Wide o'er the founding stream by zephirs born
The black-birds mufic mock th' infpiring horn:

190

Or grant, meek Power, when glimmering on the view,
The pale ray lingers on the quivering dew;
Roll'd o'er the middle waste, or echoing dale,
To hear the plover's long refounding wail!

195

How bleft, who led by Solitude, repair,
To dells remote, and breathe a purer air!
Who tired in noify life's perplexing chafe,
Reft from its tumult in the vale of peace!
'Tis their's to feel (what treasures ne'er impart,)
Th' ingenuous wish that warms the feeling heart; 200
Their's, near fome darkening cliff, or haunted stream,
To melt intranced in Thought's luxurious dream :
Or when some angel from the climes of love
Defcending, hovers o'er the confcious grove ;

'Tis their's, when heavenly anthems hymn'd around, 205
On air wide floating fwells the mazy found;
Soul meeting foul (the earthly mound o'erthrown,)
To join the throng that watch th' eternal throne!

Rapt from th' imbowering fhade, and warbling throng,

New fcenes inviting claim the varying fong.

Yon gardens fhelter'd in the circling bound,

210

Where limes and hawthorn fence th' inclofure round;

Yon

Yon field, where taught in twining folds to roll,
The tall hops creep along the tapering pole :
The spreading pines in filver foliage clad;
Th' efpaliers rear'd to form a cooling fhade,
The vistoed porch, and fading on the fight,

215

Seen dim, the ruin'd tower's portentous height *:
Each claims the ftrain :-but glancing o'er the whole,
The Muse impetuous, haftes to reach the goal. 220

'As thoughtful o'er each beauteous scene I rove
The wild bewildering lures me from the grove;
Spread o'er the formless hills with fhrubs o'ergrown,
The mazy windings lead the Wanderer on.
Now breathing æther on the mountain's brow,
Now plunged deep-mufing in the vale below;
Luxurious scenes with Nature's bounty fraught
That boaft no mark of Art's chaftifing draught,
But shooting wild, and devious as they spread,
The whole loose foreft waving o'er his head,
Delightful maze! he fees the woods extend
Far as he roams; nor marks, nor hopes their end.

O wrap me deep beneath yon aery hill,

Where down the rough rock fteals the tinkling rill;

225

230

An old ruinous edifice placed near the entrance of the scene here defcribed.

The

The woodland throng, as varying thoughts prevail, 235
Bathed in the stream, or fwimming down the vale!
There grant to hear in depth of woods embraced,
Each lingering found that wails along the waste !
Or near fome haunted oak, forlorn and bare,
Where glide pale Druids on the murky air;
Slow down the pealing cliff remote and drear,
The ghosts light flitting plain on Fancy's ear!

240

Hence born fublime o'er ages long decay'd, The muse aspiring fails th' incumbent shade: Sees, long ere tamed by Thought, by Tafte refined, 245 Strong Reafon's force had curb'd th' untutor❜d mind; Long ere Aftræa spread her golden reign,

And taught to rule the earth, or roam the main,

One shapeless wild o'er each broad region shown;
One boundless defart ftretch'd from zone to zone. 250
Then, where Augufta, thy exalted brow

O'erlooks the lawns, and fwelling deeps below,
Screen'd by the waste of woods, that wrapt the day,
Lay lumbering Art, and dream'd the years away.
Nor
yet bold Industry, though versed in pain,
Or plough'd the glebe, or strow'd the liberal grain;
A woodland Power, rouzed with the early morn,
He launch'd the dart, or blew the echoing horn,

255

With rankling heart pursued the murtherous trade;
And man the favage, as he call'd, obey'd.

260

265

NOR Fancy lefs, young Nature's darling child, In filence wondering, gazed the trackless wild: Not then the folemn pile, the trembling spire, The grott's cool fhade, the cultured fields inspire: The cloud, the whirlwind her majestic theme, The dim rock tottering o'er the turbid stream, The wood's deep gloom, the melancholy vale Or cave long-echoing heard her midnight wail Tales ever mournful taught her voice to flow ; Still plain'd the lute, yet pour'd melodious woe *. 270

The truth of the remark made in the Poem that, in the uncultivated periods of fociety, Imagination is much more apt to take in a mourn ful than a chearful train of ideas, must be obvious to every person who confiders either the objects that prefent themselves to be contemplated in such a state, or that strain of compofition which appears to have prevailed in it. With regard to the former, we may obferve that whereever the mind hath a native propenfity to dwell upon great and exalted objects, it is likewife ready to contemplate principally the dark fide of human life, even when an affemblage of the moft chearful ideas

;

might be fuppofed to make its thoughts run in a more agreeable channel. The works of Nature beheld in their naked fimplicity, tend naturally to excite both these sensations in a mind endowed with an extenfive imagination: the former arifing from their rude magnificence, the latter from that gloomy idea of Solitude which we invariably associate with the other.-As to the ftrain of compofition which ob tained at this period, the works of Offian (to mention no others) afford fufficient fpecimens of the manner, in which the works of nature have been contemplated by a great genius in the earliest state of society.

THUS

THUS roll'd the years, till with her radiant train Aftræa lighting, eyed the wafte domain:

On Thames' smooth bank she stood, and from the bower Where Art lay flumbering, waked th' informing power. "Go, (thus fhe fpoke) recal yon Wanderers home: 275 "Go rear the garden, and exalt the dome. "Seen from yon hill the chequer'd landfcape glow, Gay meads and villas glad th' expanse below; cc An Indian fun the shelter'd groves illume, "The gale breathe fragrance, and the garden bloom; "Yon mount, the pile and swelling arch adorn; "Yon plain, the copious herbs and waving corn: "Go,—on the base indulgent Nature yields,

"Extend dark woods, and cultivated fields:

281

"Streams, Villas, Shades in beauteous range combine, "And scenes still varying wake th' infpiring nine. 286

SHE spoke; and far along the waste convey'd

To man the Powers fupplied unceafing aid,

Call'd from the cavern's depth th' unletter'd kind
Taught milder arts, and humanized the mind.
Then too bold Industry the chafe gave o'er,

By nobler works allured, and gentler lore:

Smiled the bleak wafte obfequious as he came,

Prone dropt the woods, their wondering fons grew tame;

The