1770

Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill 1765
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool
Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line or dares the wintry pole ;
Mother fevere of infinite delights!
Nothing, fave rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train !
Whofe horrid circle had made human life
Than non-existence worse: but, taught by thee,
Ours are the plans of policy, and peace;
To live like brothers, and conjunctive all

1775

Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds
Ply the tough oar, PHILOSOPHY directs

The ruling helm; or like the liberal breath
Of potent Heaven, invifible, the fail

1780

Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along.

Nor to this evanescent speck of earth Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high. Are her exalted range; intent to gaze

Creation thro'; and, from that full complex

1785

Of never-ending wonders, to conceive

Of the SOLE BEING right, who spoke the Word,
And Nature mov'd compleat. With inward view,
Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns

Her eye; and inftant, at her powerful glance, 1790
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear;

Compound, divide, and into order shift,

Each

Each to his rank, from plain perception up
To the fair forms of Fancy's fleeting train :
To reason then, deducing truth from truth;
And notion quite abftract; where first begins
The world of fpirits, action all, and life
Unfetter'd, and unmix'd. But here the cloud,
So wills ETERNAL PROVIDENCE, fits deep.
Enough for us to know that this dark flate,
In wayward paffions loft, and vain pursuits,
This Infancy of Being, cannot prove

1795

1800

The final iffue of the works of God,

By boundless LovE and perfect WISDOM form'd,

And ever rifing with the rifing mind.

1805

AUTUMN.

AUTUM N.

The ARGUMENT.

The Jubject propofed. Addrefs to Mr. ONSLOW. A profpect of the fields ready for harveft. Reflexions in praise of industry rais'd by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A barveft form. Shooting and hunting, their barbarity. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn: whence a digreffion, enquiring into the rife of fountains and rivers. Birds of feafon confidered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western ifles of SCOTLAND. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the difcoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dusky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which fucceeds a calm, pure, fun-fhiny day, fuch as vfually fhuts up the feafon. The harvest being gathered in, the country diffolv'd in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philofophical country life.