Hence, in a crefcent form'd, his legions bright
With beating bofoms waited for the fight;
To charge their foes they match, a glittering band,
And in their van doth bold Azuriel ftand.

What rage that hour did Albion's foul poffefs,
Let chiefs imagine, and let lovers guess!
Forth iffuing from his ranks, that ftrove in vain
To check his course, athwart the dreadful plain
Ha frides indignant: and with haughty cries
To fingle fight the fairy prince defics.

Forbear! rafh youth, th' unequal war to try ; Nor, fprung from mortals, with immortals vic. No god ftands ready to avert thy doom, Nor yet thy grandûre of the waves is come. My words are vain-no words the wretch can

move,

By beauty dazzled, and bewitched by love:
He longs, he burns, to win the glorious prize,
And fees no danger, while he sees her eyes.

Now from each hoft the eager warriors start,
And furious Albion flings his hafty dart.
'Twas feather'd from the bee's tranfparent wing,
And its fhaft ended in a hornet's fting!
But, toft in rage, it flew without a wound,
High o'er the foe, and guildess pierc'd the ground.
Not fo Azuriel's: with unerring aim,
Too near the needle-pointed javelin came,
Drove through the feven-fold fhield, and filken
veft,

And lightly ras'd the lover's ivory breast.
Rouz'd at the fmart, and rifing to the blow,
With his keen fword he cleaves his fairy foe,
Sheer from the shoulder to the waist he cleaves,
And of one arm the tottering trunk bereaves.

His useless steel brave Albion wields no more,
But fternly fmiles, and thinks the combat o'er:
So had it been, had aught of mortal strain,
Or less than fairy, felt the deadly pain.
But empyreal forms, howe'er in fight
Gash'd and dismember'd, cafily unite.
As fome frail cup of China's pureft mold,
With azure varnish'd, and bedropt with gold,
Though broke, if cur'd by fome nice virgin's hands,
In its old ftrength and pristine beauty stands;
The tumults of the boiling bohea braves,
And holds fecure the coffee's fable waves:
So did Azuriel's arm, if fame fay true,
Rejoin the vital trunk whence first it grew;
And, whilst in wonder fix'd poor Albion stood,
Plung'd the curs'd fabre in his heart's warm blood.
The golden broidery, tender Milkah wove,
The breaft, to Kenna facred and to love,
Lie rent and mangled: and the gaping wound
Pours out a flood of purple on the ground.
The jetty luftre fickens in his eyes;
On his cold cheeks the bloomy freshness dies;
Oh Kenna, Kenna, thrice he try'd to fay,
Kenna, farewel!' and figh'd his foul away.
His fall the Dryads with loud fhricks deplore,
By fifter Naiads echo'd from the shore,
Thence down to Neptune's fecret realms convey'd,
Through grotts, and glooms, and many a coral

shade.

The fea's great fire, with looks denouncing war, The trident shakes, and mounts the pearly car:

With one ftern frown the wide-fpread deep deforms,
And works the madding ocean into storms.
O'er foaming mountains, and through bursting
tides,

Now high, now low, the bounding chariot rides,
Till through the Thames in a loud whirlwind's roar
It shoots, and lands him on the deftin'd shore.

Now fix'd on earth his towering ftature flood, Hung o'er the mountains, and o'erlook'd the wood. To Brumpton's grove one ample stride he took, (The valleys trembled, and the forests shook) The next huge step reach'd the devoted fhade, Where choak'd in blood was wretched Albion laid: Where now the vanquifh'd with the victors join'd, Beneath the regal banners ftood combin'd.

Th' embattled dwarfs with rage and fcorn he

paft,

And on their town his eye vindictive cast.
In deep foundations his strong trident cleaves,
And high in air th' up-rooted empire heaves;
On his broad engine the vast ruin hung,
Which on the foe with force divine he flung:
Aghaft the legions, in th' approaching shade,
Th' inverted fpires and rocking domes furvey'd,
That downward tunibling on the hoft below
Crufh'd the whole nation at one dreadful blow.
Towers, arms, nymphs, warriors, are together loft,
And a whole empire falls to footh fad Albion's
ghoft.

Such was the period, long reftrain'd by fate,
And fuch the downfall of the fairy state.
This dale, a pleafing region, not unbleft,
This dale poffeft they; and had ftill poffeft;
Had not their monarch, with a father's pride,
Rent from her lord th' inviolable bride,
Rafh to diffolve the contract feal'd above,
The folemn vows and facred bonds of love.
Now, where his elves fo fprightly danc'd the round,
No violet breathes, nor daify paints the ground,
His towers and people fill one common grave,
A fhapeless ruin, and a barren cave.

Beneath huge hills of fmoking piles he lay, Stunn'd and confounded a whole fummer's day, At length awak'd (for what can long restrain Unbody'd fpirits!) but awak'd in pain: And as he faw the defolated wood, And the dark den where once his empire food, Grief chill'd his heart: to his half-open'd eyes In every oak a Neptune feem'd to rift: He fed: and left, with all his trembling peers, The long poffeffion of a thousand years,

Through buth, through brake, through groves and gloomy dales, Through dank and dry, o'er ftreams and flowery vales,

Direct they fled, but often look'd behind,
And stopt and started at each rustling wind.
Wing'd with like fear, his abdicated bands
Difperfe and wander into different lands.
Part hid beneath the Peak's deep caverns lis,
In filent gloom, impervious to the sky.
Part on fair Avon's margin feek repofe,
Whose ftreams o'er Britain's midmost region flows
Where formidable Neptune never came,
And feas and oceans are but known by fame:

Some

Some to dark woods and fecret fhade retreat :
And fome on mountains choose their airy feat.
There haply by the ruddy damfel feen,
Or fhepherd boy, they featly foot the green,
While from their steps a circling verdure fprings:
But fly from towns, and dread the courts of kings.
Mean-while fad Kenna loth to quit the grove,
Hung o'er the body of her breathless love,
Try'd every art, (vain arts!) to change his doom,
And vow'd (vain vows!) to join him in the tomb.
What could the do? the fates alike deny
The dead to live, or fairy forms to die.

An herb there grows (the fame old Homer

tells

Ulyffes bore to rival Circe's fpells)
Its root is ebon-black, but fends to light
A ftem that bends with flowrets milky white,
Moly the plant, which Gods and fairies know.
But fecret kept from mortal men below.
On his pale limbs its virtuous juice fhe fhed,
And murmur'd myftic numbers o'er the dead,
When lo! the little fhape by magic power
Grew lefs and lefs, contracted to a flower;
A flower, that firft in this fweet garden fmil'd,
To virgins facred, and the fnow-drop styl'd.
The new-born plant with fweet regret fhe
view'd,

Warm'd with her fighs, and with her tears bedew'd,

Its ripened feeds from bank to bank convey'd,
And with her lover whiten'd half the fhade.
Thus won from death, each fpring fhe fees him

grow,

And glories in the vegetable fnow,
Which now increas'd through wide Britannia's
plains,

Its parent's warmth and spotlefs name retains,
First leader of the flowery race afpires,
And foremoft catches the fun's genial fires,
"Mid frolls and fnows triumphant dares appear,
Mingles the feafons, and leads on the year.

Deferted now of all the pigmy race,
Nor man nor fairy touch'd this guilty place.
In heaps on heaps, for many a rolling age,
It lay accurs'd, the mark of Neptune's rage,
Till great Naffau recloath'd the defart fhade,
Thence facred to Britannia's monarch's made.
'Twas then the green-rob'd nymph, fair Kenna,

came,

(Kenna that gave the neighbouring town its name.)
Proud when the faw th' ennobled garden fhine,
With nymphs and heroes of her lover's line,
She vow'd to grace the mansions once her own,
And picture out in plants the fairy town.
To far-fam'd Wife her flight unfeen fhe fped,
And with gay profpects fill'd the craftfiman's head,
Soft in his fancy drew a pleafing scheme,
And plann'd that landskip in a morning dream.
With the fweet view the fire of gardens fir'd,
Attempts the labour by the nymph infpir'd,
The walls and ftreets in rows of yew defigns,
And forms the town in all its ancient lines;
The corner trees he lifts more high in air,
And girds the palace with a verdant-square;
* Odyff. Lib. x.

Nor knows, while round he views the rising scenes, He builds a city as he plants his greens.

With a fad pleafure the aërial maid This image of her ancient realms furvey'd, How chang'd, how fall'n from its primæval state! Yet here each moon, the hour her lover dy'd, Each moon his folemn obfequies the pays, And leads the dance beneath pale Cynthia's rays; Pleas'd in these fhades to head her fairy train, And grace the groves where Albion's kinfmen reign.

TO A LADY BEFORE MARRIAGE.

H! form'd by nature, and refin'd by art,
With charms to win, and fenfe to fix the
heart!

By thoufands fought, Clotilda, canft thou free
Thy crowd of captives, and defcend to me?
Content in fhades obfcure to waste thy life,
A hidden beauty, and a country wife.
Q! liften while thy fummers are my theme,
Ah! footh thy partner in his waking dream!
In fome small hamlet on the lonely plain,
Where Thames, through meadows, rolls his mazy
train;

Or where high Windfor, thick with greens array d,

Waves his old oaks, and fpreads his ample fhade,
Fancy has figur'd out our calm retreat ;
Already round the vifionary feat
Our limes begin to fhoot, our flowers to spring,
The brooks to murmur, and the birds co fing.
Where doft thou lie, thou thinly-peopled green?
Thou nameless lawn, and village yet unfeen?
Where fons, contented with their native ground,
Ne'er travel'd further than ten furlongs round;
And the tann'd peafant, and his ruddy bride,
Were born together, and together died.
Where early larks beft tell the morning light,
And only Philomel diflurbs the night;
'Midit gardens here my humble pile fhall rife,
With fweets furrounded, of ten thousand dies;
A favage where th' embroider'd gardens end,
The haunt of echoes, fhall my woods afcend;
And oh! if heaven th' ambitious thought approve,
A rill fhall warble croís the gloomy grove,
A little rill, o'er pebbly beds.convey'd,
Guh down the steep, and glitter through the
glade.

What chearing fcents thofe bordering banks exhale !

How loud that heifer lows from yonder vale!
That thruth how fhrill! his note fo clear, fo high,
He drown's each feather'd minstrel of the fky.
Here let me trace, beneath the purpled morn,
The deep-mouth'd beagle, and the fprightly horn;
Or lure the trout with well-diffembled flies,
Or fetch the fluttering partridge from the fkies.
Nor thall thy hand difdain to crop the vine,
The downy peach, or flavour'd nectarine;
Or rob the bee-hive of its golden hoard,
And bear th' unbought luxuriance to thy board.
Sometimes

Sometimes my books by day fhall kill the hours,
While from thy needle rife the filken flowers,
And thou, by turns, to cafe my feeble fight,
Refume the volume, and deceive the night.
Oh! when I mark thy twinkling eyes oppreft,
Soft whispering, let me warn my love to reft;
Then watch thee, charm'd, while fleep locks
every sense,

And to fweet heaven commend thy innocence.
Thus reign'd our fathers o'er the rural fold,
Wife, hale, and honeft in the days of old;
Till courts arofe, where fubftance pays for fhow,
And fpecious joys are bought with real woe.
See Flavia's pendants, large, well-fpread, and
right,

The ear that wears them hears a fool each night:
Mark how th' embroidered colonel fneaks away,
To fbun the withering dame that made him gay;
That knave, to gain a title, loft his fame;
That rais'd his credit by a'daughter's fhame;
This coxcomb's ribband coft him half his land,
And oaks, unnumber d, bought that foo! a wand.
Fond man, as all his forrows were too few,
Acquires ftrange wants that nature never knew,
By midnight lamps he emulates the day,
And fleeps, perverfe, the chearful funs away;
From goblets high-emboft, his wine mult glide,
Round his clos d fight the gorgeous curtain flide;
Fruits cre their time to grace his pomp mud rife,
And three untafted courfes glut his eyes.
For this are nature's gentle calls withstood,
The voice of confcience, and the bonds of blood;
This wisdom thy reward for every pain,
And this gay glory all thy mighty gain.
Fair phantoms woo'd and fcorn'd from age to age,
Since bards began to laugh, or priests to rege.
And yet, juft curfe on man's afpiring kind,
Prone to ambition, to example blind,
Our childrens' children fhall our steps purfue,
And the fame errors be for ever new.
Mean while in hope a guiltles country fwain,
My reed with warblings chears th' imagin'd plain.
Hail humble fhades where truth and filence dwell!
Thou noify town, and faithlefs court, farewell!
Farewell ambition, once my darling flame!
The thirt of lucre, and the charm of fame!
In life's by-road, that winds through paths un-
known,

My days, though number'd, fhall be all my own.
Here fhall they end (O! might they twice begin)
And all be white the fates intend to fpin.

Thee wil! I fing, in comely wainscot bound,
And golden verge enclofing thee around;
The faithful horr before, from age to age,
Preferving thy invaluable page;

Behind, thy patron faint in armour fhines,
With fword and lance, to guard thy facred lines;
Beneath his courfer's feet the dragon lies
Transfix'd; his blood thy fcarlet cover dies;
Th' inftructive handle's at the bottom fix'd,
Left wrangling critics fhould pervert the text.
Or if to ginger-bread thou fhalt defcend,
And liquorish learning to thy babes extend;
Or fugar'd plane, o'erfpread with beaten gold,
Does the sweet treasure of thy letters hold;
Thou ftill fhalt be my fong- -Apollo's choir
I fcorn t'invoke; Cadmus my verse inspire:
'Twas Cadmus who the firft materials brought
Of all the learning which has fince been taught,
Soon made compleat, for mortals ne'er fhall know
More than contain'd of old the Chrift-cross row;
What mafters dictate, or what doctors preach,
Wife matrons hence, c'en to our children teach:
But as the name of every plant and flower

So common that each peafant knows its power)
Phyficians in mysterious cant exprefs,

T'amule their patient, and enhance their fees;
So from the letters of our native tongue,
Put in Greek ferawls, a mystery too is fprung,
Schools are erected, puzzling grammars made,
And artful men ftrike out a gainful trade;
Strange characters adorn the learned gate,
And heedlefs youth catch at the shining bait;
The pregnant boys the noisy charms declare,
And

Tau's, and Delta's, make their mothers
ftare;

Th' uncommon founds amaze the vulgar ear,
And what's uncommon never cofts too dear.
Yet in all tongues the horn-book is the fame,
Taught by the Grecian mafter, or the English
dame.

But how fhall I thy endless virtues tell,
In which thou doft all other books excell?
No greafy thumbs thy fpotlefs leaf can foil,
Nor crooked dogs-ears thy fmooth corners fpoil;
In idle pages no errata ftand,

To tell the blunders of the printer's hand :
No fulfome dedication here is writ,
Nor flattering verfe, to praife the author's wit:
The margin with no tedious notes is vex'd,
Nor various reading to confound the text:
All parties in thy literal fenfe agree,
Thou perfect centre of concordancy!
Search we the records of an ancient date,
Or read what modern hiftories relate,

By the plain letters taken as they run

+ Too high the floods of paffion us'd to roll, And rend the Roman youth's impatient foul; "His hafty anger furnish'd fcenes of blood, "And frequent deaths of worthy men enfued: "In vain were all the weaker methods try'd, "None could fuffice to ftem the furious tide, *The Greek letters T, A The advice given to uguftus, by Athenodorus the ftoic philofopher.

"Thy