PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
Ασεβυσμέν ἐςιν ἀνθρωπε τὰς παρὰ τῷ θεν χάρθας ἀτιμάζειν. Epict. apud Arrian. II. 13.
PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1744.
The bloom of Nature, and before him turn The gayest, happiest attitude of things.
Oft have the laws of each poetic strain The critic-verse employ'd; yet still unsung Lay this prime subject, though importing most A poet's name: for fruitless is th' attempt, By dull obedience and by creeping toil Obscure to conquer the severe ascent Of high Parnassus. Nature's kindling breath Must fire the chosen genius; Nature's hand Must string his nerves, and imp his eagle-wings Impatient of the painful steep, to soar High as the summit; there to breathe at large Ethereal air; with bards and sages old, Immortal sons of praise. These flattering scenes, To this neglected labor court my song; Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task To paint the finest features of the mind, And to most subtle and mysterious things Give color, strength, and motion. Of Nature and the Muses bids explore, Through secret paths erewhile untrod by man, The fair poetic region, to detect Untasted springs, to drink inspiring draughts, And shade my temples with unfading flowers Cull'd from the laureate vale's profound recess, Where never poet gain'd a wreath before. From Heaven my strains begin; from Heaven descends
The subject proposed. Difficulty of treating it poetically. The ideas of the Divine Mind, the origin of every quality pleasing to the imagination. The natural variety of constitution in the minds of men; with its final cause. The idea of a fine imagination, and the state of the mind in the enjoyment of those pleasures which it affords. All the primary pleasures of the imagination result from the perception of greatness, or wonderfulness, or beauty, in objects. The plea-The flame of genius to the human breast, sure from greatness, with its final cause. Pleasure And love and beauty, and poetic joy from novelty or wonderfulness, with its final And inspiration. Ere the radiant Sun cause. Pleasure from beauty, with its final cause. Sprang from the east, or 'mid the vault of night The connexion of beauty with truth and good, The Moon suspended her serener lamp; applied to the conduct of life. Invitation to the Ere mountains, woods, or streams, adorn'd the globe, study of moral philosophy. The different degrees Or Wisdom taught the sons of men her lore; of beauty in different species of objects: color; Then liv'd th' Almighty One: then, deep retir'd shape; natural concretes; vegetables; animals; In his unfathom'd essence, view'd the forms, the mind. The sublime, the fair, the wonderful The forms eternal of created things; of the mind. The connexion of the imagination and the moral faculty. Conclusion.
WITH what attractive charms this goodly frame Of Nature touches the consenting hearts Of mortal men; and what the pleasing stores Which beauteous imitation thence derives To deck the poet's, or the painter's toil; My verse unfolds. Attend, ye gentle powers Of musical delight! and while I sing Your gifts, your honors, dance around my strain. Thou, smiling queen of every tuneful breast, Indulgent Fancy! from the fruitful banks Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf Where Shakspeare lies, be present: and with thee Let Fiction come, upon her vagrant wings Wafting ten thousand colors through the air, Which, by the glances of her magic eye,
The radiant Sun, the Moon's nocturnal lamp, The mountains, woods and streams, the rolling globe, And Wisdom's mien celestial. From the first Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd, His admiration: till in time complete, What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile Unfolded into being. Hence the breath Of life informing each organic frame, Hence the green earth, and wild resounding waves Hence light and shade alternate; warmth and cold And clear autumnal skies and vernal showers, And all the fair variety of things.
But not alike to every mortal eye
Is this great scene unveil'd. For since the claims Of social life, to different labors urge The active powers of man! with wise intent The hand of Nature on peculiar minds Imprints a different bias, and to each Decrees its province in the common toil.
She blends and shifts at will, through countless forms, To some she taught the fabric of the sphere,
Her wild creation. Goddess of the lyre, Which rules the accents of the moving sphere, Wilt thou, eternal Harmony! descend
And join this festive train? for with thee comes The guide, the guardian of their lovely sports, Majestic Truth; and where Truth deigns to come, Her sister Liberty will not be far.
Be present, all ye genii, who conduct
The wandering footsteps of the youthful bard,
The changeful Moon, the circuit of the stars, The golden zones of Heaven; to some she gave To weigh the moment of eternal things, Of time, and space, and Fate's unbroken chain, And will's quick impulse: others by the hand She led o'er vales and mountains, to explore What healing virtue swells the tender veins Of herbs and flowers; or what the beams of morn Draw forth, distilling from the clefted rind But some, to higher hopes Were destin'd; some within a finer mould
New to your springs and shades: who touch his ear In balmy tears. With finer sounds: who heighten to his eye
She wrought, and temper'd with a purer flame. To these the Sire Omnipotent unfolds The world's harmonious volume, there to read The transcript of himself. On every part They trace the bright impressions of his hand : In earth or air, the meadow's purple stores, The Moon's mild radiance, or the virgin's form Blooming with rosy smiles, they see portray'd That uncreated beauty, which delights The mind supreme. They also feel her charms, Enamour'd; they partake the eternal joy.
For as old Memmon's image, long renown'd By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string Consenting, sounded through the warbling air Unbidden strains; even so did Nature's hand To certain species of external things, Attune the finer organs of the mind: So the glad impulse of congenial powers, Or of sweet sounds, or fair-proportion'd form, The grace of motion, or the bloom of light, Thrills through Imagination's tender frame, From nerve to nerve: all naked and alive, They catch the spreading rays; till now the soul At length discloses every tuneful spring, To that harmonious movement from without Responsive. Then the inexpressive strain Diffuses its enchantment: Fancy dreams Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves, And vales of bliss: the intellectual power Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear, And smiles: the passions, gently sooth'd away, Sink to divine repose, and love and joy Alone are waking; love and joy serene As airs that fan the summer. O! attend, Whoe'er thou art, whom these delights can touch, Whose candid bosom the refining love Of Nature warms, O listen to my song; And I will guide thee to her favorite walks, And teach thy solitude her voice to hear, And point her loveliest features to thy view. Know then, whate'er of Nature's pregnant stores, Whate'er of mimic Art's reflected forms With love and admiration thus inflame The powers of fancy, her delighted sons To three illustrious orders have referr'd; Three sister-graces, whom the painter's hand, The poet's tongue, confesses; the sublime, The wonderful, the fair. I see them dawn! I see the radiant visions, where they rise, More lovely than when Lucifer displays His beaming forehead through the gates of morn, To lead the train of Phoebus and the Spring. Say, why was man so eminently rais'd Amid the vast creation; why ordain'd Through life and death to dart his piercing eye, With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame; But that the Omnipotent might send him forth In sight of mortal and immortal powers, As on a boundless theatre, to run 'The great career of justice; to exalt His generous aim to all diviner deeds;
To chase each partial purpose from his breast; And through the mists of passion and of sense, And through the tossing tide of chance and pain, To hold his course unfaltering, while the voice Of Truth and Virtue, up the steep ascent Of Nature, calls him to his high reward,
That breathes from day to day sublimer things, And mocks possession? wherefore darts the mind, With such resistless ardor to embrace Majestic forms; impatient to be free, Spurning the gross control of wilful might; Proud of the strong contention of her toils; Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns To Heaven's broad fire his unconstrained view, Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame? Who that, from Alpine heights, his laboring eye Shoots round the wide horizon, to survey Nilus or Ganges rolling his bright wave Through mountains, plains, through empires black with shade
And continents of sand; will turn his gaze To mark the windings of a scanty rill That murmurs at his feet? The high-born soul Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing Beneath its native quarry. Tir'd of Earth And this diurnal scene, she springs aloft Through fields of air; pursues the flying storm; Rides on the volley'd lightning through the Heavens: Or, yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blast, Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high she soars The blue profound, and hovering round the Sun Beholds him pouring the redundant stream Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway Bend the reluctant planets to absolve The fated rounds of Time. Thence far effus'd She darts her swiftness up the long career Of devious comets; through its burning signs Exulting measures the perennial wheel Of Nature, and looks back on all the stars, Whose blended light, as with a milky zone, Invests the orient. Now amaz'd she views The empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold, Beyond this concave Heaven, their calm abode; And fields of radiance, whose unfading light Has travell'd the profound six thousand years, Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things. Even on the barriers of the world untir'd She meditates the eternal depth below; Till half recoiling, down the headlong steep She plunges; soon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up In that immense of being. There her hopes Rest at the fated goal. For from the birth Of mortal man, the sovereign Maker said, That not in humble nor in brief delight, Not in the fading echoes of Renown, Power's purple robes, nor Pleasure's flowery lap, The soul should find enjoyment: but from these Turning disdainful to an equal good, Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view, Till every bound at length should disappear, And infinite perfection close the scene.
Call now to mind what high capacious powers Lie folded up in man; how far beyond The praise of mortals, may the eternal growth Of Nature to perfection half divine, Expand the blooming soul? What pity then Should sloth's unkindly fogs depress to Earth Her tender blossom; choke the streams of life, And blast her spring! Far otherwise design'd Almighty Wisdom; Nature's happy cares The obedient heart far otherwise incline. Witness the sprightly joy when aught unknown Strikes the quick sense, and wakes each active power To brisker measures: witness the neglect
The applauding smile of Heaven? Else wherefore burns Of all familiar prospects, though beheld
In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope,
With transport once; the fond attentive gaze
Of young astonishment; the sober zeal Of age, commenting on prodigious things, For such the bounteous Providence of Heaven, In every breast implanting this desire Of objects new, and strange, to urge us on With unremitted labor to pursue
Those sacred stores that wait the ripening soul, In Truth's exhaustless bosom. What need words To paint its power? For this the daring youth Breaks from his weeping mother's anxious arms, In foreign climes to rove: the pensive sage, Heedless of sleep, or midnight's harmful damp, Hangs o'er the sickly taper; and untir'd The virgin follows, with enchanted step, The mazes of some wild and wondrous tale, From morn to eve; unmindful of her form, Unmindful of the happy dress that stole The wishes of the youth, when every maid With envy pin'd. Hence, finally, by night The village-matron, round the blazing hearth, Suspends the infant-audience with her tales, Breathing astonishment! of witching rhymes, And evil spirits; of the death-bed call
Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd The orphan's portion; of unquiet souls Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt Of deeds in life conceal'd; of shapes that walk At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave The torch of Hell around the murderer's bed. At every solemn pause the crowd recoil, Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd With shivering sighs; till eager for the event, Around the beldame all erect they hang, Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd. But lo! disclos'd in all her smiling pomp, Where beauty onward moving claims the verse Her charms inspire: the freely-flowing verse In thy immortal praise, O form divine, Smooths her mellifluent stream. Thee, Beauty, thee, The regal dome, and thy enlivening ray The mossy roofs adore: thou, better Sun! For ever beamest on the enchanted heart Love, and harmonious wonder, and delight Poetic. Brightest progeny of Heaven! How shall I trace thy features? where select The roseate hues to emulate thy bloom? Haste then, my song, through Nature's wide expanse, Haste then, and gather all her comeliest wealth, Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains, Whate'er the waters, or the liquid air, To deck thy lovely labor. Wilt thou fly With laughing Autumn to the Atlantic isles, And range with him the Hesperian field, and see Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove, The branches shoot with gold; where'er his step Marks the glad soil, the tender clusters grow With purple ripeness, and invest each hill As with the blushes of an evening sky? Or wilt thou rather stoop thy vagrant plume, Where gliding through his daughter's honor'd shades, The smooth Peneus from his glassy flood Reflects purpureal Tempé's pleasant scene? Fair Tempé! haunt belov'd of sylvan powers, Of Nymphs and Fauns; where in the golden age They play'd in secret on the shady brink With ancient Pan: while round their choral steps Young Hours and genial Gales with constant hand Shower'd blossoms, odors, shower'd ambrosial dews, And Spring's Elysian bloom. Her flowery store
To thee nor Tempé shall refuse; nor watch Of winged Hydra guard Hesperian fruits From thy free spoil. O bear then, unreprov'd Thy smiling treasures to the green recess Where young Dione stays. With sweetest airs Entice her forth to lend her angel-form For Beauty's honor'd image. Hither turn Thy graceful footsteps; hither, gentle maid Incline thy polish'd forehead: let thy eyes Effuse the mildness of their azure dawn; And may the fanning breezes waft aside Thy radiant locks: disclosing, as it bends With airy softness from the marble neck, The cheek fair-blooming, and the rosy lip, Where winning smiles and pleasures sweet as love, With sanctity and wisdom, tempering blend Their soft allurement. Then the pleasing force Of Nature, and her kind parental care, Worthier I'd sing: then all the enamour'd youth, With each admiring virgin, to my lyre Should throng attentive, while I point on high Where Beauty's living image, like the morn That wakes in Zephyr's arms the blushing May, Moves onward; or as Venus, when she stood Effulgent on the pearly car, and smil'd, Fresh from the deep, and conscious of her form, To see the Tritons tune their vocal shells, And each cerulean sister of the flood With loud acclaim attend her o'er the waves, To seek the Idalian bower. Ye smiling band Of youths and virgins, who through all the maze Of young desire with rival steps pursue This charm of beauty; if the pleasing toil Can yield a moment's respite, hither turn Your favorable ear, and trust my words. I do not mean to wake the gloomy form Of Superstition dress'd in Wisdom's garb, To damp your tender hopes; I do not mean To bid the jealous thunderer fire the heavens, Or shapes infernal rend the groaning Earth To fright you from your joys: my cheerful song With better omens calls you to the field, Pleas'd with your generous ardor in the chase, And warm like you. Then tell me, for ye know, Does Beauty ever deign to dwell where health And active use are strangers? Is her charm Confess'd in aught, whose most peculiar ends Are lame and fruitless? Or did Nature mean This pleasing call the herald of a lie ; To hide the shame of discord and disease, And catch with fair hypocrisy the heart Of idle faith? O no! with better cares The indulgent mother, conscious how infirm Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill, By this illustrious image, in each kind Still most illustrious where the object holds Its native powers most perfect, she by this Illumes the headstrong impulse of desire, And sanctifies his choice. The generous glebe Whose bosom smiles with verdure, the clear tract Of streams delicious to the thirsty soul, The bloom of nectar'd fruitage ripe to sense, And every charm of animated things, Are only pledges of a state sincere, The integrity and order of their frame, When all is well within, and every end Accomplish'd. Thus was Beauty sent from Heaven, The lovely ministress of truth and good In this dark world: for truth and good are one, 3 D 2
And Beauty dwells in them, and they in her, With like participation. Wherefore then, O sons of Earth! would ye dissolve the tie? O wherefore, with a rash impetuous aim, Seek ye those flowery joys with which the hand Of lavish Fancy paints each flattering scene Where Beauty seems to dwell, nor once inquire Where is the sanction of eternal truth, Or where the seal of undeceitful good,
To save your search from folly! Wanting these, Lo! Beauty withers in your void embrace, And with the glittering of an idiot's toy
Did Fancy mock your vows. Nor let the gleam Of youthful hope, that shines upon your hearts, Be chill'd or clouded at this awful task, To learn the lore of undeceitful good, And truth eternal. Though the poisonous charms Of baleful Superstition guide the feet
Of servile numbers, through a dreary way To their abode, through deserts, thorns, and mire ; And leave the wretched pilgrim all forlorn To muse at last, amid the ghostly gloom Of graves, and hoary vaults, and cloister'd cells; To walk with spectres through the midnight shade, And to the screaming owl's accursed song Attune the dreadful workings of his heart; Yet be not ye dismay'd. A gentler star Your lovely search illumines. From the grove Where Wisdom talk'd with her Athenian sons, Could my ambitious hand entwine a wreath Of Plato's olive with the Mantuan bay, Then should my powerful verse at once dispel Those monkish horrors: then in light divine Disclose the Elysian prospect, where the steps Of those whom Nature charms, through blooming walks,
Through fragrant mountains and poetic streams, Amid the train of sages, heroes, bards, Led by their winged Genius and the choir Of laurel'd Science, and harmonious Art, Proceed, exulting, to the eternal shrine, Where Truth conspicuous with her sister-twins, The undivided partners of her sway, With Good and Beauty reigns. O let not us, Lull'd by luxurious Pleasure's languid strain, Or crouching to the frowns of Bigot-rage, O let us not a moment pause to join That godlike band. And if the gracious Power Who first awaken'd my untutor'd song, Will to my invocation breathe anew The tuneful spirit; then through all our paths, Ne'er shall the sound of this devoted lyre Be wanting; whether on the rosy mead, When Summer smiles, to warn the melting heart Of Luxury's allurement; whether firm Against the torrent and the stubborn hill To urge bold Virtue's unremitted nerve, And wake the strong divinity of soul
That conquers Chance and Fate; or whether struck For sounds of triumph, to proclaim her toils Upon the lofty summit, round her brow To twine the wreath of incorruptive praise; To trace her hallow'd light through future worlds, And bless Heaven's image in the heart of man.
Thus with a faithful aim have we presum'd, Adventurous, to delineate Nature's form; Whether in vast, majestic pomp array'd, Or drest for pleasing wonder, or serene In Beauty's rosy smile. It now remains, Through various being's fair-proportion'd scale, To trace the rising lustre of her charms,
From their first twilight, shining forth at length To full meridian splendor. Of degree The least and lowliest, in the effusive warmth Of colors mingling with a random blaze, Doth Beauty dwell. Then higher in the line And variation of determin'd shape, Where Truth's eternal measures mark the bound Of circle, cube, or sphere. The third ascent Unites this varied symmetry of parts With color's bland allurement; as the pearl Shines in the concave of its azure bed, And painted shells indent their speckled wreath Then more attractive rise the blooming forms Through which the breath of Nature has infus'd Her genial power to draw with pregnant veins Nutritious moisture from the bounteous Earth, In fruit and seed prolific: thus the flowers Their purple honors with the spring resume; And thus the stately tree with Autumn bends With blushing treasures. But more lovely still Is Nature's charm, where to the full consent Of complicated members to the bloom Of color, and the vital change of growth, Life's holy flame and piercing sense are given, And active motion speaks the temper'd soul: So moves the bird of Juno; so the steed With rival ardor beats the dusty plain, And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy Salute their fellows. Thus doth Beauty dwell There most conspicuous, even in outward shape, Where dawns the high expression of a mind: By steps conducting our enraptur'd search To that eternal origin, whose power, Through all the unbounded symmetry of things, Like rays effulging from the parent Sun, This endless mixture of her charms diffus'd. Mind, mind alone, (bear witness, Earth and Heaven The living fountains in itself contains Of beauteous and sublime: here, hand in hand, Sit paramount the Graces; here enthron'd, Celestial Venus, with divinest airs, Invites the soul to never-fading joy. Look then abroad through Nature, to the range Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, Wheeling unshaken through the void immense; And speak, O man! does this capacious scene With half that kindling majesty dilate Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate, Amid the crowd of patriots; and his arm Aloft extending, like eternal Jove, When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, And bade the father of his country hail? For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust, And Rome again is free! Is aught so fair In all the dewy landscapes of the Spring, In the bright eye of Hesper or the Morn, In Nature's fairest forms, is aught so fair As virtuous Friendship? as the candid blush Of him who strives with fortune to be just? The graceful tear that streams for others' woes! Or the mild majesty of private life, Where Peace with ever blooming olive crowns The gate; where Honor's liberal hands effuse Unenvied treasures, and the snowy wings Of Innocence and Love protect the scene! Once more search, undismay'd, the dark profound Where Nature works in secret; view the beds Of mineral treasure, and the eternal vault That bounds the hoary Ocean; trace the forms
Of atoms moving with incessant change Their elemental round; behold the seeds Of being, and the energy of life Kindling the mass with ever-active flame: Then to the secrets of the working mind Attentive turn; from dim oblivion call Her fleet, ideal band; and bid them, go! Break through Time's barrier, and o'ertake the hour That saw the heavens created: then declare If aught were found in those external scenes To move thy wonder now. For what are all The forms which brute, unconscious matter wears, Greatness of bulk, or symmetry of parts? Not reaching to the heart, soon feeble grows The superficial impulse; dull their charms, And satiate soon, and pall the languid eye. Not so the moral species, nor the powers Of genius and design; the ambitious mind There sees herself: by these congenial forms Touch'd and awaken'd, with intenser act She bends each nerve, and meditates well-pleas'd Her features in the mirror. For of all The inhabitants of Earth, to man alone Creative Wisdom gave to lift his eye
To Truth's eternal measures; thence to frame The sacred laws of action and of will, Discerning justice from unequal deeds, And temperance from folly. But beyond This energy of Truth, whose dictates bind Assenting reason, the benignant sire, To deck the honor'd paths of just and good, Has added bright Imagination's rays: Where Virtue, rising from the awful depth Of Truth's mysterious bosom, doth forsake The unadorn'd condition of her birth; And, dress'd by Fancy in ten thousand hues, Assumes a various feature, to attract, With charms responsive to each gazer's eye, The hearts of men. Amid his rural walk, The ingenuous youth, whom solitude inspires With purest wishes, from the pensive shade Beholds her moving, like a virgin-muse That wakes her lyre to some indulgent theme Of harmony and wonder: while among The herd of servile minds her strenuous form Indignant flashes on the patriot's eye, And through the rolls of memory appeals To ancient honor, or, in act serene, Yet watchful, raises the majestic sword Of public power, from dark ambition's reach To guard the sacred volume of the laws. Genius of ancient Greece! whose faithful steps. Well-pleas'd I follow through the sacred paths Of Nature and of Science; nurse divine Of all heroic deeds and fair desires! O! let the breath of thy extended praise Inspire my kindling bosom to the height Of this untempted theme. Nor be my thoughts Presumptuous counted, if amid the calm That soothes this vernal evening into smiles, I steal impatient from the sordid haunts Of Strife and low Ambition, to attend Thy sacred presence in the sylvan shade, By their malignant footsteps ne'er profan'd. Descend, propitious! to my favor'd eye; Such in thy mien, thy warm, exalted air, As when the Persian tyrant, foil'd and stung With shame and desperation, gnash'd his teeth To see thee rend the pageants of his throne; And at the lightning of thy lifted spear
Crouch'd like a slave. Bring all thy martial spoils, Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal songs, Thy smiling band of arts, thy godlike sires Of civil wisdom, thy heroic youth
Warm from the schools of glory. Guide my way Through fair Lyceum's walk, the green retreats Of Academus, and the thymy vale,
Where, oft enchanted with Socratic sounds, Ilissus pure devolv'd his tuneful stream In gentler murmurs. From the blooming store Of these auspicious fields, may I unblam'd Transplant some living blossoms to adorn My native clime: while far above the flight Of Fancy's plume aspiring, I unlock The springs of ancient Wisdom! while I join Thy name, thrice-honor'd! with the immortal praise Of Nature, while to my compatriot youth I point the high example of thy sons, And tune to Attic themes the British lyre.
The separation of the works of imagination from philosophy, the cause of their abuse among the moderns. Prospect of their reunion under the influence of public liberty. Enumeration of accidental pleasures, which increase the effect of objects delightful to the imagination. The pleasures of sense. Particular circumstances of the mind. Discovery of truth. Perception of contrivance and design. Emotion of the passions. All the natural passions partake of a pleasing sensation; with the final cause of this constitution illustrated by an allegorical vision, and exemplified in sorrow, pity, terror, and indignation.
WHEN shall the laurel and the vocal string Resume their honors? When shall we behold The tuneful tongue, the Promethean hand, Aspire to ancient praise? Alas! how faint, How slow, the dawn of Beauty and of Truth Breaks the reluctant shades of Gothic night, Which yet involve the nations! Long they groan'd Beneath the furies of rapacious Force; Oft as the gloomy North, with iron-swarms Tempestuous pouring from her frozen caves, Blasted the Italian shore, and swept the works Of Liberty and Wisdom down the gulf Of all-devouring Night. As long immur'd In noontide darkness by the glimmering lamp, Each Muse and each fair Science pin'd away The sordid hours: while foul, barbarian hands Their mysteries profan'd, unstrung the lyre, And chain'd the soaring pinion down to Earth. At last the Muses rose, and spurn'd their bounds, And, wildly warbling, scatter'd, as they flew, Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa's bowers To Arno's myrtle border, and the shore Of soft Parthenope. But still the rage Of dire Ambition and gigantic Power, From public aims and from the busy walk Of civil Commerce, drove the bolder train Of penetrating Science to the cells, Where studious Ease consumes the silent hour In shadowy searches and unfruitful care. Thus from their guardians torn, the tender arts. Of mimic Fancy and harmonious Joy,
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