And shelter from the blast, in vain we hope

The tender plant fhould rear its blooming head,
Or yield the harvest promis'd in its spring.
Nor yet will every foil with equal ftores
Repay the tiller's labour; or attend
His will, obfequious, whether to produce
The olive or the laurel: diff'rent minds
Incline to diff'rent objects: one pursues
The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild;
Another fighs for harmony, and grace,

And gentleft beauty. Hence when lightning fires
The arch of heav'n, and thunders rock the ground;
When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air,
And ocean, groaning from his lowest bed,

Heaves his tempestuous billows to the sky;
Amid the mighty uproar, while below
The nations tremble, Shakespear looks abroad
From fome high cliff, fuperior, and enjoys
The elemental war. But Waller longs,
All on the margin of fome flow'ry stream,
To spread his careless limbs amid the cool
Of plantane fhades, and to the lift'ning deer,
The tale of flighted vows and love's disdain
Refounds foft warbling all the live-long day :
Confenting Zephyr fighs; the weeping rill
Joins in his plaint, melodious; mute the groves;
And hill and dale with all their echoes mourn.
Such and fo various are the tastes of men.

AKENSIDE.

СНАР.

CHAP. XXVI.

THE PLEASURES ARISING FROM A

O

CULTIVATED IMAGINATION.

BLEST of Heav'n, whom not the languid fongs
Of luxury, the Siren! not the bribes

Of fordid wealth, nor all the gaudy spoils

Of pageant honour, can feduce to leave

Thofe ever-blooming fweets, which from the store
Of nature, fair imagination culls

To charm th' enliven'd foul! What tho' not all.
Of mortal offspring can attain the height
Of envied life; tho' only few poffefs
Patrician treasures or imperial ftate;

Yet nature's care, to all her children juft,
With richer treasures and an ampler state
Endows at large whatever happy man

Will deign to use them. His the city's pomp,
The rural honours his. Whate'er adorns
The princely dome, the column and the arch,
The breathing marbles and the sculptur'd gold,
Beyond the proud poffeffor's narrow claim,
His tuneful breast enjoys. For him the fpring
Diftils her dews, and from the filken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him, the hand
Of autumn tinges every fertile branch
With blooming gold, and blushes like the morn.
Each paffing hour sheds tribute from her wings;
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,
And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes

The

The fetting fun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling shade
Afcends, but whence his bofom can partake
Fresh pleasure, unreprov'd. Nor then partakes
Fresh pleasure only: for th' attentive mind
By this harmonious action on her pow'rs,
Becomes herfelf harmonious: wont fo oft
In outward things to meditate the charm
Of facred order, foon fhe feeks at home
To find a kindred order, to exert
Within herself this elegance of love,

This fair-infpir'd delight: her temper'd pow'rs
Refine at length, and every paffion wears
A chafter, milder, more attractive mien.
But if to ampler profpects, if to gaze
On nature's form, where negligent of all
Thefe leffer graces, the affumes the port
Of that eternal Majefty that weigh'd
The world's foundations; if to these the mind
Exalts her daring eye; then mightier far

Will be the change, and nobler. Would the forms
Of fervile custom cramp her gen'rous pow'rs?
Would fordid policies, the barb'rous growth
Of ignorance and rapine, bow her down.
To tame pursuits, to indolence and fear?
Lo! fhe appeals to nature, to the winds.
And rolling waves, the fun's unwearied course,
The elements and feafons all declare

For what th' eternal Maker has ordain'd

The pow'rs of man: we feel within ourselves
His

energy divine: he tells the heart,

He meant, he made us to behold and love

What

What he beholds and loves, the general orb

Of life and being; to be great

like him,

Beneficent and active. Thus the men

Whom nature's works can charm, with GoD himself
Hold converfe; grow familiar, day by day,
With his conceptions; act upon his plan;
And form to his, the relish of their fouls.

CHAP.

XXVII.

AKENSIDE.

SLAVERY.

HARK! heard ye not that piercing cry,

Which fhook the waves and rent the sky!

E'en now, e'en now, on yonder Western shores
Weeps pale Defpair, and writhing Anguish roars:
E'en now in Afric's groves with hideous yell
Fierce SLAVERY ftalks, and flips the dogs of hell;
From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound,
And fable nations tremble at the found!-
-YE BANDS OF SENATORS! whofe fuffrage sways
Britannia's realms, whom either Ind obeys;
Who right the injured, and reward the brave,
Stretch your strong arm, for ye have power to fave!

Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread refort,
Inexorable CONSCIENCE holds his court;
With still small voice the plots of Guilt alarms,
Bares his mask'd brow, his lifted hand difarms;
But, wrapp'd in night with terrors all his own,
He speaks in thunder, when the deed is done.

Hear

Hear him, ye Senates! hear this truth fublime,

HE, WHO ALLOWS OPPRESSION, SHARES THE CRIME.' No radiant pearl, which crested Fortune wears,

No

gem, that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears, Not the bright ftars, which Night's blue arch adorn, Nor rifing funs that gild the vernal morn,

Shine with fuch luftre as the tear, that breaks

For other's woe down Virtue's manly cheeks.

DARWIN,

BOOK