Yon' fhepherd idly ftretch'd on the rude rock,
Liftening to dashing waves, and fea-mews' clang
High-hovering o'er his head, who views beneath
The dolphin dancing o'er the level brine,
Feels more true bliss than the proud ammiral,
Amid his veffels bright with burnish'd gold
And filken ftreamers, tho' his lordly nod
Ten thousand war-worn mariners revere.
And great Æneash gaz'd with more delight
On the rough mountain fhagg'd with horrid fhades,
(Where cloud-compelling Jove, as fancy dream'd,
Descending shook his direful Ægis black)
Than if he enter'd the high Capitol
On golden columns rear'd, a conquer'd world
Exhausted, to enrich its stately head.
More pleas'd he slept in poor Evander's cott
On fhaggy skins, lull'd by fweet nightingales,
Than if a Nero, in an age refin'd,
Beneath a gorgeous canopy had plac'd
His royal gueft, and bade his minstrels found
Soft flumb'rous Lydian airs, to footh his reft.
i Happy the first of men, ere yet confin'd To fmoaky cities; who in sheltering groves, Warm caves, and deep-funk vallies liv'd and lov'd, By cares unwounded; what the fun and fhowers,
h Eneid VIII.
iSee Lucretius, lib. V.
And genial earth untillag'd could produce,
They gather'd grateful, or the acorn brown,
Or blushing berry; by the liquid lapse
Of murm'ring waters call'd to flake their thirst,
Or with fair nymphs their fun-brown limbs to bathe;
With nymphs who fondly clafp'd their fav'rite youths,
Unaw'd by fhame, beneath the beechen shade,
Nor wiles, nor artificial coyness knew.
Then doors and walls were not; the melting maid
Nor frowns of parents fear'd, nor husband's threats;
Nor had curs'd gold their tender hearts allur'd:
Then beauty was not venal. Injur'd love,
O whither, god of raptures, art thou filed?
While avarice waves his golden wand around,
Abhorr'd magician, and his coftly cup
Prepares with baneful drugs, t'enchant the fouls
Of each low-thoughted fair to wed for gain.
In earth's first infancy (as fung the bard, Who ftrongly painted what he boldly thought) Tho' the fierce north oft smote with iron whip Their fhiv'ring limbs, tho' oft the briftly boar Or hungry lion 'woke them with their howls, And fear'd them from their mofs-grown caves to rove Houseless and cold in dark tempeftuous nights ; Yet were not myriads in embattel'd fields
Swept off at once, nor had the raging feas
O'erwhelm'd the found'ring bark and shrieking crew;
In vain the glaffy ocean fmil'd to tempt
The jolly failor unsuspecting harm,
For commerce ne'er had spread her fwelling fails,
Nor had the wond'ring Nereids ever heard
The dashing oar: then famine, want, and pine,
Sunk to the grave their fainting limbs; but us,
Difeafeful dainties, riot and excefs,
And feverish luxury destroy. In brakes,
Or marshes wild unknowingly they crop❜d
Herbs of malignant juice; to realms remoté
While we for powerful poifons madly roam,
From every noxious herb collecting death."
What tho' unknown to thofe primæval fires
The well-arch'd dome, peopled with breathing forms
By fair Italia's fkilful hand, unknown
The fhapely column, and the crumbling bufts,
Of aweful ancestors in long descent ?
Yet why fhould man mistaken 'd deem it nobler
To dwell in palaces, and high-roof'd halls,
Than in God's forefts, architect fupreme!
Say, is the Perfian carpet, than the field's
Or meadow's mantle gay, more richly wov❜n;
Or fofter to the votaries of ease
Than bladed grafs, perfum'd with dew-dropt flow'rs?
O tafte corrupt! that luxury and pomp,
In fpecious names of polish'd manners veil'd,
Should proudly banish Nature's fimple charms!
All-beauteous Nature! by thy boundless charms
Opprefs'd, O where fhall I begin thy praise,
eye, how ease my
breaft
That pants with wild astonishment and love!
Dark forefts, and the op'ning lawn, refresh'd
With ever-gufhing brooks, hill, meadow, dale,
The balmy bean-field, the gay-clover'd close,
So fweetly interchang'd, the lowing ox,
The playful lamb, the diftant water-fall
Now faintly heard, now fwelling with the breeze,
The found of pastoral reed from hazel-bower,
The choral birds, the neighing fteed, that snuffs
His dappled mate, ftung with intense defire,
The ripen'd orchard when the ruddy orbs
Betwixt the green leaves blush, the azure skies,
The chearful fun that thro' earth's vitals pours
Delight and health and heat; all, all confpire,
To raise, to footh, to harmonize the mind,
To lift on wings of praife, to the great Sire
Of being and of beauty, at whofe nod
Creation started from the gloomy vault
Of dreary Chaos, while the griefly king
Murmur'd to feel his boisterous power confin'd.
What are the lays of artful Addison,
Coldly correct, to Shakespear's warblings wild?
Whom on the winding Avon's willow'd banks
Fair Fancy found, and bore the fmiling babe
To a close cavern: (still the fhepherds fhew
The facred place, whence with religious awe
They hear, returning from the field at eve,
Strange whisp'rings of sweet musick thro' the air)
Here, as with honey gather'd from the rock,
She fed the little prattler, and with songs
Oft' footh'd his wond'ring ears, with deep delight
On her foft lap he fat, and caught the founds.
Oft near fome crowded city would I walk,
Liftening the far-off noises, rattling cars,
Loud fhouts of joy, fad fhrieks of forrow, knell's
Full flowly tolling, inftruments of trade,
Striking mine ears with one deep-fwelling hum.
Or wand'ring near the fea, attend the founds
Of hollow winds, and ever-beating waves.
Ev'n when wild tempefts fwallow up the plains,
And Boreas' blasts, big hail, and rains combine
To shake the groves and mountains, would Í fit,
Penfively mufing on th' outrageous crimes
That wake heav'n's vengeance: at fuch folemn hours,
Dæmons and goblins thro' the dark air fhriek,
While Hecat, with her black-brow'd fifters nine,
Rides o'er the earth, and scatters woes and death.
Then too, they fay, in drear Ægyptian wilds
The lion and the tiger prowl for prey
With roarings loud! the lift'ning traveller
Starts fear-ftruck, while the hollow-echoing vaults
Of pyramids increafe the deathful founds.
But let me never fail in cloudless nights,
When filent Cynthia in her filver car
Thro' the blue concave flides, when shine the hills,
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