They both difdain in outward mien
and folemn garb of Spleen,
And meretricious arts of dress,
To feign a joy, and hide distress;
Unmov'd when the rude tempeft blows;
Without an opiate they repose;
And cover'd by your shield, defy
The whizzing shafts, that round them fly i
Nor meddling with the gods' affairs,
Concern themselves with distant cares;
But place their bliss in mental rest,
And feast upon the good poffefs'd.
Forc'd by foft violence of pray'r,
The blythsome goddess fooths my care,
I feel the deity inspire,
And thus fhe models my defire.
Two hundred pounds half-yearly paid,
Annuity fecurely made,
A farm some twenty miles from town,
Small, tight, falubrious, and my own;
Two maids, that never faw the town,
A ferving-man not quite a clown,
A boy to help to tread the mow,
And drive, while t' other holds the plough;
A chief of temper form'd to please,
Fit to converfe, and keep the keys ;
And better to preserve the peace,
Commiffion'd by the name of niece;
With understandings of a fize
To think their mafter very wife.
May heav'n (it's all I wifh for) fend
One genial room to treat a friend,
Where decent cup-board, little plate,
Difplay benevolence, not state.
And may my humble dwelling stand
Upon fome chofen fpot of land:
A pond before full to the brim,
Where cows may cool, and geese may swim,
Behind, a green like velvet neat,
Soft to the eye, and to the feet
Where od❜rous plants in evening fair
Breathe all around ambrofial air;
From Eurus, foe to kitchen-ground,
Fenc'd by a flope with bufhes crown'd,
Fit dwelling for the feather'd throng,
Who pay their quit-rents with a fong;
With op'ning views of hill and dale,
Which fenfe and fancy too regale,
Where the half-cirque, which vifion bounds,
Like amphitheatre furrounds :
And woods impervious to the breeze,
Thick phalanx of embodied trees,
From hills through plains in dusk array
Extended far, repel the day.
Here stillness, height, and folemn fhade
Invite, and contemplation aid:
Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate
The dark decrees and will of fate,
And dreams beneath the spreading beech
Inspire, and docile fancy teach,
While foft as breezy breath of wind,
Impulses ruftle through the mind:
Here Dryads, fcorning Phoebus' ray,
While Pan melodious pipes away,
In measur'd motions frisk about,
'Till old Silenus puts them out.
There see the clover, pea, and bean,
Vie in variety of green;
Fresh paftures fpeckled o'er with sheep,
Brown fields their fallow fabbaths keep,
Plump Ceres golden treffes wear,
And poppy-top-knots deck her hair,
And filver-streams through meadows ftray,
And Naiads on the margin play,
And leffer nymphs on fide of hills
From play-thing urns pour down the rills.
Thus fhelter'd, free from care and strife,
May I enjoy a calm through life;
See faction, fafe in low degree,
As men at land fee ftorms at fea,
And laugh at miserable elves,
Not kind, fo much as to themselves,
Curs'd with fuch fouls of base alloy,
As can poffefs, but not enjoy;
Debar'd the pleasure to impart
By av'rice, sphincter of the heart,
Who wealth, hard earn'd by guilty cares,
Bequeath untouch'd to thanklefs heirs.
May I, with look ungloom'd by guile,
And wearing Virtue's liv'ry-fmile,
Prone the diftreffed to relieve,
And little trefpaffes forgive,
With income not in Fortune's pow'r,
And skill to make a bufy hour,
With trips to town life to amuse,
To purchase books, and hear the news,
To fee old friends, brush off the clown,
And quicken tafte at coming down,
Unhurt by fick nefs' blafting rage,
And flowly mellowing in age,
When Fate extends its gathering gripe,
Fall off like fruit grown fully ripe,
Quit a worn being without pain,
Perhaps to bloffom foon again.
But now more ferious fee me grow,
And what I think, my Memmius, know.
Th' enthusiast's hopes, and raptures wild,
Have never yet my reason foil'd.
His fpringy foul dilates likes air,
When free from weight of ambient care,
And, hush'd in meditation deep,
Slides into dreams, as when afleep;
Then, fond of new discoveries grown,
Proves a Columbus of her own,
Difdains the narrow bounds of place,
And through the wilds of endless space,
Borne up on metaphyfic wings,
Chases light forms, and shadowy things,
And in the vague excurfion caught,
Brings home fome rare exotic thought.
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