Of temper'd fun, and water, earth, and air, In ever-changing compofition mixt.
Such, falling frequent through the chiller night, The fragrant ftores, the wide-projected heaps Of apples, which the lufty-handed year, Innumerous, o'er the blushing orchard shakes. A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen,
Dwells in their gelid pores; and, active, points The piercing cyder for the thirty tongue : Thy native theme, and boon inspirer too, Phillips, Pomona's bard, the second thou Who nobly durft, in rhyme-unfetter'd verse, With British freedom fing the British song : How, from Silurian vats, high-sparkling wines Foam in tranfparent floods; fome ftrong, to cheer The wintery revels of the labouring hind; And tafteful fome, to cool the fummer-hours. In this glad feafon, while his fweetcft beams The fun sheds equal o'er the meeken'd day ; Oh, lofe me in the green delightful walks Of, Doddington, thy feat, ferene, and plain; Where fimple Nature reigns; and every view, Diffufive, spreads the pure Dorsetian downs, In boundless profpect; yonder fhagg'd with wood, Here rich with harveft, and there white with flocks! Meantime the grandeur of thy lofty dome, Far-fplendid, feizés on the ravish'd eye. New beauties rife with each revolving day; New columns fwell; and ftill the fresh Spring finds New plants to quicken, and new groves to green.
Full of thy genius all! the Mufes' feat: Where in the fecret bower, and winding walk, For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay. Here wandering oft, fir'd with the restless thirst Of thy applaufe, I folitary court
Th' infpiring breeze: and meditate the book Of Nature ever open; aiming thence,
Warm from the heart, to learn the moral fong. Here, as I fteal along the funny wall, Where Autumn bafks, with fruit empurpled deep, My pleafing theme continual prompts my thought: Prefents the downy peach; the fhining plumb; The ruddy, fragrant nectarine; and dark, Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig. The vine too here her curling tendrils shoots; Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the fouth; And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky.
Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight To vigorous foils, and climes of fair extent; Where, by the potent fun elated high, The vineyard fwells refulgent on the day;
Spreads o'er the vale; or up the mountain climbs, 685 Profufe; and drinks amid the funny rocks, From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heighten'd blaze. Low bend the weighty boughs. The clutters clear, Half through the foliage feen, or ardent flame, Or fhine transparent; while perfection breathes White o'er the turgent film the living dew. As thus they brighten with exalted juice, - Touch'd into flavour by the mingling ray; VOL. 1.
The rural youth and virgins o'er the field,
Each fond for each to cull th' autumnal prime, Exulting rove, and fpeak the vintage nigh.
Then comes the crushing swain; the country floats, And foams unbounded with the mashy flood; That, by degrees fermented and refin'd, Round the rais'd nations pours the cup of joy: The claret smooth, red as the lip we press In fparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl; The mellow-tafted Burgundy; and quick, As is the wit it gives, the gay champaign.
Now, by the cool declining year condens'd, Defcend the copious exhalations, check'd As up the middle sky unseen they stole, And roll the doubling fogs around the hill. No more the mountain, horrid, vast, sublime, Who pours a sweep of rivers from his fides, And high between contending kingdoms rears
The rocky long divifion, fills the view With great variety; but in a night
Of gathering vapour, from the baffled sense Sinks dark and dreary. Thence expanding far, The huge dufk, gradual, swallows up the plain : Vanish the woods; the dim-seen river feems Sullen, and flow, to roll the misty wave. Ev'n in the height of noon opprest, the fun Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide-refracted ray; Whence glaring oft, with many a broaden'd orb, He frights the nations. Indiftinct on earth, Seen through the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear; and, wilder'd, o'er the wafte The shepherd stalks gigantic. Till at last Wreath'd dun around, in deeper circles ftill Succeffive clofing, fits the general fog Unbounded o'er the world; and, mingling thick, A formless grey confusion covers all. As when of old (fo fung the Hebrew Bard) Light, uncollected, through the chaos urg'd Its infant way; nor Order yet had drawn His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.
These roving mists, that constant now begin To fmoke along the hilly country, these, With weighty rains, and melted Alpine fnows, The mountain-cifterns fill, thofe ample stores Of water, scoop'd among the hollow rocks; Whence gufh the ftreams, the ceaseless fountains play, And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw.
Some fages fay, that, where the numerous wave For ever lashes the refounding fhore,
Drill'd through the fandy ftratum, every way, The waters with the fandy ftratum rise; Amid whose angles infinitely ftrain'd, They joyful leave their jaggy falts behind,
And clear and sweeten, as they foak along. Nor stops the restless fluid, mounting ftill, Though oft amidst th' irriguous vale it springs; But to the mountain courted by the fand, That leads it darkling on in faithful maze, Far from the parent-main, it boils again Fresh into day; and all the glittering hill
Is bright with fpouting rills. But hence this vain Amufive dream! why should the waters love
To take fo far a journey to the hills,
When the fweet vallies offer to their toil
Inviting quiet, and a nearer bed?
Or if, by blind ambition led aftray,
They muft afpire; why fhould they fudden ftop Among the broken mountain's rufhy dells,
And, ere they gain its highest peak, desert
Th' attractive fand that charm'd their courfe fo long? Befides, the hard agglomerating falts,
The fpoil of ages, would impervious choak Their fecret channels; or, by flow degrees, High as the hills protrude the fwelling vales: Old Ocean too, fuck'd through the porous globe, Had long ere now forfook his horrid bed, And brought Deucalion's watery times again.
Say then, where lurk the vast eternal springs, That, like creating Nature, lie conceal'd From mortal eye, yet with their lavish stores Refresh the globe, and all its joyous tribes O, thou pervading Genius, given to man, To trace the fecrets of the dark abyfs,
O, lay the mountains bare! and wide display Their hidden ftructure to th' aftonifh'd view! Strip from the branching Alps their piny load; The huge incumbrance of horrific woods From Afian Taurus, from Imaus stretch'd Athwart the roving Tartar's fullen bounds!
Give opening Hemus to my fearching eye,
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