Which foon her Damon kifs'd with weepingjoy:1365 "Dear youth! fole judge of what these verses mean, "By Fortune too much favour'd, but by Love, "Alas! not favour'd lefs, be ftill, as now,
Difcreet the time may come you need not fly." The fun has lost his rage; his downward orb 1370 Shoots nothing now but animating warmth.
And vital luftre; that, with various ray,
Lights up the clouds, thofe beauteous robes of heaven
Inceffant roll'd into romantic fhapes,
The dream of waking fancy! Broad below, 1375
Covered with ripening fruits, and fwelling faft
Into the perfect year, the pregnant earth
And all her tribes rejoice. Now the foft hour
Of walking comes, for him who lonely loves
To feek the diftant hills, and there converfe 1380
With Nature, there to harmonize his heart,
And in pathetic fong to breathe around
The harmony to others. Social friends,
Attun'd to happy unifon of foul,
To whofe exalting eye a fairer world,
Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse,
Displays its charms, whose minds are richly fraught
With philofophic flores, fuperior light,
And in whole breast, enthusiastic, burns
Virtue the fons of Intereft deem romance,
Now call'd abroad enjoy the falling day;
Now to the verdant portico of woods,
To Nature's vaft Lyceum, forth they walk;
By that kind fchool where no proud master reigns,
The full free converfe of the friendly heart, 1395
Improving and improv'd. Now from the world,
Sacred to fweet retirement, lovers steal,
And pour their fouls in transport, which the fire
Of Love, approving, hears, and calls it Good.
Which way, Amanda, shall we bend our course ?1400
The choice perplexes. Wherefore should we chufe?
All is the fame with thee. Say, fhall we wind
Along the ftreams? or walk the smiling mead?
Or court the foreft glade? or wander wild
Among the waving harvefts? or afcend,
While radiant Summer opens all its pride,
Thy hill, delightful Shene*? Here let us sweep
The boundless landscape: now the raptur'd eye,
Exulting fwift, to huge Augufta fend,
Now to the Sifter-hills + that skirt her plain; 1410
To lofty Harrow now, and now to where
Majestic Windfor lifts his princely brow.
In lovely contrast to this glorious view,
Calmly magnificent, then will we turn
To where the filver Thames firft rural grows: 1415
There let the feafted eye unwearied stray;
Luxurious, there rove thro' the pendent woods
That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat;
* The old name of Richmond, fignifying in Saxon Shining, or Splendour.
+ Highgate and Hampstead.
And, stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks, Beneath whose shades, in fpotlefs peace retir'd, 1420 With her the pleafing partner of his heart,
The worthy Queensb'ry yet laments his Gay,
And polish'd Cornbury wooes the willing Mufe,
Slow let us trace the matchless vale of Thames,
Fair-winding up to where the Mufes haunt
In Twit'nam's bowers, and for their Pope implore
The healing God *; to royal Hampton's pile,
To Clermont's terrafs'd height, and Efher's groves,
Where in the sweetest folitude, embrac'd
By the foft windings of the filent Mole,
From courts and fenates Pelham finds repofe.
Inchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Muse
Has of Achaia or Hefperia fung!
O vale of bliss! O foftly-fwelling hills!
On which the power of Cultivation lies,
And joys to fee the wonders of his toil.
Heavens! what a goodly profpe&t spreads around, Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and fpires, And glittering towns, and gilded ftreams, till all The stretching landscape into fmoke decays! 1440 Happy Britannia! where the Queen of Arts,
Infpiring vigour, Liberty abroad
Walks unconfin'd, even to thy fartheft cotts,
And scatters plenty with unfparing hand.
Rich is thy foil, and merciful thy clime; 1445
Thy streams unfailing in the Summer's drought;
Unmatch'd thy guardian-oaks; thy vallies float
With golden waves; and on thy mountains flocks
Bleat numberlefs; while roving round their fides
Bellow the blackening herds in lufty droves. 1450
Beneath thy meadows glow, and rife unquell'd
Against the mower's fcythe. On every hand
Thy villas fhine. Thy country teems with wealth,
And Property affures it to the fwain,
Pleas'd and unwearied in his guarded toil.
Full are thy cities with the fons of Art, And Trade and Joy in every busy street Mingling are heard: even Drudgery himself, As at the car he sweats, or dufty hews
The palace-stone, looks gay. Thy crowded ports,
Where rifing mafts an endless prospect yield, 1461
With labour burn, and echo to the fhouts
Of hurried failor, as he hearty waves
His laft adieu, and, loofening every sheet,
Refigns the spreading veffel to the wind.
Bold, firm, and graceful, are thy generous youth,
By hardship finew'd, and by danger fir'd,
Scattering the nations where they go, and first
Or on the lifted plain or ftormy feas.
Mild are thy glories, too, as o'er the plans
Of thriving peace thy thoughtful fires prefide;
In genius and substantial learning high;
For every virtue, every worth renown'd;
Sincere, plain-hearted, hofpitable, kind;
Yet, like the muftering thunder, when provok'd, 1475
The dread of tyrants, and the fole resource
Of those that under grim Oppreffion groan.
Thy fons of glory many! Alfred! thine,
In whom the fplendour of heroic war,
And more heroic peace, when govern'd well, 1
1480
Combine; whofe hallowed name the Virtues faint,
And his own Muses love; the best of kings!
With him thy Edwards and thy Henrys fhine,
Names dear to Fame! the first who deep-impress'd
On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms, 1485
That awes her Genius ftill. In ftatesmen thou,
And patriots, fertile. Thine a steady More,
Who, with a generous tho' mistaken zeal,
Withstood a brutal tyrant's direful rage;
Like Cato firm, like Ariftides juft,
Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor,
A dauntless foul, erect, who fmil'd on death.
Frugal, and wife, a Walfingham is thine;
A Drake, who made thee Mistress of the deep,
And bore thy name in thunder round the world. 1495
Then flam'd thy fpirit high: but who can speak
The numerous worthies of the Maiden Reign?
In Raleigh mark their every glory mix'd;
Raleigh! the fcourge of Spain ! whofe breaft with all
The fage, the patriot, and the hero, burn'd: 1500
Nor funk his vigour when a coward-reign
|