Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, Thy fober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
Ah! whither now are fled,
Thofe dreams of greatnefs? thofe unfolid hopes
Of happiness? thofe longings after fame?
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
Thofe gay-spent, feftive nights? thofe veering thoughts
Loft between good and ill, that fhar'd thy life?
All now are vanish'd! VIRTUE fole-furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of Man,
His guide to happiness on high. And fee!
'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth
Of heaven and earth! awakening Nature hears
The new-creating word, and starts to life,
In every heightened form, from pain and death
For ever free. The great eternal fcheme
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the profpect wider spreads,
To reafon's refin'd clears up apace.
Ye vainly wife! ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that POWER,
And WISDOM oft arraign'd: fee now the cause,
Why unaffuming worth in fecret liv'd,
And dy'd, neglected: why the good Man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd
In starving folitude; while luxury,
In palaces, lay ftraining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born Truth,
And Moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of Superftition's fcourge: why licens'd Pain,
That cruel fpoiler, that embofom'd foe,
Imbitter'd all our blifs. Ye good distrest!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's preffure, yet bear up a while,
And what your bounded view, which only faw
A little part, deem'd Evil, is no more;
The ftorms of WINTRY TIME will quickly pass,
And one unbounded SPRING encircle all.
THESE, as they change, ALMIGHTY FATHER, these,
Are but the varied GOD. The rolling year
Is full of THEE. Forth in the pleasing Spring
THY beauty walks, THY tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the foftening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the foreft fmiles ;
And every fenfe, and every heart is joy.
Then comes THY glory in the Summer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then THY fun.
Shoots full perfection thro' the fwelling year:
And oft THY Voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales.
THY bounty fhines in Autumn unconfin'd,
And fpreads a common feast for all that lives.
In Winter awful THOU! with clouds and ftorms
Around THEE thrown, tempeft o'er tempeft roll'd,
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding fublime, THOU bidft the world adore,
And humblest Nature, with THY northern blast.
Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a fimple train,
Yet fo delightful mix'd with fuch kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combin'd;
Shade, unperceiv'd, fo foftening into shade;
And all fo forming an harmonious whole;
That, as they still fucceed, they ravish still.
But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not THEE, marks not the mighty hand,
That, ever-busy, wheels the filent spheres;
Works in the fecret deep; fhoots, fteaming, thence
The fair profufion that o'erfpreads the Spring:
Flings from the fun direct the flaming day;
Feeds every creature; hurls the tempeft forth;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With transport touches all the springs of life.
NATURE, attend! join every living foul,
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky,
In adoration join; and, ardent, raise
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