This folio of four pages, happy work! Which not even critics criticise, that holds Inquisitive attention while I read
Fast bound in chains of silence, which the fair, Though eloquent themselves, yet fear to break, What is it but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations and its vast concerns? Here runs the mountainous and craggy ridge That tempts ambition. On the summit, see, The seals of office glitter in his eyes; He climbs, he pants, he grasps them. Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends,
And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down And wins them, but to lose them in his turn; Here rills of oily eloquence in soft Meanders lubricate the course they take; The modest speaker is ashamed and grieved Το engross a moment's notice, and yet begs, Begs a propitious ear for his poor thoughts, However trivial all that he conceives. Sweet bashfulness! it claims, at least, this praise, The dearth of information and good sense That it foretells us, always comes to pass. Cataracts of declamation thunder here, There forests of no meaning spread the page In which all comprehension wanders lost; While fields of pleasantry amuse us there, With merry descants on a nation's woes. The rest appears a wilderness of strange But gay confusion, roses for the cheeks And lilies for the brows of faded age,
Teeth for the toothless, ringlets for the bald,
Heaven, earth, and ocean plundered of their sweets,
Nectareous essences, Olympian dews,
Sermons and city feasts and favourite airs, Ethereal journeys, submarine exploits,
And Katterfelto with his hair on end
At his own wonders, wondering for his bread. 'Tis pleasant through the loop-holes of retreat To peep at such a world. To see the stir Of the great Babel and not feel the crowd. To hear the roar she sends through all her gates At a safe distance, where the dying sound Falls a soft murmur on the uninjured ear. Thus sitting and surveying thus at ease, The globe and its concerns, I seem advanced To some secure and more than mortal height, That liberates and exempts me from them all. It turns submitted to my view, turns round With all its generations; I behold
The tumult and am still. The sound of wa Has lost its terrors ere it reaches me,
Grieves but alarms me not. I mourn the pride And avarice that make man a wolf to man, Hear the faint echo of those brazen throats By which he speaks the language of his heart, And sigh, but never tremble at the sound. He travels and expatiates, as the bee
From flower to flower, so he from land to land ; The manners, customs, policy of all Pay contribution to the store he gleans; He sucks intelligence in every clime, And spreads the honey of his deep research At his return, a rich repast for me.
He travels, and I too. I tread his deck, Ascend his topmast, through his peering eyes Discover countries, with a kindred heart Suffer his woes and share in his escapes, While fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home. O winter! ruler of the inverted year, Thy scattered hair with sleet like ashes filled, Thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks Fringed with a beard made white with other snows Than those of age; thy forehead wrapt in clouds, A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne
A sliding car indebted to no wheels,
But urged by storms along its slippery way;
I love thee, all unlovely as thou seemest,
And dreaded as thou art. Thou hold'st the sun A prisoner in the yet undawning east, Shortening his journey between morn and noon, And hurrying him impatient of his stay Down to the rosy west. But kindly still Compensating his loss with added hours Of social converse and instructive ease, And gathering at short notice in one group, The family dispersed, and fixing thought Not less dispersed by daylight and its cares. I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly root Of undisturbed retirement, and the hours
Of long uninterrupted evening know.
No rattling wheels stop short before these gates No powdered pert proficient in the art
Of sounding an alarm, assaults these doors
Till the street rings. No stationary steeds
Cough their own knell, while heedless of the sound The silent circle fan themselves, and quake. But here the needle plies its busy task, The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn Unfolds its bosoni, buds and leaves and sprigs
And curling tendrils, gracefully disposed, Follow the nimble finger of the fair,
A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers that blow With most success when all besides decay. The poet's or historian's page, by one
Made vocal for the amusement of the rest;
The sprightly lyre, whose treasure of sweet sounds The touch of many a trembling chord shakes out; And the clear voice symphonious, yet distinct, And in the charming strife triumphant still, Beguile the night, and set a keener edge On female industry; the threaded steel Flies swiftly, and unfelt the task proceeds. The volume closed, the customary rites Of the last meal commence. A Roman meal, Such as the mistress of the world once found Delicious, when her patriots of high note, Perhaps by moonlight, at their humble doors, And under an old oak's domestic shade, Enjoyed, spare feast! a radish and an egg. Discourse ensues, not trivial, yet not dull, Nor such as with a frown forbids the play Of fancy, or proscribes the sound of mirth. Nor do we madly, like an impious world, Who deem religion frenzy, and the God That made them an intruder on their joys, Start at his awful name, or deem his praise A jarring note: themes of a graver tone Exciting oft our gratitude and love,
While we retrace with memory's pointing wand That calls the past to our exact review,
The dangers we have 'scaped, the broken snare, The disappointed foe, deliverance found Unlooked for, life preserved and peace restored, Fruits of omnipotent eternal love.
Oh, evenings worthy of the gods ! exclaimed The Sabine bard. Oh, evenings, I reply, More to be prized and coveted than yours, As more illumined and with nobler truths, That I and mine and those we love, enjoy. Is winter hideous in a garb like this? Needs he the tragic fur, the smoke of lamps, The pent-up breath of an unsavoury throng, To thaw him into feeling, or the smart And snappish dialogue that flippant wits Call comedy, to prompt him with a smile? The self-complacent actor when he views (Stealing a sidelong glance at a full house,) The slope of faces from the floor to the roof, (As if one master-spring controlled them all,) Relaxed into an universal grin,
Sees not a countenance there that speaks a joy
"Placed at some vacant corner of the board,
Learn every trick, and soon play all the game."
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