fubterranean cells, Where fearching fun-beams fcarce can find a wa Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf Wants not its foft inhabitants. Secure, Within its winding citadel, the ftone, Holds multitudes. But chief the foreft-bough That dance unnumber'd to the playful breeze, The downy orchard, and the melting pulp Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed Of evanefcent infects. Where the pool Stands mantled o'er with green, invisible, Amid the floating verdure millions stray. Each liquid too, whether it pierces, foothes, Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste, With various forms abounds. Nor is the strea Of pureft crystal, nor the lucid air, Though one tranfparent vacancy it seems, Void of their unfeen people. Thefe, conceal'd By the kind art of forming Heaven, escape The groffer eye of man: for, if the worlds In worlds enclos'd fhould on his fenfes burit, From cates ambrofial, and the nectar'd bowl, He would abhorrent turn; and in dead night, When filence ileeps o'er all, be ftunn'd with no

Let no prefuming impious railer tax Creative Wildom, as if aught was form'd In vain, or not for admirable ends. Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce His works unwife, of which the smallest part Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind? As if upon a full-proportion'd dome, On fwelling columns heav'd, the pride of art! A critic-fly, whofe feeble ray fcarce fpreads An inch around, with blind prefumption bold, Should dare to tax the ftructure of the whole. And lives the man whofe univerfal eye Has fwept at once th' unbounded scheine of this

Mark'd their dependence fo, and firm accord,
As with unfaultering accent to conclude
That this availeth nought? Has any feen
The mighty chain of beings, leffening down
From Infinite Perfection to the brink
Of dreary nothing, defolate abyss!

From which aftonifh'd thought, recoiling, turns?
Till then alone let zealous praise afcend,
And hymns of holy wonder, to that Power
Whole wildom fhines as lovely on our minds,
As on our fmiling eyes his fervant fun.

Thick in yon ftream of light, a thousand ways,
Upward, and downward, thwarting, and convolv'd,
The quivering nations fport; till, tempeft-wing'd,
Fierce Winter fweeps them from the face of day.
Ev'n fo luxurious men, unheeding, pafs
An idle fummer life in fortune's fhine,
A feafon's glitter! Thus they flutter on
From toy to toy, from vanity to vice;
Till, blown away by death, oblivion comes
Behind, and ftrikes them from the book of life.
Now fwarms the village o'er the jovial mead :
The rustic youth, brown with meridian toil,
Healthful and strong; full as the fummer rofe
Blown by prevailing funs, the ruddy maid,
Half naked, fwelling on the fight, and all
Her kindled graces, burning on her cheek.
Eva ftooping age is here: and infant hands
Trail the long rake, or, with the fragrant load
O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppreffion roll.
Wide flies the tedded grain; all in a row
Advancing broad, or wheeling round the field,
They fpread their breathing harveft to the fun,
That throws refrefhful round a rural smell:
Or, as they rake the green-appearing ground,
And drive the dufky wave along the mead,
The ruffet hay-cock rifes thick behind,
la order gay. While, heard from dale to dale,
Waking the breeze, refounds the blended voice
Of happy labour, love, and focial glee.

Or rushing thence, in one diffufive band, They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook Forms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high, And that fair (preading in a pebbled thore. Trg'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil The chamour much, of men, and boys, and dogs, Ere the foft fearful people to the flood Commit their woolly fides. And oft the fwain, On fome impatient feizing, hurls them in : Embolden'd then, nor helitating more, Fat, faft, they plunge amid the flashing wave, And panting labour to the fartheft fhore. Repeated this, till the deep well-wafh'd fleece Has drunk the Rood, and from his lively haunt The trout is banifh'd by the fordid stream; Heavy, and dripping, to the breezy brow Sow move the harmless race; where, as they spread Their fwelling treafures to the funny ray, Inly difturb'd, and wond'ring what this wild Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints The country fill; and, tofs'd from rock to rock, inceffant bleatings run around the hills. At laft, of frowy white, the gather'd flocks Are in the wattled pen innumerous prefs'd, Head above head: and, rang'd in lufty rows, The fhepherds fit, and whet the founding fhears. The housewife waits to roll her fleecy Rores, VOL. IX.

With all her gay-drest maids attending round.
One, chief in gracious dignity enthron'd,
Shines o'er the reft, the paftoral queen, and rays
Her fmiles, fweet-beaming, on her fhepherd-king;
While the glad circle round them yield their fouls
To feftive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
Meantime, their joyous talk goes on apace:
Some mingling ftir the melted tar, and fome,
Deep on the new-fhorn vagrant's heaving-fide,
To ftamp his master's cypher ready stand;
Others th' unwilling wether drag along;
And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy
Holds by the twisted horns th' indignant ram.
Sehold where bound, and of its robe bereft,
By needy man, that all-depending lord,
How meek, how patient, the mild creature lies!
What foftnefs in its melancholy face,
What dumb complaining innocence appears!
Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife
Of horrid flaughter that is o'er you wav'd;
No, 'tis the tender fwain's well-guided fhears,
Who having now, to pay his annual care,
Borrow'd your fleece, to you a cumbrous load,
Will fend you bounding to your hills again.

A fimple fcene! yet hence Britannia fees
Her folid grandeur rife: hence the commands
Th' exalted ftores of every brighter clime,
The treafures of the fun without his rage:
Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts,
Wide glows her land: her dreadful thunder hence
Rides o'er the waves fublime, and now, ev'n now,
Impending bangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast;
Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world.
'Tis raging noon; and, vertical, the fun
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays.
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye
Can fweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all
From pole to pole is undiftinguifh'd blaze.
In vain the fight, dejected to the ground,
Stoops for relief; thence hot-afcending steams,
And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root
Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields
And flippery lawn an arid hue difclofe,
Blaft fancy's bloom, and wither ev'n the foul.
Echo no more returns the cheerful found
Of fharpening fcythe: the mower finking heaps
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd;
And fearce a chirping grafs-hopper is heard
Through the dumb mead. Diftrefsful nature pants.
The very ftreams look languid from afar;
Or, through the unfhelter'd glade, impatient seem
To hurl into the covert of the grove.

All-conquering heat, oh, intermit thy wrath! And on my throbbing temples potent thus Beam not fo fierce! Inceffant ftill you flow, And fill another fervent flood fucceeds, Pour'd on the head profufe. In vain I figh, And reflefs turn, and look around for night; Night is far off, and hotter hours approach. Thrice happy he! who, on the funiefs fide Of a romantic mountain, foreft-crown'd, Beneath the whole collected fhade reclines: Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought, And fresh bedew'd with ever-fpouting ftreams, Sits coolly calm; while all the world without, Unfatisfied and fick, toffes in noon : Emblem inftructive of the virtuous man, Who keeps his temper'd mind ferene and pure, N