Thus as their pleafing journey they pursued,
With cheerful argument beguiling pain;
Ere long defcending from an hill they view'd
Beneath their eyes out-ftretch'd a fpacious plain,
That fruitful fhew'd, and apt for every grain,
For paftures, vines and flow'rs; while Nature fair
Sweet-fmiling all around with count'nance fain
Seem'd to demand the tiller's art and care,
Her wildness to correct, her lavish waste repair.
Right good, I ween, and bounteous was the foil,
Aye wont in happy feafon to repay
With tenfold ufury the peasant's toil.
But now 'twas ruin all, and wild decay;
Untill'd the garden and the fallow lay,
The sheep-fhorne down with barren P brakes o'er-grown ; The whiles the merry peasants sport and play,
All as the public evil were unknown,
Or every public care from every breaft was flown.
XIII.
Astonish'd at a scene at once fo fair
And fo deform'd; with wonder and delight
At man's neglect, and Nature's bounty rare,
In ftudious thought awhile the Fairy Knight
Bent on that goodly lond his eager fight:
Then forward rufh'd, impatient to defcry
What towns and castles therein were empight;
For towns him feem'd, and castles he did spy,
As to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye.
XIV.
Nor long way had they travell'd, ere they came
To a wide ftream, that with tumultuous roar
Emongst rude rocks its winding courfe did frame.
Black was the wave and fordid, cover'd o'er
With angry foam, and stain'd with infants' gore.
Thereto along th' unlovely margin stood
A birchen grove that waving from the fhore,
Aye caft upon the tide its falling bud,
And with its bitter juice empoison'd all the flood.
XV.
Right in the centre of the vale empight,
Not diftant far a forked mountain rose;
In outward form prefenting to the fight
That fam'd Parnaffian hill, on whofe fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sifters wont repose;
Lift'ning to sweet Caftalia's founding stream,
Which through the plains of Cirrha murm'ring flows.
But This to That compar'd mote justly seem
Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne worthy man's efteem.
For this nor founded deep, nor fpredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
From various parts compil'd with ftudious pain,
Was erft up-thrown; if fo it mote attain,
Like that poetic mountain, to be thight
The noble feat of Learning's goodly train.
Thereto, the more to captivate the fight,
It like a garden fair most curiously was "dight.
XVII.
In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos'd,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With symmetry so regular difpos'd,
That plot to plot ftill answer'd, fhade to shade;
Each correfpondent twain alike array'd
With like embellishments of plants and flow'rs,
Of ftatues, vafes, fpouting founts, that play'd
Through fhells of Tritons their ascending show'rs,
And labyrinths involv'd and trelice-woven bow'rs.
XVIII.
There likewife mote be seen on every fide
The yew obedient to the planter's will,
And shapely box of all their branching pride
Ungently fhorne, and with prepofterous skill
Hight, called, named. u Dight, dreft.
To various beafts and birds of fundry quill
Transform'd, and human shapes of monftrous fize;
Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill
High-heaping, fought with impious vain w emprize,
Despite of thund'ring Jove, to scale the steepy skies.
XIX.
Alfe other wonders of the sportive shears
Fair Nature mis-adorning there were found;
Globes, fpiral columns, pyramids and piers
With spouting urns and budding ftatues crown'd:
And horizontal dials on the ground
In living box by cunning artists trac'd;
And gallies trim, on no long voyage bound,"
But by their roots there ever anchor'd fast,
* All were their bellying fails out-spread to every blast.
XX.
O'er all appear'd the mountain's forked brows
With terraffes on terraffes up-thrown ;
And all along arrang'd in order'd rows,
And visto's broad, the velvet flopes adown
The ever verdant trees of Daphne shone.
But aliens to the clime, and brought of old
From Latian plains, and Grecian Helicon,
They shrunk and languish'd in a foreign mold,
By changeful fummers ftarv'd, and pinch'd by winter's cold.
w Emprize, enterprize, attempt.
x All, ufed frequently by the old English poets for although.
Amid this verdant grove with folemn state,
On golden thrones of antique form reclin'd
In mimic majefty Nine Virgins fate,
In features various, as unlike in mind:
Alfe boafted they themselves of heav'nly kind,
And to the sweet Parnaffian Nymphs allied;
Thence round their brows the Delphic bay they twin'd,
And matching with high names their apish pride,
O'er every learned fchool aye claim'd they to prefide.
XXII.
In antique garbs, for modern they disdain'd,
By Greek and Roman artists y whilom made,
Of various woofs, and variously distain'd
With tints of every hue, were they array'd;
And here and there ambitiously display'd
A purple shred of fome rich robe, prepared
Erft by the Muses or th' Aonian Maid,
To deck great Tullius or the Mantuan Bard;
Which o'er each motley vest with uncouth splendor glared.
XXIII.
And well their outward vesture did express
The bent and habit of their inward mind,
Affecting Wisdom's antiquated dress,
And ufages by Time caft far behind.
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