And the brifk fquirrel fports from bough to bough,
While from an hollow oak, whofe naked roots
Q'erhang a penfive rill, the busy bees

Hum drowsy lullabies? The bards of old,

Fair Nature's friends, fought fuch retreats, to charm
Sweet Echo with their fongs; oft' too they met
In fummer evenings, near fequefter'd bow'rs,
Or mountain-nymph, er mufe, and eager learnt
The moral strains fhe taught to mend mankind.
As to a fecret grot Ægeria ftole

With patriot Numa, and in filent night
Whisper'd him facred laws, he lift'ning fat
Rapt with her virtuous voice, old Tyber lean'd
Attentive on his urn, and hufh'd his waves.

Rich in her weeping country's fpoils Versailles
May boast a thousand fountains, that can caft
The tortur'd waters to the distant heav'ns ;
Yet let me choose fome pine-topt precipice
Abrupt and fhaggy, whence a foamy stream,
Like Anio, tumbling roars; or some black heath,
Where fraggling ftands the mournful juniper,
Or yew-tree fcath'd; while in clear prospect round,
From the grove's bofom fpires emerge, and fmoak
In bluish wreaths afcends, ripe harvests wave,
Low, lonely cottages, and ruin'd tops

Of Gothick battlements appear, and streams

Beneath the fun-beams twinkle. The fhrill lark,

--

That wakes the wood-man to his early talk,

Or

Or love-fick Philomel, whose luscious lays
Sooth lone night-wanderers, the moaning dove
Pitied by liftening milk-maid, far excel
The deep-mouth viol, the foul-lulling lute,
And battle-breathing trumpet. Artful founds!
That please not like the chorifters of air,

When firft they hail th' approach of laughing May.

Can Kent defign like Nature? Mark where Thames
Plenty and pleasure pours thro' Lincoln's meads;
Can the great artist, tho' with tafte fupreme
Endu'd, one beauty to this Eden add?
Tho' he, by rules unfetter'd, boldly scorns
Formality and Method, round and square
Difdaining, plans irregularly great.

Creative Titian, can thy vivid strokes,
Or thine, O graceful Raphael, dare to vie
With the rich tints that paint the breathing mead?
The thousand-colour'd tulip, violet's bell
Snow-clad and meek, the vermil-tinctur'd rose,
And golden crocus ?-Yet with these the maid,
Phillis or Phoebe at a feast or wake,
Her jetty locks enamels; fairer she,
In innocence and home-spun vestments dress'd,
Than if cœrulean faphires at her ears
Shone pendent, or a precious diamond-crofs
Heav'd gently on her panting bofom white.

The earl of Lincoln's terrace at Weybridge in Surrey..

Yon' fhepherd idly ftretch'd on the rude rock,
Listening to dashing waves, and sea 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 Æneas "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
Exhaufted, to enrich its ftately head.

More pleas'd he slept in poor Evander's cott
On fhaggy skins, lull'd by sweet 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 firft of men, ere yet confin'd
To fmoaky cities; who in fheltering groves,
Warm caves, and deep-funk vallies liv'd and lov'd,
By cares unwounded; what the fun and fhowers,

Eneid VIII.

See Lucretius, lib. V.

And

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 fhade,

Nor wiles, nor artificial coynefs 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 fled?
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 scar'd them from their mofs-grown caves to rove
Houfelefs 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 fhricking crew;

* Lucretius.

In vain the glaffy ocean smil'd to tempt
The jolly failor unfuspecting harm,

For commerce ne'er had spread her swelling 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,
Diseaseful dainties, riot and excefs,

And feverish luxury deftroy. In brakes,
Or marshes wild unknowingly they crop❜d
Herbs of malignant juice; to realms remote
While we for powerful poisons madly roam,
From every noxious herb collecting death.
What tho' unknown to those primæval fires
The well-arch'd dome, peopled with breathing forms
By fair Italia's fkilful hand, unknown
The shapely column, and the crumbling bufts
Of aweful ancestors in long defcent?

Yet why should man mistaken 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
Oppress'd, O where shall I begin thy praise,

Where