E Mufes, that frequent thefe walks and fhades,
The feat of calm repofe,
Which Howard's happy genius chose;
Where, taught by you, his lyre he ftrung,
And oft, like Philomel, in dusky glades,
Sweet amorous voluntaries fung!
O fay, ye kind infpiring powers!
With what melodious strain
Will you indulge my penfive vein,
And charm my folitary hours?
Begin, and Echo fhall the fong repeat;
While, skreen'd from August's feverish heat,
Beneath this fpreading elm I lie,
And view the yellow harvest far around,
The neighbouring fields with plenty crown'd, And over head a fair unclouded sky.
The wood, the park's romantic scene,
The deer, that innocent and gay
On the soft turf's perpetual green
Pass all their lives in love and play,
Are various objects of delight,
That fport with fancy, and invite
Your aid, the pleasure to complete;
Begin-and Echo fhall the fong repeat.
Hark! the kind infpiring powers
Answer from their fecret bowers,
Propitious to my call!
They join their choral voices all,
To charm my folitary hours.
Liften, they cry, thou pensive swain !
Though much the tuneful fisters love
The fields, the park, the fhady grove:
The fields, and park, and fhady grove,
The tuneful fifters now difdain,
And choose to footh thee with a fweeter strain; Molinda's praises fhall our skill employ, Molinda, Nature's pride, and every Mufe's joy! The Mufes triumph'd at her birth,
When, firft defcending from her parent skies,
This ftar of beauty shot to earth;
Love faw the fires that darted from her eyes,
He faw, and fmil'd-the winged boy
Gave early omens of her conquering fame,
And to his mother lifp'd her name,
Molinda!-Nature's pride, and every Mufe's joy.
Say, beauteous Afted! has thy honour'd shade
Ever receiv'd that lovely maid ?
Ye nymphs and fylvan deities, confefs
That shining feftal day of happiness !
For if the lovely maid was here,
April himself, though in fo fair a dress
He clothe the meads, though his delicious showers
Awake the bloffoms and the breathing flowers,
And new-create the fragrant year;
April himself, or brighter May,
Affifted by the god of day,
Never made your grove fo
Or half so full of charms appear.
Whatever rural feat fhe now doth grace,
And fhines a goddefs of the plains,
Imperial Love new triumphs there ordains,
Removes with her from place to place,
With her he keeps his court, and where she lives he reigns.
A thousand bright attendants more
Her glorious equipage compose :
There circling Pleasure ever flows:
Friendship, and Arts, a well-felected ftore,
Good-humour, Wit, and Mufic's soft delight,
The shorten'd minutes there beguile,
And sparkling Mirth, that never looks fo bright,
As when it lightens in Molinda's fmile.
Thither, ye guardian powers (if fuch there are,
Deputed from the sky
To watch o'er human-kind with friendly care),
Thither, ye gentle fpirits, fly!
If goodness like your own can move
'Your conftant zeal, your tenderest love,
For ever wait on this accomplish'd fair !
Shield her from every ruder breath of air,
Nor let invading sickness come
To blaft those beauties in their bloom.
May no misguided choice, no hapless doom,
Disturb the heaven of her fair life
With clouds of grief, or showers of melting tears;
Let harfh unkindnefs, and ungenerous ftrife,
Repining difcontent, and boding fears,
With every shape of woe, be driven away,
Like ghosts prohibited the day.
Let Peace o'er her his dovelike wings display,
And fmiling joys crown all her blissful years!
WHILE o'er the cloth thy happy pencil strays,
And the pleas'd eye its artful course surveys,
Behold the magick power of fhade and light!
A new creation opens to our fight.
Here tufted groves rife boldly to the sky,
There spacious lawns more distant charm the eye;
The crystal lakes in borrow'd tinctures shine,
And mifty hills the fair horizon join,
Loft in the azure borders of the day,
Like founds remote that die in air away.
The peopled profpect various pleasure yields,
Sheep grace the hills, and herds or fwains the fields;
Harmonious order o'er the whole prefides,
And Nature crowns the work, which Judgment guides.
Nor with lefs fkill difplay'd by thee appear
The different products of the fertile year;
While fruits with imitated ripeness glow,
And fudden flowers beneath thy pencil blow.
Such, and fo various, thy extenfive hand,
Oft in fufpenfe the pleas'd spectators stand,
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