"Perplex'd and giddy, till the radiant pow'r
"Who bad the vifionary landscape rife,
"As up to him I turn'd with gentleft looks,
"Preventing my inquiry thus began:"

665

"There let thy foul acknowledge its complaint "How blind, how impious! there behold the ways "Of Heav'n's eternal destiny to man

"For ever juft, benevolent, and wife,
"That Virtue's awful steps howe'er purfu'd
"By vexing Fortuné and intrusive Pain,
"Should never be divided from her chaste,
"Her fair, attendant Pleasure. Need I urge

Thy tardy thought thro' all the various round
"Of this existence, that thy foft'ning foul
"At length may learn what energy the hand
"Of Virtue mingles in the bitter tide
"Of paffion fwelling with diftrefs and pain,
"To mitigate the sharp with gracious drops
"Of cordial pleasure? Ask the faithful youth
"Why the cold urn of her whom long he lov'd
"So often fills his arms, so often draws

"His lonely footsteps at the filent hour
"To pay the mournful tribute of his tears?
"O! he will tell thee that the wealth of worlds
"Should ne'er feduce his bofom to forego

673

675

689

685

"That facred hour when, stealing from the noise 694 "Of care and envy, fweet remembrance fooths "With Virtue's kindest looks his aking breast,

700

705

"And turns his tears to raptur.-Ask the crowd "Which flies impatient from the village' walk "To climb the neighb'ring cliffs when far below 695 "The cruel winds have hurl'd upon the coaft "Some helpless bark, while facred Pity melts "The gen'ral eye, or Terrour's icy hand "Smites their diftorted limbs and horrent hair,' "While ev'ry mother clofer to her breast "Catches her child, and pointing where the waves "Foam thro' the fhatter'd veffel, fhrieks aloud "As one poor wretch that fpreads his piteous arms "For fuccour fwallow'd by the roaring furge, "As how another dafh'd against the rock "Drops lifelefs down! O! deemt thou indeed" No kind endearment here by Nature giv'n "To mutual terrour and Compaffion's tears? "No fweetly melting foftnefs which attracts, "O'er all that edge of pain, the focial pow'rs "To this their proper action and their end? "Afk thy own heart when at the midnight hour Slow thro' that ftudious gloom thy paufing eye, "Led by the glimm'ring taper, moves around "The facred volumes of the dead, the fongs "Of Grecian bards, and records writ by Fame For Grecian heroes, where the préfent pow'r' Of heav'n' and earth furveys th' immortal page, "Ev'n as a father being While he leads "The praife's of his fon, if then thy foul,

710

་་

715

720

'Spurning the yoke of these inglorious days, "Mix in their deeds and kindle with their flame? Say, when the profpect blackens on thy view, "When rooted from the bafe heroick ftates "Mourn in the duft, and tremble at the frown. 725 "Of curft Ambition; when the pious band

"Of youths who fought for freedom, and their fires, "Lie fide by fide in gore; when ruffian Pride

Ufurps the throne of Juftice, turns the pomp "Of publick pow'r, the majesty of rule, "The fword, the laurel, and the purple robe, To flavish empty pageants, to adorn

"A tyrant's walk, and glitter in the eyes
"Of fuch as bow the knee; when honour'd urns

730

"Of patriots and of chiefs, the awful bust

"And story'd arch, to glut the coward-rage

"Of regal envy ftrew the publick way

"With hallow'd ruins; when the Mufes' haunt, "The marble Porch where Wisdom woat to talk "With Socrates or Tully, hears no more!

735

740

"Save the hoarfe jargon of contentious monks, G* "Or female Superftition's midnight.pray 'r; "When ruthlefs Rapine from the hand of Time "Tears the destroying fithe, with furer blow "To fweep the works of glory from the base, "Till Defolation o'er the grafs-grown street "Expands his raven wings, and up the wall, "Where fenates once the price of monarchs doom'd

745

"Hiffes the gliding fnake thro' hoary weeds "That clafp the mould'ring column: thus defaced, Thus widely mournful when the profpect thrills 75 1 "Thy beating bofom, when the patriot's tear

"Starts from thine eye, and thy extended arm "In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jeve

To five the impious wreath on Philip's brow, 753 "Or dash Octavius from the trophy'd car,

Say, does thy fecret foul repine to taste

The big diftress ? or wouldst thou then exchange "Those heart-ennobling forrows for the lot "Of him who fits amid the gaudy herd "Of mute Barbarians bending to his nod, "And bears aloft his gold-invested front,

760

And fays within himself, "I am a king, "And wherefore should the clam'rous voice of Wo Intrude upon mine ear?"-The baleful dregs 765 "Of thefe late ages, this inglorious draught "Offervitude and folly, have not yet,

Bleft be th' Eternal Ruler of the world! "Defil'd to fuch a depth of fordid shame "The native honours of the human foul, "Nor fo effac'd the image of its Sire."

V.755. Philip.] The Macedonian.

THE

PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

BOOK III.

THE ARGUMENT.

PLEASURE in obferving the tempers and manners of men, even where, vicious or abfurd. The origin of vice, from false representations of the fancy producing falfe opinions concerning good and evil. Inquiry into ridicule. The general fources of ridicule in the minds and characters of men enumerated, Final cause of the fenfe of ridicule. The refem blance of certain afpets of inanimate things to the fenfations and properties of the mind. The operations of the mind in the production of the works of Imagination defcribed. The fecondary Pleasure from imi, tation. The benevolent order of the world illuftrated in the arbitrary connexion of thefe Pleasures with the objects which excite them. The nature and conduct of tafte. Concluding with an account of the natural and moral advantages refulting from a fenfible and well formed-Imagi.

nation

WHA
HAT wonder therefore fince th' endearing ties
Of paffion link the univerfal kind

Of man fo clofe, what wonder if to fearch-
This common nature thro' the various change
Of fex, and age, and fortune, and the frame
Of each peculiar, draw the bufy mind
With unrefifted charms? The fpacious weft
And all the teeming regions of the fouth
Hold not a quarry to the curious flight
Of knowledge half fo tempting or so fair
As man to man; nor only where the fmiles
Of love invite, nor only where th' applaufe
Of cordial honour turns th' attentive eye

On Virtue's graceful deeds; for fince the courfe

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