Grace faid, we dance awhile,
And fo the time beguile :
And if the moon doth hide her head The glow-worm lights us home to bed.
O'er tops of dewy grafs
So nimbly do we pass,
The young and tender stalk
Ne'er bends where we do walk;
Yet in the morning may be seen Where we the night before have been.
SWIFTER than lightning downward tending, An eagle ftoop'd of mighty size,
On purple wings defcending:
Like gold his beak, like ftars thone forth his eyes, His filver breast with fnow contending vies.
So have I feen fome fearful hare maintain A course, till tir'd before the dog fhe lay;
Who ftretch'd behind her, pants upon the plain, Past power to kill, as the to get away:
With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey; His warm breath blows her fur up as the lies; She trembling creeps upon the ground away, And looks back on him with befeeching eyes.
As o'er the hollow vaults we walk, A hundred echoes round us talk, From hill to hill the voice is toft : Rocks rebounding,
Caves refounding, Not a fingle word is loft.
THE florift, when the winter's rage is o'er, When frofts and fnows and tempests are no
To the kind foil commits the future flower:
Now genial heats unbind the teeming root, Swell it with life, and make the fibres fhoot: He fees the rifing vegetable rear
The tender ftalk, and truft itself in air: Now western gales breathe thro' the vernal fky, Unfold the bud, and fhow its various dye : Secure he views his labour with delight; When, unexpected, in one piercing night His promis'd joys are curs'd by a disastrous blight.
WHO in the stupid oftrich has fubdued A parent's care, and fond inquietude? While far fhe flies, her fcatter'd eggs are found, Without an owner, on the fandy ground; Caft out on fortune, they at mercy lie, And borrow life from an indulgent sky: Adopted by the fun in blaze of day, They ripen under his prolific ray.
116 The Peacock.-The Wild Afs.
Unmindful fhe, that fome unhappy tread May crush her young in their neglected bed, What time she skims along the field with speed, And scorns the rider and pursuing steed.
How rich the peacock! what bright glories run From plume to plume, and vary in the fun! He proudly fpreads them to the golden ray, Gives all his colours, and adorns the day; With confcious flate the fpacious round difplays, And flowly moves amid the waving blaze.
DID man from service the wild ass discharge, And break his bonds, and bid him live at large; Thro' the wild wafte, his ample manfion, roam, And lofe himself in his unbounded home? By nature's hand magnificently fed,
His meal is on the range of mountains spread; As in pure air aloft he bounds along,
He fees in diftant fmoke the city throng;
Confcious of freedom, fcorns the fmother'd train, The threat'ning driver, and the fervile rein.
FIERCEST of all, the lordly lion stalks Grimly majestic in his lonely walks ; When round he glares, all living creatures fly; He clears the defert with his rolling eye. Say, mortal, does he roufe at thy command, And roar to thee, and live upon thy hand? Doft thou for him in forefts bend thy bow, And to his gloomy den the morfel throw, Where bent on death lie hid his tawny brood, And couch'd in dreadful ambush pant for blood; Or, stretch'd on broken limbs, confume the day, In darkness wrapt, and flumber o'er their prey? By the pale moon they take their deftin'd round, And lash their fides, and furious tear the ground. Now fhrieks and dying groans the defert fill; They rage, they rend; their rav'nous jaws diftill
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