VII.
Thence foe profess”d of Falshood and Deceit,
Those fly artificers of tyranny,

Aye holding up before uncertain feet
His faithful light to Knowledge, Liberty,
Mankind he led, to civil policy,
And mild Religion's charitable law;
That, fram'd by Mercy and Benignity

The perfecuting sword forbids to draw,
And free-created fouls with penal terrours awe.

VIII.

+ Ne with the glorious gifts elate and vain
Lock'd he his wisdom up in churlish pride;
But, stooping from his height, would even deign
The feeble steps of Infancy to guide.
Eternal glory him therefore betide,
Let every generous youth his praise proclaim;
Who, wandering through the world's rude forest

wide, By him hath been y-taught his course to frame To Virtue's sweet abodes, and heaven-aspiring Fame !

IX.

For this the Fairy Knight with anxious thought,
And fond paternal care, his counsel pray'd;
And him of gentlest courtesy besought
His guidance to vouchsafe and friendly aid;

The

* Aye, ever.

+ Ne, mor,

The while his tender offspring he convey'd,
Tluough devious paths to that secure retreat;
Where sage Pædía, with each tuneful maid,

On a wide mount had fix'd her rural feat, 'Mid flowery gardens plac’d, untrod by vulgar feet.

X.
And now forth-pacing with his blooming heir,
And that same virtuous palmer them to guide ;
Arın'd all to point, and on a courser fair
Y-mounted high, in military pride,
His little train before he now did ride.
Him eke behind a gentle squire * ensues,
With his young lord aye marching fide by side,

His counsellour and guard, in goodly † thews, Who well had been brought up, and nurs'd by every

Muse.

every grain,

XI. Thus as their pleasing journey they pursued, With chearful argument beguiling pain : Ere long descending from an hill they view'd Beneath their eyes out-stretch'd a spacious plain. That fruitful shew'd, and apt for For pastures, vines, and flowers ; while Nature fair Sweet-smiling all around with countenance I fain

Seem'd to demand the tiller's art and care, Her wildness to correct, her lavish waste repair.

XII. Right * Ensues, follows. † Thews, manners. I Fain, earnest, eager.

XII.
Right good, I ween, and bounteous was the foil,

I
Aye wont in happy season to repay
With tenfold usury the peasant's toil.
But now 'twas ruin all, and wild decay;
Untill’d the garden and the fallow lay,
The fheep Thorne down with barren * brakes o'er-

grown
The whiles the merry peasants sport and play,

All as the public evil were unknown,
Or every public care from every breast was flownl.

XIII.
Astonith'd at a scene at once fo fair
And so deform’d; with wonder and delight
At man's neglest, and Nature's bounty rare,
In studious thought a while the Fairy Knight
Bent on that goodly I lond his eager sight:
Then forward rush'd, impatient to descry
What towns and castles there-in were g empight;

For towns him feem’d, and castles he did spy, As to th' horizon round he stretch'd his roaming eye,

XIV.

Nor long way had they travell’d, ere they came
*To a wide stream, that with tumultuous roar
Amongst rude rocks its winding course did frame.
Black was the wave and sordid, cover'd o’er

With

* Brakes, briars.
| Einpight, placed

+ Lond, land,

With angry foam, and stain’d with infants' gore. Thereto along th? unlovely margin stood A birchen grove that, waving from the shore, Aye caft upon

the tide its falling bud, And with its bitter, juice empoison d all the flood.

XV.

Right in the centre of the vale empight,
Not distant far a forked mountain role;
In outward form presenting to the fight
That fam'd Parnassian hill, on whose fair brows
The Nine Aonian Sisters wont repose ;
Listening to sweet Caftalia's founding stream,
Which through the plains of Cirrha murmuring flows,

But this to that compar’d mote juftly seem
Ne fitting haunt for gods, ne wortlıy man's esteem.

XVI.

For this nor founded deep, nor spredden wide,
Nor high up-rais'd above the level plain,
By toiling art through tedious years applied,
- From various parts compild with studious pain,
Was * erst up-thrown ; if so it mote attain,
Like that poetic mountain, to be + hight
The noble seat of Learning's goodly train.

Thereto, the more to captivate the light,
It like a garden fair most curiously was I digħt.

XVII.

In figur'd plots with leafy walls inclos"d,
By measure and by rule it was out-lay'd;
With symmetry so regular dispos'd,

fo
That plot to plot still answer’d, fhade to shade;
Each correspondent twain alike array'd
With like embellishments of plants and flowers,
Of ftatues, vases, spouting founts, that play'd

Through shells of Tritons their ascending showers, And labyrinths involv’d, and trelice-woven bowers.

XVIII.

There likewise mote be seen on every

side The yew

obedient to the planter's will, And shapely box of all their branching pride Ungently fhorne, and with preposterous skill To various beasts and birds of sundry quill Transform’d, and human shapes of monstrous fize; Huge as that giant-race, who, hill on hill

High-heaping, fought with impious vain * emprize, Despite of thundering Jove, to scale the steepy skies.

XIX. Alle other wonders of the sportive shears Fair Nature mis-adorning there were found: Globes, spiral columns, pyramids and piers With sprouting urns and budding statues crown'd;

And

Emprize, enterprize, attempt.

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