X..

"Behold the merry minstrels of the Morn, "The fwarming fongfters of the careless grove, "Ten thousand throats, that, from the flowering thorn, "Hymn their good God, and carol fweet of love, "Such grateful kindly raptures them emove : "They neither plough nor fow; ne, fit for flail, "E'er to the barn the nodded fheaves they drove, "Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale, "Whatever crowns the hill, or fmiles along the vale..

XI.

"Outcast of Nature, Man! the wretched thrall
"Of bitter dropping fweat, of fweltry pain,
"Of cares that eat away thy heart with gall,
"And of the vices an inhuman train,

"That all proceed from favage thirst of gain ;-
"For when hard-hearted Intereft first began
"To poison earth, Aftræa left the plain;

"Guile, Violence, and Murder, feiz'd on man,
"And, for foft milky ftreams, with blood the rivers ran..

XII.

"Come, ye! who ftill the cumb'rous load of life "Push hard up hill, but as the fartheft steep

"You truft to gain, and put an end to ftrife, "Down thunders back the flone with mighty fweep.. "And hurls your labours to the valley deep,

For ever vain; come, and, withouten fee, "I in oblivion will your forrows steep,

"Your cares, your toils; will fteep you in a fea

"Of full delight: O come, ye weary Wights! to me.

XIII.

With me you need not rise at early dawn, To pass the joy less day in various stounds; "Or, louting low, on upftart fortune fawn,

And fell fair honour for fome paltry pounds: "Or thro' the city take your dirty rounds,

To cheat, and dun, and lye, and vifit pay, "Now flattering bafe, now giving fecret wounds.; "Or prowl in courts of law for human prey,

In venal fenate thieve, or rob on broad highway.

XIV.

"No cocks, with me, to ruftic labour call, From village on to village founding clear; To tardy fwain no fhrill-voic'd matrons fquall; No dogs, no babes, no wives, to ftun your ear; "No hammers thump; no horrid blacksmith fear, "Ne noify tradefman your fweet flumbers ftart "With founds that are a mifery to hear; "But all is calm, as would delight the heart 5. Of Sybarite of old, all Nature, and all Art..

6. Here

XV.

"Here nought but Candour reigns, indulgent Eafe, "Good-natur'd Lounging, fauntering up and down; "They who are pleas'd themfelves must always please ; "On others' ways they never fquint a frown, "Nor heed what haps in hamlet or in town: "Thus, from the fource of tender Indolence, With milky blood the heart is overflown, "Is footh'd and sweeten'd by the social sense ; "Fair intereft, envy, pride, and ftrife, are banish'd hence

XVI.

"What, what is virtue, but repofe of mind,
"A pure ethereal calm, that knows no ftorm,
"Above the reach of wild Ambition's wind,
"Above those paffions that this world deform.
"And torture man, a proud malignant worm,
But here, inftead, foft gales of paffion play,
And gently ftir the heart, thereby to form
"A quicker fenfe of joy as breezes ftray.

Acrofs th' enliven'd fkies, and make them flill more

"The best of men have lov'd repose:

"They hate to mingle in the filthy fray,

"Where the foul fours, and gradual rancour grows, "Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day.

Ey'n thofe whom Fame has lent her fairefl ray.

❝. The

:

The most renown'd of worthy wights of yore, "From a bafe world at laft have ftol'n away "So Scipio, to the foft Cumæen shore "Retiring, tafted joy he never knew before..

year ::

"Some zeft for eafe, 'tis not forbidden here: "Amid the groves you may indulge the Muse, "Or tend the blooms, and deck the vernal "Or, foftly stealing, with your watry gear, "Along the brooks, the crimson spotted fry 66 You may delude; the whilft, amus'd, you hear "Now the hoarfe ftream, and now the zephyr's figh,. "Attuned to the birds and woodland melody.

XIX..

"O grievous folly to heap up eftate,

"Lofing the days you fee beneath the fun;

"When, fudden, comes blind unrelenting Fate,

"And gives th' untasted portion you

have won,

"With ruthless toil, and many a wretch undone, "To those who mock you gone to Pluto's reign, "There with fad ghofts to pine and fhadows dim: But fure it is of vanities moft vain,

❝. To tell for what you here untoiling may obtain."

He

XX.

He ceas'd but fill their trembling ears retain'd
The deep vibrations of his witching song,
That, by a kind of magic power, constrain'd
To enter in, pell-mell, the liftening throng.
Heaps pour'd on heaps, and yet they flipt along
In filent eafe; as when beneath the beam
Of fummer-moons, the diftant woods among,
Or by fome flood all filver'd with the gleam,
The foft-embodied fays thro' airy portal stream.

XXI.

By the smooth demon fo it order'd was,
And here his baneful bounty firft began ;

Tho' fome there were who would not farther pass,
And his alluring baits fufpected han.

The wife diftruft the too fair-fpoken man.
Yet thro' the gate they caft a wishful eye :
Not to move on, perdie, is all they can ;
For do their very best they cannot fly,

But often each way look, and often forely figh.

XXII.

When this the watchful wicked wizard faw,
With fudden fpring he leap'd upon them ftrait,
And foon as touch'd by his unhallowed paw,
They found themselves within the cursed gate,
Full hard to be repafs'd, like that of Fate.

Not