Now rapt! now more than man !—I see him climb,
To view this fpeck of earth from worlds fublime!
I fee him now o'er Nature's works prefide!

How clear the vifion! and the fcene how wide! 200
Let fome a name by adulation raise,

Or fcandal, meaner than a venal praise !

My Mufe (he cries) a nobler prospect view!
Through fancy's wilds fome moral's point pursue !
From dark deception clear-drawn truth display,
As from black chaos rofe refplendent day!
Awake compaffion, and bid terror rife!
Bid humble forrows ftrike fuperior eyes!
So pamper'd power, unconfcious of distress,
May fee, be mov'd, and, being mov'd, redress.
Ye traytors, tyrants, fear his stinging lay I

Ye powers unlov'd, unpity'd in decay!
But know, to you sweet-blossom'd Fame he brings,
Ye heroes, patriots, and paternal kings!

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O Thou, who form'd, who rais'd the poet's art, 215 (Voice of thy will!) unerring force impart ! If wailing worth can generous warmth excite, If verse can gild inftruction with delight, Infpire his honeft Mufe with orient flame, To rife, to dare, to reach the nobleft aim !

But, O my friend! mysterious is our fate! How mean his fortune, though his mind elate! Æneas-like he paffes through the crowd, Unfought, unfeen beneath misfortune's cloud;

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Or feen with flight regard: Unprais'd his name: 225 His after-honour, and our after-shame.

The

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The doom'd defert, to avarice stands confefs'd;
Her eyes averted are, and steel'd her breast.
Envy afquint the future wonder eyes :
Bold Infult, pointing, hoots him as he flies;
While coward Centure, fkill'd in darker ways,
Hints fure detraction in diflembled praise!
Hunger, thirft, nakedness, there grievous fall!
Unjust derifion too!- that tongue of gail!
Slow comes Relief, with no mild charms endued, 235
Ufher'd by Pride, and by Reproach purfued.

Forc'd Pity meets him with a cold respect,
Unkind as Scorn, ungenerous as Neglect.

Yet, fuffering Worth! thy fortitude will shine :
Thy foes are Virtue's, and her friends are thine! 240
Patience is thine, and Peace thy days fhall crown;
Thy treasure Prudence, and thy claim Renown:
Myriads, unborn, fhall mourn thy hapless fate,
And myriads grow, by thy example, great!

Hark! from the watch-tower rolls the trumpet's found,
Sweet through still night, proclaiming safety round!
Yon fhade illuftrious quits the realms of rest,
To aid fome orphan of its race diftreft,

Safe winds him through the fubterraneous way,
That mines yon manfion, grown with ruin grey, 250
And marks the wealthy, unfufpected ground,
Where, green with ruft, long-buried coins abound.
This plaintive ghost, from earth when newly fled,
Saw thofe, the living trufted, wrong the dead;
He faw, by fraud abus'd, the lifeless hand
Sign the falle deed that alienates his land;

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Heard,

Heard, on his fame, injurious cenfure thrown,
And mourn'd the beggar'd orphan's bitter groan.
Commiffion'd now the falfehood he reveals,
To justice foon th' enabled heir appeals;
Soon, by his wealth, are coftly pleas maintain'd,
And, by discover'd truth, loft right regain'd.
But why (may fome enquire) why kind fuccefs,
Since mystic heaven gives mifery oft to bless?
Though mifery leads to happiness and truth,
Unequal to the load, this languid youth,
Unftrengthen'd virtue scarce his bofom fir'd,
And fearful from his growing wants retir'd.
Oh, let not cenfure, if (untried by grief,
If, amidst woe, untempted by relief,)
He stoop'd reluctant to low arts of shame,

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Which then, ev'n then he fcorn'd, and blush'd to name. Heaven fees, and makes th' imperfect worth its care, And chears the trembling heart, unform'd to bear, Now rifing fortune elevates his mind,

He shines unclouded, and adorns mankind.

So in fome engine, that denies a vent,

If unrefpiring is fome creature pent,

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It fickens, droops, and pants, and gasps for breath,
Sad o'er the fight swim fhadowy mifts of death; 280
If then kind air pours powerful in again,

New heats, new pulfes quicken every vein;
From the clear'd, lifted, life-rekindled eye,
Difpers'd, the dark and dampy vapours fly.

From trembling tombs the ghofts of greatness rife, 285 And o'er their bodies hang with wistful eyes;

Or

Or difcontented ftalk, and mix their howls

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With howling wolves, their screams with fcreaming owls.
The interval 'twixt night and morn is nigh,
Winter more nitrous chills the fhadow'd sky.
Springs with foft heats no more give borders green,
Nor fmoaking breathe along the whiten'd scene;
While fteamy currents, fweet in profpect, charm
Like veins blue-winding on a fair-one's arm.
Now Sleep to Fancy parts with half his power 295
And broken flumbers drag the restless hour.
The murder'd feems alive, and ghaftly glares,
And in dire dreams the confcious murderer fcares,
Shews the yet-fpouting wound, th' enfanguin'd floor,
The walls yet-fmoaking with the fpatter'd gore;
Or fhrieks to dozing justice, and reveals
The deed, which fraudful art from day conceals;
The delve obfcene, where no fufpicion pries,
Where the disfigur'd corfe unfhrouded lies;
The fure, the ftriking proof, fo ftrong maintain'd, 305
Pale guilt starts self-convicted, when arraign'd.
Thefe fpirits treafon of its power divest,
And turn the peril from the patriot's breast.
Thofe folemn thought infpire, or bright defcend
To fnatch in vifion fweet the dying friend.

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But we deceive the gloom, the matin bell
Summons to prayer!-Now breaks th' inchanter's spell!
And now-But yon fair fpirit's form furvey!
"Tis fhe!-Olympia beckons me away!

I hafte!-I fly !—adieu!—and when you fee
The youth who bleeds with fondness, think on me :

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Meanwhile the fun his beams on Cancer throws,
Which now beneath his warmeft influence glows.
From glowing Cancer fallen, the King of day,
Red through the kindling Lion fhoots his ray.
The tawny harvest pays the earlier plough,
And mellowing fruitage loads the bending bough.
'Tis day-fpring. Now green labyrinths I frequent,
Where Wisdom oft retires to meet Content.

The mounting lark her warbling anthem lends,
From note to note the ravifh'd foul afcends;
As thus it would the patriarch's ladder climb,
By fome good angel led to worlds fublime :
Oft (legends fay) the fnake, with waken'd ire,
Like Envy rears in many a fcaly fpire;

Then fongfters droop, then yield their vital gore,
And innocence and mufic are no more.

Mild rides the Morn in orient beauty dreft,

An azure mantle, and a purple veft,

Which, blown by gales, her gemmy feet difplay,
Her amber treffes negligently gay.

Collected now her rofy hand they fill,

And, gently wrung, the pearly dews diftil.

The fongful zephyrs, and the laughing hours,

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60

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Breathe sweet; and strew her opening way with flowers.
The chattering swallows leave their nefted care,
Each promifing return with plenteous fare.
So the fond fwain, who to the market hies,

Stills, with big hopes, his infant's tender cries.
Yonder two turtles, o'er their callow brood,
Hang hovering, ere they seek their guiltless food.

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Fondly