Your fate unmerited, once more rejoice That yet a remnant of your race furvives. How airy and how light the graceful arch, Yet awful as the confecrated roof Re-echoing pious anthems! while beneath The chequer'd earth seems restless as a flood Brush'd by the wind. So fportive is the light Shot through the boughs, it dances as they dance, Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick,
And darkning and enlightning, as the leaves Play wanton, ev'ry moment, ev'ry spot.
And now with nerves new-brac'd and spirits chear'd We tread the wilderness, whofe well-roll'd walks With curvature of flow and eafy fweep,
Deception innocent-give ample space
To narrow bounds. The grove receives us next; Between the upright fhafts of whofe tall elms We may difcern the thresher at his task.
Thump after thump, refounds the conftant flail,
That feems to fwing uncertain, and yet falls Full on the deftin'd ear. Wide flies the chaff, The rustling ftraw fends up a frequent mist Of atoms sparkling in the noon-day beam. Come hither, ye that prefs your beds of down And fleep not: fee him fweating o'er his bread Before he eats it.-'Tis the primal curse, But foften'd into mercy; made the pledge Of chearful days, and nights without a groan.
By ceafelefs action, all that is, fubfists.
Conftant rotation of th' unwearied wheel
That nature rides upon, maintains her health, Her beauty, her fertility. She dreads.
An inftant's paufe, and lives but while fhe moves.
Its own revolvency upholds the world.
Winds from all quarters agitate the air,
And fit the limpid element for use,
Elfe noxious: oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams
All feel the fresh'ning impulse, and are cleanfed
By restless undulation; ev'n the oak
Thrives by the rude concuffion of the ftorm; He feems indeed indignant, and to feel
Th' impreffion of the blast with proud difdain, Frowning as if in his unconscious arm
He held the thunder. But the monarch owes His firm ftability to what he fcorns,
More fixt below, the more disturb'd above.
The law by which all creatures else are bound, Binds man the lord of all.
No mean advantage from a kindred cause,
From ftrenuous toil his hours of sweetest ease.
The fedentary stretch their lazy length
When custom bids, but no refreshment find, For none they need the languid eye, the cheek Deserted of its bloom, the flaccid, fhrunk, And wither'd muscle, and the vapid foul, Reproach their owner with that love of reft To which he forfeits ev'n the reft he loves.
Not fuch th' alert and active.
By its true worth, the comforts it affords, And theirs alone feems worthy of the name. Good health, and its affociate in the most, Good temper; fpirits prompt to undertake,' And not foon spent, though in an arduous task; The pow'rs of fancy and strong thought are theirs ; Ev'n age itself seems privileged in them With clear exemption from its own defects. A fparkling eye beneath a wrinkled front The vet'ran fhows, and gracing a grey beard With youthful fmiles, defcends toward the grave Sprightly, and old almost without decay.
Like a coy maiden, eafe, when courted moft, Fartheft retires-an idol, at whose shrine
Who oft'neft facrifice are favor'd leaft.
The love of Nature, and the scenes the draws
Is Nature's dictate. Strange! there should be found Who felf-imprifon'd in their proud faloons,
Renounce the odors of the open field
For the unfcented fictions' of the loom. Who fatisfied with only pencil'd scenes, Prefer to the performance of a God
Th' inferior wonders of an artist's hand. Lovely indeed the mimic works of art, But Nature's works far lovelier. I admire- None more admires the painter's magic skill, Who fhews me that which I fhall never fee, Conveys a distant country into mine,
And throws Italian light on English walls. But imitative ftrokes can do no more
Than please the eye, fweet Nature ev'ry sense. The air falubrious of her lofty hills,
The chearing fragrance of her dewy vales And mufic of her woods-no works of man May rival these; these all bespeak a power Peculiar, and exclusively her own. Beneath the open sky she spreads the feast ; 'Tis free to all-'tis ev'ry day renew'd, Who fcorns it, ftarves defervedly at home.
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