The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms;
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promised Father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover❜d o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun ;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.
The swain in barrend deserts with surprise,
See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise ;
And start, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn ;

f

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.

The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead1;

a Ch. ix. ver. 6.

Ch. lxv. ver. 21, 22.

e

b Ch. ii. ver. 4.

d Ch. XXXV. ver. 1. 7.

"Molli paulatim flavescet campus aristâ,
Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,
Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella."

VIRG. Ecl. iv. ver. 28.

"The fields shall grow yellow with ripen'd ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oak shall distil honey like dew." "The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation where dragons lay shall be grass, and reeds, and rushes."-Isaiah, ch. xxxv ver. 7. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree.”— Ch. lv. ver. 13.

f Isai. ch. xli. ver. 19, and ch. lv. ver. 13.

g Ch. xi. ver. 6-8.

"Ipsæ lacte domum referent distenta capellæ
Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones-
Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni
Occidet."

VIRG. Ecl. iv. ver. 21.

"The goats shall bear to the fold their udders distended with milk: nor shall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The serpent shall die, and the herb that conceals poison shall die."

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down

с

k

The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleased the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise * !
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabean " springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.

No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!

p

The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;

But fix'd his word, his saving power remains :
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!

with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the lion shall eat straw like the And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the cockatrice."-Isaiah, ch. xi. ver. 16, &c.

ох.

i Isaiah, ch. lxv. ver. 25.

j Ch. lx. ver. 1.

The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest parts of his Pollio:

"Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo!
-toto surget gens aurea mundo!

incipient magni procedere menses!

Aspice, venturo lætentur ut omnia sæclo!" &c.

The reader needs only to turn to the passages of Isaiah here cited.

Isa. ch. lx. ver. 4.

n Ch. lx. ver. 6.

P Ch. li. ver. 6, and ch. liv. ver. 10.

m Ch. lx. ver. 3.

• Ch. lx. ver. 19, 20.

WINDSOR FOREST 9.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE LORD LANSDOWNE.

Non injussa cano: Te nostræ, Vare, myricæ,

Te Nemus omne canet; nec Phœbo gratior ulla est
Quam sibi quæ Vari præscripsit pagina nomen.-VIRG.

THY forest, Windsor, and thy green retreats,
At once the Monarch's and the Muses' seats,
Invite my lays. Be present, sylvan maids!
Unlock your springs, and open all your shades.
GRANVILLE Commands; your aid, O Muses, bring!
What Muse for GRANVILLE can refuse to sing '?
The groves of Eden, vanish'd now so long,
Live in description, and look green in song;
These, were my breast inspired with equal flame,
Like them in beauty, should be like in fame.
Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain,
Here earth and water seem to strive again;
Not chaos-like, together crush'd and bruised,
But, as the world, harmoniously confused;
Where order in variety we see,

And where, though all things differ, all agree.
Here waving groves a chequer'd scene display,
And part admit, and part exclude the day;
As some coy nymph her lover's warm address
Nor quite indulges, nor can quite repress.
There, interspersed in lawns and opening glades,
Thin trees arise that shun each other's shades.
Here in full light the russet plains extend;
There, wrapt in clouds, the bluish hills ascend.
Even the wild heath displays her purple dyes,
And 'midst the desert fruitful fields arise,

This poem was written at two different times: the first part of it, which relates to the country, in the year 1704, at the same time with the Pastorals; the latter part was not added till the year 1713, in which it was published.

"Neget quis carmina Gallo?"-VIRG.

That, crown'd with tufted trees and springing corn,
Like verdant isles the sable waste adorn.

Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
The weeping-amber, or the balmy-tree,
While by our oaks the precious loads are borne,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn.
Not proud Olympus yields a nobler sight,
Though gods assembled grace his towering height,
Than what more humble mountains offer here,
Where, in their blessings, all those gods appear.
See Pan with flocks, with fruits Pomona crown'd,
Here blushing Flora paints the enamel'd ground,
Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand,
And, nodding, tempt the joyful reaper's hand;
Rich Industry sits smiling on the plains,
And peace and plenty tell, a STUART reigns.
Not thus the land appear'd in ages past,
A dreary desert, and a gloomy waste,
To savage beasts and savage laws a prey,
And kings more furious and severe than they;
Who claim'd the skies, dispeopled air and floods,
The lonely lords of empty wilds and woods:
Cities laid waste, they storm'd the dens and caves,
(For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves :)
What could be free, when lawless beasts obey'd,
And even the elements a tyrant sway'd?

In vain kind seasons swell'd the teeming grain,
Soft showers distill'd, and suns grew warm in vain ;
The swain with tears his frustrate labour yields,
And famish'd dies amidst his ripen'd fields.
What wonder then, a beast or subject slain
Were equal crimes in a despotic reign?
Both doom'd alike, for sportive tyrants bled,
But while the subject starved, the beast was fed.
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase began,
A mighty hunter, and his prey was man:
Our haughty Norman boasts that barbarous name,
And makes his trembling slaves the royal game.
The fields are ravish'd from the industrious swains,

s The Forest Laws: see "Blackstone's Lectures:" the killing a deer, boar, or hare, was punished with the loss of the delinquent's eyes.

Alluding to the destruction made in the New Forest and the tyrannies exercised there by William I.

From men their cities, and from gods their fanes"
The level'd towns with weeds lie cover'd o'er ;
The hollow winds through naked temples roar;
Round broken columns clasping ivy twined;
O'er heaps of ruin stalk'd the stately hind;
The fox obscene to gaping tombs retires,
And savage howlings fill the sacred quires.
Awed by his nobles, by his commons curst,
The oppressor ruled tyrannic where he durst,
Stretch'd o'er the poor and church his iron rod,
And served alike his vassals and his God.
Whom even the Saxon spared, and bloody Dane,
The wanton victims of his sport remain.
But see, the man, who spacious regions gave
A waste for beasts, himself denied a grave!
Stretch'd on the lawn his second hope survey,
At once the chaser, and at once the prey :
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart,
Bleeds in the forest like a wounded hart.
Succeeding monarchs heard the subjects' cries,
Nor saw displeased the peaceful cottage rise:
Then gathering flocks on unknown mountains fed,
O'er sandy wilds were yellow harvests spread,
The forest wonder'd at the unusual grain
And secret transports touch'd the conscious swain.
Fair Liberty, Britannia's Goddess, rears
Her cheerful head, and leads the golden years.

W

Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood, And purer spirits swell the sprightly flood, Now range the hills, the gameful woods beset, Wind the shrill horn, or spread the waving net. When milder autumn summer's heat succeeds, And in the new-shorn field the partridge feeds,

u Translated from

"Templa adimit divis, fora civibus, arva colonis,"

an old monkish writer, I forget who.

▾ The moment Walter Tyrrel had shot him, without speaking of the accident, he hastened to the sea-shore, and embarked for France; from whence he hurried to Jerusalem to do penance for his involuntary crime. The body of Rufus was found by a countryman, whose family were said to be living near the spot within a very recent period. It was buried without any pomp before the altar of Winchester Cathedral, where the monument still remains. The oak, under which the king was shot, was standing within the last century.

"Miraturque novas frondes et non sua poma."-VIRG.