The smooth Penéus from his glaffy flood`
Reflects purpureal Tempe's pleafant scene?
Fair Tempe! haunt belov'd of fylvan powers,
Of Nymphs and Fauns; where in the golden age 300 'They play'd in fecret on the fhady brink
With ancient Pan: while round their choral steps
Young Hours and genial Gales with conftant hand
Shower'd bloffoms, odours, fhower'd ambrofial dews,
And fpring's Elysian bloom. Her flowery ftore .305.
To thee nor Tempe shall refufe; nor watch
Of winged Hydra guard Hefperian fruits
From thy free froil. O bear then, unréprov'd,
Thy fmiling treasures to the green recefs
Where young Dione stays. With sweetest airs
Intice her forth to lend her angel-form
For Beauty's honour'd image. Hither turn
Thy graceful footsteps; hither, gentle maid,
Incline thy polish'd forehead let thy eyes
Effufe the mildness of their azure dawn;
And may the fanning breezes waft aside
Thy radiant locks: disclosing, as it bends
With airy softness from the marble neck,
The cheek fair-blooming, and the rofy lip,
Where winning fmiles and pleasures sweet as love, 320
With fanctity and wifdom, tempering blend
Their foft allurement. Then the pleafing force
Of nature, and her kind parental care
Worthier I'd fing: then all the enamour'd youth,
With each admiring virgin, to my lyre
Should throng attentive, while I point on high-
Where beauty's living image, like the morn
That wakes in Zephyr's arms the blushing May,
Moves onward; or as Venus, when she stood
Effulgent on the pearly car, and fmil'd,
Fresh from the deep, and confcious of her form,
To fee the Tritons tune their vocal shells,
And each coerulean fifter of the flood
With loud acclaim attend her o'er the waves,
To seek the Idalian bower. Ye smiling band
Of youths and virgins, who through all the maze
Of young defire with rival-fteps pursue
This charm of beauty; if the pleasing toil
Can yield a moment's refpite, hither turn
Your favourable ear, and truft
my words.
I do not mean to wake the gloomy form
Of fuperftition dress'd in Wisdom's garb,
To damp your tender hopes; I do not mean
To bid the jealous thunderer fire the heavens,
Or fhapes infernal rend the groaning earth
To fright you from your joys: my cheerful fong
With better omens calls you to the field,
Pleas'd with your generous ardour in the chace,
And warm like you. Then tell me, for ye know,
Does beauty ever deign to dwell where health
And active ufe are ftrangers? Is her charm
Confefs'd in aught, whose most peculiar ends
Are lame and fruitlefs? Or did nature mean
This pleafing call the herald of a lye;
To hide the fhame of difcord and disease,
And catch with fair hypocrify the heart
Of idle faith? O no! with better cares
The indulgent mother, conscious how infirm
Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill,
By this illuftrious image, in each kind
Still moft illuftrious where the object holds
Its native powers most perfect, the by this
Illumes the headstrong impulfe of defire,
And fanctifies his choice. The generous glebe
Whose bosom smiles with verdure, the clear tract 365
Of streams delicious to the thirsty foul,
The bloom of nectar'd fruitage.ripe to fenfe,
And every charm of animated things,
Are only pledges of a state fincere,
The integrity and order of their frame,
When all is well within, and every end
Accomplish'd. Thus was beauty sent from heaven,
The lovely miniftress of truth and good
In this dark world: for truth and good are one,
And beauty dwells in them, and they in her,
With like participation. Wherefore then,
O fons of earth! would ye diffolve the tye?
O wherefore, with a rafh impetuous aim,
Seek
ye thofe flowery joys with which the hand
Of lavish fancy paints each flattering scene
Where beauty feems to dwell, nor once enquire
Where is the fanction of eternal truth,
Or where the feal of undeceitful good,
To fave your search from folly! Wanting these,
Lo! beauty withers in your void embrace,
And with the glittering of an idiot's toy
Did fancy mock your vows.
Of youthful hope that shines upon your hearts,
Be chill'd or clouded at this awful task,
To learn the lore of undeceitful good,
And truth eternal. Though the poisonous charms
Of baleful fuperftition guide the feet
Of fervile numbers, through a dreary way
To their abode, through defarts, thorns, and mire;
And leave the wretched pilgrim all forlorn
To mufe at last, amid the ghostly gloom
Of graves, and hoary vaults, and cloister'd cells;
To walk with spectres through the midnight hade,
And to the fcreaming owl's accurfed fong
Attune the dreadful workings of his heart;
Yet be not ye difmay'd. A gentler star
Your lovely fearch illumines. From the grove
Where wisdom talk'd with her Athenian fons,
Could my ambitious hand intwine a wreath
Of Plato's olive with the Mantuan bay,
Then should my powerful verfe at once dispell
Those monkish horrors: then in light divine.
Disclose the Elysian profpect, where the steps
Of those whom nature charms, through blooming walks, Through fragrant mountains and poetic ftreams, 410 Amid the train of Sages, Heroes, Bards,
Led by their winged Genius and the choir
Of laurel'd science, and harmonious art,
Proceed exulting to the eternal fhrine,.
Where Truth confpicuous with her fifter-twins,
The undivided partners of her fway,
With Good and Beauty reigns. O let not us,
Lull'd by luxurious pleasure's languid strain,
Or crouching to the frowns of bigot-rage,
O-let us not a moment pause to join
That god-like band. And if the gracious power
Who first awaken'd my untutor'd song,
Will to my invocation breathe anew
The tuneful fpirit, then through all our paths,
Me'er fhall the found of this devoted lyre
Be wanting; whether on the rofy mead,
When fummer fmiles, to warn the melting heart
Of luxury's allurement; whether firm
Against the torrent and the ftubborn hill
To bold virtue's unremitted nerve, urge
And wake the strong divinity of foul
That conquers chance and fate; or whether ftruck
For founds of triumph, to proclaim her toils
Upon the lofty fummit, round her brow
To twine the wreath of incorruptive praise;
To trace her hallow'd light through future worlds,
And bless Heaven's image in the heart of man..
Thus with a faithful aim have we presum'd,
Adventurous, to delineate nature's form ;
Whether in vaft, majeftic pomp array'd,
Or dreft for pleasing wonder, or serene
In beauty's rofy file. It now remains,
Through various being's fair-proportion'd fcale,.
To trace the rifing luftre of her charms,
From their first twilight, fhining forth at length 445 To full meridian fplendour. Of degree
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