PLEASURES OF HOPE.

PART I.

AT

t summer eve, when Heav'n's aërial bow

Spans with bright arch the glittering hills below,

Why to yon mountain turns the musing eye,

Whose sunbright summit mingles with the sky?

Why do those cliffs of shadowy tint appear

More sweet than all the landscape smiling near ?

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,

And robes the mountain in its azure hue.

Thus, with delight, we linger to survey,

With

The promis'd joys of life's unmeasur'd way;

That

Thus, from afar, each dim-discover'd scene

Thine

More pleasing seems than all the past hath been;

That

Can Wisdom lend, with all her heav'nly pow'r,

I

Ah, no! she darkly sees the fate of man

Her dim horizon bounded to a span;

SE

Or, if she hold an image to the view,

Tis Nature pictured too severely true.