Sure peace is his; a folid life, eftrang'd
To disappointment, and fallacious hope:
Rich in content, in Nature's bounty rich,
In herbs and fruits; whatever greens the Spring,
When heaven defcends in fhowers; or bends the bough
When Summer reddens, and when Autumn beams;
Or in the wintery glebe whatever lies
Conceal'd, and fattens with the richest fap :
These are not wanting; nor the milky drove,
Luxuriant, fpread o'er all the lowing vale;
Nor bleating mountains; nor the chide of ftreams,
And hum of bees, inviting fleep fincere
Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade,
Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay ;
Nor aught befides of profpect, grove, or fong,
Dim grottoes, gleaming lakes, and fountain clear. 1270
Here too dwells fimple truth; plain innocence;
Unfullied beauty; found unbroken youth,
Patient of labour, with a little pleas'd;
Health ever blooming; unambitious toil;
Calm contemplation, and poetic ease.
Let others brave the flood in quest of gain,
And beat, for joylefs months, the gloomy wave.
Let fuch as deem it glory to destroy,
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 diftant from their native foil,
Urg'd or by want or harden'd avarice,
Find other lands beneath another fun.
Let this through 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 those of fairer front,
But equal inhumanity, in courts,
Delufive pomp, and dark cabals, delight;
Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile,
And tread the weary labyrinth of state.
While he, from all the ftormy paffions free
That restless men involve, hears, and but hears,
At diftance fafe, 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 escap'd,
In still retreats, and flowery folitudes,
To Nature's voice attends, from month to month,
And day to day, through the revolving year;
Admiring, fees her in her every shape;
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 fift bud, and fucks the healthful gale 1310
Into his fiefhen'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 thefe,
Perhaps, has in immortal numbers fung;
Or what she dictates writes: and oft, an eye
Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year.
When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world,
And tempts the fickled fwain into the field,
Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart diftends
With gentle throws; and through the tepid glcams
Deep mufing, then he beft exerts his fong.
Ev'n 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 skies,
Disclos'd, and kindled, by refining frost,
Pours every luftre on th' exalted eye.
A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure,
And mark them down for wisdom. With fwift wing,
O'er land and fea imagination roams;
Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers;
Or in his breaft heroic virtue burns.
The touch of kindred too and love he feels;
The modeft eye, whose beams on his alone
Extatic fhine; the little ftrong embrace
Of prattling children, twin'd around his neck,
And emulous to pleafe him, calling forth
The fond parental foul. Nor purpose gay,
Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns;
For happiness and true philofophy
Are of the focial ftill, and fmiling 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 scatter'd o'er the blue immenfe,
Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws, 1355
Give me to fcan; through the disclosing deep
Light my
blind way;
the mineral firata there;
Thruft, blooming, thence the vegetable world;
O'er that the rifing system, more complex,
Of animals; and higher ftill, the mind,
The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,
And where the mixing paffions endless shift;
Thefe ever open to my ravish'd eye;
A fearch, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust!
But if to that unequal; if the blood,
In fluggish ftreams about my heart, forbid
That beft ambition; under closing 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 ftray from Thee!
The fubject propofed. Addrefs to the earl of Wilmington. First approach of Winter. According to the natural courfe of the feason, various ftorms defcribed. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the fnows: a man perishing among them; whence reflections on the wants and miferies of human life. The wolves defcending from the Alps and Apennines. A winter evening defcribed: as fpent by philosophers; by the country people; in the city. Froft. A view of Winter within the Polar Circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future ftate.
EE, Winter comes, to rule the varied year,
Sullen and fad, with all his rifing train :
Vapours, and Clouds, and Storms. Be these my theme,
Thefe! that exalt the foul to folemn thought,
And heavenly mufing. Welcome, kindred glooms! 5
Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot,
Pleas'd have I, in my chearful morn of life,
When nurs'd by careless folitude I liv'd,
And fung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd through your rough domain;
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