A foft'ned fhade, and faturated earth
Awaits the morning-beam, to give to light,
Rais'd thro' ten thousand diff'rent plastic tubes,
The balmy treasures of the former day.

THEN fpring the living herbs, profusely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the pow'r
Of botanist to number up their tribes :
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,

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In filent fearch; or thro' the forest rank

With what the dull incurious weeds account,

Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock,
Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow.

With fuch a lib'ral hand has Nature flung

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Their feeds abroad, blown them about in winds,
Innum'rous mix'd them with the nurfing mold,
The moist'ning current, and prolific rain.

But who their virtues can declare? who pierce,
With vifion pure, into these secret ftores
Of health, and life, and joy? the food of man.
While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told
A length of golden years; unflesh'd in blood,
A ftranger to the favage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, furfeit, and disease;
The lord, and not the tyrant of the world.

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THE first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladden'd race Of uncorrupted man, nor blush'd to fee

The fluggard fleep beneath its facred beam:
For their light flumbers gently fum'd away;
And up they rofe as vig'rous as the fun,
Or to the culture of the willing glebe,
Or to the cheerful tendance of the flock.

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Mean time the fong went round; and dance and sport, Wisdom and friendly talk, fucceffive, stole

Their hours away; while in the rofy vale

Love breath'd his infant fighs, from anguifh free,

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And full replete with blifs; fave the sweet pain
That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more.

Nor yet injurious act, nor furly deed,

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Was known among thofe happy fons of HEAVEN;
For reafon and benevolence were law.

Harmonious Nature too look'd smiling on.
Clear fhone the skies, cool'd with eternal gales,
And balmy spirit all. The youthful fun
Shot his best rays, and ftill the gracious clouds
Drop'd fatnefs down; as o'er the fwelling mead,
The herds and flocks, commixing, play'd fecure.
This when, emergent from the gloomy wood,
The glaring lion faw, his horrid heart
Was meeken'd, and he join'd his fullen joy.
For mufic held the whole in perfect peace :

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Soft figh'd the flute; the tender voice was heard,
Warbling the varied heart; the woodlands round
Apply'd their quire; and winds and waters flow'd
In confonance. Such were thofe prime of days. 270

BUT now those white unblemish'd manners, whence The fabling poets took their golden age, Are found no more amid these iron times, These dregs of life! Now the distemper'd mind Has loft that concord of harmonious pow'rs, Which forms the foul of happiness; and all

Is off the poife within: the paffions all

Have burft their bounds; and reafon, half extinct,
Or impotent, or elfe approving, fees

The foul diforder. Senfelefs, and deform'd,

Convulfive anger ftorms at large; or pale
And filent, fettles into fell revenge.
Base envy withers at another's joy,

And hates that excellence it cannot reach.

Defponding fear, of feeble fancies full,
Weak and unmanly, loofens every pow'r.
Even love itself is bitternefs of foul,
A pensive anguish pining at the heart;
Or, funk to fordid int'reft, feels no more
That noble wish, that never cloy'd defire,
Which, felfish joys difdaining, feeks alone
To bless the dearer object of its flame.
Hope fickens with extravagance; and grief,
Of life impatient, into madness fwells;
Or in dead filence wastes the weeping hours.
Thefe, and a thousand mix'd emotions more,
From ever-changing views of good and ill,
Form'd infinitely various, vex the mind

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With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows VOL. I.

B

The partial thought, a listless unconcern,

Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good;
Then dark difguft, and hatred, winding wiles,
Coward deceit, and ruffian violence :

At last, extinct each focial feeling, fell

And joyless inhumanity pervades

And petrifies the heart. Nature disturb'd

Is deem'd vindictive, to have chang'd her courfe.

HENCE, in old dufky time, a deluge came:
When the deep-cleft difparting orb, that arch'd
The central waters round, impetuous rufh'd,
With univerfal burst, into the gulf,

And o'er the high-pil'd hills of fractur'd earth
Wide dafh'd the waves, in undulation vast;
Till, from the centre to the ftreaming clouds,
A fhoreless ocean tumbled round the globe.

THE Seafons fince have, with feverer fway,

Opprefs'd a broken world: the Winter keen

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Shook forth his wafte of fnows; and Summer fhot His peftilential heats. Great Spring, before,

Green'd all the year; and fruits and bloffoms blush'd In focial sweetnefs, on the felf-fame bough.

Pure was the temp'rate air; an even calm Perpetual reign'd, fave what the zephyrs bland Breath'd o'er the blue expanfe: for then nor ftorms Were taught to blow, nor hurricanes to rage; Sound flept the waters; no fulphureous glooms

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Swell'd in the fky, and fent the light'ning forth;
While fickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs,
Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life.
But now, of turbid elements the fport,

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From clear to cloudy toss'd, from hot to cold,

And dry to moift, with inward eating change,

Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought,
Their period finish'd ere 'tis well begun.

AND yet the wholefome herb neglected dies;
Though with the pure exhilarating foul
Of nutriment and health, and vital pow'rs,
Beyond the fearch of art, 'tis copious bleft.
For, with hot ravine fir'd, infanguine man

Is now become the lion of the plain,

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And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold
Fierce drags the bleeting prey, ne'er drunk her milk,
Nor wore her warming fleece: nor has the steer,
At whofe ftrong cheft the deadly tyger hangs,
E'er plough'd for him. They too are temper'd high,
With hunger ftung and wild neceffity,

Nor lodges pity in their fhaggy breast.

But Man, whom Nature form'd of milder clay,
With every kind emotion in his heart,

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And taught alone to weep; while from her lap 350 She pours ten thoufand delicacies, herbs,

And fruits, as nun'rous as the drops of rain,

Or beams that give them birth: fhall he, fair form!! Who wears fweet finiles, and looks erect on heav'n,,