LIV.

"But fhould your hearts to fame unfeeling be, "If right I read, you pleasure all require : "Then hear how best may be obtain'd this fee, "How best enjoy'd this nature's wide defire. "Toil, and be glad! let Industry inspire "Into your quicken'd limbs her buoyant breath! "Who does not act is dead; abforpt entire In miry floth, no pride, no joy he hath: * O leaden-hearted men, to be in love with death! LV.

"Ah! what avail the largest gifts of Heaven,
"When drooping health and spirits go amiss ?
How taftelefs then whatever can be given?
Health is the vital principle of bliss,
"And exercise of health. In proof of this,
"Behold the wretch, who flugs his life away,
"Soon fwallow'd in disease's fad abyss;

"While he whom toil has brac'd, or manly play,

Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as

LVI.

[day. "O, who can speak the vigorous joy of health! << Unclogg'd the body, unobscur'd the mind : "The morning rifes gay, with pleasing stealth, "The temperate evening falls ferene and kind.

In health the wifer brutes true gladness find.

See! how the younglings frisk along the meads, "As May comes on, and wakes the balmy wind; "Rampant with life, their joy all joy exceeds: "Yet what but high-ftrung health this dancing plea

"faunce breeds?

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LVII. "T

LVII.

"But here, inftead, is fofter'd every ill, "Which or diftemper❜d minds or bodies know. "Come then, my kindred fpirits ! do not fpill "Your talents here. This place is but a fhew, "Whose charms delude you to the den of woe: "Come, follow me, I will direct you right, "Where pleasure's rofes, void of ferpents, grow, "Sincere as sweet; come, follow this good knight, “And you will bless the day that brought him to your LVIII. [fight. "Some he will lead to courts, and fome to camps; "To fenates fome, and public fage debates, "Where, by the folemn gleam of midnight-lamps, "The world is pois'd, and manag'd mighty states; "To high discovery fome, that new-creates

"The face of earth; fome to the thriving mart; "Some to the rural reign, and softer fates ;

"To the fweet Mufes fome, who raise the heart; "All glory fhall be yours, all nature, and all art. LIX.

"There are, I fee, who listen to my lay,
"Who wretched figh for virtue, but despair.

"All may be done, (methinks I hear them fay)
"Ev'n death defpis'd by generous actions fair ;
"All, but for those who to thefe bowers repair,
"Their every power diffolv'd in luxury,

To quit of torpid fluggishness the lair,

"And from the powerful arms of floth get free. " 'Tis rifing from the dead-Alas!-It cannot be ! LX. "Would

LX.

Would you then learn to diffipate the band "Of these huge threatening difficulties dire, "That in the weak man's way like lions ftand, "His foul appall, and damp his rising fire? "Refolve, refolve, and to be men afpire. "Exert that noblest privilege, alone,

"Here to mankind indulg'd: control defire: "Let godlike Reafon, from her fovereign throne, "Speak the commanding word—I will—and it is done. LXI.

"Heavens! can you then thus wafte, in fhameful wise, "Your few important days of tryal here ? "Heirs of eternity! yborn to rise

"Through endless states of being, still more near "To blifs approaching, and perfection clear, "Can you renounce a fortune fo fublime,

"Such glorious hopes, your backward steps to fteer. "And roll, with vileft brutes, thro' mud and flime? "No! no!-Your heaven-touch'd heart difdains the

LXII.

[crowd,

[fordid crime!" "Enough! enough!" they cry'd-ftrait from the The better fort on wings of transport fly : As when amid the lifeless summits proud Of Alpine cliffs, where to the gelid sky Snows pil'd on fnows in wintery torpor lie, The rays divine of vernal Phœbus play;

Th' awaken'd heaps, in ftreamlets from on high,
Rouz'd into action, lively leap away,

[gay. Glad warbling through the vales, in their new being

LXIII.

Not lefs the life, the vivid joy ferene,
That lighted up these new-created men,
Than that which wings th' exulting spirit clean,
When, juft deliver'd from his fleshly den,
It foaring feeks its native skies agen:

How light its effence! how unclogg'd its powers,
Beyond the blazon of my mortal pen!

Ev'n fo we glad forfook these finful bowers,
Ev'n fuch enraptur'd life, fuch energy was ours.
LXIV.

But far the greater part, with rage inflam'd, Dire-mutter'd curfes, and blafphem'd high Jove. "Ye fons of hate! (they bitterly exclaim'd) "What brought you to this feat of peace and love? <<<While with kind nature, here amid the grove, "We pafs'd the harmless fabbath of our time, "What to disturb it could, fell men, emove "Your barbarous hearts? Is happiness a crime? “Then do the fiends of hell rule in yon heaven fublime. LXV.

"Ye impious wretches," (quoth the knight in wrath) "Your happiness behold!"-Then strait a wand He wav'd, an anti-magic power that hath, Truth from illufive falfehood to command. Sudden the landskip finks on every hand;

The pure quick streams are marshy puddles found; On baleful heaths the groves all blacken'd stand; And, o'er the weedy foul abhorred ground,

Snakes, adders, toads, each loathsome creature crawls LXVI. And

around.

LXVI.

And here and there, on trees by lightning feath'd,
Unhappy wights who loathed life yhung;

Or, in fresh gore and recent murder bath'd,
They weltering lay; or else, infuriate flung
Into the gloomy flood, while ravens fung

The funeral dirge, they down the torrent roll'd:
Thefe, by distemper'd blood to madness stung,
Had doom'd themselves; whence oft, when night
control'd

The world, returning hither their fad fpirits howl'd.
LXVII.

Meantime a moving scene was open laid;
That lazar-houfe, I whilom in my lay
Depeinted have, its horrors deep-display'd,
And gave unnumber'd wretches to the day,
Who toffing there in fqualid mifery lay.
Soon as of facred light th' unwonted smile
Pour'd on these living catacombs its ray,

Through the drear caverns ftretching many a mile,

LXVIII.

The fick up-rais'd their heads, and dropp'd their woes [awhile. "O, heaven! (they cry'd) and do we once more fee "Yon bleffed fun, and this green earth so fair? "Are we from noifome damps of pest-house free? "And drink our fouls the sweet ethereal air? "O, thou! or knight, or god! who holdest there “That fiend, oh, keep him in eternal chains! "But what for us, the children of despair, "Brought to the brink of hell, what hope remains? "Repentance does itself but aggravate our pains." LXIX. The

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