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And woods impervious to the breeze,
Thick phalanx of embodied trees,
From hills through plains in dufk array
Extended far, repel the day.

Here stilnefs, height, and folemn fhade
Invite, and contemplation aid :

Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate
The dark decrees and will of Fate,
And dreams beneath the spreading beech
Infpire, and docile Fancy teach;
While foft as breezy breath of wind
Impulfes ruftle through the mind:
Here Dryads, fcorning Phoebus' ray,"
While Pan melodious pipes away,
In measur'd motions frisk about,
Till old Silenus puts them out.
There fee the clover, pea, and bean,
Vie in variety of green;

Fresh paftures fpeckled o'er with sheep,
Brown fields their fallow fabbaths keep,
Plump Ceres golden treffes wear,

And poppy top-knots deck her hair,
And filver ftreams through meadows stray,
And Naiads on the margin play,

And leffer nymphs on fide of hills

From play-thing urns pour down the rills.
Thus fhelter'd, free from care and ftrife,
May I enjoy a calm through life;
See faction, fafe in low degree,
As men at land fee ftorms at fea,
And laugh at miferable elves,
Not kind, fo much as to themselves,

2

Curs'd

Curs'd with fuch fouls of bafe alloy,

As can poffefs but not enjoy ;
Debarr'd the pleasure to impart
By Av'rice, fphincter of the heart,
Who wealth, hard earn'd by guilty cares,
Bequeath untouch'd to thankless heirs.
May I, with look ungloom'd by Guile,
And wearing Virtue's liv'ry fmile,
Prone the diftreffed to relieve,
And little trefpaffes forgive,
With income not in Fortune's pow'r,
And skill to make a busy hour,
With trips to town, life to amuse,
To purchase books, and hear the news,
To fee old friends, brush off the clown,
And quicken Tafte at coming down.
Unhurt by Sickness' blafting rage,
And flowly mellowing into age,
When Fate extends its gathering gripe,
Fall off like fruit grown fully ripe;
Quit a worn being without pain,
In hope to bloffom foon again.

CHAP. VII.

GRONGAR HILL.

SILENT nymph, with curious eye!

Who, the purple`ev'ning, lie,
On the mountain's lonely van
Beyond the noife of bufy man,
Painting fair the form of things,
While the yellow linnet fings;
N.

GREEN.

Or

Or the tuneful nightingale
Charms the foreft with her tale;
Come with all thy various hues,
Come and aid thy fifter mufe:
Now while Phoebus riding high
Gives luftre to the land and sky!
Grongar hill invites my fong,
Draw the landscape bright and strong;
Grongar, in whofe moffy cells
Sweetly-mufing Quiet dwells;
Grongar, in whofe filent shade,
For the modeft Mufes made,
So oft I have, the evening ftill,
At the fountain of a rill,

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While ftray'd my eyes o'er Towy's flood,

Over mead, and over wood,

From houfe to houfe, from hill to hill,
Till Contemplation had her fill.

About his chequer'd fides I wind
And leave his brooks and meads behind.
And groves and grottoes where I lay.
And viftoes fhooting beams of day;
Wide and wider spreads the vale;
-As circles on a smooth canal;
The mountains round, unhappy fate!
Sooner or later of all height!

Withdraw their fummits from the skies,
And leffen as the others rife;

Still the profpect wider fpreads,

Adds a thousand woods and meads,

And

Still it widens, widens ftill,

And finks the newly rifen hill.

Now I gain the mountain's brow;
What a landscape lies below!
No clouds, no vapours intervene,
But the gay the open scene
Does the face of Nature fhow,

In all the hues of heav'n's bow!
And, fwelling to embrace the light,
Spreads around beneath the fight.
Old caftles on the cliffs arise,
Proudly tow'ring in the skies!
Rufhing from the woods, the fpires
Seem from hence ascending fires!
Half his beams Apollo fheds
On the yellow mountain-heads!
Gilds the fleeces of the flocks,
And glitters on the broken rocks!
Below me trees unnumber'd rise,
Beautiful in various dyes:

The gloomy pine, the poplar blue,
The yellow beech, the fable yew,
The flender fir, that taper grows,
The sturdy oak, with broad-spread boughs;
And beyond, the purple grove,.

Haunt of Phillis, queen of Love!
Gaudy as the op'ning dawn,
Lies a long and level lawn,

On which a dark hill, fteep and high,
Holds and charms the wand'ring eye;
Deep are his feet in Towy's flood,
His fides are cloth'd with waving wood,

N 2

Whofe

And ancient towers crown his brow,
That caft an awful look below;
Whofe ragged walls the ivy creeps;
And with her arms from falling keeps;
So both a safety from the wind
One mutual dependence find.

"Tis now the raven's bleak abode;
of the toad;

'Tis now th' apartment

And there the fox fecurely feeds;

And there the pois'nous adder breeds,
Conceal'd in ruins, mofs, and weeds:
While, ever and anon, there falls
Huge heaps of hoary noulder'd walls.
Yet time has been, that lifts the low,
And level lays the lofty brow,
Has feen this broken pile complete
Big with the vanity of state;
But tranfient is the fmile of Fate;
A little rule, a little fway,

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A fun-beam in a winter's day,
Is all the proud and mighty have
Between the cradle and the grave.

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And, fee! the rivers how they run,
Through woods and meads, in fhade and fun,
Sometimes fwift, fometimes flow,
Wave fucceeding wave, they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to endless sleep!
Thus is Nature's vefture wrought,
To inftruct our wand'ring thought;;

and
Thus the dreffes green gay,

To difperfe our cares away.

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