Then comes the tulip race, where beauty plays To family, as flies the father dust, The varied colors run; and while they break On the charm'd eye, th' exulting florist marks, 540 With secret pride, the wonders of his hand. No gradual bloom is wanting, from the bud, Low-bent, and blushing inward; nor jonquils 545 Nor broad carnations, nor gay spotted pinks; Nor, shower'd from every bush, the damask rose: 550 With hues on hues expression cannot paint, The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom. DEVOUT ADDRESS TO THE GREAT SOURCE OF BEING. Hail, Source of Being! Universal Soul Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail! 547. Fabled fountain: The classical story of Narcissus is somewhat variously narrated, but the substance of it is, that having seen his own image reflected from a fountain, and discovering its strong resemblance to the form of a deceased twin-sister, whose features and dress had been the counterpart almost of his own, and whom he had tenderly loved, he was accustomed afterwards to visit the fountain, and gaze upon the image that brought her vividly and affectingly before his mind. His grief preyed upon his mind, and brought him prematurely to death, and the gods, it was said, compassionately changed him into the flower that bears his name. That flower suits the fable so far as this:-it delights in the margins of streams and fountains, and bending the top of its slender stalk over the water, it may easily be conceived as viewing there its own image besides this, like the classical Narcissus, it is a short-lived flower. 553-568. Hail! Source of Being! &c.: The sight of those thrifty laborers (described in 505-512), in which the domestic toils of man are imaged, and the provision which Nature makes in a succession of the sweet To Thee I bend the knee; to Thee my thoughts 555 560 est flowers for his gratification (525-552), bring God and his goodness to the poet's mind. His address to the Deity is of exquisite delicacy and truth.-C. 553-4. Universal Soul, &c.: Very far was Thomson, in the use of this expression, from adopting the Pantheistic doctrine of the "Animus Mundi," which confounds the Deity with creation, and makes the various crea tures but several parts of the great God. He believed in a personal God, the source of being, and always devoutly discriminated between Him and his creatures in the homage which he frequently pays Him in this Poem of the Seasons. According to Cicero, the ancient Stoics held that this world is wise, and has a mind or soul, whereby it formed or fabricated both it and itself, and orders, moves, and governs all things; and that the sun, moon, and stars are gods, because a certain animal intelligence pervades and permeates all things. The learned Varro asserted, that the soul of the world, and its parts, constituted the true gods. This theology or philosophy, as Leland observes, furnished a pretext for worshipping the several parts of the world, and the powers and virtues diffused through the parts of it, under the name of the popular divinities; though, in the following lines, Pope may have possibly designed to express no other idea than that of the Divine Omnipresence and universal agency, as set forth in the Scriptures, he could not have presented a more literal, as well as beautiful, statement or illustration of the Pantheistic and pernicious doctrine to which we have adverted. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, That changed through all, and yet in all the same, Great in the earth as in the ethereal flame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent. Thomson, in the text, conveys simply the idea, that God is the author of heaven and earth, or the universe, and that He carries forward the multifarious operations going on, by his universal and mysterious agency: an idea embraced in that sublime sentence of the apostle Paul—“ Of Him, and to Him, and through Him, are all things." Stands each attractive plant, and sucks and swells The juicy tide; a twining mass of tubes. At Thy command the vernal sun awakes The torpid sap, detruded to the root By wintry winds; that now, in fluent dance, My theme ascends, with equal wing ascend, 565 570 My panting Muse. And hark, how loud the woods Invite you forth in 'all your gayest trim. Lend me your song, ye nightingales! oh, pour Into my varied verse! while I deduce, From the first note the hollow cuckoo sings, 575 568. Critics have censured Thomson for employing many pedantic and cumbrous expressions, one of which, innumerous-color'd, is here used, describing the scene of things around us as possessed of innumerable shades of color. 571. My panting Muse: Modern poets have imitated the classical poets of Greece and Rome in ascribing their poetic conceptions and compositions to an imaginary deity called by this name. Of the Muses there were nine, one of whom was honored as presiding over poetry. Other fine arts were patronized by her sister Muses. As our author is now about to undertake more elevated themes, instead of calling upon his Imagination and Fancy to aid him, he bids his panting Muse, under the figure of a bird (see also 699-700) to ascend "with equal wing." This word is generally used, therefore, by English poets as denoting the genius or power of poetry-the mental energy which produces this form of composition. 576. Cuckoo This bird belongs to a group which is characterized by having the toes situated two before and two behind. It is a migratory bird; it arrives in England in the month of April for the purpose of breeding. It differs from almost every other bird in not constructing a nest, nor under any circumstances hatching its own eggs; but deposits them in the nests of other birds, as the hedge-sparrow. The unfledged young have a remarkable instinct, which impels them to unceasing efforts to expel their helpless companions from the nest, which they effect by pushing them in the hollow of their back to the verge of the nest, and citing them over, until they at length monopolize all the care and pro The symphony of Spring, and touch a theme THE LOVE OF THE GROVES AND COURTSHIP OF BIRDS. When first the soul of love is sent abroad, 580 In gallant thought, to plume the painted wing; At first faint warbled. But no sooner grows 585 Than, all alive, at once their joy o'erflows Ere yet the shadows fly, he mounted sings Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts 590 up vison of the foster-parent. The young cuckoos of the year do not leave England till the month of September.-BRANDE. 579-604. To this fine hymn the birds add their songs, each according to its kind: the untaught harmony of Spring comes from the clear sky, the tree-top, and the blooming hawthorn; nor are the songsters unscen by the poet, who knows the haunts of each. He gives the bramble to the wren, the half-long tree to the thrush, and the cloud to the lark.-C. 587. The lark: The scene described by the poet receives further illustration from the pen of Mrs. Ellis, who, among other fine things, says, in her "Poetry of Life,”—And then there is the glad voice of the lark, that spring of perpetual freshness, pouring forth its untiring and inexhaustible melody. Who ever listened to this voice on a clear spring morning, when Nature was first rising from her wintry bed, when the furze was in bloom, and the lambs at play, and the primrose and the violet scented the delicious south wind that came with the glad tidings of renovated life; who ever listened to the song of the lark on such a morning, while the dew was upon the grass, and the sun was smiling through a cloudless sky, without feeling that the spirit of joy was still alive within, around, and above him, and that those wild and happy strains, floating in softened melody upon the scented air, were the outpourings of a gratitude too rapturous for words? Deep tangled, tree irregular, and bush Aid the full concert; while the stockdove breathes 595 600 605 598. Philomela: The Nightingale, so called for the reason stated by the poet. It ranks among the sweetest of song-birds, but owes perhaps no small share of its celebrity to the circumstance of the serenity and quiet of the night hours, and to its being the solitary songster. They migrate in April or May to England from the south, for the purpose of breeding; "and (according to Brande) the famed song of the male is his love-chant, and ceases when his mate has hatched her brood. Vigilance, anxiety, and caution now succeed to harmony; and his croak is the hush, the warning of danger and suspicion, to the infant charge and the mother bird. If by accident his mate be killed, the male resumes his song; and will continue to chant till very late in summer, unless he can attract, as he commonly soon does, another female." The term Philomela signifies song-loving. Its application to the sweetsinging Nightingale is connected with the classical legend which affirms that Philomela, a daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, getting into difficulty, was, in answer to her prayer, changed by the gods into a nightingale. 607-9. In the spring, says Mrs. Ellis, when the rooks first begin to be busy with their nests, their language, like their feelings and occupations, is cheerful, bustling, and tumultuous. Within the rookery it is perfect discord; but heard in the distance it conveys to the mind innumerable |