XXVIII. "But say, in courtly life can craft be learn'd, O teach a simple youth this mystery to scan. XXIX. "Or else the lamentable strain disclaim, "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; "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, "Even when exempt from grief, remorse, and pain: "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 Here Chiefs their thirst of power in blood assuage, 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, "For the vain toys that Pomp and Power bequeath! "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, "Hands drench'd in blood, and breasts begirt with steel! "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. "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, "Or toward his bower the murmuring stream decoy, "And lull the bed of peace, and crown the board of mirth, XXXVIII. "Sweet were your shades, O ye primeval groves, "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) "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, "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 XLV. "But now let other themes our care engage. "And from within the cherish'd heart to brace, 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! * 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 |