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 severe of infinite delights!

1770

Nothing, fave rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a still-revolving train !
Whose 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
Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds
Ply the tough oar, PHILOSOPHY directs
The ruling helm; or like the liberal breath
Of potent Heaven, invisible, the fail
Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along.

1775

1780

Nor to this evanefcent 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 instant, 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 abstract; 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 passions loft, and vain pursuits,

1795

1800

AUTUMN.

The ARGUMENT.

The Jubject proposed. Address to Mr. ONSLOW. A prospect of the fields ready for harvest. Reflexions in praise of industry rais'd by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest storm. 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 rise of fountains and rivers. Birds of season confidered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western isles of SCOTLAND. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the discoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dusky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which fucceeds a calm, pure, Sun-shiny day, such as vfually shuts up the season. The harvest being gathered in, the country diffolv'd in joy. The whole concludis with a panegyric on a philofophical country life.