AND thou, my youthful Mufe's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite :
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wifdom; the gay focial fenfe,
By decency chaftis'd; goodness and wit,
In feldom-meeting harmony conbin'd ;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For BRITAIN'S glory, Liberty, and Man:
O DODDINGTON! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy just applause.
WITH what an awful world revolving power
Were first th' unweildy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void? Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thoufand years,
That oft has swept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs in their course;
To the kind temper'd change of night and day,
And of the feafons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful: Such TH' ALL PERFECT HAND!
That pois'd, impels, and rules the fteady whole.
WHEN now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd, And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint-gleaming in the dappl'd eaft:
Till far o'er æther fpreads the wid'ning glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step
Brown Night retires: young Day pours in apace, 51
And opens all the lawny profpect wide,
The dripping rock, the mountain's mifty top
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, thro' the dufk, the smoking currents fhine; 55
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward: while along the foreft glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy ;
And thick around the woodland hymns arife,
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.
FALSELY luxurious, will not man awake;
And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To meditation due and facred fong?
For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?
To lie in deed oblivion, lofing half
The fleeting moments of too short a life;
Total extinction of th' enlighten'd foul !
Or else to feverish vanity alive,
Wilder'd, and toffing thro' diftemper'd dreams ?
Who would in fuch a gloomy ftate remain
Longer than Nature craves; when every Mufe
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To blefs the wildly-devious morning-walk?
But yonder comes the pow'rful King of Day,
Rejoicing in the east. The lefs ning cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow
İllum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo; now, apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;
And fheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and tow'rs, and wand'ring streams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime chearer light!
Of all material beings first, and best!
Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe !
Without whofe vefting beauty all were wrapt
In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Sun!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom beft feen.
Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee?
'Tis by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy fyftem rolls entire: from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whose disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
INFORMER of the planetary train !
Without whofe quick'ning glance their cumb'rous orbi
Were brute unlovely mafs, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abodes of life!
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling fpirit; from th' unfetter'd mind,
By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam,
THE vegetable world is alfo thine,
Parent of Seafons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as thro' thy vaft domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing ftate, it moves fublime,
Mean time th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up
A common hymn; while, round thy beaming car
High-feen, the Seafons lead in fprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours,
The Zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,
-Or bloom ethereal the light-footed Derws,
And foften'd into joy the furly Storms.
These, in fucceffive turn, with lavish hand,
Show'r every beauty, every fragrance fhow'r,
Herbs, flowers, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch, From land to land is flufh'd the vernal year.
Nor to the furface of th' enliven'd earth,
Graceful with hills, and dales, and leafy woods, 130
Her lib'ral treffes, is thy force confin'd :
But, to the bowel'd cavern darting deep,
The minʼral kinds confefs thy mighty power.
Effulgent, hence the veiny marble fhines;
Hence labour draws his tools; hence burnish'd war
Gleams on the day; the nobler works of peace 136
Hence blefs mankind, and gen'rous Commerce binds
The round of nations in a golden chain.
TH' unfruitful rock itself impregn'd by thee,
In dark retirement forms the lucid ftone.
The lively Diamond drinks thy pureft rays,
Collected light, compact; that, polifh'd bright,
And all its native luftre let abroad,
Dares, as it fparkles on the fair one's breast,
With vain ambition emulate her eyes.
At thee the Ruby lights its deep'ning glow,
And with a waving radiance inward flames.
From thee the Sapphire, folid æther, takes
Its hue cerulean; and, of ev'ning tinct,
The purple-ftreaming Amethyft is thine,
With thy own finile the yellow topaz buras.
Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring.
When first she gives it to the Southern gale,
Than the green emerald fhows. But, all combin'd, Thick thro' the wid'ning Opal play thy beams; 155 Or, flying feveral from its furface, form
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