Vain is the tree of knowledge without fruits! Sometimes in hand the spade or plow he caught, Forth calling all with which boon earth is fraught; Sometimes he plied the strong mechanic tool, Or rear'd the fabric from the finest draught; And oft he put himself to Neptune's 1 school, Fighting with winds and waves on the vex'd ocean pool. To solace then these rougher toils, he tried Or, to such shapes as graced Pygmalion's wife 2 Or verses framed that well might wake Apollo's lyre. Accomplish'd thus, he from the woods issued, To wit a barbarous world to civilize. Earth was still then a boundless forest wild; No government, no laws, no gentle manners mild. 1 The school of the sea. 2 Pygmalion was a sculptor of Cypress, who fell in love with his own marble statue of Venus. At his earnest prayer the statue was endowed with life, and he married it. 8 undertakings. A rugged wight, the worst of brute, was man ; It would exceed the purport of my song They lie, to slavish sloth and tyranny a prey. To crown his toils, Sir Industry then spread In the brown shades and greenwood forest lost, They lodged at large, and lived at native's cost, Save spear and bow, withouten other aid Yet not the Roman steel their naked breast dismay'd. He liked the soil, he liked the clement skies, He liked the verdant hills and flowery plains: "Be this my great, my chosen isle," he cries, "This, whilst my labor Liberty sustains, Temper'd by forming Heaven with kindest firmest hand. Here, by degrees, his master-work arose, Whatever finish'd agriculture knows, Fair queen of arts! from heaven itself who came, Then towns he quicken'd by mechanic arts, Bade tyrants tremble on remotest shores, The drooping muses then he westward called, What time the Turk the enfeebled Grecian thralled; 1 Either the East Indies or the West Indies. And brought them to another Castalie,1 Yet the fine arts were what he finished least. Up to the sunshine of encumbered ease Where no rude care the mounting thought may thrall, And where they nothing have to do but please: Ah! gracious God! thou knowest they ask no other fees. But now, alas! we live too late in time: Our patrons now e'en grudge that little claim, 1 Castalian fountain, whose waters had the power of inspiring with the gift of poetry. 2 Oxford University, situated on the Isis. 8 Cambridge University, on the Cam River. 4 Pastoral poetry. 5 The useful and the fine arts. A patron of letters. From C. Clinius Mæcenas, a special friend and patron of Horace and Virgil. The name has been applied to the Earl of Halifax and to the poet-banker, Samuel Rogers. When as the knight had framed in Britain-land Then sought he from the toilsome scene to part, For this he chose a farm in Deva's vale,1 Here, sided by the guardians of the fold, He walked his rounds, and cheered his blest domain : His days, the days of unstained nature, rolled Replete with peace and joy, like patriarchs, of old. NOTES. JAMES THOMSON, distinguished chiefly as the author of "The Seasons," was born in Ednam, in Roxburghshire, in 1700. His first published work was that portion of "The Seasons" entitled "Winter," which appeared in 1726. "Summer was published in 1727, "Spring" in 1728, and “Autumn" in 1730. "The Castle of Indolence," his last work, was published in 1748, two years before his death. "Making allowance for the time over which his influence has extended," says George Saintsbury, "no poet has given the special pleasure which poetry is capable of giving to so large a number of persons in so large a measure as Thomson." Of Thomson's indolent habits, it is related that much of his best poetry was composed while lying in bed; and an anecdote is told of his having been seen in Lord Burlington's garden, with his hands in his waistcoat pockets, biting off the riper sides of the peaches that hung in his way. 1 The valley of the river Dee, in Cheshire, noted for its pastures and dairy products. |