Parental love at once, now needlefs grown.
Unlavish Wisdom never works in vain.
'Tis on fome evening, funny, grateful, mild,
When nought but balm is breathing through the woods,
With yellow luftre bright, that the new tribes
Vifit the fpacious heavens, and look abroad
On nature's common, far as they can fee,
Or wing, their range and pasture. O'er the boughs
Dancing about, ftill at the giddy verge
Their refolution fails; their pinions still,
In loofe libration ftretch'd, to truft the void
Trembling refufe: till down before them fly
The parent-guides, and chide, exhort, command,
Or push them off. The furging air receives
Its plumy burden; and their felf-taught wings
Winnow the waving element. On ground
Alighted, bolder up again they lead,
Farther and farther on, the lengthening flight;
Till, vanish'd every fear, and every power
Rouz'd into life and action, light in air
Th' acquitted parents see their foaring race,
And once rejoicing never know them more.
High from the fummit of a craggy cliff,
Hung o'er the deep, fuch as amazing frowns
On utmost * Kilda's shore, whose lonely race
Refign the setting fun to Indian worlds,
The royal eagle draws his vigorous young,
Strong-pounc'd, and ardent with paternal fire.
*The fartheft of the western islands of Scotland.
Now fit to raise a kingdom of their own,
He drives them from his fort, the towering feat,
For ages, of his empire; which, in peace,
Unftain'd he holds, while many a league to sea
He wings his course, and preys in distant isles.
Should I my steps turn to the rural feat,
Whofe lofty elms, and venerable oaks,
Invite the rook, who high amid the boughs,
In early Spring, his airy city builds,
And ccafelefs caws amufive; there, well-pleas'd,
I might the various polity furvey
Of the mixt houshold kind.
Calls all her chirping family around,
Fed and defended by the fearless cock;
Whofe breast with ardour flames, as on he walks,
Graceful, and crows defiance. In the pond,
The finely-checker'd duck, before her train,
Rows garrulous. The stately-failing swan
Gives out his fnowy plumage to the gale;
And, arching proud his neck, with oary feet
Bears forward fierce, and guards his ofier-ifle,
Protective of his young. The turkey nigh,
Loud-threatening reddens; while the peacock spreads
His every-colour'd glory to the fun,
And fwims in radiant majefty along.
O'er the whole homely scene, the cooing dove
Flies thick in amorous chace, and wanton rolls
The glancing eye, and turns the changeful neck. 785
While thus the gentle tenants of the shade
Indulge their purer loves, the rougher world
Of brutes, below, rufh furious into flame,
And fierce defire. Through all his lufty veins
The bull, deep-fcorch'd, the raging paffion feels.
Of pasture fick, and negligent of food,
Scarce feen, he wades among the yellow broom,
While o'er his ample fides the rambling sprays
Luxuriant fhoot; or through the mazy wood
Dejected wanders, nor th' inticing bud
Crops, though it preffes on his careless fenfe.
And oft, in jealous maddening fancy wrapt,
He feeks the fight; and, idly-butting, feigns.
His rival gor'd in every knotty trunk.
Him fhould he meet, the bellowing war begins:
Their eyes flash fury; to the hollow'd earth,
Whence the fand flies, they mutter bloody deeds,
And, groaning deep, th' impetuous battle mix:
While the fair heifer, balmy breathing, near,
Stands kindling up their rage. The trembling steed,
With this hot impulse seiz'd in every nerve,
Nor heeds the rein, nor hears the founding thong;
Blows are not felt; but, toffing high his head,
And by the well-known joy to distant plains
Attracted strong, all wild he bursts away;
O'er rocks, and woods, and craggy mountains flies :
And, neighing, on th' aërial summit takes
Th' exciting gale; then, fteep-defcending, cleaves
The headlong torrents foaming down the hills,
Ev'n where the madnefs of the ftraiten'd stream
Turns in black eddies round; fuch is the force
With which his frantic heart and finews fwell.
Nor undelighted by the boundless Spring
Are the broad monsters of the foaming deep:
From the deep ooze and gelid cavern rous'd,
They flounce and tumble in unwieldy joy.
Dire were the ftrain, and diffonant, to fing
The cruel raptures of the favage kind:
How by this flame their native wrath fublim'd,
They roam, amid the fury of their heart,
The far-refounding waste in fiercer bands,
And growl their horrid loves. But this the theme
I fing, enraptur'd, to the British Fair,
Forbids, and leads me to the mountain-brow,
Where fits the fhepherd on the grassy turf,
Inhaling, healthful, the defcending fun.
Around him feeds his many-bleating flock,
Of various cadence; and his fportive lambs,
This way and that convolv'd, in friskful glee,
Their frolicks play. And now the sprightly race
Invites them forth; when fwift, the fignal given,
They start away, and fweep the maffy mound
That runs around the hill; the rampart once
Of iron war, in ancient barbarous times,
When difunited Britain ever bled,
Loft in eternal broil: ere yet fhe grew
To this deep-laid indiffoluble ftate,
Where Wealth and Commerce lift their golden heads;
And o'er our labours, Liberty and Law,
Impartial, watch; the wonder of a world!
What is this mighty Breath, ye fages, fay,
That, in a powerful language, felt, not heard,
Inftructs the fowls of heaven; and through their breast
Thefe arts of love diffuses? What, but God?
Infpiring God! who boundless Spirit all,
And unremitting Energy, pervades,
Adjufts, fuftains, and agitates the whole.
He ceafelefs works alone; and yet alone
Seems not to work with such perfection fram'd
Is this complex ftupendous scheme of things.
But, though conceal'd, to every purer eye
Th' informing Author in his works appears :
Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes,
The Smiling God is feen; while water, earth,
And air, atteft his bounty; which exalts
The brute creation to this finer thought,
And annual melts their undefigning hearts
Profufely thus in tenderness and joy.
Still let my fong a nobler note affume,
And fing th' infufive force of Spring on Man;
When heaven and earth, as if contending, vye
To raise his being, and ferene his foul.
Can he forbear to join the general smile
Of Nature? Can fierce paffions vex his breast,
While every gale is peace, and every grove
Is melody? Hence! from the bounteous walks
Of flowing Spring, ye fordid fons of earth,
Hard, and unfeeling of another's woe;
Or only lavish to yourselves; away!
But come, ye generous minds, in whose wide thought, Of all his works, creative Bounty burns
With warmest beam; and on your open front
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