Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush
Of broken clouds, gay-fhifting to his beam.
The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes
Th' illumin'd mountain, thro' the foreft ftreams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist,
Far fmoaking o'er th' interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems.
Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around.
Full fwell the woods; their every music wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the diftant bleatings of the hills,
And hollow lows refponfive from the vales,
Whence blending all the fweetened zephyr springs.
Mean time refracted from yon' eaftern cloud,
Beftriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immenfe, and every hue unfolds,
In fair proportion running from the red,
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful Newton! the diffolving clouds
Form, fronting on the fun, thy show'ry prism,
And to the fage-instructed eye unfold
The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd
From the white-mingling maze. Not fo the boy;
He wondering views the bright enchantment bend,
Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but, amaz'd,
Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly,
Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds,
A foftened shade, and faturated earth,
Await the morning-beam, to give to light,
Rais'd thro' ten thousand different plastic tubes,
The balmy treasures of the former day.
Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanifts to number up their tribes,
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,
In filent fearch, or thro' the foreft, rank
With what the dull incurious weeds account,
Bursts his blind way, or climbs the mountain-rock,
Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow.
With fuch a liberal hand has Nature flung
Their feeds abroad, blown them about in winds, 230
Innumerous mix'd them with the nurfing mould,
The moistening current, and prolific rain.
But who their virtues can declare? who pierce,
With vifion pure, into these secret stores
Of health, and life, and joy? the food of man, 235
While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told
A length of golden years, unflesh'd in blood,
A ftranger to the favage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, furfeit, and difeafe;
The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world.
The firft fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race
Of uncorrupted Man, nor blush'd to fee
The fluggard fleep beneath its facred beam;
For their light flumbers gently fum'd away,
And up they rofe as vigorous as the fun,
Or to the culture of the willing glebe,
Or to the cheerful tendence of the flock.
Mean time the fong went round; and dance and sport,
Wisdom and friendly talk, fucceffive, ftole
Their hours away; while in the rofy vale
Love breath'd his infant fighs, from anguifh free,
And full replete with blifs, fave the sweet pain
That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more.
Nor yet injurious act nor furly deed
Was known among thofe happy fons of Heaven,255
For reafon and benevolence were law.
Harmonious Nature, too, look'd smiling on.
Clear fhone the fkies, cool'd with eternal gales,
And balmy spirit all.
Shot his beft rays, and ftill the gracious clouds 260
Dropp'd fatnefs down, as o'er the fwelling mead
The herds and flocks commixing play'd fecure.
This when, emergent from the gloomy wood,
The glaring lion faw, his horrid heart
Was meekened, and he join'd his fullen joy: 265
For mufic held the whole in perfect peace:
Soft figh'd the flute; the tender voice was heard,
Warbling the varied heart; the woodlands round
Apply'd their quire; and winds and waters flow'd
In confonance. Such were thofe prime of days. 270
But now thofe white unblemish'd manners, whence
The fabling poets took their Golden Age,
Are found no more amid these Iron times,
Thefe dregs of life! Now the distemper'd mind
Has loft that concord of harmonious powers
Which forms the foul of happiness, and all
Is off the poife within: the paffions all
Have burft their bounds, and Reafon, half extinct,
Or impotent, or elfe approving, fees
The foul diforder. Senfelefs and deform'd,
Convulfive Anger ftorms at large; or, pale
And filent, fettles into fell revenge.
Bafe Envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Defponding Fear, of feeble fancies full,
Weak and unmanly, loofens every power.
Even Love itfelf is bitterness of foul,
A penfive anguish pining at the heart;
Or, funk to fordid intereft, feels no more
That noble wish, that never-cloy'd defire
Which, felfish joy disdaining, seeks alone
To blefs the dearer object of its flame.
Hope fickens with extravagance; and Grief,
Of life impatient, into madness fwells,
Or in dead filence waftes the weeping hours.
Thefe, and a thousand mixt emotions more,
From ever-changing views of good and ill,
Form'd infinitely various, vex the mind
With endless storm; whence, deeply rankling, grows
The partial thought, a liftlefs unconcern,
Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good;
Then dark Difguft, and Hatred, winding Wiles,
Coward Deceit, and ruffian Violence :
At last, extinct each social feeling fell,
And joylefs Inhumanity pervades
And petrifies the heart. Nature, disturb'd,
Is deem'd, vindictive, to have chang'd her course.
Hence, in old dufky time, a deluge came;
When the deep-cleft difparting orb that arch'd
The central waters round impetuous rush'd,
With univerfal burft, into the gulf,
And o'er the high-pil'd hills of fractur'd earth
Wide dafh'd the waves, in undulation vaft,
Till, from the centre to the streaming clouds,
A fhoreless ocean tumbled round the globe.
The Seafons fince have, with feverer fway, Opprefs'd a broken world: the Winter keen Shook forth his wafte of fnows, and Summer shot His peftilential heats. Great Spring before Green'd all the year, and fruits and bloffoms blufh'd, In focial fweetnefs, on the felf-fame bough. Pure was the temperate air; an even calm Perpetual reign'd, fave what the zephyrs bland Breath'd o'er the blue expanfe: for then nor ftorms Were taught to blow nor hurricanes to rage: 325 Sound flept the waters; no fulphureous glooms Sweh'd in the fky, and fent the lightning forth; While fickly damps and cold autumnal fogs
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