Calm, and intrepid, in the very throat

935

Of fulphureous War, on Tenier's dreadful field.
Nor less the palm of Peace inwreathes thy brow;
For, powerful as thy fword, from thy rich tongue
Perfuafion flows, and wins the high debate;
While mixt in thee combine the charm of youth, 940
The force of manhood, and the depth of age.
Thee, Forbes! too, whom every worth attends,
As Truth fincere, as weeping Friendship kind;
Thee, truly generous, and in filence great,
Thy country feels thro' her reviving arts,
Plann'd by thy wisdom, by thy soul inform❜d,
And feldom has fhe known a friend like thee.
But fee the fading many-colour'd woods,
Shade deepening over shade, the country round
Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun, 95o
Of every hue, from wan-declining green

945

To footy dark. These now the lonesome Mufe, Low-whispering, lead into their leaf-strown walks, And give the Season in its latest view.

Mean time, light-fhadowing all, a fober calm 955 Fleeces unbounded ether, whofe leaft wave Stands tremulous, uncertain where to turn The gentle current; while illumin'd wide, The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the fun, And thro' their lucid veil his foftened force Shed o'er the peaceful world. Then is the time For those whom Wisdom and whom Nature charm,

960

To fteal themselves from the degenerate crowd,
And foar above this little scene of things;

To tread low-thoughted Vice beneath their feet, 965
To footh the throbbing Paffions into peace,
And wooe lone Quiet in her silent walks,
Thus folitary, and in pensive guise,

Oft' let me wander o'er the ruffet mead,

And thro' the faddened grove, where fcarce is heard
One dying ftrain to cheer the woodman's toil. 971
Haply fome widowed fongfter pours his plaint,
Far, in faint warblings, thro' the tawny copfe ;
While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks,
And each wild throat, whose artless strains fo late 975
Swell'd all the mufic of the fwarming fhades,
Robb'd of their tuneful fouls, now fhivering fit
On the dead tree, a full defpondent flock,
With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes,
And nought fave chattering discord in their note. 980
O let not, aim'd from some inhuman eye,
The gun the mufic of the coming year
Destroy, and harmless, unfufpecting harm,
Lay the weak tribes a miserable prey,

In mingled murder, fluttering on the ground! 985
The pale-defcending year, yet pleasing still,

A gentler mood infpires; for now the leaf,
Inceffant ruftles from the mournful grove,
Oft' startling fuch as, ftudious, walk below,

And flowly circles thro' the waving air.

999

But fhould a quicker breeze amid the boughs
Sob, o'er the sky the leafy deluge streams,
Till, chok'd and matted with the dreary shower,
The foreft-walks, at every rifing gale,

Roll widethe withered waste, and whistle bleak. 995
Fled is the blafted verdure of the fields,
And, fhrunk into their beds, the flowery race
Their funny robes refign: even what remain'd
Of ftronger fruits falls from the naked tree,
And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around 1000
The defolated prospect thrills the foul.

He comes! he comes! in every breeze the Power Of Philofophic Melancholy comes!

His near approach the fudden-starting tear,

The glowing cheek, the mild-dejected air, 1005
The foftened feature, and the beating heart,
Pierc'd deep with many a virtuous pang, declaré.
O'er all the foul his facred influence breathes,
Inflames imagination, thro' the breast
Infuses every tenderness, and far

Beyond dim earth exalts the fwelling thought.
Ten thousand thoufand fleet ideas, fuch
As never mingled with the vulgar dream,
Crowd faft into the Mind's creative eye.
As faft the correfpondent paffions rife,
As varied, and as high: devotion rais'd
To rapture and divine astonishment;
The love of Nature unconfin'd, and, chief,

1010

1015

Of human race, the large ambitious wish;

To make them bleft; the figh for fuffering Worth 1020 Loft in obfcurity; the noble fcorn

Of tyrant-pride; the fearless great

refolve:

The wonder which the dying patriot draws,
Infpiring glory thro' remotest time;

Th' awakened throb for virtue and for fame; 1025
The fympathies of love and friendship dear,

With all the focial offspring of the heart.

1030

Oh bear me, then, to vast embowering shades, To twilight groves and vifionary vales, To weeping grottos and prophetic glooms, Where angel-forms athwart the folemn dusk Tremendous fweep, or feem to fweep, along, And voices more than human, thro' the yoid Deep-founding, feize th' enthufiaftic ear!

Or is this gloom too much? Then lead, ye Powers! That o'er the garden and the rural feat

Prefide, which shining thro' the cheerful land

1036

In countless numbers bleft Britannia fces,

O lead me to the wide-extended walks,

1040

The fair majestic paradife of Stowe *!
Not Perfian Cyrus, on Ionia's fhore,
E'er faw fuch fylvan fcenes; such various art
By Genius fir'd, fuch ardent genius tam'd
By cool judicious Art, that in the ftrife
All-beauteous Nature fears to be outdone,

The feat of the Lord Vifcount Cobhain.

1045

And there, O Pitt! thy country's early boaft,
There let me fit beneath the sheltered flopes,
Or in that temple* where, in future times,
Thou well fhalt merit a distinguish'd name;
And, with thy converfe bleft, catch the last smiles
Of Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods. 1051
While there with thee th' enchanted round I walk,
The regulated wild, gay Fancy then

Will tread in thought the groves of Attic land,
Will, from thy ftandard tafte, refine her own, 1055
Correct her pencil to the pureft truth

Of Nature, or, the unimpaffion'd shades
Forfaking, raise it to the human mind.

Or if hereafter fhe, with jufter hand,

Shall draw the Tragic fcene, inftru&t her, thou, 1060 To mark the varied movements of the heart,

What every decent character requires,

And every paffion speaks: O thro' her strain

Breathe thy pathetic eloquence! that moulds
Th' attentive Senate, charms, perfuades, exalts; 1065
Of honest Zeal th' indignant lightning throws,
And shakes Corruption on her venal throne.
While thus we talk, and thro' Elyfian vales
Delighted rove, perhaps a figh escapes:
What pity, Cobham! thou thy verdant files
Of ordered trees fhouldft here inglorious range,
Inftead of fquadrons flaming o'er the field,

The temple of Virtue in Stowe-Gardens.

1079