Or where the beetle winds

His fmall but fullen horn,

As oft he rifes 'midft the twilight path,

Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum,
Now teach me, maid compos'd,

To breathe fome softened strain,

Whofe numbers ftealing through thy dark'ning vale,
May not unfeemly with its ftillness suit,
As mufing flow, I hail

Thy genial lov'd return!

For when thy folding star arifing fhows
His paly oriclet, at his warning lamp
The fragrant Hours, and Elves
Who flept in flow'rs the day,

And many a Nymph who wreathes her brow, with fedge,
And sheds the fresh'ning dew, and lovelier ftill,
The penfive Pleasures sweet

Prepare thy fhadowy car.

Then lead, calm Vot'refs, where fome sheety lake.
Cheers the lone heath, or fome time hallowed pile,
Or up-land fallows gray
Reflect its laft cool gleam.

But when chill bluft'ring winds, or driving rain,
Forbid my willing feet, be mine the hut,
That from the mountain's fide,

Views wilds, and fwelling floods,

And hamlets brown, and dim-difcover'd fpires,
And hears their fimple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw

The gradual dusky veil.

While spring shall pour his fhow'rs, as oft he wont,
And bathe thy breathing treffes, meekeft Eve!

While fummer loves to sport
Beneath thy ling'ring light:

While fallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves :
Or Winter yelling through the troublous air,
Affright thy fhrinking train,

And rudely rends thy robes;

So long, fure-found beneath the Sylvan fhed,
Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rofe-lip'd Health,
Thy gentleft influence own,

And hymn thy fav'rite name!

COLLINS,

S

CHA P. XXVI.

ODE TO SPRING.

WEET daughter of a rough and ftormy fire,

Hoar Winter's blooming child; delightful spring!
Whofe unfhorn locks with leaves

And fwelling buds are crown'd;

From the green islands of eternal youth,
(Crown'd with freshb looms, and ever-springing shade)
Turn, hither turn thy step,

O thou, whofe powerful voice.

More fweet than softest touch of Doric reed,
Or Lydian flute, can footh the madding winds,
And thro' the ftormy deep

Breathe thy own tender calm.

Thee, best belov'd! the virgin train await,
With fongs and feftal rites, and joy to love

Th

Thy blooming wilds among,

And vales and dewy lawns.

With untir'd feet; and cull thy earliest sweets
To weave fresh garlands for the glowing brow
Of him the favour'd youth

That prompts their whisper'd figh.

Unlock thy copious ftores; those tender showers
That drop their fweetness on the infant buds,
And filent dews that fwell

The milky ear's green stem.

And feeds the flowering ofier's early shoots;
And call thofe winds which thro' the whifp'ring boughs
With warm and pleasant breath

Salute the blowing flowers.

Now let me fit beneath the whitening thorn
And mark thy fpreading tints fteal o'er the dale

And watch with patient eye

Thy fair unfolding charms.

O Nymph approach! while yet the temperate funt
With bashful forehead, thro' the cool moist air
Throws his young maiden beams,

And with chafte kiffes wooes.

The earth's fair bofom; while the streaming veil
Of lucid clouds with kind and frequent shade

Protects thy modest blooms

From his feverer blaze.

Sweet

Sweet is thy reign, but short; the red dog-star
Shall fcorch thy treffes, and the mower's scythe
Thy greens, thy flow'rets all,
Remorfeless shall destroy.

Reluctant fhall I bid thee then farewel;

For O, not all that Autumn's lap contains,
Nor Summer's ruddieft fruits,

Can aught for thee atone.

Fair Spring! whofe fimplest promise more delights
Than all their largest wealth, and thro' the heart
Each joy and new born hope

With fofteft influence breathes.

MRS. BARBAULD.

CHA P. XXVII.

DOMESTIC LOVE AND HAPPINESS.

HAPPY they! the happiest of their kind !
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate

Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend,
'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itfelf,

Attuning all their paffions into love;

Where friendship full exerts her foftest power,

Perfect esteem, enliven'd by defire

Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;

Thought meeting thought, and will preventing wil',
With boundless confidence: for nought but love

Can anfwer love, and render bliss secure.
P

Le

Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To blefs himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days;
Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love
Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel;
Let eaftern tyrants from the light of Heaven
Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a mere lifelefs, violated form :

While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal tranfport, free as nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all?
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven.
Mean-time a smiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows ; and every day,

Soft as it rolls along, fhows fome new charm,

The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,

Το

pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breast. Oh speak the joy! ye whom the fudden tear

Surprizes