XXVIII.

"But say, in courtly life can craft be learn'd,
"Where knowledge opens, and exalts the soul?
"Where Fortune lavishes her gifts unearn'd,
"Can selfishness the liberal heart controul?
"Is glory there achiev'd by arts as foul
"As those that felons, fiends, and furies plan?
Spiders ensnare, snakes poison, tygers prowl;
"Love is the Godlike attribute of man.

O teach a simple youth this mystery to scan.

XXIX.

"Or else the lamentable strain disclaim,
"And give me back the calm contented mind;
"Which, late, exulting, view'd in Nature's frame,
"Goodness untainted, wisdom unconfined,
"Grace, grandeur, and utility combined.

"Restore those tranquil days, that saw me still "Well pleas'd with all, but most with human kind; "When fancy roam'd through Nature's works at will. "Uncheck'd by cold distrust, and uninform'd of ill."

XXX.

"Wouldst thou (the sage replied) in peace return "To the gay dreams of fond romantic youth, "Leave me to hide in this remote sojourn, "From every gentle ear the dreadful truth: "For if my desultory strain with ruth "And indignation make thine eye o'erflow, "Alas? what comfort could thy anguish sooth, "Shouldst thou th' extent of human folly know. "Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to wo.

XXXI.

"But let untender thoughts afar be driven;
"Nor venture to arraign the dread decree.
"For know, to man, as candidate for heaven,

"The voice of The Eternal said, Be free:

"And this divine prerogative to thee

"Does virtue, happiness, and heaven convey : "For virtue is the child of liberty,

"And happiness of virtue; nor can they

"Be free to keep the path, who are not free to stray.

XXXII.

"Yet leave me not. I would allay that grief,
"Which else might thy young virtue overpower
"And in thy converse I shall find relief,
"When the dark shades of melancholy lower;
"For solitude has many a dreary hour,

"Even when exempt from grief, remorse, and pain:
"Come often then; for, haply, in my bower,

"Amusement, knowledge, wisdom thou may'st gain: "If I one soul improve, I have not lived in vain."

XXXIII.

gaze

And now, at length, to Edwin's ardent
The Muse of history unrolls her page;
But few, alas! the scenes her art displays,
To charm his fancy, or his heart engage.

Here Chiefs their thirst of power in blood assuage,
And straight their flames with ten-fold fierceness burn:
Here smiling Virtue prompts the patriot's rage,

But lo, erelong, is left alone to mourn,

And languish in the dust, and clasp th' abandon'd urn.

XXXIV.

"Ambition's slippery verge shall mortals tread,
"Where ruin's gulph unfathom'd yawns beneath!
"Shall life, shall liberty be lost, (he said)

"For the vain toys that Pomp and Power bequeath!
"The car of victory, the plume, the wreathe,
"Defend not from the bolt of fate the brave;
"No note the clarion of Renown can breathe,

"T' alarm the long night of the lonely grave,

"Or check the headlong haste of Time's o'erwhelming wave,

XXXV.

"Ah, what avails it to have traced the springs,
"That whirl of empire the stupendous wheel!
"Ah, what have I to do with conquering kings,

"Hands drench'd in blood, and breasts begirt with steel!
"To those, whom Nature taught to think and feel,
"Heroes, alas! are things of small concern;
"Could History man's secret heart reveal,

"And what imports a heaven-born mind to learn, "Her transcripts to explore what bosom would not yearn! H

XXXVI.

"This praise, O Cheronean Sage*, is thine.
"(Why should this praise to thee alone belong?)
"All else from Nature's moral path decline,
"Lured by the toys that captivate the throng;
"To herd in cabinets and camps, among
"Spoil, carnage, and the cruel pomp of pride
"Or chaunt of heraldry the drowsy song,

"How tyrant blood, o'er many a region wide, "Rolls to a thousand thrones its execrable tide.

XXXVII.

"O who of man the story will unfold,
"Ere victory and empire wrought annoy,
"In that elysian age (misnamed of gold)
"The age of love, and innocence, and joy,
"When all were great and free! man's sole employ
"To deck the bosom of his parent earth;

"Or toward his bower the murmuring stream decoy,
"To aid the flowret's long-expected birth,

"And lull the bed of peace, and crown the board of mirth,

XXXVIII.

"Sweet were your shades, O ye primeval groves,
"Whose boughs to man his food and shelter lent,
"Pure in his pleasures, happy in his loves,
"His eye still smiling, and his heart content.

"Then, hand in hand, Health, Sport, and Labour went, "Nature supply'd the wish she taught to crave.

"None prowl'd for prey, none watch'd to circumvent. "To all an equal lot heaven's bounty gave:

"No vassal fear'd his lord, no tyrant fear'd his slave.

XXXIX.

"But ah! th' Historic Muse has never dared "To pierce those hallow'd bowers: 'tis Fancy's beam Pour'd on the vision of th' enraptured Bard,

"That paints the charms of that delicious theme. "Then hail sweet Fancy's ray! and hail the dream "That weans the weary soul from guilt and wo! "Careless what others of my choice may deem, "I long where Love and Fancy lead to go, "And meditate on heaven; enough of earth I know.”

* Plutarch.

XL.

"I cannot blame thy choice (the Sage replied)
"For soft and smooth are Fancy's flowery ways.
"And yet, even there, if left without a guide,
"The young adventurer unsafely plays.
"Eyes dazzled long by Fiction's gaudy rays
"In modest Truth nor light nor beauty find.

"And who, my child, would trust the meteor blaze, "That soon must fail, and leave the wanderer blind, "More dark and helpless far, than if it ne'er had shined?

XLI.

"Fancy enervates, while it sooths, the heart,
"And, while it dazzles, wounds the mental sight :
"To joy each heightening charm it can impart,

"But wraps the hour of wo in tenfold night.

And often, where no real ills affright,

"Its visionary fiends, an endless train,

"Assail with equal or superior might,

"And through the throbbing heart, and dizzy brain, "And shivering nerves, shoot stings of more than mortal pain.

XLII.

"And yet, alas! the real ills of life

"Claim the full vigour of a mind prepared,

Prepared for patient, long, laborious strife, "It's guide Experience, and Truth its guard. "We fare on earth as other men have fared. "Were they successful? Let not us despair. "Was disppointment oft their sole reward? "Yet shall their tale instruct, if it declare,

"How they have borne the load ourselves are doom'd to bear.

XLIII.

"What charms th' Historic Muse adorn, from spoils, "And blood, and tyrants, when she wings her flight, "To hail the patriot Prince, whose pious toils "Sacred to science, liberty, and right,

"And peace, through every age divinely bright "Shall shine the boast and wonder of mankind! "Sees yonder sun, from his meridian height, "A lovelier scene than Virtue thus enshrined "In power, and man with man for mutual aid combined?

XLIV.

"Hail sacred Polity, by Freedom rear'd!

་་

Hail sacred Freedom, when by Law restrain'd! "Without you what were man? A grovelling herd "In darkness, wretchedness, and want enchain'd. Sublim'd by you, the Greek and Roman reign'd "In arts unrivall'd: O, to latest days,

"In Albion may your influence unprofaned
"To godlike worth the generous bosom raise,
And prompt the Sage's lore, and fire the Poet's lays!

XLV.

"But now let other themes our care engage.
For lo, with modest yet majestic grace,
"To curb Imagination's lawless rage,

"And from within the cherish'd heart to brace,
Philosophy appears. The gloomy race

By Indolence and moping Fancy bred,

Fear, Discontent, Solicitude give place,

"And Hope and Courage brighten in their stead, "While on the kindling soul her vital beams are shed. XLVI.

"Then waken from long lethargy to life* "The seeds of happiness, and powers of thought; "Then jarring appetites forego their strife, "A strife by ignorance to madness wrought. "Pleasure by savage man is dearly bought "With fell revenge, lust that defies controul "With gluttony and death. The mind untaught "Is a dark waste, where fiends and tempests howl; "As Phoebus to the world, is Science to the soul.

XLVII.

"And Reason now through Number, Time, and Space, "Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye,

"And learns, from facts compared, the laws to trace,

"Whose long progression leads to Deity.

"Can mortal strength presume to soar so high!
"Can mortal sight, so oft bedim'd with tears,
"Such glory bear '....for lo, the shadows fly
"From nature's face; Confusion disappears,
And order charms the eyes, and harmony the ears.

* The influence of the Philosophic Spirit, in humanizing the mind, and preparing it for intellectual exertion and delicate pleasure....in exploring, by the help of geometry, the