Life flows afrefh, and young-ey'd Health exalts 890
The whole creation round. Contentment walks
The funny glade, and feels an inward bliss
Spring o'er his mind, beyond the power of kings
To purchase. Pure ferenity apace

Induces thought, and contemplation still:
By fwift degrees the love of Nature works,
And warms the bofom, till at last fublim'd
To rapture and enthusiastic heat,

We feel the present Deity, and tafte

The joy of God to see a happy world!

895

900

These are the facred feelings of thy heart, Thy heart, inform'd by Reason's purer ray, O Lyttelton, the friend! thy paffions thus And meditations vary, as at large, Courting the Muse, thro' Hagley-Park thou strayest, Thy British Tempe! there along the dale!

906

910

With woods o'erhung, and shagg'd with moffy rocks,
Whence on each hand the gushing waters play,
And down the rough cafcade white-dafhing fall,
Or gleam in lengthened vifta thro' the trees,
You filent fteal, or fit beneath the shade
Of folemn oaks, that tuft the fwelling mounts,
Thrown graceful round by Nature's careless hand,
And penfive listen to the various voice

Of rural Peace: the herds, the flocks, the birds, 915
The hollow-whispering breeze, the plaint of rills,
That, purling down amid the twisted roots

Which creep around, their dewy murmurs shake From these abftracted oft',

On the footh'd ear.

You wander thro' the philofophic world,

Where in bright train continual wonders rife,
Or to the curious or the pious eye.

And oft', conducted by historic truth,

You tread the long extent of backward time,
Planning, with warm benevolence of mind,
And honeft zeal unwarp'd by party-rage,
Britannia's weal, how from the venal gulf
To raise her virtue, and her arts revive:

920

925

Or, turning thence thy view, these graver thoughts
The Mufes charm, while, with fure taste refin'd, 930
You draw th' inspiring breath of ancient fong,
Tili nobly rifes, emulous, thy own.

Perhaps thy lov'd Lucinda fhares thy walk,

With foul to thine attun'd: then Nature all

Wears to the lover's eye a look of love,
And all the tumult of a guilty world,
Tofs'd by ungenerous paffions, finks away.
The tender heart is animated peace,

And as it pours its copious treasures forth
In varied converse, softening every theme,

935

940

You, frequent paufing, turn, and from her eyes,
Where meeken'd fenfe, and amiable grace,
And lively sweetness dwell, enraptur'd, drink
That nameless fpirit of ethereal joy,
Unutterable happiness! which Love
Alone befows, and on a favour'd few.

945

Mean time you gain the height, from whofe fair brow The bursting profpect spreads immense around,

And fnatch'd o'er hill, and dale, and wood, and lawn, And verdant field, and darkening heath between, 950 And villages embosom'd soft in trees,

And fpiry towns by furging columns mark'd

Of household fmoke, your eye excurfive roams; Wide ftretching from the hall, in whofe kind haunt The hofpitable Genius lingers ftill,

To where the broken landscape, by degrees,

Afcending, roughens into rigid hills,

955

O'er which the Cambrian mountains, like far clouds That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rife.

Flush'd by the fpirit of the genial year,

960

Now from the virgin's cheek a fresher bloom
Shoots, lefs and lefs, the live carnation round;
Herlips blush deeper fweets; fhe breathes of youth;
The fhining moisture fwells into her eyes
In brighter flow; her wifhing bofom heaves 965
With palpitations wild; kind tumults seize
Her veins, and all her yielding foul is love.
From the keen gaze her lover turns away,
Full of the dear ecftatic power, and fick
With fighing languifhment. Ah then, ye Fair! 970
Be greatly cautious of your fliding hearts;
Dare not th' infectious figh; the pleading look,
Downcaft, and low, in meek fubmiffion dreft,
But full of guile: let not the fervent tongue,
Prompt to deceive, with adulation fmooth.

975

Gain on your purpos'd will: nor in the bower, Where woodbines flaunt, and rofes fhed a couch, While Evening draws her crimfon curtains round, Truft your foft minutes with betraying Man.

980

And let th' afpiring youth beware of love; Of the fmooth glance beware: for 'tis too late, When on his heart the torrent-foftnefs pours: Then do proftrate lies, and fading fame Diffolves in air away; while the fond foul, Wrapt in gay vifions of unreal blifs, 985 Still paints th' illufive form; the kindling grace, Th' enticing fmile, the modeft-feeming eye, Beneath whofe beauteous beams, belying Heaven, Lurk fearchlefs cunning, cruelty, and death: And ftill falfe-warbling in his cheated ear, Her fyren voice, enchanting, draws him on To guileful fhores, and meads of fatal joy. Even prefent, in the very lap of Love Inglorious laid, while mufic flows around, Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours,995 Amid the rofes fierce Repentance rears

fer fnaky creft: a quick-returning pang

990

Shoots thro' the confcious heart, where honour still,
And great defign, against the oppreffive load
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave.

1000

But abfent, what fantastic woes arous'd Rage in cach thought, by reftlefs musing fed, Chill the warm cheek, and blaft the bloom of life? Neglected Fortune flies, and fliding swift,

Prone into ruin fall his fcorn'd affairs.

1005 'Tis nought but gloom around; the darken'd fun Lofes his light: the rofy-bofom'd Spring

To weeping Fancy pines, and yon' bright arch,
Contracted, bends into a dufky vault.

All Nature fades extinct, and fhe alone
Heard, felt, and feen, poffeffes every thought,
Fills every fenfe, and pants in every vein.
Books are but formal dulnefs, tedious friends,
And fad amid the focial band he fits,

1010

1015

1020

Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue
Th' unfinish'd period falls; while borne away
On fwelling thought, his wafted fpirit flies
To the vain bofom of his distant fair,
And leaves the femblance of a lover fix'd
In melancholy fite, with head declin'd,
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,
Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs
To glimmering fhades and fympathetic glooms,
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling ftream,
Romantic, hangs; there thro' the pensive dufk 1025
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft,
Indulging all to love; or on the bank

1030

Thrown, amid drooping lilies, fweils the breeze
With fighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in foft anguifh he confumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement till the moon
Peeps thro' the chambers of the fleecy east,
Enlightened by degrees, and in her train