Page images
PDF
EPUB

Such joy, though far transcending sense,
Have pious fouls at parting hence.
On earth, and in the body plac'd,
A few, and evil years, they waste :
But when their chains are cast aside,
See the glad fcene unfolding wide,
Clap the glad wing, and tower away,
And mingle with the blaze of day.

HYMN TO CONTENTMENT.

L

OVELY, lafting peace of mind!
Sweet delight of human kind!
Heavenly born, and bred on high,
To crown the favorites of the sky
With more of happiness below,
Than victors in a triumph know!
Whither, O whither art thou fled,
To lay thy meek contented head;
What happy region dost thou please
To make the feat of calms and eafe!
Ambition fearches all its sphere
Of
pomp and state, to meet thee there.
Encreasing avarice would find
Thy prefence in its gold infrin'd.
The bold adventurer ploughs his way,
Through rocks amidst the foaming sea,
To gain thy love; and then perceives
Thou wert not in the rocks and waves.

The

The filent heart, which grief affails,

Treads foft and lonesome o'er the vales,
Sees dailies open, rivers run,

And seeks (as I have vainly done)
Amusing thought; but learns to know
That Solitude 's the nurfe of woe.
No real happiness is found

In trailing purple o'er the ground:
Or in a foul exalted high,

To range the circuit of the sky,
Converse with stars above, and know
All Nature in its forms below;
The rest it seeks, in seeking dies,
And doubts at laft for knowledge rife.
Lovely, lafting peace, appear!
This world itself, if thou art here,
Is once again with Eden bleft,
And man contains it in his breaft.

'Twas thus, as under fhade I ftood,

I fung my wishes to the wood,

And, loft in thought, no more perceiv'd
The branches whisper as they wav'd:
It feem'd as all the quiet place
Confefs'd the prefence of his grace.
When thus the fpoke-Go rule thy will,
Bid thy wild paffions all be still,
Know God-and bring thy heart to know
The joys which from religion flow:
Then every grace fhall prove its guest,
And I'll be there to crown the rest.

Oh!

Oh! by yonder moffy feat,
In my hours of sweet retreat;
Might I thus my foul employ,
With fense of gratitude and joy:
Rais'd as ancient prophets were,
In heavenly vision, praise, and prayer;
Pleafing all men, hurting none,
Pleas'd and blefs'd with God alone:
Then while the gardens take my fight,
With all the colours of delight;
While filver waters glide along,
To please my ear, and court my fong :
I'll lift my voice, and tune my ftring,
And thee, great Source of Nature, fing.
The fun that walks his airy way,
To light the world, and give the day;
The moon that shines with borrow'd light;
The ftars that gild the gloomy night;
The feas that roll unnumber'd waves;
The wood that spreads its fhady leaves;
The field whofe ears conceal the grain,
The yellow treafure of the plain;
All of these, and all I fee,

Should be fung, and fung by me :
They speak their Maker as they can,
But want and ask the tongue of man.
Go fearch among your idle dreams,
Your bufy or your vain extreams;
And find a life of equal blifs,
Or own the next begun in this.

THE

F

THE HERMIT.

AR in a wild, unknown to public view,

From youth to age a reverend Hermit grew;
The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food. the fruits, his drink the cryftal well:
Remote from men, with God he pafs'd the days,
Prayer all his bufinefs, all his pleasure praise.
A life fo facred, fuch ferene repofe,

Seem'd heaven itfelf, till one fuggeftion rofe;
That vice fhould triumph, virtue vice obey,
This fprung fome doubt of Providence's fway:
His hopes no more a certain profpect boast,
And all the tenour of his foul is loft:
So when a smooth expanfe receives imprest
Calm naturè's image on its watery breast,
Down bend the banks, the trees depending grow,
And skies beneath with anfwering colours glow :
But if a ftone the gentle fea divide,

Swift ruffling circles curl on every fide,

And glimmering fragments of a broken fun,
Banks, trees, and skies, in thick diforder run.
To clear this doubt, to know the world by fight,
To find if books, or fwains, report it right,
(For yet by fwains alone the world he knew,
Whose feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew)
He quits his cell; the Pilgrim-ftaff he bore,
And fix'd the fcallop in his hat before;

[blocks in formation]

Then with the fun a rifing journey went,
Sedate to think, and watching each event.

The morn was wafted in the pathless grafs,
And long and lonesome was the wild to pass;
But when the fouthern fun had warm'd the day,
A youth came pofting o'er a croffing way!
His raiment decent, his complexion fair,
And foft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair.
Then near approaching, Father, hail! ke cry'd,
And hail, my Son, the reverend Sire reply'd;
Words follow'd words, from question anfwer flow'd,
And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road;
Till each with other pleas'd, and loth to part,
While in their age they differ, join in heart.
Thus ftands an aged elm in ivy bound,
Thus youthful ivy clafps an elm around.

Now funk the fun; the clofing hour of day Came onward, mantled o'er with fober grey; Nature in filence bid the world repose;

When near the road a stately palace rofe:

There by the moon through ranks of trees they pass,
Whofe verdure crown'd their floping fides of grafs.
It chanc'd the noble mafter of the dome

Still made his house the wandering stranger's home:
Yet ftill the kindness, from a thirst of praise,
Prov'd the vain flourish of expensive ease.
The pair arrive: the livery'd fervants wait;'
Their lord receives them at the pompous gate.
The table groans with coftly piles of food,
And all is more than hospitably good.

Then

« PreviousContinue »