Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.
Ye forests, bend, ye harvests, wave to Him;
Breathe your still song into the reaper's heart,
As home he goes beneath the joyous moon.
Ye that keep watch in heaven, as earth asleep
Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams,
Ye constellations, while your angels strike,
Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre.
Great source of day, best image here below
Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,
From world to world, the vital ocean round,
On nature write, with every beam, His praise.1
The thunder rolls; be hushed the prostrate world,
While cloud to cloud returns the solemn hymn.
Bleat out afresh, ye hills; ye mossy rocks,
Retain the sound; the broad responsive low,
Ye valleys, raise; for the Great Shepherd' reigns,
And His unsuffering kingdom yet will come.
Ye woodlands all, awake! a boundless song
Burst from the groves! and when the restless day,
Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep,
Sweetest of birds, sweet Philomela, charm
The listening shades, and teach the night His praise.
Ye chief, for whom the whole creation smiles,
At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all,
Crown the great hymn! in swarming cities vast,
Assembled men to the deep organ join
The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear,
At solemn pauses, through the swelling bass:
And, as each mingling flame increases each,
In one united ardour rise to heaven.
Or if you rather choose the rural shade,
And find a fane in every sacred grove;
There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's lay,
The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre,
Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll.
For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the blossom blows, the Summer ray
Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams,
"Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light."Ps. cxlviii. 3. See the whole of this chapter.
2 "Our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep."-Heb, xiii. 20.
Or Winter rises in the blackening east,
Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!
Should fate command me to the farthest verge
Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes,
Rivers unknown to song, where first the sun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam
Flames on the Atlantic isles, 'tis nought to me;
Since God is ever present1, ever felt
In the void waste, as in the city full;
And where He vital breathes there must be joy.
When even at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey; there with new powers,
Will rising wonders sing. I cannot go
Where Universal Love not smiles around,
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns;
From seeming evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression. But I lose
Myself in him, in Light ineffable;
Come then, expressive silence, muse his praise!
thy presence?"
the verses which follow.
The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan's rill',
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney's? hazel shade;
But, when the sun his beacon red
Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head3,
The deep-mouth'd bloodhound's heavy bay
Resounded up the rocky way,
And faint, from farther distance borne,
Were heard the clanging hoof and horn.
As chief, who hears his warder call,
"To arms! the foemen storm the wall,"
The antler'd monarch of the waste
Sprung from his heathery couch in haste.
But, ere his fleet career he took,
The dew-drops from his flanks he shook ;
Like crested leader proud and high,
Toss'd his beam'd frontlet to the sky;
A moment gazed adown the dale,
A moment snuff'd the tainted gale,
A moment listen'd to the cry,
That thicken'd as the chase drew nigh;
Then, as the headmost foes appear'd,
With one brave bound the copse he clear'd,
And, stretching forward free and far,
Sought the wild heaths of Uam-Var.4
Yell'd on the view the opening pack;
Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back 5;
To many a mingled sound at once
The awaken'd mountain gave response.
A hundred dogs bay'd deep and strong,
Clatter'd a hundred steeds along,
Their peal the merry horns rung out,
A hundred voices join'd the shout;
1 Monan's rill, a spring in the district of Monteith, in the south-west part of Perthshire.
* Glenartney, a valley along the southern confines of Comrie, Perthshire. Along its northern side anciently spread a royal forest.
3 Benvoirlich, a mountain included in the cluster of the Grampians, at the head of the valley of the Garry, in
Perthshire. By some, it is said to have an elevation of 3,330 feet above the level of the sea; by others, its elevation is estimated at 3,180 feet only.
4 Uam-Var, a mountain in Menteith, to the north-east of the village of Callander.
5 Pard them back, echoed back the
With hark and whoop and wild halloo,
No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew.
Far from the tumult fled the roe,
Close in her covert cower'd the doe,
The falcon, from her cairn on high,
Cast on the rout a wondering eye,
Till far beyond her piercing ken
The hurricane had swept the glen.
Faint, and more faint, its failing din
Return'd from cavern, cliff, and linn,
And silence settled, wide and still,
On the lone wood and mighty hill.
Less loud the sounds of sylvan war
Disturb'd the heights of Uam-Var,
And roused the cavern, where, 'tis told,
A giant made his den of old;
For ere that steep ascent was won,
High in his pathway hung the sun,
And many a gallant, stay'd perforce,
Was fain to breathe his faltering horse,
And of the trackers of the deer,
Scarce half the lessening pack was near;
So shrewdly, on the mountain side,
Had the bold burst their mettle tried.
The noble stag was pausing now,
Upon the mountain's southern brow,
Where broad extended, far beneath,
The varied realms of fair Menteith.1
With anxious eye he wander'd o'er
Mountain and meadow, moss and moor,
And ponder'd refuge from his toil,
By far Lochard2 or Aberfoyle.3
But nearer was the copsewood gray,
That waved and wept on Loch-Achray",
Menteith, or Monteith, a district in the south-west part of Perthshire. The vale of the Teith, whence the name is derived, is in many parts noted for the beauty of its scenery.
Lochard, a beautiful lake in the parish of Aberfoyle, at the eastern base of Ben-Lomond. It is, however, in reality two lakes; the one being se
parated from the other by a small stream about 200 yards in length. The larger lake measures five miles in length by two miles in width.
3 Aberfoyle, a parish in the southwest corner of Perthshire.
4 Loch-Achray, a beautiful sheet of water forming part of the northern boundary of the parish of Aberfoyle..
And mingled with the pine-trees blue,
On the bold cliffs of Benvenue.1
Fresh vigour with the hope return'd,
With flying foot the heath he spurn'd,
Held westward with unwearied race,
And left behind the panting chase.
"Twere long to tell what steeds gave o'er,
As swept the hunt through Cambus-more2;
What reins were tighten'd in despair,
When rose Benledi's3 ridge in air;
Who flagg'd upon Bochastle's heath,
Who shunn'd to stem the flooded Teith1,
For twice that day, from shore to shore,
The gallant stag swam stoutly o'er.
Few were the stragglers, following far,
That reach'd the lake of Vennachar5;
And when the Brigg of Turk6 was won,
The headmost horseman rode alone.
Alone, but with unbated zeal,
That horseman plied the scourge and steel;
For jaded now, and spent with toil,
Emboss'd with foam, and dark with soil,
While every gasp with sobs he drew,
The labouring stag strain'd full in view.
Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's breed,
Unmatch'd for courage, breath, and speed,
It is very small, being only about a mile in length; but the scenery around its banks is exceedingly beautiful. Its northern banks are covered to the water's edge with wood and thickets. 1 Benvenue, a mountain situated on the southern shore of Loch Katrine, near the eastern extremity. It has an elevation of 3000 feet, and is considered one of the most picturesque mountains in Great Britain.
Cambus-more, a mansion and grounds, about two miles from Callander. The Keltie, a tributary of the Teith, flows through the grounds. Cambus-more was the residence of Sir Walter Scott during some of his earlier years.
3 Benledi, meaning the Hill of God, is two miles west of Callander. It
has an elevation of 2863 feet above the level of the sea.
4 The Teith is formed by the junction of two mountain streams, not far from Callander. Its entire course, measured in a straight line, is not more than eleven or twelve miles. It enters the Forth 24 miles north-west of Stirling.
5 Loch Vennachar, a fine expanse of water, about five miles in length, by one mile and a half in breadth. "The outline of its shores is beautiful and waving, and throughout almost its whole extent is adorned with a skirting of wood."- Gazetteer of Scotland.
6 The Brigg, or Bridge of Turk, not far from the east end of Loch Achray.
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