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 represented Whole;
For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws,
Diftinguifh'd orders, animated arts,
And with joint force Oppreffion chaining, fet
Imperial Justice at the helm; yet still
To them accountable; nor flavish dream'd
That toiling millions must refign their weal,
And all the honey of their fearch, to fuch
As for themselves alone themfelves have rais'd.
Hence every form of cultivated life
In order fet, protected, and infpir'd,
Into perfection wrought. Uniting all,
Society grew numerous, high, polite,
And happy. Nurse of art! the City rear'd,
In beauteous pride, her tower-encircled head,
And, ftretchingstreet on street, by thousands drew, 115
From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew,
To bows ftrong-ftraining her aspiring fons.
Then Commerce brought into the public walk The bufy merchant; the big warehouse built, 119 Rais'd the ftrong crane, chok'd up the loaded ftreet With foreign plenty, and thy ftream, O Thames! Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods! Chofe for his grand refort. On either hand, Like a long wint'ry foreft, groves of mafts
Shot up their fpires; the bellying sheet between 125
Poffefs'd the breezy void; the footy hulk
Steer'd fluggish on; the fplendid barge along
Row'd, regular, to harmony; around
The boat, light-skimming, 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,
To bear the British thunder, black and bold,
The roaring veffel rufh'd into the main.
Then, too, the pillar'd dome magnific heav'd
Its ample roof, and Luxury within
Pour'd out her glittering ftores: the canvafs fmooth,
With glowing life protuberant, to the view
Embodied rofe; the ftatue feem'd to breathe
And foften into flesh, beneath the touch
Of forming Art, imagination-flush'd.
All is the gift of Induftry; whate'er
Exalts, embellifhes, and renders life
Delightful. Penfive Winter, cheer'd by him,
Sits at the focial fire, and happy hears
Th' excluded tempeft idly rave along ;
His hardened fingers deck the gaudy Spring;
Without him Summer were an arid waste,
Nor to th' Autumnal months could thus tranfmit
Thofe foll, mature, immeasurable ftores,
That, waving round, recall my wandering fong, 150
Soon as the morning trembles o'er the fky,
d unperceiv'd unfolds the fpreading day,
Before the ripened field the reapers stand
In fair array, each by the lafs he loves,
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate,
By nameless gentle offices, her toil.
At once they stoop and fwell the lufty fheaves,
While thro' their cheerful band the rural talk,
The rural scandal, and the rural jest,
Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And fleal, unfelt, the fultry hours away.
Behind the mafter walks, builds up the shocks,
And, conscious, glancing oft' on every fide
His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners spread around, and here and there, 165
Spike after spike, their scanty harvest pick.
Be not too narrow, Husbandmen! but fling
From the full fheaf, with charitable stealth,
The liberal handful. Think, oh, grateful think!
How good the God of Harveft is to you,
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields,
While these unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask 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 fmil'd, deceitful, on her birth:
For in her helpless years depriv'd of all,
Of every stay faye 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 fcorn
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 repose,
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,
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 star 200
Of evening fhone in tears. A native grace
Sat fair proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a fimple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of drefs; for Loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is, when unadorn'd, adorn'd the most.
Thoughtlefs of beauty, fhe was Beauty's felf,
Reclufe amid the clofe-embowering woods.
As in the hollow breaft of Appenine,
Beneath the shelter of encircling hills,
A myrtle rifes, far from human eye,
And breathes its balmy 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 fmiling patience in her looks, she 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 fhackled Man,
But free to follow Nature was the mode.
He then, his fancy with Autumnal fcenes
Amusing, chanc'd beside his reaper-train
To walk, when poor Lavinia drew his eye,
Unconscious of her power, and turning quick,
With unaffected blufhes, from his gaze.
He faw her charming; but he faw not half
The charms her downcaft modefty conceal'd.
That very moment love and chafte defire
Sprung in his bofom, to himself unknown;
For ftill the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which scarce the firm philofopher can scorn,
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field;
And thus in fecret to his foul he figh'd:
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