That all-extenfive charity of foul,
So rich in fweetnefs, that the claffic founds In elegance Auguftan cloath'd, the wit That flow'd perennial, hardly were observ❜d, Or, if obferv'd, fet off a brighter gem. How oft, and yet how feldom did it feem! Have I enjoy'd his converse ?---When we met, The hours how swift they sweetly fled, and till Agen I faw him, how they loiter'd. Oh!
* THEOPHILUS, thou dear departed foul,
What flattering tales thou told'st me? How thou'dst hail My Muse, and took'st imaginary walks
All in my hopland groves! Stay yet, oh stay!
Thou dear deluder, thou haft feen but half---
He's gone! and ought that's equal to his praise
Fame has not for me, tho' fhe prove most kind.
Howe'er this verse be facred to thy name,
These tears, the laft fad duty of a friend.
Oft I'll indulge the pleasurable pain
Of recollection; oft on Medway's banks
I'll mufe on thee full penfive; while her streams
* Mr. Theophilus Wheeler, of Chrift-College, Cambridge.
The hopland shades, that on her banks expose Serpentine vines and flowing locks of gold.
Ye fmiling nymphs, th' infeparable train Of faffron Ceres; ye, that gamesome dance, And fing to jolly Autumn, while he stands With his right hand poizing the scales of heav'n, And with his left grasps Amalthea's horn:
Young chorus of fair bacchanals, descend,
And leave a while the fickle; yonder hill,
Where stand the loaded hop-poles, claims your care.
There mighty Bacchus stradling cross the bin,
Waits your attendance---There he glad reviews- His paunch, approaching to immenfity
Still nearer, and with pride of heart surveys Obedient mortals, and the world his own. See! from the great metropolis they rush,
Th' industrious vulgar. They, like prudent bees, In Kent's wide garden roam, expert to crop The flow'ry hop, and provident to work,
Ere winter numb their funburnt hands, and winds Engoal them, murmuring in their gloomy cells. From these, such as appear the rest t'excell In strength and young agility, felect. These shall support with vigour and address The bin-man's weighty office; now extract From the fequacious earth the pole, and now
Unmarry from the clofely clinging vine. O'er twice three pickers, and no more, extend The bin-man's fway; unless thy ears can bear The crack of poles continual, and thine eyes Behold unmoved the hurrying peasant tear
Thy wealth, and throw it on the thankless ground. But first the careful planter will confult
His quantity of acres, and his crop,
How many and how large his kilns; and then Proportion'd to his wants the hands provide. But yet, of greater confequence and coft,
One thing remains unfung, a man of faith
And long experience, in whose thund'ring voice
Lives hoarse authority, potent to quell
The frequent frays of the tumultuous crew.
He shall prefide o'er all thy hop-land ftore,
Severe dictator! His unerring hand, And eye inquifitive, in heedful guise,
Shall to the brink the measure fill, and fair
On the twin registers the work record.
And yet I've known them own a female reign, And gentle * Marianne's foft Orphean voice Has hymn'd sweet leffons of humanity
To the wild brutal crew. Oft her command Has fav'd the pillars of the hopland state,
The Author's youngest Sifter.
The lofty poles from ruin, and fuftain'd,
Like ANNA, or ELIZA, her domain,
With more than manly dignity. Oft I've seen, Ev'n at her frown the boift'rous uproar cease, And the mad pickers, tam'd to diligence, Cull from the bin the fprawling fprigs, and leaves That stain the sample, and its worth debase. All things thus fettled and prepared, what now Can let the planters purposes? Unless The Heav'ns frown diffent, and ominous winds Howl thro' the concave of the troubled sky. And oft, alas! the long experienc'd wights (Oh! could they too prevent them) storms foresee. * For, as the storm rides on the rifing clouds,
Numquam imprudentibus imber Obfuit. Aut illum furgentem vallibus imis Aëriæ fugere grues: aut bucula cœlum Sufpiciens, patulis captavit naribus auras : Aut arguta lacus circumvolitavit hirundo: Et veterem in limo ranæ cecinere querelam. Sæpius & tectis penetralibus extulit ova Anguftum formica terens iter, & bibit ingens Arcus & e paftu decedens agmine magno Corvorum increpuit denfis exercitus alis. Jam varias pelagi volucres, & quæ Afia circum Dulcibus in ftagnis rimantur prata Cayftri, Certatim largos humeris infundere rores;
Nunc caput objectare fretis, nunc currere in undas, Et ftudio incaffum videas geftire lavandi.
Tum cornix plena pluviam vocat improba voce, Et fola in ficca fecum fpatiatur arena.
Nec nocturna quidem carpentes penfa puellæ Nefcivere hyemem.
Fly the fleet wild-geefe far away, or else
The heifer towards the zeinth rears her head, And with expanded noftrils fnuffs the air: The swallows too their airy circuits weave,
And screaming skim the brook; and fen-bred frogs Forth from their hoarse throats their old grutch recite: Or from her earthly coverlets the ant Heaves her huge eggs along the narrow way: Or bends Thaumantia's variegated bow Athwart the cope of heav'n: or fable crows Obftreperous of wing, in crouds combine: Befides, unnumber'd troops of birds marine, And Afia's feather'd flocks, that in the muds Of flow'ry-edg'd Cayfter wont to prey, Now in the fhallows duck their speckled heads, And luft to lave in vain, their unctious plumes Repulfive baffle their efforts: Next hark How the curs'd raven, with her harmful voice, Invokes the rain, ahd croaking to herself, Struts on some spacious folitary fhore. Nor want thy fervants and thy wife at home Signs to prefage the fhow'r; for in the hall Sheds Niobe her prefcious tears, and warns Beneath thy leaden tubes to fix the vase,
And catch the falling dew-drops, which supply
Soft water and falubrious, far the best
To foak thy hops, and brew thy generous beer.
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