And shelter from the blaft, in vain we hope
The tender plant should rear its blooming head,
Or yield the harveft promis'd in its spring.
Nor yet will every foil with equal ftores
Repay the tiller's labour; or attend
His will, obfequious, whether to produce
The olive or the laurel: diff'rent minds
Incline to diff'rent objects: one purfues
The vaft alone, the wonderful, the wild;
Another fighs for harmony, and grace,

And gentleft beauty. Hence when lightning fires
The arch of heav'n, and thunders rock the ground;
When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air,
And ocean, groaning from his lowest bed,
Heaves his tempeftuous billows to the sky;
Amid the mighty uproar, while below
The nations tremble, Shakespear looks abroad
From fome high cliff, fuperior, and enjoys
The elemental war. But Waller longs,
All on the margin of some flow'ry stream,
To spread his careless limbs amid the cool
Of plantane shades, and to the lift'ning deer,
The tale of flighted vows and love's disdain
Refounds foft-warbling all the live-long day;
Confenting Zephyr fighs; the weeping rill
Joins in his plaint, melodious; mute the groves
And hill and dale with all their echoes mourn.
Such and fo various are the tastes of men.

AKENSIDE,

CHAP

CHA P. XXVI.

THE PLEASURES ARISING FROM A
CULTIVATED IMAGINATION.

O

BLEST of heav'n, whom not the languid fongs
Of luxury, the Siren! not the bribes
Of fordid wealth, nor all the gaudy spoils
Of pageant honour, can feduce to leave
Thofe ever-blooming fweets, which from the ftore
Of nature, fair imagination culls

To charm th' enliven'd foul! What tho' not all
Of mortal offspring can attain the height
Of envied life; tho' only few poffefs
Patrician treasures or imperial state;
Yet nature's care, to all her children juft,
With richer treasures and an ampler state
Indows at large whatever happy man

Will deign to use them. His the city's pomp,
The rural honours his. Whate'er adorns
The princely dome, the column and the arch,
The breathing marbles and the fculptur'd gold,
Beyond the proud poffeffor's narrow claim,
His tuneful breaft enjoys. For him the spring
Diftils her dews, and from the filken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him, the hand
Of autumn tinges every fertile branch
With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn.
Each paffing hour sheds tribute from her wings;
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,
And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes

The fetting fun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling fhade
Afcends, but whence his bofom can partake
Fresh pleasure, unreprov'd. Nor then partakes
Fresh pleasure only for th' attentive mind
By this harmonious action on her pow'rs,
Becomes herfelf harmonious: wont so oft
In outward things to meditate the charm
Of facred order, foon fhe feeks at home
To find a kindred order, to exert

Within herself this elegance of love,

This fair-infpir'd delight: her temper'd pow'rs
Refine at length, and every paffion wears
A chaffer, milder, more attractive mien.

But if to ampler profpects, if to gaze

On nature's form, where negligent of all

Thefe leffer graces, fhe affumes the port
Of that eternal Majefty that weigh'd

The world's foundations; if to these the mind
Exalts her daring eye; then mightier far
Will be the change, and nobler. Would the forms
Of fervile custom cramp her gen'rous pow'rs?
Would fordid policies, the barb'rous growth
Of ignorance and rapine, bow her down.
To tame pursuits, to indolence and fear?
Lo! fhe appeals to nature, to the winds
And rolling waves, the fun's unwearied courfe,

The elements and feafons: all declare

For what th' eternal Maker has ordain'd

The pow'rs of man: we feel within ourselves

His energy divine: he tells the heart,

"

He meant, he made us to behold and love

What

What he beholds and loves, the general orb

Of life and being; to be great like him,
Beneficent and active. Thus the men

Whom nature's works can charm, with God himself
Hold converfe: grow familiar, day by day,
With his conceptions, act upon his plan;
And form to his, the relifh of their fouls.

AKENSIDE.

BOOK

воок IV.

ARGUMENTATIVE PIECES,

CHA P. I.

ON ANGER.

QUESTION. WHETHER Anger ought to be suppressed

entirely, or only to be confined within the

bounds of moderation?

THOSE who maintain that refentment is blameable only in the excefs, fupport their opinion with fuch arguments as these,

SINCE Anger is natural and useful to man, entirely to banish it from our breast, would be an equally foolish and vain attempt: for as it is difficult, and next to impoffible, to oppofe nature with fuccefs; fo it were imprudent, if we had it in our power, to caft away the weapons with which she has furnished us for our defence. The beft armour against injuftice is a proper degree of fpirit, to repel the wrongs that are done, or defigned against us: but if we divest ourfelves of all refentment, we shall perhaps prove too irrefolute

and