O friendly to the best pursuits of man, Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace, Domestic life in rural leisure pass'd!
Few know thy value, and few taste thy sweets; Though many boast thy favours, and affect To understand and choose thee for their own. But foolish man foregoes his proper bliss, Even as his first progenitor, and quits, Though placed in Paradise (for Earth has still Some traces of her youthful beauty left), Substantial happiness for transient joy. Scenes form'd for contemplation, and to nurse The growing seeds of wisdom; that suggest, By every pleasing image they present, Reflections such as meliorate the heart, Compose the passions, and exalt the mind; Scenes such as these 'tis his supreme delight To fill with riot and defile with blood. Should some contagion, kind to the poor brutes We persecute, annihilate the tribes
That draw the sportsman over hill and dale, Fearless, and rapt away from all his cares; Should never game-fowl hatch her eggs again, Nor baited hook deceive the fish's eye; Could pageantry and dance, and feast and song, Be quell'd in all our summer-months' retreats; How many self-deluded nymphs and swains, Who dream they have a taste for fields and groves, Would find them hideous nurseries of the spleen, And crowd the roads, impatient for the town! They love the country, and none else, who seek For their own sake its silence and its shade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart Susceptible of pity, or a mind
Cultured and capable of sober thought, For all the savage din of the swift pack, And clamours of the field?-Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain ; That feeds upon the sobs and dying shrieks Of harmless nature, dumb, but yet endued With eloquence that agonies inspire, Of silent tears and heart-distending sighs! Vain tears, alas! and sighs that never find A corresponding tone in jovial souls!
Well-one at least is safe. One shelter'd hare Has never heard the sanguinary yell Of cruel man, exulting in her woes. Innocent partner of my peaceful home, Whom ten long years' experience of my care Has made at last familiar; she has lost Much of her vigilant instinctive dread, Not needful here, beneath a roof like mine. Yes-thou may'st eat thy bread, and lick the hand That feeds thee; thou may'st frolic on the floor At evening, and at night retire secure
To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarm'd; For I have gain'd thy confidence, have pledged All that is human in me, to protect Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love. If I survive thee, I will dig thy grave ;, And when I place thee in it, sighing say, I knew at least one hare that had a friend.
How various his employments, whom the world
Calls idle; and who justly, in return,
Esteems that busy world an idler too!
Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, Delightful industry enjoy'd at home,
And Nature in her cultivated trim
Dress'd to his taste, inviting him abroad: Can he want occupation who has these? Will he be idle who has much to enjoy ? Me therefore studious of laborious ease, Not slothful, happy to deceive the time, Not waste it, and aware that human life Is but a loan to be repaid with use,
When He shall call his debtors to account, From whom are all our blessings, business finds Even here. While sedulous I seek to improve, At least neglect not, or leave unemploy'd, The mind he gave me; driving it, though slack Too oft, and much impeded in its work By causes not to be divulged in vain, To its just point-the service of mankind. He that attends to his interior self,
That has a heart, and keeps it; has a mind That hungers, and supplies it; and who seeks A social, not a dissipated life,
Has business; feels himself engaged to achieve No unimportant, though a silent task.
A life all turbulence and noise may seem, To him that leads it, wise, and to be praised; But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies. He that is ever occupied in storms, Or dives not for it, or brings up instead, Vainly industrious, a disgraceful prize.
The morning finds the self-sequester'd man Fresh for his task, intend what task he may. Whether inclement seasons recommend His warm but simple home, where he enjoys, With her who shares his pleasures and his heart, Sweet converse, sipping calm the fragrant lymph
Which neatly she prepares; then to his book Well chosen, and not sullenly perused
In selfish silence, but imparted oft,
As aught occurs that she may smile to hear, Or turn to nourishment, digested well.
Or if the garden with its many cares,
All well repaid, demand him, he attends
The welcome call, conscious how much the hand Of lubbard Labour needs his watchful eye, Oft loitering lazily, if not o'erseen, Or misapplying his unskilful strength. Nor does he govern only or direct,
But much performs himself. No works indeed That ask robust, tough sinews, bred to toil, Servile employ; but such as may amuse, Not tire, demanding rather skill than force. Proud of his well-spread walls, he views his trees, That meet (no barren interval between), With pleasure more than even their fruits afford; Which, save himself who trains them, none can feel. These therefore are his own peculiar charge; No meaner hand may discipline the shoots- None but his steel approach them. What is weak, Distemper'd, or has lost prolific powers, Impair'd by age, his unrelenting hand
Dooms to the knife: nor does he spare the soft And succulent, that feeds its giant growth, But barren, at the expense of neighbouring twigs Less ostentatious, and yet studded thick With hopeful gems. The rest, no portion left That may disgrace his art, or disappoint Large expectation, he disposes neat At measured distances, that air and sun, Admitted freely, may afford their aid,
And ventilate and warm the swelling buds. Hence Summer has her riches, Autumn hence, And hence even Winter fills his wither'd hand With blushing fruits, and plenty not his own.1 Fair recompence of labour well bestow'd, And wise precaution, which a clime so rude Makes needful still, whose Spring is but the child Of churlish Winter, in her froward moods Discovering much the temper of her sire. For oft, as if in her the stream of mild Maternal nature had reversed its course, She brings her infants forth with many smiles; But once deliver'd, kills them with a frown. He therefore, timely warn'd, himself supplies Her want of care, screening and keeping warm The plenteous bloom, that no rough blast may sweep His garlands from the boughs. Again, as oft As the sun peeps and vernal airs breathe mild, The fence withdrawn, he gives them every beam, And spreads his hopes before the blaze of day. To raise the prickly and green-coated gourd, So grateful to the palate, and when rare So coveted, else base and disesteem'd- Food for the vulgar merely-is an art That toiling ages have but just matured, And at this moment unassay'd in song.
Yet gnats have had, and frogs and mice, long since, Their eulogy; those sang the Mantuan bard, And these the Grecian, in ennobling strains; And in thy numbers, Phillips, shines for aye The Solitary Shilling. Pardon, then, Ye sage dispensers of poetic fame!
The ambition of one meaner far, whose powers. 'Miraturque novos fructus et non sua poma.-VIRG.
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