Whofe mild vibrations foothe the parted foul,

New to the dawning of celestial day.

1735

Hence through her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by thee, She fprings aloft, with elevated pride,

Above the tangling mafs of low defires,

That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-wing'd,
The heights of science and of virtue gains,

1740

Where all is calm and clear; with Nature round,
Or in the starry regions, or th' abyfs,

To Reafon's and to Fancy's eye display'd :
The First up-tracing, from the dreary void,
The chain of caufes and effects to Him,

1745

The world-producing Effence, who alone
Poffeffes being; while the Laft receives
The whole magnificence of heaven and earth,
And every beauty, delicate or bold,

Obvious or more remote, with livelier fenfe,

1750

Diffusive painted on the rapid mind.

Tutor'd by thee, hence Poetry exalts

Her voice to ages; and informs the page

With mufic, image, fentiment, and thought,

Never to die! the treasure of mankind!

1755

Their highest honour, and their truest joy!

Without thee what were unenlighten'd man?

A favage roaming through the woods and wilds,

In queft of prey; and with th' unfashion'd furr
Rough-clad; devoid of every finer art,
And elegance of life. Nor happiness
Domeftic, mix'd of tenderness and care,
Nor moral excellence, nor focial blifs,

H 4

1760

Nor

Nor guardian law were his; nor various skill
To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool
Mechanic; nor the heaven-conducted prow
Of navigation bold, that fearless braves
The burning line, or dares the wintery pole;
Mother fevere of infinite delights!
Nothing, fave rapine, indolence, and guile,
And woes on woes, a ftill-revolving train!
Whofe horrid circle had made human life
Than non-existence worfe: but, taught by thee,
Ours are the plans of policy and peace;

1765

1770

To live like brothers, and conjunctive all

1775

Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds
Ply the tough oar, Philofophy directs

The ruling helm; or like the liberal breath

Of potent heaven, invisible, the fail

Swells out, and bears th' inferior world along.

1780

Of the Sole Being right, who spoke the Word,

And Nature mov'd complete. With inward view,
Thence on th' ideal kingdom swift she turns
Her eye; and inftant, at her powerful glance,
Th' obedient phantoms vanish or appear;
Compound, divide, and into order shift,
Each to his rank, from plain perception up
To the fair forms of Fancy's flecting train :

1790

Το

To reason then, deducing truth from truth;
And notion quite abftract; where first begins
The world of fpirits, action all, and life
Unfetter'd, and unmixt. But here the cloud,
So wills Eternal Providence, fits deep.
Enough for us to know that this dark state,
In wayward paffions loft, and vain purfuits,
This Infancy of Being, cannot prove
The final iffue of the works of God,

By boundless Love and perfect Wildom form'd,
And ever rising with the rifing mind.

1795

1800

AUTUM N.

AUTUM N. 1730.

THE ARGUMENT.

The fubject propofed. Addreffed to Mr. Ondow. A profpect of the fields ready for harveft. Reflections in praise of industry raised by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest-storm. Shooting and hunting, their barbarity. A ludicrous account of fox-hunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A defcription of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn : whence a digreffion, enquiring into the rife of fountains and rivers. Birds of feafon confidered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western ifles of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A profpect of the difcoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dufky day, moon-light. Autumnal meteors. Morning: to which fucceeds a calm, pure, fun-fhiny day, fuch as ufually fhuts up the feafon. The harvest being gathered-in, the country diffolved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philofophical country life.

ROWN'D with the fickle and the wheaten fheaf,

CR

While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once mo

Well

Well pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the Wintery froft
Nitrous prepar'd; the various-bloffom'd Spring
Put in white promife forth; and Summer funs
Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view,
Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme.
Onflow! the Mufe, ambitious of thy name,
To grace, infpire, and dignify her fong,
Would from the Public Voice thy gentle ear
A while engage.
Thy noble care she knows,
The patriot virtues that diftend thy thought,
Spread on thy front, and in thy bofom glow;
While listening fenates hang upon thy tongue,
Devolving through the maze of eloquence
A roll of periods fweeter than her fong.
But the too pants for public virtue; she,
Though weak of power, yet strong in ardent will,
Whene'er her country rushes on her heart,
Affumes a bolder note, and fondly tries

To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame.

When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, And Libra weighs in equal fcales the year;

5

10

35

20

From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence fhook 25 Of parting fummer, a ferener blue,

30

With golden light enliven'd, wide invests
The happy world. Attemper'd funs arife,
Sweet-beam'd, and fhedding oft through lucid clouds
A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown, below
Extenfive harvests hang the heavy head.
Rich, filent, deep, they stand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain :

A calm