The mind of man impell with various powers,
And various features to his eye difclofe.
The powers which move his fenfe with inftant joy,
The features which attract his heart to love,
He marks, combines, repofits. Other powers
And features of the felf-fame thing (unless
The beauteous form, the creature of his mind,
Request their close alliance) he o'erlooks
Forgotten; or with felf-beguiling zeal,
Whene'er his passions mingle in the work,
Half alters, half difowns. The tribes of men
Thus from their different functions and the fhapes 635
Familiar to their eye, with art obtain,
Unconscious of their purpose, yet with art
Obtain the beauty fitting man to love:
Whofe proud defires from nature's homely toil
Oft turn away, faftidious: asking ftill
His mind's high aid, to purify the form
From matter's grofs communion; to fecure
For ever, from the meddling hand of change
Or rude decay, her features; and to add
Whatever ornaments may fuit her mien,
Where'er he finds them scatter'd through the paths
Of nature or of fortune. Then he feats
The accomplish'd image deep within his breaft,
Reviews it, and accounts it good and fair.
Thus the one beauty of the world intire,
The universal Venus, far beyond
The keenest effort of created eyes,
And their most wide horizon, dwells inthron'd
In ancient filence. At her footftool ftands
An altar burning with eternal fire
Unfullied, unconfum'd. Here every hour,
Here every moment, in their turns arrive
Her offspring; an innumerable band
Of fifters, comely all; but differing far
In age, in ftature, and expreffive mien,
More than bright Helen from her new-born babe.
To this maternal fhrine in turns they come,
Each with her facred lamp; that from the fource
Of living flame, which here immortal flows,
Their portions of its luftre they may draw
For days, or months, or years; for ages, fome;
As their great parent's difcipline requires.
Then to their feveral mansions they depart,
In ftars, in planets, through the unknown fhores
yon ethereal ocean. Who can tell,
Even on the surface of this rowling earth,
How many make abode? The fields, the groves,
The winding rivers, and the azure main,
Are render'd folemn by their frequent feet,
Their rites fublime. There each her deftin'd home 675
Informs with that pure radiance from the skies
Brought down, and shines throughout her little sphere,
Exulting. Strait, as travellers by night
Turn toward a diftant flame, fo fome fit eye,
Among the various tenants of the scene,
Difcerns the heaven-born phantom feated there,
And owns her charms. Hence the wide univerfe,
Through all the feasons of revolving worlds,
Bears witness with its people, gods and men,
To Beauty's blissful bower, and with the voice
Of grateful admiration still resounds:
That voice, to which is Beauty's frame divine
As is the cunning of the mafter's hand
To the sweet accent of the well-tun'd lyre.
Genius of ancient Greece, whofe faithful fteps 690 Have led us to these awful folitudes
Of Nature and of Science; nurse rever'd
Of generous counfels and heroic deeds;
O let fome portion of thy matchless praise
Dwell in my breast, and teach me to adorn
This unattempted theme. Nor be my thoughts
Presumptuous counted, if amid the calm
Which Hefper sheds along the vernal heaven,
If I, from vulgar fuperftition's walk,
Impatient steal, and from the unfeemly rites
Of splendid adulation, to attend
With hymns thy prefence in the fylvan fhade,
By their malignant footsteps unprofan'd.
Come, O renowned power; thy glowing mien
Such, and fo elevated all thy form,
As when the great barbaric lord, again
And yet again diminish'd, hid his face
Among the herd of fatraps and of kings
And, at the lightning of thy lifted spear,
Crouch'd like a flave. Bring all thy martial spoils, 710
Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal fongs,
Thy fmiling band of arts, thy god-like fires
Of civil wisdom, thy unconquer'd youth
After fome glorious day rejoicing round
Their new-erected trophy. Guide my feet
Through fair Lyceum's walk, the olive fhades
Of Academus, and the facred vale
Haunted by fteps divine, where once beneath
That ever-living platane's ample boughs
Iliffus, by Socratic founds detain'd,
On his neglected urn attentive lay;
While Boreas, lingering on the neighbouring steep
With beauteous Orithyía, his love-tale
In filent awe fufpended. There let me
With blameless hand, from thy unenvious fields, 725
Transplant fome living bloffoms, to adorn
My native clime: while, far beyond the meed
Of Fancy's toil afpiring, I unlock
The fprings of antient Wisdom: while I add
(What cannot be disjoin'd from Beauty's praife) 730
Thy name and native drefs, thy works belov'd
And honor'd: while to my compatriot youth
I point the great example of thy fons,
And tune to Attic themes the British lyre.
THE END OF BOOK THE FIRST,
INTRODUCTION to this more difficult part of the subject. Of truth and its three classes, matter of fact, experimental or scientifical truth, (contradiftinguished from opinion) and univerfal truth: which laft is either metaphyfical or geometrical, either purely intellectual or perfectly abstracted. On the power of discerning truth depends that of acting with the view of an end; a circumstance effential to virtue. Of virtue, confidered in the divine mind as a perpetual and univerfal beneficence. Of human virtue, confidered as a fyftem of particular fentiments and actions, fuitable to the design of providence and the condition of man; to whom it conftitutes the chief good and the first beauty. Of vice and its origin. Of ridicule: its general nature and final caufe. Of
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