Fatigued me, never weary of the pipe
Of Tytirus, assembling, as he sang,
The rustic throng beneath his favourite beech.
Then Milton had indeed a poet's charms :
New to my taste, his Paradise surpass d
The struggling efforts of my boyish tongue
To speak its excellence. I danced for joy.
I marvelled much that, at so ripe an age
As twice seven years, his beauties had then first
Engag'd my wonder, and, admiring still,
And still admiring, with regret suppos'd
The joy half lost because not sooner found.
Thee, too, enamour'd of the life I lov d,
Pathetic in its praise, in its pursuit
Determin’d, and possessing it at last
With transports such as favour'd lovers feel,
I studied, priz’d, and wish'd that I had known,
Ingenious Cowley! and, though now, reclaim'd
By modern lights from an erroneous taste,
I cannot but lament thy splendid wit
Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools,
I still revere thee, courtly though retird ;
Though stretch'd at ease in Chertsey's silent bowers,
Not unemploy'd ; and finding rich amends
For a lost world, in solitude and verse.
'Tis born with all : The love of Nature's works
Is an ingredient in the compound man,
Infus'd at the creation of the kind.
And, though the Almighty Maker has, throughout,
Discriminated each from each, by strokes
And touches of his hand, with so much art
Diversified, that two were never found
Twins at all points-yet this obtains in all,
That all discern a beauty in his works,
And all can taste them: minds that have been formid
And tutor’d. with a relish more exact ;
But none without some relish, none unmoy'd.
It is a flame that dies not even there,
Where nothing feeds it, neither business, crowds,
Nor habits of luxurious city-life,
Whatever else they smother of true worth
In human bosoms, quench ir, or abate.
The villa's with which London stands begirt,
Like a swarth Indian with his belt of Leads,
Prove it. A breath of ynadulterate air,
The glimpse of a green pasture,-how they cheer
The citizen, and brace his languid frame !
Even in the stifling bosom of the town,
A garden, in which nothing strives, has charms
That soothe the rich possessor ; much consolid,
That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint,
Of nightshade, or valerian, grace the well
He cultivates. These serve him with a hint
That Nature lives ; that sight-refreshing green
Is still the livery she delights to wear,
Though sickly samples of the exuberant whole.
What are the casements lin' with creeping herbs,
The prouder sashes fronted with a range
Of orange, nyrtle, or the fragrant weed,
The Frenchman's* darling ? Are they not all proofs
That man, immur'd in cities, still retains
His inborn, inextinguishable thirst
Of rural scenes, compensating his loss
By supplemental shifts, the best he may ?
The most unfurnish'd with the means of life,
And they that never pass their brick-wall bounds
To range the fields and treat their lungs with air,
Yet feel the burning instinct : over-head
Suspend their crazy boxes, planted thick,
And water'd duly. There the pitcher stands
A fragment, and the spoutless tea-pot there ;
Sad witnesses how close pent man regrets
T'he country, with what ardour he contrives
A peep at nature, when he can no more.
Hail, therefore, patroness of health, and ease,
And contemplation, heart-consoling joys,
And harmless pleasures, in the throng'd abode
Of multitudes unknown ! hail, rural life!
Address himself who will to the pursuit
Of honours, or emolument, or fame ;
I shall not add myself to such a chase,
Thwart his attempts, or envy his success.
Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts hinı into life ; and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.
To the deliverer of an injur'd land
He gives a tongue to enlarge upon, an heart
To feel, and courage to redress her wrongs ;
To monarchs dignity ; to judges sense ;
To artists ingenuity and skill ;
To me an unambitious mind, content
In the low vale of life, that early felt
A wish for ease and leisure, and ere long
Found here that leisure and that ease I wish'd,
ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH BOOK.
A frosty morning.--The foddering of cattle.
The man and his dog.-The poultry.—Whimsical effects of frost at a waterfall.--The Empress of Russia's palace of ice.- Amusements of monarchs.-War, one of them.-Wars, whence
- And whence monarchy.—The evils of it.English and French loyalty contrasted. The Bastille, and a prisoner there.--Liberty the chief recommendation of this country.--Modern patriotism questionable, and why.--The perisha. ble nature of the best human institutions-Spiritual liberty not perishable. The slavish state of man by nature.-Deliver him, Deist, if you can.-Grace must do it. The respective merits of patriots and martyrs stated.--Their differ. ent treatment.—Happy freedom of the man whom grace makes free.- His relish of the works of God.--Address to the Creator.
IS morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb
Ascending, fires the horizon ; while the clouds,
That crowd away before the driving wind,
More ardent as the disk emerges more,
Resemble most some city in a blaze,
Seen through the leafless wood. His slanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale,
And, tinging all with his own rosy hue,
From every herb and every spiry blade
Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field.
Mine, spindling into longitude immense,
In spite of gravity, and sage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting shade,
Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance
I view the muscular, proportion'd limb
Transform'd to a lean shank. The shapeless pair,
As they design’d to mock me, at my side
Take step for step ; and, as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plaister'd wall,
Preposterous sight! the legs without the man.
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge ; and the bents,
And coarser grass, upspearing o'er the rest,
Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine
Conspicuous, and, in bright apparel clad,
And fledg'd with icy feathers, nod superb.
The cattle mourn in corners, where the fence
Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep
In unrecumbent sadness. There they wait
Their wonted fodder; not like hungering man,
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