20

That lives to reason ; ancient Faith that binds
The plain community of guilelers hearts
In love and union ; Innocence of ill
Their guardian genius : thefe," the powers that rule
This little world, to all its sons secure
Man's happiest life; the foul serene and found
From Passion's rage, the body from disease. 25
Red on each cheek behold the role of health ;
Firm in each finew Vigor's pliant spring,
By Temperance brac'd to peril and to pain,
Amid the floods they stem, or on the steep
Of upright rocks their straining steps furmount, 30
For food or pastime. These light up their morn,
And close their eve in Number sweetly deep,
Beneath the north, within the circling fwell
Of oceans raging sound. But last and best,
What Avarice, what Ambition shall not know, 35
True Liberty is theirs, the heaven-sent guest,
Who in the cave, or on th' uncultur'd wild,
With Independence dwells; and Peace of mind,
In youth, in age, their sun that never fets.

Daughter of heaven and nature, deign thy aid, fe
Spontaneous Muse! O whether from the depth
Of evening forest, brown with broadest shade;
Or from the brow sublime of vernal alp
As morning dawns; or from the vale at noon,
By some soft stream that slides with liquid foot 45
Through bowery groves, where Inspiration fits
And listens to thy lore, auspicious come!
O'er these wild waves, o'er this unharbour'd shore,

Tby

Thy wing high-hovering spread; and to the gale,
The boreal spirit breathing liberal round
From echoing hill to hill, the lyre attune
With answering cadence free, as best beseems
The tragic theme my plaintive verse unfolds.

Here, good Aurelius--and a scene more wild
The world around, or deeper solitude,

55 Amiction could not find-Aurelius here, By fate unequal and the crime of war Expellid his native home, the sacred vale That saw him bleft, now wretched and unknown, Wore out the flow remains of setting life

60 In bitterness of thought : and with the furge, And with the founding storm, his murmur'd moan Would often mix-Oft as remembrance sad Th’ unhappy past recallid; a faithful wife, Whom Love first chose, whom Reafon long endear'd, 65 His foul's companion and his softer friend; With one fair daughter, in her rofy prime, Her dawn of opening charms, defenceless left Within a tyrant's grasp! his foe profefs'd, By civil madness, by intemperate zeal

70 For differing rites, embitter'd into hate, And cruelty remorseless !--Thus he liv’d: If this was life, to load the blast with fighs; Hung o'er its edge, to swell the flood with tears, At midnight kour: for midnight frequent heard 75 The lonely mourner, defolate of heart, Pour all the husband, all the father forth In unavaili ng anguilh ; ftretch'd along

The

go

The naked beach; or shivering on the cliff,
Smote with the wintery pole in bitter storm, 80
Hail, snow, and hower, dark-drifting round his head.

Such were his hours.; till Time, the wretch's friend,
Life's great physician, skill'd alone to close,
Where forrow long has wak'd, the weeping eye,
And from the brain, with baleful vapours black, 85
Each fullen Spectre chace, his balm at length,
Lenient of pain, through every fever'd pulse
With gentleft hand infus'd. A pensive calm
Arose, but unassur’d: as, after winds
of ruffling wing, the sea subsiding flow
Still trembles from the storm. Now Reason first,
Her throne resuming, bid Devotion raise
To heaven his eye; and through the turbid mists,
By sense dark-drawn between, adoring own,
Sole arbiter of fate, one Cause supreme,
All-just, all-wise, who bids what still is beft, 95
In cloud or sun-fhine ; whose fevereft hand
Wounds but to heal, and chastens to amend.

Thus, in his bosom, every weak excess, The

rage of grief, the felness of revenge, To healthful meafure temper'd and reduc'd By Virtue's hand; and in her brightening beam Each error clear'd away, as fen-born fogs Before th' ascending fun; through faith he lives Beyond Time's bounded continent, the walks 105 Of Sin and Death. Anticipating heaven In pious hope, he seems already there, Safe on her facred fhore; and sees beyond,

120

In radiant view, the world of light and love,
Where Peace delights to dwell; where one fair morn
Still orient smiles, and one diffusive spring,
That fears no storm and fall.no winter know,
Th’immortal year empurples. If a figh
Yet murmurs from his breast; 'tis for the pangs
Those dearest names, a wife, a child, muft feel, 315
Still suffering in his fate: 'tis for a foe,
Who, deaf himself to mercy, may of heaven
That mercy, when most wanted, ask in vain.

The sun, now ftation’d with the lucid Twins,
O'er every southern clime had pour'd profuse
The rosy year; and in each pleasing hue,
That greens the leaf, or through the blossom glows
With florid light, his fairest month array'd :
While Zephyre, while the silver-footed dews,
Her soft attendants, wide o’er field and grove 325
Fresh spirit breathe, and shed perfuming balm.
Nor here, in this chill region, on the brow
Of winter's waste dominion, is umfelt
The ray ethereal, or unhail'd the rise
Of her mild reign. From warbling vale and hill, 130
With wild-thyme flowering, betony, and balm,
Blue lavender and carmel's spicy root,
Song, fragrance, health, ambrosiate

every
breeze.

But,

Line 132. The root of this plant, otherwise named

argatilis fylvaticus," is aromatic; and by the natives reckoned cordial to the stomach. See Martin's Western Ilies of Scotland, p. 180.

But, high above, the season full exerts Its vernant force in yonder peopled rocks, 13S To,whose wild solitude, from worlds unknown, The birds of paffage transmigrating come, Unnumber'd colonies of foreign wing, At Nature's summons their aëreal state Anjual to found; and in bold voyage steer, 146 O'er this wide ocean, through yon pathless sky, One certain flight to one appointed More: By heaven's directive spirit, here to raise ; Their temporary realm; and form secure, Where food awaits them copious from the wave, 145 And shelter from the rock, their nuptial leagues : Each tribe apart, and all on talks of love, To hatch the pregnant egg, to rear and guard Their helpless infants, piously intent.

Led by the day abroad, with lonely step, 150 And ruminating sweet and bitter thought, Aurelius, from the western bay, his eye Now rais'd to this amusive scene in air, With wonder mark'd ; now caft with level ray Wide o’er the moving wilderness of waves, 155 From pole to pole through boundless space diffus'd, Magnificently dreadful! where, at large, Leviathan, with each inferior name Of sea-born kinds, ten thousand thousand tribes, Finds endless range for pasture and for sport. 160 Ainaz'd he gazes, and adoring owns "The hand Almighty, who its channel'd bed Immeasurable sunk, and pour'd abroad,

Fenc'd