Rush into blood, the fack of cities feek;
Unpierc'd, exulting in the widow's wail,
The virgin's fhriek, and infant's trembling cry.
Let fome, far-distant from their native foil,
Urg'd or by want, or hardened avarice,
Find other lands beneath another fun.
Let this thro' cities work his eager way,
By legal outrage and establish'd guile,
The focial fenfe extinct; and that ferment
Mad into tumult the feditious herd,
Or melt them down to flavery. Let thefe
Infnare the wretched in the toils of law,
Fomenting difcord, and perplexing right,
An iron race! and thofe of fairer front,
But equal inhumanity, in courts,
Delusive pomp, and dark cabals, delight;
Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying fmile, 1295.
And tread the weary labyrinth of state.
While he, from all the ftormy paffions free
That restless men involve, hears, and but hears,
At distance safe, the human tempest roar,
Wrapt close in confcious peace. The fall of kings,
The rage of nations, and the crush of states
Move not the man, who, from the world efcap'd,
In still retreats, and flowery folitudes,
To Nature's voice attends, from month to month, i And day to day, thro' the revolving year;1505 Admiring, fees her in her every fhape;
Feels all her fweet emotions at his heart;
Takes what the liberal gives, nor thinks of more.
He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting gems,"
Marks the first bud, and fucks the healthful gale 1310
Into his freshen'd foul; her genial hours
He full enjoys; and not a beauty blows,
And not an opening bloffom breathes in vain.
In Summer he, beneath the living fhade,
Such as o'er frigid Tempe wont to wave,
Or Hemus cool, reads what the Mufe, of these
Perhaps, has in immortal numbers fung; v
Or what she dictates writes: and, oft an eye
Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.
When Autumn's yellow luftre gilds the world, 1320,
And tempts the fickled wain into the field;
Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart distends
With gentle throes; and, thro' the tepid gleams
Deep-mufing, then he beft exerts his fong.
Even Winter wild to him is full of blifs.
The mighty tempeft, and the hoary waste,
Abrupt, and deep, ftretch'd o'er the buried, earth,
Awake to folemn thought. At night the fkies,
Difclos'd, and kindled, by refining froft,
Pour ev'ry lustre on th'rexalted eye..
A friend, a book, the ftealing hours fecure,
And mark them down for wifdom. With fwift wing,
O'er land and fea imagination rdamis;5:
Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers;
Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.
The touch of kindred too, and love he feels;
The modeft eye, whose beams on his alone
Ecftatic shine; the little ftrong embrace
Of pratling children, twin'd around his neck, 1340
And emulous to please him, calling forth
The fond parental foul. Nor purpose gay,
Amusement, dance, or fong, he fternly scorns;
For happiness and true philofophy.b.!
Are of the social still, and finiling kind.
This is the life which those who fret in guilt,
And guilty cities, never knew; the life
Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,
When angels dwelt, and God himself, with man ̧!
Oh NATURE! all-fufficient ! over all!
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works!
Snatch me to heaven; thy rolling wonders there,,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profufely scattered o'er the blue immense,.
Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws,
Give me to fcan,; thro' the difclofing deep
Light my blind way: the mineral ftrata there;
Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world; ;
O'er that the rifing fyftem, more complex,
Of animals; and higher ftill, the mind,
The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,,
And where the mixing paffions endless shift;
These ever open to my ravish'd eye;
A fearch, the flight of time can neʼer exhaust!
But if to that unequal; if the blood,
In fluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That beft ambition; under clofing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly, brook,
And whisper to my dreams. From THEE begin, Dwell all on THEE, with THEE conclude my fong; And let me never, never stray from THEE!
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