Still labours glorious with fome great defign.
Low walks the fun, and broadens by degrees,
Juft o'er the verge of day. The fhifting clouds 1620
Affembled gay, a richly gorgeous train,
In all their pomp attend his fetting throne.
Air, earth, and ocean fimile immenfe.
As if his weary chariot fought the bowers
Of Amphitrite, and her tending nymphs,
(So Grecian fable fung), he dips his orb;
Now half immers'd; and now a golden curve
Gives one bright glance, then total disappears.
For ever running an inchanted round,
Paffes the day, deceitful, vain, and void;
As fleets the vision o'er the formful brain,
This moment hurrying wild th' impaffion'd foul,
The next in nothing loft. 'Tis fo to him,
The dreamer of this earth, an idle blank:
A fight of horror to the cruel wretch,
Who all day long in fordid pleasure roll'd,
Himself an ufelefs load, has fquander'd vile,
Upon his fcoundrel train, what might have chear'd
A drooping family of modest worth.
But to the generous ftill-improving mind,
That gives the hopeless heart to fing for joy,
Diffufing kind beneficence around,
Boastlefs, as now defcends the filent dew;
A thousand shadows at her beck. First this
She fends on earth; then that of deeper dye
Steals foft behind; and then a deeper still,
In circle following circle, gathers round,
To close the face of things. A fresher gale
Begins to wave the wood, and stir the stream,
Sweeping with fhadowy guft the fields of corn; 1655
While the quail clamours for his running mate.
Wide o'er the thiftly lawn, as fwells the breeze,
A whitening shower of vegetable down
Amufive floats. The kind impartial care
Of nature nought difdains: thoughtful to feed 1660
Her lowest fons, and clothe the coming year,
From field to field the feather'd feeds she wings.
His folded flock fecure, the fhepherd home
Hies, merry-hearted; and by turns relieves
The ruddy milk-maid of her brimming pail ;:
The beauty whom perhaps his witless heart,
Unknowing what the joy-mix'd anguish means,
Sincerely loves, by that beft language shewn
Of cordial glances, and obliging deeds.
Onward they pafs, o'er many a panting height, 1670 And valley funk, and unfrequented; where
At fall of eve the fairy people throng,
In various game, and revelry, to pafs
The fummer-night, as village-ftories tell.
But far about they wander from the
grave
Of him, whom his ungentle fortune urg'd
Against his own fad breast, to lift the hand
Of impious violence. The lonely tower,
Is also shunn'd; whose mournful chambers hold,
So night-ftruck fancy dreams, the yelling ghost. 1680
Among the crooked lanes, on every hedge,
The glow-worm lights his gem; and, thro' the dark,!
A moving radiance twinkles. Evening yields
The world to Night; not in her winter-robe
Of maffy Stygian woof, but loofe array'd1685
In mantle dun. A faint erroneous ray,
Glanc'd from th' imperfect surfaces of things,
Flings half an image on the straining eye;
While wavering woods, and villages, and streams,
And rocks, and mountain-tops,, that long retain❜d 1690
Th' ascending gleam, are all one fwimming scene,
Uncertain if beheld. Sudden to heaven
Thence weary vision turns; where, leading soft
The filent hours of love, with purest ray
Sweet Venus fhines; and from her genial rife, 1695
When day-light fickens till it fprings afresh,
Unrival'd reigns, the fairest lamp of night.
As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink,
With cherish'd gaze, the lambent lightnings shoot
Across the sky; or horizontal dart,
In wondrous fhapes: by fearful murmuring crouds
Portentous deem'd. Amid the radiant orbs,
That more than deck, that animate the sky,
The life-infufing funs of other worlds;
Lo! from the dead immenfity of space
Returning, with accelerated courfe,
The rushing comet to the fun defcends:
And as he finks below the fhading earth,
With awful train projected o'er the heavens,
The guilty nations tremble. But, above
Those fuperftitious horrors that enflave
The fond fequacious herd, to mystic faith
And blind amazement prone, th' enlighten'd few,
Whose godlike minds philofophy exalts,
The glorious ftranger hail. They feel a joy
Divinely great; they in their powers exult,
That wondrous force of thought, which mounting fpurns
This dusky fpot, and meafures all the sky;
While, from his far excurfion thro' the wilds
Of barren aether, faithful to his time,
They see the blazing wonder rise anew,
In feeming terror clad, but kindly bent
To work the will of all-fustaining Love:
From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake
Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs
Thro' which his long ellipfis winds; perhaps
To lend new fuel to declining funs,
To light up worlds, and feed th' eternal fire.
With thee, ferene PHILOSOPHY, with thee, 1729
And thy bright garland, let me crown my fong!
Effufive fource of evidence and truth!
A lustre shedding o'er th' ennobled mind,
Stronger than fummer-noon; and pure as that,
Whose mild vibrations foothe the parted foul,
New to the dawning of celeftial day.
Hence thro' her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by thee,
She springs aloft, with elevated pride,
Above the tangling mass of low defires,
That bind the fluttering croud; and, angel-wing'd,
The heights of science and of virtue gains,
1740
Where all is calm and clear: with Nature round,
Or in the starry regions, or th' abyss,
To Reason's and to Fancy's eye difplay'd:
The First up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of caufes and effects, to HIM,
The world-producing ESSENCE, who alone
Poffeffes being; while the Laft receives
The whole magnificence of heaven and earth,
And every beauty, delicate or bold,
Obvious or more remote, with livelier fenfe
Diffufive painted on the rapid mind.
Tutor'd by thee, hence POETRY exalts
Her voice to ages; and informs the pager
With mufic, image, fentiment, and thought,
Never to die! the treasure of mankind!
Their highest honour, and their truest joy!
Without thee what were unenlightened Man?
A favage roaming thro' the woods and wilds,
In queft of prey; and with th' unfashion'd fur
Rough clad ; devoid of every finer art,
And elegance of life. Nor happiness
Domeftic, mix'd of tenderness and care,
Nor moral excellence, nor focial blifs,
Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool
Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line, or dares the wint❜ry pole ;;
Mother fevere of infinite delights!
Nothing, fave rapine, indolence and guilé,
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train!
Whofe horrid circle had made human life
Than non-existence worfe: but, taught by thee,
Ours are the plans of policy and peace;
To live like brothers, and conjunctive all
Embellish life. While thus laborious crouds
Ply the tough oar, PHILOSOPHY directs
The ruling helm; or like the liberal breath
Of potent Heaven, invisible, the fail
Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along. 1780
Nor to this evanescent speck of earth
Poorly confined, the radiant tracks on high
Are her exalted range; intent to gaze
Creation thro'; and, from that full complex
Of never-ending wonders, to conceive,
Of the SOLE BEING right, who spoke the word, T
And Nature mov'd complete. With inward view
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