Or where the beetle winds
His fmall but fullen horn,
As oft he rifes 'midft the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim born in heedlefs hum,
Now teach me, maid compos'd,
To breathe fome foftened ftrain,
Whofe numbers stealing through thy dark'ning vale,
May not unfeemly with its ftillness fuit,
As mufing flow, I hail
Thy genial love return!
For when thy folding star arifing fhews
His paly circlet, as his warning lamp
The fragrant Hours, and Elves
Who flept in flow'rs the day,
And many a Nymph who wreathes her brows 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 fheety lake
Cheers the lone heath, or fome time-hallowed pile,
Or up-land fallows grey
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-discover'd fpires,
And hears their fimple bell, and marks o'er all
Thy dewy fingers draw
The gradual dufky veil.
While fpring fhall pour his fhow'rs, as oft he won
And bathe thy breathing treffes, meekest Eve!
While Summer 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, rofe-lip'd Health,
Thy gentleft influence own,
And hymn thy fav'rite name!
WEET daughter of a rough and stormy fire,
Hoar Winter's blooming child; delightful Spring!
Whose 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 softeft 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 rove
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; thofe tender showers
That drop their sweetness on the infant buds,
And filent dews that fwell
The milky ear's green stem,
And feed 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 fun
With bathful 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 modest blooms
From his feverer blaze.
Sweet is thy reign, but short; the red dog-star
Shall fcorch thy treffes, and the mower's fcythe
Thy greens, thy flow'rets all,
Remorseless 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 fimpleft promife more delights
Than all their largest wealth, and thro' the heart
Each joy and new born hope
With foftest influence breathes.
DOMESTIC LOVE AND HAPPINESS.
HAPPY they! the happieft 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 itself,
Attuning all their paffions into love;
Where friendship full exerts her softest power,
Perfect esteem, enliven'd by defire
Ineffable, and sympathy of foul;
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundlefs confidence: for nought but love
Can anfwer love, and render bliss secure.
Let him, ungenerous, who alone, intenț
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 eastern 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 with;
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 fmiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews 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.
Délightful 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 spirit, and to fix The generous purpofe in the glowing breaft. Oh speak the joy! ye whom the fudden tear
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