Mechanie; nor the heaven-conductedprow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line, or dares the wintry pole;
Mother fevere of infinite delights!

Nothing, fave rapine, indolence and guile, 1770
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train!
Whofe horrid circle had made human life

woods. After a gentle dufky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Mornings to which fucceeds a calm, pure, fun-fhiny day, such as ufually shuts up the feafon. The har veft being gathered in, the country diffelved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric en a philofophical country life.

thee,

Curs are the plans of policy and peace:

To live like brothers, and, conjunctive all, 1775
Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds
Ply the tough oar, Philofophy directs
The ruling helm; or, like the liberal breath
Of potent Heaven, invifible, the fail

1781

Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along.
Ner to this evanefcent fpeck of earth
Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high
Are her exalted range, intent to gaze
Creation thro', and, from that full complex
Of never-ending wonders, to conceive
Of the fole Being right, who spoke the word,
And Nature mov'd complete. With inward

view

1785

1790

Thence on th' ideal kingdom fwift the turns
Her eye, and inftant, at her powerful glance,
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear,
Compound, divide, or into order shift,
Each to his raak, from plain perception up
To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train;
To reafon then, deducing truth from truth,
And notion quite abftract, where firft begins 1795
The world of fpirits, action all, and life
Unfetter'd and unmix'd. But here the cloud,
So wills eternal Providence, fits deep:
Enough for us to know that this dark state,
In wayward paffions loft and vain pursuits, 1800
This infancy of being, cannot prove
The final iffue of the works of God,

By boundless love and perfect wisdom form'd,,
And ever rifing with the rifing inind,

AUTUMN.

THE ARGUMENT.

ROWN'D with the fickle and the wheaten fheaf,

While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on, the Doric reed once more, Well pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the Wintry

froft

Nitrous prepar'd, the various-bloffom'd Spring 5 Put in white promife forth, and Summer-funs Concoated ftrong, rufh boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme.

10

Onnow! the Mufe, ambitious of thy name,
To grace, infpire, and dignify her fong,
Would from the Public Voice thy gentle ear
A while engage. Thy noble cares fhe knows,
The patriot virtues that diftend thy thought,
Spread on thy front, and in thy bofom glow,
While lift'ning fenates hang upon thy tongue, 15
Devolving thro' the maze of eloquence

A roll of periods fweeter than her fong.
But the, too, pants for public virtue; fhe,
Tho' weak of power, yet ftrong in ardent
will,

Whene'er her country rufhes on her heart, 20
Affumes a bolder note, and fondly tries
To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame.

When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous
days,

And Libra weighs in equal fcales the year,
From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence

Falls from its poife, and gives the breeze to blow.
Rent is the fleecy mantle of the iky,
The clouds fly different, and the fudden fun
By fits effulgent gilds thʼ illumin'd field,
And black, by fits, the fhadows fweep along:
A gaily-checker'd heart-expanding view,
Far as the circling eye can fhoot around,
Unbounded toffing in a flood of corn.

40

45

Thefe are thy blefings, Induftry! rough power! Whom labour fill attends, and sweat, and pain; Yet the kind fource of every gentle art, And all the foft civility of life: Raifer of human kind! by Nature caft Naked, and helplefs, out amid the woods And wilds, to rude inclement elements; With various feeds of art deep in the mind Implanted, and profufely pour'd around Materials infinite, but idle all. Still unexerted in th' unconscious breaft Slept the lethargic powers; Corruption still,

50

55

65

70

75

Voracious, fwallow'd what the liberal hand
Of Bounty scatter'd o'er the favage year;
And fill the fad barbarian, roving, mix'd
With beatts of prey, or for his acorn-meal
Fought the fierce tufky boar: a fhivering wretch !
Aghaft, and comfortlefs, when the bleak North,
With Winter charg'd, let the mix'd tempeft fly,
Hail, rain, and fnow, and bitter-breathing froft;
Then to the shelter of the hut he fled,
And the wild feafon, fordid, pin'd away:
For home he had not; home is the refort
Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where
Supporting and fupported, polish'd friends
And dear relations mingle into blifs.
But this the rugged favage never felt,
E'en defolate in crowds; and thus his days
Roll'd heavy, dark, and unenjoy'd along!
A wafte of time! till Industry approach'd,
And rous'd him from his miferable floth;
His faculties unfolded, pointed out
Where lavish Nature the directing hand
Of Art demanded; fhew'd him how to raise
His feeble force by the mechanic powers,
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth,
On what to turn the piercing rage of fire,
On what the torrent and the gather'd blaft;
Gave the tall ancient foreft to his axe;
Taught him to chip the wood and hew the stone,
Till by degrees the finif'd fabric rofe;
Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur,
And wrapt them in the woolly veftment warm, 85
Cr bright in gloffy filk and flowing lawn;
With whole fome viands fill'd his table, pour'd
The generous glafs around, infpir'd to wake
The life-refining foul of decent Wit:
Nor ftopp'd at barren bare neceffity,
But ftill advancing bolder, led him on
To pomp, to pleafure, elegance and grace;
And breathing high ambition thro' his foul,
Set fcience, wildom, glory, in his view,
And bade him be the Lord of. all below.
Then gathering men their natural powers com-
bin'd,

Then Commerce brought into the public walk The bufy merchant; the big warehoufe built, 119 Rais'd the ftrong crane, chok'd up the loaded ftreet

With foreign plenty, and thy stream, O Thames!
Large, gentle, deep, majeffic, king of floods!
Chofe for his grand refort. On either hand,
Like a long wintry foreft, groves of mafts
Shot up their fpires; the bellying sheet between
Poffefs'd the breezy void; the footy hulk
Steer'd fuggish on; the fplendid barge along
Row'd, regular, to harmony; around

The boat, light-fkimming, ftretch'd its oary wings;

While deep the various voice of fervent Toil 130 From bank to bank increas'd; whence ribb❜d

with oak,

95

100

105

And form'd a public, to the general good.
Submitting, aiming, and conducting all.
For this the patriot Council met, the full,
The free, and fairly reprefented Whole;
For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws,
Diftinguifh'd orders, animated arts,
And with joint force Oppreffion chaining, fet.
Imperial Juftice at the helm; yet fil
To them accountable: nor flavith dream'd
That toiling millions must refign their weal,
And all the honey of their fearch, to fuch
As for themfelves alone themfelves have rais'd.
Hence every form of cultivated life
In order fet, protected, and infpird,
Into perfection wrought. Uniting all,
Society grew num'rous, high, polite,
And happy. Nurfe of art! the City rear'd,
In beauteous pride, her tower-encircled head,
And, ftretching ftrect on street, by thoufands
drew,

110

From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew To bows ftrong-training, her aspiring fons.

140

145

155

All is the gift of Induftry; whate'er Exalts, embellifhes, and renders life Delightful. Penfive Winter, cheer'd by him, Sits at the focial fre, and happy hears Th' excluded tempeft idly rave along; His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring; With him Summer were an arid wafte, Nor to th' Autumnal months could thus tranfmit Those full, mature, immeasurable stores, That, waving round, recall my wandering fong. Soon as the morning trembles o'er the fky, 151 And unperceiv'd unfolds the fpreading day, Before the ripened field the reapers ftand In fair array, each by the lafs he loves, To bear the rougher part, and mitigate, By nameles gentle offices, her toil. At once they stoop and fwell the lusty fheaves, While thro' their cheerful band the rural talk, The rural fcandal, and the rural jest, Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time, And feal, unfelt, the fultry hours away. Behind the mafter walks, builds up the fhocks, And, confcious, glancing oft' on every fide His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy. The gleaners fpread around, and here and there, Spike after spike, their feanty harvest pick. Be not too narrow, Hufbandmen! but fling From the full theaf, with charitable stealth, The liberal handful.. Think, oh, grateful think! How good the God of Harvest is to you, 170 Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields, While thete unhappy partners of your kind Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heav'n, Andafk their humble dole. The various turns Of Fortune ponder; that your fons may want 175 What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give. The lovely young Lavinia once had friends, And Fortune famil'd, deceitful, on her birth:

160

166

180

195

For in her helpless years depriv'd of all,
Of every ftay, fave Innocence and Heaven,
She with her widowed mother, feeble, old,
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd
Among the windings of a woody vale;
By folitude and deep furrounding fhades,
But more by bashful modefty, conceal'd.
Together thus they fhunn'd the cruel scorn
Which Virtue, funk to poverty, would meet
From giddy Paffion and low-minded Pride:
Almoft on Nature's common bounty fed,
Like the gay birds that fung them to repofe,
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare.
Her form was fresher than the morning rofe,
When the dew wets its leaves; unftain'd and
pure,

190

195

201

205

210

215

As is the lily or the mountain-fnow. The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes, Still on the ground, dejected, darting all Their humid beams into the blooming flowers; Or when the mournful tale her mother told, Of what her faithlefs fortune promis'd once, Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy ftar Of evening, fhone in tears. A native grace Sat fair proportion'd on her polif'd limbs, Veil'd in a fimple robe, their beft attire, Beyond the pomp of drefs; for Lovelinefs. Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, (But is, when unadorn', adorn'd the moft.) Thoughtlefs of beauty, she was Beauty's felf, Reclufe amid the clofe embow'ring woods. As in the hollow breaft of Appenine, Beneath the fhelter of encircling hills, A myrtle rifes, far from human eye, And breathes its baimy fragrance o'er the wild, So flourish'd blooming, and unfeen by all, The fweet Lavinia; till, at length, compell'd By ftrong Neceffity's fupreme command, With finiling Patience in her looks, fhe went To glean Palemon's fields. The pride of fwains Palemon was ! the generous, and the rich! Who led the rural life in all its joy And elegance, fuch as Arcadian fong Tranfmits from ancient uncorrupted times, When tyrant Custom had not shackled Man, But free to follow Nature was the mode, He then, his fancy with Autumnal scenes Amufing, chanc'd befide his reaper-train To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye, Unconscious of her power, and turning quick, With unaffected blushes, from his gaze. He faw her charming; but he saw not half The charms her downcaft modefty conceal'd. 230 That very moment love and chafte defre Sprung in his bofom, to himself unknown; For ftill the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh, Which fearce the firm philofopher can scorn, Should his heart own a gleaner in the field; And thus in fecret to his foul he figh'd: "What pity that fo delicate a form, "By Beauty kindled, where enlivening Senfe, "And more than vulgar Goodnefs, feem to dwell, "Should be devoted to the rude embrace "Of fome indecent clown! She looks, methinks, "Of old Acafto's line, and to my mind

220

225

235

243

260

And, as he view'd her, ardent, o'er and o'er, Love, Gratitude, and Pity, wept at once. Confus'd, and frighten❜d at his fudden tears, Her ring beauties fluft'd a higher bloom, As thus Palemon, paffionate and juít, Pour'd out the pious rapture of his foul. "And art thou, then, Acafto's dear remains? 265 "She whom my reftlefs gratitude has fought "So long in vain? O heavens! the very fame, "The foften'd image of my noble friend; "Alive his every look, his every feature, "More elegantly touch'd. Sweeter than Spring, "Thou fole furviving bloffom from the root 271 "That nourish'd up my fortune! Say, ah where, "In what fequefter'd defart haft thou drawn "The kindeft afpect of delighted Heaven! "In fuch beauty fpread, and blown fo fair, 275 "Tho' poverty's cold mind, and crufhing rain, "Beat keen and heavy on thy tender years? "O let me now into a richer foil "Transplant thee fafe! where vernal funs and fhowers

"Diffufe their warmeft, largest influence, "And of my garden he the pride and joy! "Ill it befits thee, oh it ill befits

280

The lonely moments for Lavinia's fate :
Amaz'd, and fearce believing what she heard,
Joy feiz'd her wither'd veins, and one bright
gleam

Of fetting life fhone on her evening hours;
Not lefs enraptur'd than the happy pair,
Who flourish'd long in tender blif's, and rear'd
A numerous offspring, lovely like themfelves,
And good, the grace of all the country round.
Defeating oft' the labours of the year,
The fultry South collects a potent blaft.
At first the groves are fcarcely feen to fir
Their trembling tops, and a ftill murmur runs
Along the foft-inclining fields of corn:
But as the aerial tempeft fuller fwells,

305

511

315

And in one nighty ftream, invisible,
Immenfe, the whole excited atmosphere
Impetuous rushes o'er the founding world:
Strain'd to the root the ftooping foreft pours 320.
A rufiling fhower of yet untimely leaves;
High beat, the circling mountains eddy in
From the bare wild the diffipated storm,
And fend it in a torrent down the vale.
Expos'd and naked to its utmoft rage,
Thro' all the fea of harvest rolling round,
The billowy plain floats wide, nor can evade,
Tho' pliant to the blaft, its feizing force,
Or whirl'd in air, or into vacant chaff
Shook wafte: and fometimes, too, a burft of rain,
Swept from the black horizon, broad defcends
In one continuous flood. Still over-head

The mingling tempeft weaves its gloom,

ftill

325

and

335

The deluge deepens, till the fields around
Lie funk and flatted in the fordid wave.
Sudden the ditches fwell, the meadows swim.
Red from the hills innumerable ftreams
Tumultuous roar, and high above its banks
The river lift, before whofe rufhing tide
Herds, flocks and harvests, cottages and fwains,
Roll mingled down; all that the winds had
fpar'd

In one wild moment ruin'd; the big hopes
And well-earn'd treafures of the painful year.
Fled to fome eminence, the busband man,
Helpleis, beholds the miserable wreck
Driving along; his drowning ox at once
Defcending, with his labours fcatter'd round,
He fees; and inftant o'er his fhivering thought
Comes Winter unprovided, and a train

345

Of claimant children dear. Ye Matters! then £50
Be mindful of the rough laborious hand
That finks you foft in elegance and cafe;
Be mindful of thofe limbs, in ruffet clad,
Whole toil to yours is warmth and graceful
pride;

And, oh! be mindful of that fparing board
Which covers yours with luxury profufe,
Makes your glafs fparkle and your
rejoice!

355

fenfe

Nor cruelly demand what the deep rains
And all-involving winds have fwept away.
Here the rude clamour of the fportfman's
joy,

The gun faft-thundering, and the winded horn,

way,

every

730

Thro' the rough ftubble turn the fecret eye,
Caught in the methy fare, in vain they beat
Their idle wings, entangled more and more:
Nor on the furges of the boundless air,
Tho' borne triumphant, are they fafe; the gun,
Glanc'd juft and fudden from the fowler's eye,
O'ertakes their founding pinions, and again, 375
Immediate, brings them from the towering
wing,

Dead to the ground; or drives them wide difpers'd,

Wounded, and wheeling various, down the wind.

Thefe are not fubjects for the peaceful Mufe, Nor will he ftain with fuch her fpotlefs fong, 380 Then moft delighted when the focial fees The whole mix'd animal creation round Alive and happy. 'Tis not joy to her. This falfely cheerful barbarous game of death; This rage of pleasure, which the restless youth Awakes, impatient, with the gleaming morn; When beafts of prey retire, that all night long,

390

Urg'd by Neceffity, had rang'd the dark,
As if their confcious ravage fhunn'd the light,
Afham'd. Not fo the fteady tyrant Man,
Who, with the thoughtless infolence of power
Inflam'd, beyond the most infuriate wrath
Of the worft monfter that e'er roam'd the

Retir'd; the rufhy fen, the ragged furze; Stretch'd o'er the ftony heath, the stubble chapt;

410

The thiftly lawn, the thick-entangled broom; 455
Of the fame friendly hue the wither'd fern;
The fallow ground laid open to the fun,
Concoative; and the nodding fandy bank,
Hung o'er the mazes of the mountain brook :
Vain is her beft precaution, thro' fhe fit,
Conceal'd, with folded cars, unfleeping eyes,
By Nature rais'd to take th' horizon in,
And head couch'd close betwixt her hairy feet,
Ju act to fpring away. The fcented dew
Betrays her early labyrinth; and deep,
In fcatter'd fullen openings, far behind,
With every breeze the bears the coming form:

415

Vindictive fix, and let the ruffian die ;
Or, growling horrid, as the brindled boar
Grins fell destruction, to the monster's heart
Let the dart lighten from the nervous arm.
Thefe Britain knows not. Give, ye Britons!
then,

471

Your fportive fury, pitilefs, to pour
Loofe on the nightly robber of the fold;
Him from his craggy winding haunts un-
earth'd,

Let all the thunder of the chafe purfue..
Throw the broad ditch behind you; o'er the
hedge
475

480

High-bound refiftlefs; nor the deep morafs
Refufe, but thro' the faaking wilderness
Pick your nice way: iuto the perilous flood
Bear fearless, of the raging inftinct full;
And as you ride the torrent, to the banks
Your triumph found fonorous, running round
From rock to rock, in circling echos toft ;
Then fcale the mountains to their woody
tops,

Rush down the dangerous fteep, and o'er the lawn,

In fancy fwallowing up the space between, 485
Pour all your fpeed into the rapid game;
For happy he who tops the wheeling chafe,
Has every maze evolv'd, and every guile
Difclos'd;

who knows the merits of the

pack; Who faw the villain feiz'd, and dying hard, 430 Without complaint, tho' by an hundred mouths

Relentless torn: O, glorious he, beyond His daring peers! when the retreating horn Calls them to ghoftly halls of grey renown, With woodland honours grac'd; the fox's fur, 495 Depending decent from the roof, and, fpread Round the drear walls, with antique figures fierce,

The ftag's large front; he then is loudeft heard,

When the night staggers with feverer toils,
With feats Theffalian Centaurs never knew, 500
And their repeated wonders shake the dome.
But first the fuel'd chimney blazes wide:
The tankards foam; and the ftrong table

groans Beneath the fmoking furloin, ftretch'd immenfe.

From fide to fide, in which, with defperate knife, 505

510

They deep incifion make, and talk the while
Of England's glory, ne'er to be defac'd
While hence they borrow vigour; or amain
Into the pafty plung'd at intervals,
If ftomach keen can intervals allow,
Relating all the glories of the chase.
Then fated Hunger bids his brother Thirt
Produce the mighty bowl; the mighty bowl,
Swell'd high with fiery juice, fteams liberal
round,

A potent gale, delicious as the breath

515

VOL. VIII.

3 M