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

Thy genial lov'd return!

For when thy folding ftar arifing shows
His paly circlet, at his warning lamp

The fragrant Hours, and Elves

Who flept in flow'rs the day,

And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows with sedge,
And sheds the fresh'ning dew, and lovelier still,
The penfive Pleasures sweet

Prepare thy fhadowy car.

Then lead, calm Vot'refs, where some sheety lake
Cheers the lone heath, or some 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 fpring fhall pour his show'rs, as oft he wont,
And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest Eve!

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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,
Affrights thy fhrinking train,

And rudely rends thy robes;

So long, fure-found beneath the Sylvan fhed,
Shall Fancy, Friendship, Science, rose-lip'd Health,
Thy gentleft influence own,
And hymn thy fav'rite name!

COLLINS

CHAP. XXVI.

ODE TO SPRING.

SWEET daughter of a rough and stormy fire,

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

And swelling buds are crown'd;

From the

green islands of eternal youth,

{Crown'd with fresh blooms, and ever-fpringing fhade) Turn, hither turn thy step,

O thou, whofe powerful voice

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

Breathe thy own tender calm.

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

Thy

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; thefe tender fhowers
That drop their sweetnefs on the infant buds,
And filent dews that fwell

The milky ear's green flem,

And feed the flowering ofier's early fhoots;
And call thofe winds which thro' the whisp'ring boughs
With warm and pleasant breath

Salute the blowing flowers.

Now let me fit beneath the whitening thorn
And mark thy spreading tints fteal o'er the dale;
And watch with patient eye

Thy fair unfolding charms.

O Nymph approach! while yet the temperate fun
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 ftreaming veil
Of lucid clouds with kind and frequent shade

Protects thy modeft blooms

From his feverer blaze,

Sweet

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

Reluctant fhall I bid thee then farewell;

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

Can aught for thee atone,

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

With fofteft influence breathes.

MRS. BARBAULJ,

CHA P. XXVII.

DOMESTIC LOVE AND HAPPINESS.

O

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 coarser tie of human laws,

Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,

That binds their peace, but harmony itself,

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 will,
With boundless confidence: for nought but love

Can answer love, and render bliss secure.
P

Let

Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To bless himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days:
Let barbarous nations, whofe 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 thofe 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 nonfenfe all?
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, fhould 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 fmiling offspring rises 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,
To pour the fresh inftruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix
The generous purpofe in the glowing breaft.
Oh fpeak the joy! ye whom the fudden tear

Surprizes

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