And with joint force Oppreffion chaining, fet
Imperial Justice at the helm; yet ftill
To them accountable: nor flavish dream'd
That toiling millions must resign their weal,
And all the honey of their fearch, to fuch
As for themselves alone themselves have rais'd.
HENCE every form of cultivated life In order fet, protected, and infpir'd, Into perfection wrought. Uniting all, Society grew numerous, high, polite, And happy. Nurse of art! the city rear'd In beauteous pride her tower-encircled head; And, ftretching street on street, by thousands drew, From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew 116 To bows ftrong-ftraining, her afpiring fons.
THEN COMMERCE brought into the public walk The bufy merchant; the big ware-house built; 119 Rais'd the ftrong crane; choak'd up the loaded street With foreign plenty; and thy stream, OTHAMES, Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods! Chose for his grand refort. On either hand, Like a long wintry foreft, groves of masts Shot up their spires; the bellying sheet between 125 Poffefs'd the breezy void; the footy hulk
Steer'd fluggish on; the splendid barge along
Row'd, regular, to harmony; around,
The boat, light-fkimming, ftretch'd its oary wings;
While deep the various voice of fervent toil 130 From bank to bank increas'd; whence ribb'd with oak, To bear the BRITISH THUNDER, black, and bold, The roaring veffel rush'd into the main.
THEN too the pillar'd dome, magnific, heav'd Its ample roof; and luxury within
135 Pour'd out her glittering ftores: the canvas smooth, With glowing life protuberant, to the view Embodied rofe; the ftatue seem'd to breathe, And foften into flesh, beneath the touch Of forming art, imagination-flush'd.
ALL is the gift of INDUSTRY; whate’er Exalts, embellishes, and renders life Delightful. Penfive Winter chear'd by him Sits at the focial fire, and happy hears
Th' excluded tempest idly rave along ;
His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring;
Without him Summer were an arid wafte;
Nor to th' autumnal months could thus tranfmit
Thofe full, mature, immeasurable stores,
That, waving round, recal my wandering fong. 150
Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky,
And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the spreading day;
Before the ripened field the reapers ftand,
In fair array; each by the lass he loves,
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate
By nameless gentle offices her toil.
At once they stoop and fwell the lufty sheaves;
While thro' their chearful band the rural talk,
The rural fcandal and the rural jest,
Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And steal unfelt the fultry hours away.
Behind the mafter walks, builds up the fhocks;
And, confcious, glancing oft on every fide
His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners spread around, and here and there,
Spike after spike, their fparing harvest pick.
Be not too narrow, hufbandmen! but fling
From the full fheaf, with charitable ftealth,
The liberal handful. Think, oh grateful think!
How good the GOD of HARVEST is to you;
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields;
While thefe unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask their humble dole. The various turns.
Of fortune ponder; that your fons may want 175
What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give.
THE lovely young LAVINIA once had friends;
And Fortune fmil'd, deceitful, on her birth.
For in her helplefs years depriv'd of all,
Of every stay, fave Innocence and HEAVEN,
She with her widow'd mother, feeble, old,
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd
Among the windings of a woody vale;
By folitude and deep furrounding shades,
But more by bashful modefty, conceal'd.
Together thus they fhunn'd the cruel fcorn
Which virtue, funk to poverty, would meet
From giddy paffion and low-minded pride:
Almoft on Nature's common bounty fed;
Like the gay birds that fung them to repofe,
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare.
Her form was fresher than the morning rofe,
When the dew wets its leaves; unftain'd, and pure,
As is the lily, or the mountain fnow.
The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes,
Still on the ground dejected, darting all
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers:
Or when the mournful tale her mother told,
Of what her faithlefs fortune promis'd once,
Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy ftar 200
Of evening, fhone in tears. A native grace
Sat fair-proportion'd on her polish'd limbs,
Veil'd in a fimple robe, their best attire,
Beyond the pomp of drefs; for loveliness
Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,
But is when unadorn'd adorn'd the most.
Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self,
Reclufe amid the clofe-embowering woods.
As in the hollow breaft of Appenine,
Beneath the shelter of encircling hills,
A myrtle rifes, far from human eye,
And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild;
So flourish'd blooming, and unseen by all,
The fweet LAVINIA; till, at length, compell'd
By ftrong Neceffity's fupreme command,
With fmiling patience in her looks, she went
To glean PALEMON's fields. The pride of fwains
PALEMON was, the generous, and the rich;
Who led the rural life in all its joy
And elegance, fuch as Arcadian fong
Tranfmits from ancient uncorrupted times;
When tyrant custom had not shackled Man,
But free to follow Nature was the mode.
He then, his fancy with autumnal scenes
Amufing, chanc'd befide his reaper-train
To walk, when poor LAVINIA drew his eye ;
Unconscious of her power, and turning quick
With unaffected blushes from his
He saw her charming, but he faw not half
The charms her down-caft modesty conceal'd.
That very moment love and chafte defire
Sprung in his bofom, to himself unknown;
For itill the world prevail'd, and its dread laugh,
Which fcarce the firin philofopher can fcorn,'
Should his heart own a gleaner in the field.
And thus in fecret to his foul he figh'd.
"WHAT pity that fo delicate a form, "By beauty kindled, where enlivening sense “And more than vulgar goodness seem to dwell, "Should be devoted to the rude embrace
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