s: And dress the regular yet various scene.


s: The dwarfish, in the rear retired, but still


s: Sublime above the rest, the statelier stand.


s: So once were ranged the sons of ancient Rome,


s: A noble show, while Roscius trod the stage;


s: And so, while Garrick, as renowned as he,


s: The sons of Albion, fearing each to lose


s: Some note of Nature's music from his lips,


s: And covetous of Shakespeare's beauty, seen


s: Nor taste alone and well-contrived display


s: Suffice to give the marshalled ranks the grace


s: Of their complete effect.  Much yet remains


s: And more laborious; cares on which depends


s: Their vigour, injured soon, not soon restored.


s: The soil must be renewed, which often washed


s: And disappoints the roots; the slender roots,


s: Close interwoven where they meet the vase,


s: Must smooth be shorn away; the sapless branch


s: Must fly before the knife; the withered leaf


s: Must be detached, and where it strews the floor


s: Swept with a woman's neatness, breeding else


s: Discharge but these kind offices (and who


s: Would spare, that loves them, offices like these?)


s: Well they reward the toil.  The sight is pleased,


s: The scent regaled, each odoriferous leaf,


s: Each opening blossom, freely breathes abroad


s: Its gratitude, and thanks him with its sweets.


s: So manifold, all pleasing in their kind,


s: All healthful, are the employs of rural life,


s: Runs round, still ending, and beginning still.


s: Nor are these all.  To deck the shapely knoll


s: That, softly swelled and gaily dressed, appears


s: A flowery island from the dark green lawn


s: To no mean hand, and asks the touch of taste.


s: Here also grateful mixture of well-matched


s: And sorted hues (each giving each relief,


s: May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home,


s: But elegance, chief grace the garden shows


s: Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.


s: Near yonder heath; where industry misspent,


s: But proud of his uncouth, ill-chosen task,


s: Has made a heaven on earth; with suns and moons


s: Of close-rammed stones has charged the encumbered soil,


s: He, therefore, who would see his flowers disposed


s: The beds the trusted treasure of their seeds,


s: Forecasts the future whole; that when the scene


s: Shall break into its preconceived display,


s: Each for itself, and all as with one voice


s: Conspiring, may attest his bright design.


s: His pleasant work, may he suppose it done.


s: Few self-supported flowers endure the wind


s: Of the smooth-shaven prop, and neatly tied


s: Are wedded thus, like beauty to old age,


s: For interest sake, the living to the dead.


s: Some clothe the soil that feeds them, far diffused


s: And lowly creeping, modest and yet fair;


s: Like virtue, thriving most where little seen.


s: Some, more aspiring, catch the neighbour shrub


s: With clasping tendrils, and invest his branch,


s: The strength they borrow with the grace they lend.


s: The impoverished earth; an overbearing race,


s: That, like the multitude made faction-mad,


s: Disturb good order, and degrade true worth.


s: Oh blest seclusion from a jarring world,


s: Which he, thus occupied, enjoys!  Retreat


s: But it has peace, and much secures the mind


s: From all assaults of evil; proving still


s: A faithful barrier, not o'erleaped with ease


s: By traitor appetite, and armed with darts


s: Tempered in hell, invades the throbbing breast,


s: Perhaps may crown us, but to fly is safe.


s: What could I wish that I possess not here?


s: Health, leisure; means to improve it, friendship, peace,


s: No loose or wanton though a wandering muse,


s: Thus blest, I draw a picture of that bliss;


s: Should seek the guiltless joys that I describe,


s: That self-condemned they must neglect the prize,


s: And what they will not taste, must yet approve.


s: What we admire we praise; and when we praise


s: I therefore recommend, though at the risk


s: And virtue, and those scenes which God ordained


s: Should best secure them and promote them most;


s: Scenes that I love, and with regret perceive


s: Pure is the nymph, though liberal of her smiles,


s: And chaste, though unconfined, whom I extol.


s: Not as the prince in Shushan, when he called,


s: Vain-glorious of her charms, his Vashti forth,


s: Which all might view with envy, none partake.


s: My charmer is not mine alone; my sweets,


s: And she that sweetens all my bitters, too,


s: Nature, enchanting Nature, in whose form


s: That errs not, and find raptures still renewed,


s: Strange that so fair a creature should yet want


s: With meaner objects even the few she finds.


s: Stript of her ornaments, her leaves and flowers,


s: She loses all her influence.  Cities then


s: But are not wholesome airs, though unperfumed


s: By roses, and clear suns, though scarcely felt,


s: From clamour and whose very silence charms,


s: To be preferred to smoke--to the eclipse


s: Whose Stygian throats breathe darkness all day long,


s: And to the stir of commerce, driving slow,


s: And thundering loud with his ten thousand wheels?


s: They would be, were not madness in the head


s: And folly in the heart; were England now


s: What England was, plain, hospitable, kind,


s: And undebauched.  But we have bid farewell


s: To all the virtues of those better days,


s: And all their honest pleasures.  Mansions once


s: Knew their own masters, and laborious hands


s: That had survived the father, served the son.


s: Sells the last scantling, and transfers the price


s: To some shrewd sharper, ere it buds again.


s: Estates are landscapes, gazed upon awhile,


s: The country starves, and they that feed the o'er-charged


s: And surfeited lewd town with her fair dues,


s: By a just judgment strip and starve themselves.


s: The wings that waft our riches out of sight


s: Grow on the gamester's elbows, and the alert


s: And nimble motion of those restless joints,


s: That never tire, soon fans them all away.


s: Is fed with many a victim.  Lo! he comes--


s: The omnipotent magician, Brown, appears.


s: Down falls the venerable pile, the abode


s: Of our forefathers, a grave whiskered race,


s: But tasteless.  Springs a palace in its stead,


s: But in a distant spot; where more exposed


s: And aguish East, till time shall have transformed


s: Those naked acres to a sheltering grove.


s: He speaks.  The lake in front becomes a lawn,


s: Woods vanish, hills subside, and valleys rise,


s: Sinuous or straight, now rapid and now slow,


s: Now murmuring soft, now roaring in cascades,


s: Even as he bids.  The enraptured owner smiles.


s: 'Tis finished.  And yet, finished as it seems,


s: Still wants a grace, the loveliest it could show,


s: Drained to the last poor item of his wealth,


s: He sighs, departs, and leaves the accomplished plan


s: That he has touched and retouched, many a day


s: Laboured, and many a night pursued in dreams,


s: Just when it meets his hopes, and proves the heaven


s: And now perhaps the glorious hour is come,


s: When having no stake left, no pledge to endear


s: Her interests, or that gives her sacred cause


s: He burns with most intense and flagrant zeal


s: To serve his country.  Ministerial grace


s: Deals him out money from the public chest,


s: Or, if that mine be shut, some private purse


s: Supplies his need with an usurious loan,


s: Well-managed, shall have earned its worthy price.


s: Oh, innocent compared with arts like these,


s: Crape and cocked pistol and the whistling ball


s: Sent through the traveller's temples!  He that finds


s: One drop of heaven's sweet mercy in his cup,


s: Can dig, beg, rot, and perish well-content,


s: At his last gasp; but could not for a world


s: From pools and ditches of the commonwealth,


s: Sordid and sickening at his own success.


s: The world of wandering knights and squires to town;


s: London engulfs them all.  The shark is there,


s: And the shark's prey; the spendthrift, and the leech


s: That sucks him.  There the sycophant, and he


s: That with bare-headed and obsequious bows


s: Begs a warm office, doomed to a cold jail


s: Were charactered on every statesman's door,


s: These are the charms that sully and eclipse


s: The charms of nature.  'Tis the cruel gripe


s: The hope of better things, the chance to win,


s: The wish to shine, the thirst to be amused,


s: That, at the sound of Winter's hoary wing,


s: Of fluttering, loitering, cringing, begging, loose


s: And wanton vagrants, as make London, vast


s: Oh thou resort and mart of all the earth,


s: Chequered with all complexions of mankind,


s: And spotted with all crimes; in whom I see


s: Much that I love, and more that I admire,


s: And all that I abhor; thou freckled fair


s: That pleases and yet shocks me, I can laugh


s: And I can weep, can hope, and can despond,


s: Feel wrath and pity when I think on thee!


s: Ten righteous would have saved a city once,


s: And thou hast many righteous.--Well for thee--


s: That salt preserves thee; more corrupted else,


s: And therefore more obnoxious at this hour


s: For whom God heard his Abram plead in vain.


s: Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge,


s: That with its wearisome but needful length


s: Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon


s: Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;--


s: With spattered boots, strapped waist, and frozen locks,


s: News from all nations lumbering at his back.


s: True to his charge the close-packed load behind,


s: Yet careless what he brings, his one concern


s: And, having dropped the expected bag--pass on.


s: He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch,


s: Cold and yet cheerful:  messenger of grief


s: Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some;


s: To him indifferent whether grief or joy.


s: Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks,


s: Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet


s: With tears that trickled down the writer's cheeks,


s: Fast as the periods from his fluent quill,


s: Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains,


s: His horse and him, unconscious of them all.


s: But oh, the important budget! ushered in


s: With such heart-shaking music, who can say


s: What are its tidings? have our troops awaked?


s: Or do they still, as if with opium drugged,


s: Snore to the murmurs of the Atlantic wave?


s: Is India free? and does she wear her plumed


s: Or do we grind her still?  The grand debate,


s: And the loud laugh--I long to know them all;


s: I burn to set the imprisoned wranglers free,


s: And give them voice and utterance once again.


s: Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,


s: Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,


s: And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn


s: Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,


s: That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,


s: Not such his evening, who with shining face


s: Sweats in the crowded theatre, and squeezed


s: And bored with elbow-points through both his sides,


s: Outscolds the ranting actor on the stage;


s: Nor his, who patient stands till his feet throb


s: And his head thumps, to feed upon the breath


s: Or placemen all tranquillity and smiles.


s: Which not even critics criticise, that holds


s: Fast bound in chains of silence, which the fair,


s: Though eloquent themselves, yet fear to break,


s: Here runs the mountainous and craggy ridge


s: That tempts ambition.  On the summit, see,


s: The seals of office glitter in his eyes;


s: He climbs, he pants, he grasps them.  At his heels,


s: Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends,


s: And with a dextrous jerk soon twists him down


s: And wins them, but to lose them in his turn.


s: Meanders, lubricate the course they take;


s: The modest speaker is ashamed and grieved


s: To engross a moment's notice, and yet begs,


s: Begs a propitious ear for his poor thoughts,


s: Sweet bashfulness! it claims, at least, this praise,


s: The dearth of information and good sense


s: That it foretells us, always comes to pass.


s: There forests of no meaning spread the page


s: In which all comprehension wanders lost;


s: While fields of pleasantry amuse us there,


s: The rest appears a wilderness of strange


s: Teeth for the toothless, ringlets for the bald,


s: Heaven, earth, and ocean plundered of their sweets.


s: Sermons and city feasts and favourite airs,


s: At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.


s: 'Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat


s: To peep at such a world; to see the stir


s: Of the great Babel and not feel the crowd;


s: To hear the roar she sends through all her gates


s: At a safe distance, where the dying sound


s: Falls a soft murmur on the uninjured ear.


s: The globe and its concerns, I seem advanced


s: To some secure and more than mortal height,


s: That liberates and exempts me from them all.


s: It turns submitted to my view, turns round


s: The tumult and am still.  The sound of war


s: Grieves, but alarms me not.  I mourn the pride


s: And avarice that makes man a wolf to man;


s: Hear the faint echo of those brazen throats


s: By which he speaks the language of his heart,


s: And sigh, but never tremble at the sound.


s: From flower to flower so he from land to land;


s: Pay contribution to the store he gleans,


s: And spreads the honey of his deep research


s: He travels and I too.  I tread his deck,


s: Ascend his topmast, through his peering eyes


s: Discover countries, with a kindred heart


s: Suffer his woes and share in his escapes;


s: While fancy, like the finger of a clock,


s: Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.


s: Thy scattered hair with sleet-like ashes filled,


s: Thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks


s: Fringed with a beard made white with other snows


s: Than those of age, thy forehead wrapped in clouds,


s: A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne


s: But urged by storms along its slippery way,


s: I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,


s: And dreaded as thou art.  Thou hold'st the sun


s: Shortening his journey between morn and noon,


s: And hurrying him, impatient of his stay,


s: Of social converse and instructive ease,


s: And gathering at short notice in one group


s: The family dispersed, and fixing thought


s: Not less dispersed by daylight and its cares.


s: Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness,


s: And all the comforts that the lowly roof


s: Of undisturbed retirement, and the hours


s: No rattling wheels stop short before these gates;


s: Of sounding an alarm, assault these doors


s: Till the street rings; no stationary steeds


s: Cough their own knell, while heedless of the sound


s: The silent circle fan themselves, and quake:


s: But here the needle plies its busy task,


s: The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower,


s: Unfolds its bosom; buds and leaves and sprigs


s: And curly tendrils, gracefully disposed,


s: A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers that blow


s: With most success when all besides decay.


s: Made vocal for the amusement of the rest;


s: The sprightly lyre, whose treasure of sweet sounds


s: The touch from many a trembling chord shakes out;


s: And the clear voice symphonious, yet distinct,


s: And in the charming strife triumphant still,


s: Beguile the night, and set a keener edge


s: Flies swiftly, and unfelt the task proceeds.


s: Of the last meal commence:  a Roman meal,


s: Such as the mistress of the world once found


s: Delicious, when her patriots of high note,


s: Perhaps by moonlight, at their humble doors,


s: Enjoyed--spare feast!--a radish and an egg.


s: Discourse ensues, not trivial, yet not dull,


s: Nor such as with a frown forbids the play


s: Of fancy, or proscribes the sound of mirth;


s: That made them an intruder on their joys,


s: Start at His awful name, or deem His praise


s: While we retrace with memory's pointing wand


s: That calls the past to our exact review,


s: The dangers we have scaped, the broken snare,


s: Unlooked for, life preserved and peace restored,


s: Oh evenings worthy of the gods! exclaimed


s: More to be prized and coveted than yours,


s: As more illumined and with nobler truths,


s: That I, and mine, and those we love, enjoy.


s: Needs he the tragic fur, the smoke of lamps,


s: The pent-up breath of an unsavoury throng


s: And snappish dialogue that flippant wits


s: Call comedy, to prompt him with a smile?


s: The self-complacent actor, when he views


s: (Stealing a sidelong glance at a full house)


s: The slope of faces from the floor to the roof,


s: As if one master-spring controlled them all,


s: Sees not a countenance there that speaks a joy


s: Cards were superfluous here, with all the tricks


s: To fill the void of an unfurnished brain,


s: To palliate dulness and give time a shove.


s: Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing,


s: Unsoiled and swift and of a silken sound.


s: But the world's time is time in masquerade.


s: Theirs, should I paint him, has his pinions fledged


s: With motley plumes, and, where the peacock shows


s: His azure eyes, is tinctured black and red


s: With spots quadrangular of diamond form,


s: Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,


s: What should be, and what was an hour-glass once,


s: Well does the work of his destructive scythe.


s: Thus decked he charms a world whom fashion blinds


s: To his true worth, most pleased when idle most,


s: Whose only happy are their wasted hours.


s: Even misses, at whose age their mothers wore


s: The back-string and the bib, assume the dress


s: Of card-devoted time, and night by night,


s: Placed at some vacant corner of the board,


s: Learn every trick, and soon play all the game.


s: But truce with censure.  Roving as I rove,


s: Where shall I find an end, or how proceed?


s: To view some rugged rock, or mouldering tower,


s: Which seen delights him not; then coming home,


s: Describes and prints it, that the world may know


s: How far he went for what was nothing worth;


s: So I, with brush in hand and pallet spread


s: With colours mixed for a far different use,


s: Paint cards and dolls, and every idle thing


s: That fancy finds in her excursive flights.


s: Come, Evening, once again, season of peace,


s: Return, sweet Evening, and continue long!


s: Methinks I see thee in the streaky west,


s: With matron-step slow moving, while the night


s: Treads on thy sweeping train; one hand employed


s: On bird and beast, the other charged for man


s: With sweet oblivion of the cares of day;


s: Not sumptuously adorned, nor needing aid,


s: Like homely-featured night, of clustering gems,


s: A star or two just twinkling on thy brow


s: Suffices thee; save that the moon is thine


s: No less than hers, not worn indeed on high


s: With modest grandeur in thy purple zone,


s: Resplendent less, but of an ampler round.


s: Come, then, and thou shalt find thy votary calm,


s: To weaving nets for bird-alluring fruit,


s: Or twining silken threads round ivory reels


s: When they command whom man was born to please,


s: I slight thee not, but make thee welcome still.


s: Just when our drawing-rooms begin to blaze


s: With lights, by clear reflection multiplied


s: From many a mirror, in which he of Gath,


s: Whole without stooping, towering crest and all,


s: The shadow to the ceiling, there by fits


s: Dancing uncouthly to the quivering flame.


s: So spent in parlour twilight; such a gloom


s: Suits well the thoughtful or unthinking mind,


s: The mind contemplative, with some new theme


s: Laugh ye, who boast your more mercurial powers


s: That never feel a stupor, know no pause,


s: Nor need one; I am conscious, and confess.


s: Fearless, a soul that does not always think.


s: Soothed with a waking dream of houses, towers,


s: Trees, churches, and strange visages expressed


s: In the red cinders, while with poring eye


s: Nor less amused have I quiescent watched


s: Though still deceived, some stranger's near approach.


s: 'Tis thus the understanding takes repose


s: And sleeps and is refreshed.  Meanwhile the face


s: Were tasked to his full strength, absorbed and lost.


s: Thus oft reclined at ease, I lose an hour


s: At evening, till at length the freezing blast


s: That sweeps the bolted shutter, summons home


s: The recollected powers, and, snapping short


s: The glassy threads with which the fancy weaves


s: Her brittle toys, restores me to myself.


s: How calm is my recess! and how the frost


s: Raging abroad, and the rough wind, endear


s: The silence and the warmth enjoyed within!


s: I saw the woods and fields at close of day


s: Though faded, and the lands, where lately waved


s: Upturned so lately by the forceful share;


s: By flocks fast feeding, and selecting each


s: His favourite herb; while all the leafless groves


s: That skirt the horizon wore a sable hue,


s: Scarce noticed in the kindred dusk of eve.


s: To-morrow brings a change, a total change,


s: Which even now, though silently performed


s: And slowly, and by most unfelt, the face


s: Fast falls a fleecy shower; the downy flakes,


s: Gladly the thickening mantle, and the green


s: And tender blade, that feared the chilling blast,


s: In such a world, so thorny, and where none


s: Finds happiness unblighted, or if found,


s: Without some thistly sorrow at its side,


s: Against the law of love, to measure lots


s: With less distinguished than ourselves, that thus


s: We may with patience bear our moderate ills,


s: And sympathise with others, suffering more.


s: Ill fares the traveller now, and he that stalks


s: In ponderous boots beside his reeking team;


s: To the clogged wheels, and, in its sluggish pace,


s: Noiseless appears a moving hill of snow.


s: The toiling steeds expand the nostril wide,


s: While every breath, by respiration strong


s: Upon their jutting chests.  He, formed to bear


s: The pelting brunt of the tempestuous night,


s: With half-shut eyes, and puckered cheeks, and teeth


s: Presented bare against the storm, plods on;


s: One hand secures his hat, save when with both


s: He brandishes his pliant length of whip,


s: Resounding oft, and never heard in vain.


s: Refinement is endued, thrice happy thou!


s: Thy frame, robust and hardy, feels indeed


s: The piercing cold, but feels it unimpaired;


s: Thy vigorous pulse, and the unhealthful East,


s: That breathes the spleen, and searches every bone


s: Of the infirm, is wholesome air to thee.


s: Thy days roll on exempt from household care,


s: Thy waggon is thy wife; and the poor beasts,


s: That drag the dull companion to and fro,


s: Thine helpless charge, dependent on thy care.


s: Ah, treat them kindly! rude as thou appearest,


s: Yet show that thou hast mercy, which the great,


s: With needless hurry whirled from place to place,


s: Humane as they would seem, not always show.


s: Poor, yet industrious, modest, quiet, neat,


s: Such claim compassion in a night like this,


s: And have a friend in every feeling heart.


s: Warmed while it lasts, by labour, all day long


s: They brave the season, and yet find at eve,


s: Ill clad and fed but sparely, time to cool.


s: The frugal housewife trembles when she lights


s: Her scanty stock of brushwood, blazing clear,


s: But dying soon, like all terrestrial joys;


s: The few small embers left she nurses well.


s: And while her infant race with outspread hands


s: And crowded knees sit cowering o'er the sparks,


s: Retires, content to quake, so they be warmed.


s: The man feels least, as more inured than she


s: Yet he, too, finds his own distress in theirs.


s: The taper soon extinguished, which I saw


s: Just when the day declined, and the brown loaf


s: Lodged on the shelf, half-eaten, without sauce


s: Of sav'ry cheese, or butter costlier still,


s: Sleep seems their only refuge.  For alas,


s: Where penury is felt the thought is chained,


s: And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.


s: With all this thrift they thrive not.  All the care


s: Saves the small inventory, bed and stool,


s: Skillet and old carved chest, from public sale.


s: They live, and live without extorted alms


s: From grudging hands, but other boast have none


s: To soothe their honest pride that scorns to beg,


s: Nor comfort else, but in their mutual love.


s: I praise you much, ye meek and patient pair,


s: A dry but independent crust, hard-earned


s: Of knaves in office, partial in their work


s: But ofttimes deaf to suppliants who would blush


s: These ask with painful shyness, and, refused


s: Shall much befriend you.  Time shall give increase,


s: And all your numerous progeny, well trained,


s: But helpless, in few years shall find their hands,


s: And labour too.  Meanwhile ye shall not want


s: What, conscious of your virtues, we can spare,


s: Nor what a wealthier than ourselves may send.


s: I mean the man, who when the distant poor


s: Need help, denies them nothing but his name.


s: But poverty with most, who whimper forth


s: Their long complaints, is self-inflicted woe,


s: The effect of laziness or sottish waste.


s: Now goes the nightly thief prowling abroad


s: By works of darkness and nocturnal wrong,


s: Woe to the gardener's pale, the farmer's hedge


s: Plashed neatly and secured with driven stakes


s: Deep in the loamy bank.  Uptorn by strength


s: To better deeds, he bundles up the spoil--


s: And heaviest, light of foot steals fast away.


s: The well-stacked pile of riven logs and roots


s: From his pernicious force.  Nor will he leave


s: Unwrenched the door, however well secured,


s: Where chanticleer amidst his harem sleeps


s: In unsuspecting pomp; twitched from the perch


s: He gives the princely bird with all his wives


s: To his voracious bag, struggling in vain,


s: And loudly wondering at the sudden change.


s: Nor this to feed his own.  'Twere some excuse


s: For their support, so destitute; but they


s: Neglected pine at home, themselves, as more


s: Exposed than others, with less scruple made


s: His victims, robbed of their defenceless all.


s: Cruel is all he does.  'Tis quenchless thirst


s: Oh for a law to noose the villain's neck


s: Who starves his own; who persecutes the blood


s: He gave them in his children's veins, and hates


s: And wrongs the woman he has sworn to love.


s: Pass where we may, through city, or through town,


s: Though lean and beggared, every twentieth pace


s: Conducts the unguarded nose to such a whiff


s: Of stale debauch, forth-issuing from the styes


s: That law has licensed, as makes temperance reel.


s: There sit involved and lost in curling clouds


s: Of Indian fume, and guzzling deep, the boor,


s: The lackey, and the groom.  The craftsman there


s: Smith, cobbler, joiner, he that plies the shears,


s: And he that kneads the dough:  all loud alike,


s: All learned, and all drunk.  The fiddle screams


s: Plaintive and piteous, as it wept and wailed


s: Fierce the dispute, whate'er the theme; while she,


s: Perched on the sign-post, holds with even hand


s: Her undecisive scales.  In this she lays


s: A weight of ignorance, in that, of pride,


s: And smiles delighted with the eternal poise.


s: Dire is the frequent curse and its twin sound


s: The cheek-distending oath, not to be praised


s: Like those which modern senators employ,


s: Whose oath is rhetoric, and who swear for fame.


s: Behold the schools in which plebeian minds,


s: Which some may practise with politer grace,


s: But none with readier skill!  'Tis here they learn


s: The road that leads from competence and peace


s: Shakes her encumbered lap, and casts them out.


s: But censure profits little.  Vain the attempt


s: That, like the filth with which the peasant feeds


s: The excise is fattened with the rich result


s: Of all this riot; and ten thousand casks,


s: For ever dribbling out their base contents,


s: Touched by the Midas finger of the state,


s: Drink and be mad then; 'tis your country bids!


s: Gloriously drunk, obey the important call,


s: Her cause demands the assistance of your throats;--


s: Ye all can swallow, and she asks no more.


s: Would I had fallen upon those happier days


s: That poets celebrate; those golden times


s: And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings,


s: Nymphs were Dianas then, and swains had hearts


s: That felt their virtues.  Innocence, it seems,


s: From courts dismissed, found shelter in the groves;


s: Upon the yielding herbage (so they sing),


s: Then were not all effaced.  Then speech profane


s: And manners profligate were rarely found,


s: Observed as prodigies, and soon reclaimed.


s: Vain wish! those days were never:  airy dreams


s: Sat for the picture; and the poet's hand,


s: Grant it:  I still must envy them an age


s: That favoured such a dream, in days like these


s: That to suppose a scene where she presides


s: No.  We are polished now.  The rural lass,


s: Her artless manners and her neat attire,


s: Than the fair shepherdess of old romance,


s: Is seen no more.  The character is lost.


s: Her head adorned with lappets pinned aloft


s: And ribbons streaming gay, superbly raised


s: Indebted to some smart wig-weaver's hand


s: For more than half the tresses it sustains;


s: Her elbows ruffled, and her tottering form


s: Ill propped upon French heels; she might be deemed


s: (But that the basket dangling on her arm


s: Too proud for dairy-work, or sale of eggs;


s: Expect her soon with foot-boy at her heels,


s: No longer blushing for her awkward load,


s: Her train and her umbrella all her care.


s: The town has tinged the country; and the stain


s: The worse for what it soils.  The fashion runs


s: Scenes rarely graced with rural manners now.


s: The unguarded door was safe; men did not watch


s: To invade another's right, or guard their own.


s: Then sleep was undisturbed by fear, unscared


s: By drunken howlings; and the chilling tale


s: With doubtful credit, told to frighten babes


s: But farewell now to unsuspicious nights,


s: And slumbers unalarmed.  Now, ere you sleep,


s: See that your polished arms be primed with care,


s: And drop the night-bolt.  Ruffians are abroad,


s: And the first larum of the cock's shrill throat


s: To horrid sounds of hostile feet within.


s: Even daylight has its dangers; and the walk


s: Through pathless wastes and woods, unconscious once


s: Or harmless flocks, is hazardous and bold.


s: Lamented change! to which full many a cause


s: Inveterate, hopeless of a cure, conspires.


s: The course of human things from good to ill,


s: From ill to worse, is fatal, never fails.


s: Increase of power begets increase of wealth;


s: To the next rank contagious, and in time


s: Of order, from the chariot to the plough.


s: The rich, and they that have an arm to check


s: Desert their office; and themselves, intent


s: On pleasure, haunt the capital, and thus


s: Resign the scenes their presence might protect.


s: Though resident, and witness of the wrong.


s: His reverence and his worship both to rest


s: When he should strike he trembles, and sets free,


s: The audacious convict whom he dares not bind.


s: Perhaps, though by profession ghostly pure,


s: He, too, may have his vice, and sometimes prove


s: Less dainty than becomes his grave outside


s: His milk-white hand.  The palm is hardly clean--


s: But here and there an ugly smutch appears.


s: Foh! 'twas a bribe that left it.  He has touched


s: Propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish,


s: Wildfowl or venison, and his errand speeds.


s: But faster far and more than all the rest


s: A noble cause, which none who bears a spark


s: Works the deplored and mischievous effect.


s: Arms, through the vanity and brainless rage


s: Of those that bear them, in whatever cause,


s: Seem most at variance with all moral good,


s: The clown, the child of nature, without guile,


s: But his own simple pleasures, now and then


s: A wrestling match, a foot-race, or a fair,


s: Sheepish he doffs his hat, and mumbling swears


s: A Bible-oath to be whate'er they please,


s: To do he knows not what.  The task performed,


s: That instant he becomes the serjeant's care,


s: His pupil, and his torment, and his jest;


s: Bent knees, round shoulders, and dejected looks,


s: Procure him many a curse.  By slow degrees,


s: Unapt to learn and formed of stubborn stuff,


s: He yet by slow degrees puts off himself,


s: Grows conscious of a change, and likes it well.


s: He stands erect, his slouch becomes a walk,


s: He steps right onward, martial in his air,


s: His form and movement; is as smart above


s: As meal and larded locks can make him:  wears


s: His hat or his plumed helmet with a grace,


s: And, his three years of heroship expired,


s: Returns indignant to the slighted plough.


s: He hates the field in which no fife or drum


s: Attends him, drives his cattle to a march,


s: And sighs for the smart comrades he has left.


s: 'Twere well if his exterior change were all--


s: But with his clumsy port the wretch has lost


s: To swear, to game, to drink, to show at home


s: By lewdness, idleness, and Sabbath-breach,


s: To astonish and to grieve his gazing friends,


s: To break some maiden's and his mother's heart,


s: Are his sole aim, and all his glory now!


s: Blown in its native bed.  'Tis there alone


s: Shine out, there only reach their proper use.


s: By regal warrant, or self-joined by bond


s: For interest sake, or swarming into clans


s: Like flowers selected from the rest, and bound


s: And bundled close to fill some crowded vase,


s: Fades rapidly, and by compression marred


s: Hence chartered boroughs are such public plagues,


s: In all their private functions, once combined,


s: Their nature, and, disclaiming all regard


s: Build factories with blood, conducting trade


s: At the sword's point, and dyeing the white robe


s: Hence too the field of glory, as the world


s: Misdeems it, dazzled by its bright array,


s: With all the majesty of thundering pomp,


s: Is but a school where thoughtlessness is taught


s: Abandoned, and, which still I more regret,


s: It knew not once, the country wins me still.


s: That flattered me with hopes of earthly bliss,


s: But there I laid the scene.  There early strayed


s: Had found me, or the hope of being free.


s: The first-born efforts of my youthful muse,


s: Ere yet her ear was mistress of their powers.


s: No bard could please me but whose lyre was tuned


s: To Nature's praises.  Heroes and their feats


s: The rustic throng beneath his favourite beech.


s: The struggling efforts of my boyish tongue


s: To speak its excellence; I danced for joy.


s: I marvelled much that, at so ripe an age


s: As twice seven years, his beauties had then first


s: And still admiring, with regret supposed


s: The joy half lost because not sooner found.


s: Thee, too, enamoured of the life I loved,


s: With transports such as favoured lovers feel,


s: I studied, prized, and wished that I had known,


s: Ingenious Cowley:  and though now, reclaimed


s: By modern lights from an erroneous taste,


s: Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools.


s: I still revere thee, courtly though retired,


s: Though stretched at ease in Chertsey's silent bowers,


s: 'Tis born with all.  The love of Nature's works


s: And though the Almighty Maker has throughout


s: Discriminated each from each, by strokes


s: And touches of His hand, with so much art


s: Twins at all points--yet this obtains in all,


s: And all can taste them:  minds that have been formed


s: But none without some relish, none unmoved.


s: Where nothing feeds it.  Neither business, crowds,


s: Whatever else they smother of true worth


s: The villas, with which London stands begirt


s: Like a swarth Indian with his belt of beads,


s: Prove it.  A breath of unadulterate air,


s: The glimpse of a green pasture, how they cheer


s: The citizen, and brace his languid frame!


s: A garden in which nothing thrives, has charms


s: That soothe the rich possessor; much consoled


s: That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint,


s: Of nightshade, or valerian, grace the well


s: He cultivates.  These serve him with a hint


s: That Nature lives; that sight-refreshing green


s: Is still the livery she delights to wear,


s: Though sickly samples of the exuberant whole.


s: What are the casements lined with creeping herbs,


s: Of orange, myrtle, or the fragrant weed,


s: The Frenchman's darling? are they not all proofs


s: That man, immured in cities, still retains


s: By supplemental shifts, the best he may?


s: The most unfurnished with the means of life,


s: And they that never pass their brick-wall bounds


s: To range the fields, and treat their lungs with air,


s: Yet feel the burning instinct:  over-head


s: And watered duly.  There the pitcher stands


s: A fragment, and the spoutless tea-pot there;


s: Sad witnesses how close-pent man regrets


s: The country, with what ardour he contrives


s: Hail, therefore, patroness of health and ease


s: And harmless pleasures, in the thronged abode


s: Thwart his attempts, or envy his success.


s: Some must be great.  Great offices will have


s: Great talents.  And God gives to every man


s: The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,


s: That lifts him into life, and lets him fall


s: Just in the niche he was ordained to fill.


s: He gives a tongue to enlarge upon, a heart


s: To feel, and courage to redress her wrongs;


s: In the low vale of life, that early felt


s: A wish for ease and leisure, and ere long


s: Found here that leisure and that ease I wished.


s: 'Tis morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb


s: Ascending, fires the horizon; while the clouds,


s: That crowd away before the driving wind,


s: Seen through the leafless wood.  His slanting ray


s: And, tingeing all with his own rosy hue,


s: Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field,


s: Provokes me to a smile.  With eye askance


s: Transformed to a lean shank; the shapeless pair,


s: Take step for step, and, as I near approach


s: The cottage, walk along the plastered wall,


s: Preposterous sight, the legs without the man.


s: The verdure of the plain lies buried deep


s: Beneath the dazzling deluge, and the bents


s: And coarser grass upspearing o'er the rest,


s: Conspicuous, and, in bright apparel clad,


s: And fledged with icy feathers, nod superb.


s: The cattle mourn in corners, where the fence


s: Screens them, and seem, half petrified, to sleep


s: In unrecumbent sadness.  There they wait


s: Their wonted fodder, not, like hungering man,


s: Fretful if unsupplied, but silent, meek,


s: And patient of the slow-paced swain's delay.


s: He from the stack carves out the accustomed load,


s: Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft


s: His broad keen knife into the solid mass:


s: Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,


s: Lest storms should overset the leaning pile


s: Deciduous, or its own unbalanced weight.


s: Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned


s: The cheerful haunts of man, to wield the axe


s: And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear,


s: Shaggy and lean and shrewd, with pointed ears


s: And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur,


s: His dog attends him.  Close behind his heel


s: Now creeps he slow, and now with many a frisk,


s: Wide-scampering, snatches up the drifted snow


s: With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his snout;


s: Then shakes his powdered coat and barks for joy.


s: Heedless of all his pranks the sturdy churl


s: Moves right toward the mark; nor stops for aught,


s: But now and then, with pressure of his thumb,


s: To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube,


s: That fumes beneath his nose; the trailing cloud


s: Streams far behind him, scenting all the air.


s: Now from the roost, or from the neighbouring pale,


s: Where, diligent to catch the first faint gleam


s: Of smiling day, they gossiped side by side,


s: Come trooping at the housewife's well-known call


s: The feathered tribes domestic; half on wing,


s: And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood,


s: Conscious, and fearful of too deep a plunge.


s: The sparrows peep, and quit the sheltering eaves


s: To seize the fair occasion; well they eye


s: The scattered grain, and, thievishly resolved


s: To escape the impending famine, often scared


s: Clean riddance quickly made, one only care


s: Remains to each, the search of sunny nook,


s: Or shed impervious to the blast.  Resigned


s: His wonted strut, and, wading at their head


s: With well-considered steps, seems to resent


s: His altered gait, and stateliness retrenched.


s: How find the myriads, that in summer cheer


s: The hills and valleys with their ceaseless songs,


s: Due sustenance, or where subsist they now?


s: Earth yields them naught:  the imprisoned worm is safe


s: Beneath the frozen clod; all seeds of herbs


s: Lie covered close, and berry-bearing thorns


s: That feed the thrush (whatever some suppose),


s: As instinct prompts, self-buried ere they die.


s: The very rooks and daws forsake the fields,


s: Where neither grub nor root nor earth-nut now


s: Repays their labour more; and perched aloft


s: By the way-side, or stalking in the path,


s: Lean pensioners upon the traveller's track,


s: Pick up their nauseous dole, though sweet to them,


s: Of voided pulse, or half-digested grain.


s: The streams are lost amid the splendid blank,


s: O'erwhelming all distinction.  On the flood


s: Lies undissolved, while silently beneath


s: And unperceived the current steals away;


s: Not so where, scornful of a check, it leaps


s: The mill-dam, dashes on the restless wheel,


s: No frost can bind it there.  Its utmost force


s: That in its fall the liquid sheet throws wide.


s: And see where it has hung the embroidered banks


s: With forms so various, that no powers of art,


s: The pencil, or the pen, may trace the scene!


s: Here glittering turrets rise, upbearing high


s: Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees


s: And shrubs of fairy land.  The crystal drops


s: That trickle down the branches, fast congealed,


s: And prop the pile they but adorned before.


s: The sunbeam.  There imbossed and fretted wild,


s: The growing wonder takes a thousand shapes


s: Capricious, in which fancy seeks in vain


s: The likeness of some object seen before.


s: As she with all her rules can never reach.


s: Less worthy of applause though more admired,


s: The wonder of the North.  No forest fell


s: When thou wouldst build; no quarry sent its stores


s: To enrich thy walls; but thou didst hew the floods,


s: The armoury of winter, where his troops,


s: The gloomy clouds, find weapons, arrowy sleet,


s: Skin-piercing volley, blossom-bruising hail,


s: And snow that often blinds the traveller's course,


s: Were soon conjoined, nor other cement asked


s: Lamps gracefully disposed, and of all hues,


s: Gleamed through the clear transparency, that seemed


s: Another moon new-risen, or meteor fallen


s: From heaven to earth, of lambent flame serene.


s: So stood the brittle prodigy, though smooth


s: And slippery the materials, yet frost-bound


s: Firm as a rock.  Nor wanted aught within


s: For grandeur or for use.  Long wavy wreaths


s: Of flowers, that feared no enemy but warmth,


s: Blushed on the panels.  Mirror needed none


s: Where all was vitreous, but in order due


s: (What seemed at least commodious seat) were there,


s: Sofa and couch and high-built throne august.


s: And all was moist to the warm touch; a scene


s: On human grandeur and the courts of kings


s: 'Twas transient in its nature, as in show


s: 'Twas durable; as worthless, as it seemed


s: Treacherous and false; it smiled, and it was cold.


s: Great princes have great playthings.  Some have played


s: At building human wonders mountain high.


s: Some have amused the dull sad years of life


s: (Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad)


s: With schemes of monumental fame, and sought


s: Short-lived themselves, to immortalise their bones.


s: Some seek diversion in the tented field,


s: And make the sorrows of mankind their sport.


s: But war's a game which, were their subjects wise,


s: Kings should not play at.  Nations would do well


s: To extort their truncheons from the puny hands


s: Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil,


s: Because men suffer it, their toy the world.


s: When Babel was confounded, and the great


s: Then, as a shepherd separates his flock,


s: These to the upland, to the valley those,


s: God drave asunder and assigned their lot


s: And equal, and he bade them dwell in peace.


s: Peace was a while their care.  They ploughed and sowed,


s: And reaped their plenty without grudge or strife,


s: Than human passions please.  In every heart


s: Are sown the sparks that kindle fiery war,


s: Occasion needs but fan them, and they blaze.


s: Cain had already shed a brother's blood:


s: The Deluge washed it out; but left unquenched


s: The seeds of murder in the breast of man.


s: Soon, by a righteous judgment, in the line


s: The first artificer of death; the shrewd


s: Contriver who first sweated at the forge,


s: And forced the blunt and yet unblooded steel


s: To a keen edge, and made it bright for war.


s: Him Tubal named, the Vulcan of old times,


s: The sword and falchion their inventor claim,


s: And the first smith was the first murderer's son.


s: His art survived the waters; and ere long,


s: When man was multiplied and spread abroad


s: In tribes and clans, and had begun to call


s: These meadows and that range of hills his own,


s: To improve and cultivate their just demesne,


s: Made others covet what they saw so fair.


s: Thus wars began on earth.  These fought for spoil,


s: And those in self-defence.  Savage at first


s: One eminent above the rest, for strength,


s: Was chosen leader.  Him they served in war,


s: And him in peace for sake of warlike deeds


s: Reverenced no less.  Who could with him compare?


s: As he, whose prowess had subdued their foes?


s: Thus war, affording field for the display


s: Of virtue, made one chief, whom times of peace,


s: Which have their exigencies too, and call


s: For skill in government, at length made king.


s: King was a name too proud for man to wear


s: With modesty and meekness, and the crown,


s: So dazzling in their eyes who set it on,


s: Was sure to intoxicate the brows it bound.


s: And destitute of means to raise themselves,


s: They sink and settle lower than they need.


s: Great purposes with ease, that turns and wields,


s: Almost without an effort, plans too vast


s: For their conception, which they cannot move.


s: Conscious of impotence they soon grow drunk


s: Build him a pedestal and say--Stand there,


s: They roll themselves before him in the dust,


s: Then most deserving in their own account


s: As if exalting him they raised themselves.


s: Thus by degrees, self-cheated of their sound


s: Adopting their mistake, profoundly thinks


s: The world was made in vain if not for him.


s: Thenceforth they are his cattle:  drudges, born


s: To bear his burdens, drawing in his gears,


s: And sweating in his service.  His caprice


s: Becomes the soul that animates them all.


s: He deems a thousand, or ten thousand lives,


s: An easy reckoning, and they think the same.


s: Thus kings were first invented, and thus kings


s: Storks among frogs, that have but croaked and died.


s: Strange that such folly, as lifts bloated man


s: Even in the cradled weakness of the world!


s: Still stranger much, that when at length mankind


s: Had reached the sinewy firmness of their youth,


s: On subjects more mysterious, they were yet


s: Babes in the cause of freedom, and should fear


s: And quake before the gods themselves had made.


s: But above measure strange, that neither proof


s: By some whose patriot virtue has prevailed,


s: Can even now, when they are grown mature


s: Such dupes are men to custom, and so prone


s: To reverence what is ancient, and can plead


s: A course of long observance for its use,


s: Because delivered down from sire to son,


s: As in the bosoms of the slaves he rules,


s: Should when he pleases, and on whom he will,


s: Of provocation given, or wrong sustained,


s: And force the beggarly last doit, by means


s: That his own humour dictates, from the clutch


s: Say ye, who (with less prudence than of old


s: In fancied peace beneath his dangerous branch,


s: Where find ye passive fortitude?  Whence springs


s: Your self-denying zeal that holds it good


s: To stroke the prickly grievance, and to hang


s: His thorns with streamers of continual praise?


s: The king who loves the law, respects his bounds.


s: And reigns content within them; him we serve


s: Freely and with delight, who leaves us free;


s: We trust him not too far.  King though he be,


s: And king in England, too, he may be weak


s: Or covet more than freemen choose to grant:


s: Beyond that mark is treason.  He is ours,


s: To administer, to guard, to adorn the state,


s: But not to warp or change it.  We are his,


s: True to the death, but not to be his slaves.


s: Mark now the difference, ye that boast your love


s: Of kings, between your loyalty and ours.


s: We love the man; the paltry pageant you:


s: We the chief patron of the commonwealth;


s: You chains and bondage for a tyrant's sake.


s: Yours, a blind instinct, crouches to the rod,


s: And licks the foot that treads it in the dust.


s: Were kingship as true treasure as it seems,


s: Sterling, and worthy of a wise man's wish,


s: Causeless, and daubed with undiscerning praise,


s: Where love is more attachment to the throne,


s: Not to the man who fills it as he ought.


s: Whose freedom is by sufferance, and at will


s: Exposed to manacles, deserves them well.


s: The state that strives for liberty, though foiled


s: And forced to abandon what she bravely sought,


s: Deserves at least applause for her attempt,


s: And pity for her loss.  But that's a cause


s: Is weakness when opposed; conscious of wrong,


s: But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought


s: All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength,


s: The surest presage of the good they seek. *


s: Then shame to manhood, and opprobrious more


s: To France than all her losses and defeats,


s: Her house of bondage worse than that of old


s: Which God avenged on Pharaoh--the Bastille!


s: Ye horrid towers, the abode of broken hearts,


s: That monarchs have supplied from age to age


s: With music such as suits their sovereign ears,


s: There's not an English heart that would not leap


s: To hear that ye were fallen at last, to know


s: In forging chains for us, themselves were free.


s: Wherever pleaded.  'Tis the cause of man.


s: There dwell the most forlorn of humankind,


s: Immured though unaccused, condemned untried,


s: Still lives, though all its pleasant boughs are gone.


s: To count the hour bell and expect no change;


s: Still to reflect that though a joyless note


s: To him whose moments all have one dull pace,


s: Ten thousand rovers in the world at large


s: From labour, and the lover, that has chid


s: Its long delay, feels every welcome stroke


s: Upon his heart-strings trembling with delight;--


s: To fly for refuge from distracting thought


s: Contrives, hard-shifting and without her tools;--


s: In staggering types, his predecessor's tale,


s: And bloated spider, till the pampered pest


s: Comes at his call, and serves him for a friend;--


s: To wear out time in numbering to and fro


s: The studs that thick emboss his iron door,


s: Then downward and then upward, then aslant


s: By dint of change to give his tasteless task


s: Some relish, till the sum, exactly found


s: With woes, which who that suffers would not kneel


s: And beg for exile, or the pangs of death?


s: That man should thus encroach on fellow-man,


s: Abridge him of his just and native rights,


s: And social, nip his fruitfulness and use,


s: And doom him for perhaps a heedless word


s: Moves indignation; makes the name of king


s: (Of king whom such prerogative can please)


s: Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.


s: 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower


s: Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,


s: And we are weeds without it.  All constraint,


s: Their progress in the road of science; blinds


s: Thee therefore still, blameworthy as thou art,


s: With all thy loss of empire, and though squeezed


s: Fails for the craving hunger of the state,


s: Thee I account still happy, and the chief


s: Among the nations, seeing thou art free,


s: My native nook of earth!  Thy clime is rude,


s: All hearts to sadness, and none more than mine;


s: Thine unadulterate manners are less soft


s: And plausible than social life requires.


s: And thou hast need of discipline and art


s: To give thee what politer France receives


s: From Nature's bounty--that humane address


s: And sweetness, without which no pleasure is


s: In converse, either starved by cold reserve,


s: Or flushed with fierce dispute, a senseless brawl;


s: Yet, being free, I love thee; for the sake


s: Of that one feature, can be well content,


s: Disgraced as thou hast been, poor as thou art,


s: But once enslaved, farewell! I could endure


s: Chains nowhere patiently; and chains at home,


s: Where I am free by birthright, not at all.


s: Then what were left of roughness in the grain


s: That it belongs to freemen, would disgust


s: And shock me.  I should then with double pain


s: Feel all the rigour of thy fickle clime;


s: For which our Hampdens and our Sidneys bled,


s: In scenes which, having never known me free,


s: Would not reproach me with the loss I felt.


s: And tremble at vain dreams?  Heaven grant I may,


s: But the age of virtuous politics is past,


s: And we are deep in that of cold pretence.


s: Patriots are grown too shrewd to be sincere,


s: And we too wise to trust them.  He that takes


s: Of liberty, themselves the slaves of lust,


s: And lack of knowledge, and with cause enough.


s: Where private was not?  Can he love the whole


s: Who loves no part? he be a nation's friend


s: Who is, in truth, the friend of no man there?


s: Can he be strenuous in his country's cause,


s: Who slights the charities for whose dear sake


s: That country, if at all, must be beloved?


s: --'Tis therefore sober and good men are sad


s: And sickly, while her champions wear their hearts


s: So loose to private duty, that no brain,


s: Healthful and undisturbed by factious fumes,


s: Can dream them trusty to the general weal.


s: Such were not they of old whose tempered blades


s: Dispersed the shackles of usurped control,


s: And hewed them link from link.  Then Albion's sons


s: Were sons indeed.  They felt a filial heart


s: Beat high within them at a mother's wrongs,


s: And shining each in his domestic sphere,


s: Shone brighter still once called to public view.


s: 'Tis therefore many, whose sequestered lot


s: That promised once more firmness, so assailed


s: That all its tempest-beaten turrets shake,


s: Stand motionless expectants of its fall.


s: Was registered in heaven ere time began.


s: We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works


s: Die too.  The deep foundations that we lay,


s: Time ploughs them up, and not a trace remains.


s: We build with what we deem eternal rock;


s: A distant age asks where the fabric stood;


s: And in the dust, sifted and searched in vain,


s: Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the power


s: Of earth and hell confederate take away;


s: Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind,


s: Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more:


s: 'Tis liberty of heart, derived from heaven,


s: Bought with His blood who gave it to mankind,


s: And sealed with the same token.  It is held


s: By charter, and that charter sanctioned sure


s: All bear the royal stamp that speaks them His,


s: And are august, but this transcends them all.


s: Are grand, no doubt, and worthy of the Word


s: Unoccupied, has filled the void so well,


s: And made so sparkling what was dark before.


s: But these are not His glory.  Man, 'tis true,


s: Smit with the beauty of so fair a scene,


s: Pronounced it transient, glorious as it is,


s: And still designing a more glorious far,


s: Doomed it, as insufficient for His praise.


s: These, therefore, are occasional, and pass;


s: Whose lying heart disputes against a God;


s: That office served, they must be swept away.


s: Not so the labours of His love; they shine


s: In other heavens than these that we behold,


s: And fade not.  There is Paradise that fears


s: No forfeiture, and of its fruits He sends


s: Of these the first in order, and the pledge


s: Ere yet mortality's fine threads give way,


s: Stripes and a dungeon; and his body serves


s: The triple purpose.  In that sickly, foul,


s: Opprobrious residence, he finds them all.


s: Careless of their Creator.  And that low


s: To a vile clod, so draws him with such force


s: Resistless from the centre he should seek,


s: That he at last forgets it.  All his hopes


s: To reach a depth profounder still, and still


s: What does he not? from lusts opposed in vain,


s: And self-reproaching conscience.  He foresees


s: The fatal issue to his health, fame, peace,


s: That can ennoble man, and make frail life,


s: Short as it is, supportable.  Still worse,


s: Far worse than all the plagues with which his sins


s: Infect his happiest moments, he forebodes


s: And death still future; not a hasty stroke,


s: Like that which sends him to the dusty grave,


s: Scripture is still a trumpet to his fears:


s: What none can prove a forgery, may be true;


s: What none but bad men wish exploded, must.


s: That scruple checks him.  Riot is not loud


s: Nor drunk enough to drown it.  In the midst


s: Of laughter his compunctions are sincere,


s: And he abhors the jest by which he shines.


s: And seems dethroned and vanquished.  Peace ensues,


s: But spurious and short-lived, the puny child


s: And fights again; but finds his best essay,


s: So oft, and wearied in the vain attempt,


s: Scoffs at her own performance.  Reason now


s: Takes part with appetite, and pleads the cause,


s: Perversely, which of late she so condemned;


s: With shallow shifts and old devices, worn


s: Covering his shame from his offended sight.


s: "Hath God indeed given appetites to man,


s: And stored the earth so plenteously with means


s: So strict, that less than perfect must despair?


s: Falsehood! which whoso but suspects of truth,


s: Dishonours God, and makes a slave of man.


s: Do they themselves, who undertake for hire


s: The teacher's office, and dispense at large


s: Attend to their own music? have they faith


s: And gesture, they propound to our belief?


s: Nay--conduct hath the loudest tongue.  The voice


s: Is but an instrument on which the priest


s: May play what tune he pleases.  In the deed,


s: We find sound argument, we read the heart."


s: Such reasonings (if that name must needs belong


s: And sin without disturbance.  Often urged


s: They gain at last his unreserved assent,


s: Till, hardened his heart's temper in the forge


s: He slights the strokes of conscience.  Nothing moves,


s: Vain tampering has but fostered his disease,


s: 'Tis desperate, and he sleeps the sleep of death.


s: Haste now, philosopher, and set him free.


s: Charm the deaf serpent wisely.  Make him hear


s: How lovely, and the moral sense how sure,


s: Consulted and obeyed, to guide his steps


s: Spare not in such a cause.  Spend all the powers


s: Of rant and rhapsody in virtue's praise,


s: Be most sublimely good, verbosely grand,


s: And with poetic trappings grace thy prose


s: Till it outmantle all the pride of verse.--


s: Ah, tinkling cymbal and high-sounding brass


s: Smitten in vain! such music cannot charm


s: The eclipse that intercepts truth's heavenly beam,


s: And chills and darkens a wide-wandering soul.


s: The still small voice is wanted.  He must speak,


s: Whose word leaps forth at once to its effect,


s: Who calls for things that are not, and they come.


s: Grace makes the slave a freeman.  'Tis a change


s: That turns to ridicule the turgid speech


s: And stately tone of moralists, who boast,


s: The shag of savage nature, and were each


s: From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,


s: Is work for Him that made him.  He alone,


s: In the lost kind, extracting from the lips


s: Of asps their venom, overpowering strength


s: Patriots have toiled, and in their country's cause


s: Bled nobly, and their deeds, as they deserve,


s: Receive proud recompense.  We give in charge


s: Their names to the sweet lyre.  The historic muse,


s: Proud of the treasure, marches with it down


s: To latest times; and sculpture, in her turn,


s: Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass,


s: To guard them, and to immortalise her trust.


s: But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid,


s: To those who, posted at the shrine of truth,


s: Have fallen in her defence.  A patriot's blood


s: Well spent in such a strife may earn indeed,


s: And for a time ensure to his loved land,


s: But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize,


s: And win it with more pain.  Their blood is shed


s: Yet few remember them.  They lived unknown,


s: And chased them up to heaven.  Their ashes flew


s: --No marble tells us whither.  With their names


s: No bard embalms and sanctifies his song,


s: The tyranny that doomed them to the fire,


s: But gives the glorious sufferers little praise.


s: He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,


s: And all are slaves beside.  There's not a chain


s: That hellish foes confederate for his harm


s: Can wind around him, but he casts it off


s: With as much ease as Samson his green withes.


s: Of Nature, and, though poor perhaps compared


s: With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,


s: Calls the delightful scenery all his own.


s: His are the mountains, and the valleys his,


s: And the resplendent river's.  His to enjoy


s: But who, with filial confidence inspired,


s: Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye,


s: And smiling say--My Father made them all!


s: Whose eye they fill with tears of holy joy,


s: Whose heart with praise, and whose exalted mind


s: With worthy thoughts of that unwearied love


s: That planned, and built, and still upholds a world


s: So clothed with beauty, for rebellious man?


s: Yes--ye may fill your garners, ye that reap


s: The loaded soil, and ye may waste much good


s: In feast or in the chase, in song or dance,


s: Appropriates nature as his Father's work,


s: And has a richer use of yours, than you.


s: Of no mean city, planned or e'er the hills


s: Were built, the fountains opened, or the sea


s: With all his roaring multitude of waves.


s: Brings its own evil with it, makes it less.


s: For he has wings that neither sickness, pain,


s: No nook so narrow but he spreads them there


s: With ease, and is at large.  The oppressor holds


s: His body bound, but knows not what a range


s: His spirit takes, unconscious of a chain;


s: Whom God delights in, and in whom He dwells.


s: Acquaint thyself with God if thou wouldst taste


s: His works.  Admitted once to His embrace,


s: Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before;


s: Thine eye shall be instructed, and thine heart,


s: Made pure, shall relish, with divine delight


s: Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.


s: Brutes graze the mountain-top with faces prone,


s: It yields them; or, recumbent on its brow,


s: Ruminate, heedless of the scene outspread


s: Beneath, beyond, and stretching far away


s: From inland regions to the distant main.


s: Man views it and admires, but rests content


s: With what he views.  The landscape has his praise,


s: But not its Author.  Unconcerned who formed


s: And such well pleased to find it, asks no more.


s: Not so the mind that has been touched from heaven,


s: And in the school of sacred wisdom taught


s: To read His wonders, in whose thought the world,


s: Nor for its own sake merely, but for His


s: Much more who fashioned it, he gives it praise;


s: Praise that from earth resulting as it ought


s: To earth's acknowledged Sovereign, finds at once


s: The soul that sees Him, or receives sublimed


s: New faculties or learns at least to employ


s: More worthily the powers she owned before;


s: Discerns in all things what, with stupid gaze


s: A ray of heavenly light gilding all forms


s: Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing


s: And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.


s: Much conversant with heaven, she often holds


s: With those fair ministers of light to man


s: That fill the skies nightly with silent pomp


s: Sweet conference; inquires what strains were they


s: With which heaven rang, when every star, in haste


s: Sent forth a voice, and all the sons of God


s: Shouted for joy.--"Tell me, ye shining hosts


s: That navigate a sea that knows no storms,


s: And systems of whose birth no tidings yet


s: Have reached this nether world, ye spy a race


s: Favoured as ours, transgressors from the womb


s: And hasting to a grave, yet doomed to rise


s: And to possess a brighter heaven than yours?


s: As one who, long detained on foreign shores,


s: His country's weather-bleached and battered rocks,


s: From the green wave emerging, darts an eye


s: Radiant with joy towards the happy land;


s: And many an aching wish, your beamy fires,


s: That show like beacons in the blue abyss,


s: Ordained to guide the embodied spirit home


s: From toilsome life to never-ending rest.


s: That give assurance of their own success,


s: And that, infused from heaven, must thither tend."


s: So reads he Nature whom the lamp of truth


s: Illuminates.  Thy lamp, mysterious Word!


s: Which whoso sees, no longer wanders lost


s: With intellect bemazed in endless doubt,


s: But runs the road of wisdom.  Thou hast built,


s: With means that were not till by Thee employed,


s: Worlds that had never been, hadst Thou in strength


s: Been less, or less benevolent than strong.


s: They are Thy witnesses, who speak Thy power


s: And goodness infinite, but speak in ears


s: That hear not, or receive not their report.


s: Till Thou proclaim Thyself.  Theirs is indeed


s: A teaching voice; but 'tis the praise of Thine


s: That whom it teaches it makes prompt to learn,


s: And with the boon gives talents for its use.


s: Possess the heart, and fables, false as hell,


s: The uninformed and heedless souls of men.


s: We give to chance, blind chance, ourselves as blind,


s: The glory of Thy work, which yet appears


s: Then skilful most when most severely judged.


s: But chance is not; or is not where Thou reign'st:


s: Thy providence forbids that fickle power


s: (If power she be that works but to confound)


s: Yet thus we dote, refusing, while we can,


s: Gods such as guilt makes welcome--gods that sleep,


s: Amused spectators of this bustling stage.


s: Made such by Thee, we love Thee for that cause


s: For which we shunned and hated Thee before.


s: Then we are free:  then liberty, like day,


s: Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from heaven


s: Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.


s: A voice is heard that mortal ears hear not


s: Till Thou hast touched them; 'tis the voice of song,


s: Which he that hears it with a shout repeats,


s: And adds his rapture to the general praise.


s: In that blest moment, Nature, throwing wide


s: The Author of her beauties, who, retired


s: By the impure, and hears His power denied.


s: Thou art the source and centre of all minds,


s: From Thee departing, they are lost and rove


s: At random, without honour, hope, or peace.


s: From Thee is all that soothes the life of man,


s: His high endeavour, and his glad success,


s: His strength to suffer, and his will to serve.


s: But, oh, Thou Bounteous Giver of all good,


s: Thou art of all Thy gifts Thyself the crown!


s: Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor,


s: And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.


s: There is in souls a sympathy with sounds,


s: And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased


s: With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave;


s: Is touched within us, and the heart replies.


s: How soft the music of those village bells


s: Now pealing loud again, and louder still,


s: Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on.


s: Where memory slept.  Wherever I have heard


s: And with it all its pleasures and its pains.


s: Such comprehensive views the spirit takes,


s: The windings of my way through many years.


s: Short as in retrospect the journey seems,


s: It seemed not always short; the rugged path,


s: Moved many a sigh at its disheartening length.


s: Yet feeling present evils, while the past


s: Faintly impress the mind, or not at all,


s: That we might try the ground again, where once


s: (Through inexperience as we now perceive)


s: We missed that happiness we might have found.


s: Some friend is gone, perhaps his son's best friend


s: When most severe, and mustering all its force,


s: Whose favour, like the clouds of spring, might lower,


s: But had a blessing in its darkest frown,


s: Threatening at once and nourishing the plant.


s: We loved, but not enough, the gentle hand


s: That reared us.  At a thoughtless age allured


s: His sheltering side, and wilfully forewent


s: That converse which we now in vain regret.


s: That softer friend, perhaps more gladly still,


s: Might he demand them at the gates of death.


s: Sorrow has since they went subdued and tamed


s: (Himself grown sober in the vale of tears)


s: And feel a parent's presence no restraint.


s: But not to understand a treasure's worth


s: Till time has stolen away the slighted good,


s: And makes the world the wilderness it is.


s: The few that pray at all, pray oft amiss,


s: And, seeking grace to improve the prize they hold,


s: Would urge a wiser suit than asking more.


s: The night was winter in his roughest mood,


s: The morning sharp and clear; but now at noon


s: Upon the southern side of the slant hills,


s: And where the woods fence off the northern blast,


s: The season smiles, resigning all its rage,


s: And has the warmth of May.  The vault is blue


s: Without a cloud, and white without a speck


s: The dazzling splendour of the scene below.


s: And through the trees I view the embattled tower


s: The soothing influence of the wafted strains,


s: The walk still verdant under oaks and elms,


s: Whose outspread branches overarch the glade.


s: The roof, though movable through all its length,


s: As the wind sways it, has yet well sufficed,


s: The frequent flakes, has kept a path for me.


s: No noise is here, or none that hinders thought:


s: The redbreast warbles still, but is content


s: With slender notes and more than half suppressed.


s: Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light


s: From spray to spray, where'er he rests he shakes


s: From many a twig the pendant drops of ice,


s: That tinkle in the withered leaves below.


s: Stillness, accompanied with sounds so soft,


s: Charms more than silence.  Meditation here


s: May think down hours to moments.  Here the heart


s: And learning wiser grow without his books.


s: Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,


s: Have ofttimes no connection.  Knowledge dwells


s: In heads replete with thoughts of other men;


s: The mere materials with which wisdom builds,


s: Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place,


s: Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.


s: Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much,


s: Books are not seldom talismans and spells


s: Holds an unthinking multitude enthralled.


s: Surrender judgment hoodwinked.  Some the style


s: Infatuates, and, through labyrinths and wilds


s: Of error, leads them by a tune entranced.


s: While sloth seduces more, too weak to bear


s: And swallowing therefore without pause or choice


s: The total grist unsifted, husks and all.


s: But trees, and rivulets whose rapid course


s: Defies the check of winter, haunts of deer,


s: And sheep-walks populous with bleating lambs,


s: And lanes, in which the primrose ere her time


s: Peeps through the moss that clothes the hawthorn root,


s: Deceive no student.  Wisdom there, and truth,


s: The roving thought, and fix it on themselves.


s: More grand than it produces year by year,


s: Familiar with the effect we slight the cause,


s: And in the constancy of Nature's course,


s: See nought to wonder at.  Should God again,


s: How would the world admire! but speaks it less


s: His moment when to sink and when to rise


s: Age after age, than to arrest his course?


s: While summer was, the pure and subtle lymph


s: Through the imperceptible meandering veins


s: Of leaf and flower?  It sleeps:  and the icy touch


s: A cold stagnation on the intestine tide.


s: But let the months go round, a few short months,


s: And all shall be restored.  These naked shoots,


s: Shall put their graceful foliage on again,


s: And more aspiring and with ampler spread


s: Shall boast new charms, and more than they have lost.


s: Then, each in its peculiar honours clad,


s: The scented and the scentless rose; this red


s: And of a humbler growth, the other tall,


s: Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew,


s: Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf


s: That the wind severs from the broken wave;


s: Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set


s: Which hue she most approved, she chose them all;


s: Copious of flowers the woodbine, pale and wan,


s: But well compensating their sickly looks


s: With never-cloying odours, early and late;


s: Of flowers like flies, clothing her slender rods,


s: That scarce a leaf appears; mezereon too,


s: Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset


s: With blushing wreaths investing every spray;


s: The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets,


s: The deep dark green of whose unvarnished leaf


s: Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more


s: The bright profusion of her scattered stars.--


s: These have been, and these shall be in their day,


s: From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,


s: Is Nature's progress when she lectures man


s: In heavenly truth; evincing, as she makes


s: The grand transition, that there lives and works


s: A soul in all things, and that soul is God.


s: Where no eye sees them.  And the fairer forms


s: He sets the bright procession on its way,


s: He marks the bounds which Winter may not pass,


s: And blunts his pointed fury.  In its case,


s: Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ


s: And, ere one flowery season fades and dies,


s: Designs the blooming wonders of the next.


s: From which they swerve not since; that under force


s: Of that controlling ordinance they move,


s: And need not His immediate hand, who first


s: Prescribed their course, to regulate it now.


s: Thus dream they, and contrive to save a God


s: The encumbrance of His own concerns, and spare


s: So man the moth is not afraid, it seems,


s: That knows no measure, by the scanty rule


s: And standard of his own, that is to-day,


s: To ceaseless service by a ceaseless force,


s: And under pressure of some conscious cause?


s: The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused


s: Sustains and is the life of all that lives.


s: Whose cause is God.  He feeds the secret fire


s: By which the mighty process is maintained,


s: Who sleeps not, is not weary; in whose sight


s: Slow-circling ages are as transient days;


s: Whose work is without labour, whose designs


s: And whose beneficence no charge exhausts.


s: Him blind antiquity profaned, not served,


s: With self-taught rites and under various names


s: That were not, and commending as they would


s: To each some province, garden, field, or grove.


s: Who bore the platted thorns with bleeding brows--


s: But shows some touch in freckle, streak, or stain,


s: Their balmy odours and imparts their hues,


s: And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes,


s: In grains as countless as the sea-side sands,


s: The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth.


s: Happy who walks with Him! whom, what he finds


s: Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower,


s: To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,


s: Prompts with remembrance of a present God.


s: His presence, who made all so fair, perceived,


s: Makes all still fairer.  As with Him no scene


s: Is dreary, so with Him all seasons please.


s: Though winter had been none had man been true,


s: And earth be punished for its tenant's sake,


s: Yet not in vengeance; as this smiling sky,


s: And these dissolving snows, and this clear stream,


s: Recovering fast its liquid music, prove.


s: Who then, that has a mind well strung and tuned


s: A scene so friendly to his favourite task,


s: Would waste attention at the chequered board,


s: Marching and counter-marching, with an eye


s: As fixt as marble, with a forehead ridged


s: And furrowed into storms, and with a hand


s: Nor envies he aught more their idle sport,


s: To trivial toys, and, pushing ivory balls


s: Nor deems he wiser him, who gives his noon


s: To Miss, the Mercer's plague, from shop to shop


s: Wandering, and littering with unfolded silks


s: The polished counter, and approving none,


s: And soothed into a dream that he discerns


s: Frequents the crowded auction.  Stationed there


s: With glass at eye, and catalogue in hand,


s: And tongue accomplished in the fulsome cant


s: And pedantry that coxcombs learn with ease,


s: He notes it in his book, then raps his box,


s: Swears 'tis a bargain, rails at his hard fate


s: That he has let it pass--but never bids.


s: The sun proceeds, I wander; neither mist,


s: Nor freezing sky, nor sultry, checking me,


s: Even in the spring and play-time of the year


s: With all her little ones, a sportive train,


s: And prank their hair with daisies, or to pick


s: A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook,


s: These shades are all my own.  The timorous hare,


s: Grown so familiar with her frequent guest,


s: Scarce shuns me; and the stock-dove unalarmed


s: Sits cooing in the pine-tree, nor suspends


s: His long love-ditty for my near approach.


s: Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm


s: Where on his bed of wool and matted leaves


s: He has outslept the winter, ventures forth


s: To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm sun,


s: The squirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play.


s: He sees me, and at once, swift as a bird,


s: Ascends the neighbouring beech; there whisks his brush,


s: And perks his ears, and stamps and scolds aloud,


s: With all the prettiness of feigned alarm,


s: To love and friendship both, that is not pleased


s: Nor feels their happiness augment his own.


s: The bounding fawn that darts across the glade


s: When none pursues, through mere delight of heart,


s: And spirits buoyant with excess of glee;


s: The horse, as wanton and almost as fleet,


s: That skims the spacious meadow at full speed,


s: Then stops and snorts, and throwing high his heels


s: The total herd receiving first from one,


s: That leads the dance, a summons to be gay,


s: Though wild their strange vagaries, and uncouth


s: Their efforts, yet resolved with one consent


s: To give such act and utterance as they may


s: With which kind nature graces every scene


s: All that are capable of pleasure pleased,


s: Man scarce had risen, obedient to His call


s: Who formed him from the dust, his future grave,


s: When he was crowned as never king was since.


s: And angel choirs attended.  Wondering stood


s: The new-made monarch, while before him passed,


s: All happy and all perfect in their kind,


s: The creatures, summoned from their various haunts


s: To see their sovereign, and confess his sway.


s: Vast was his empire, absolute his power,


s: He ruled with meekness, they obeyed with joy.


s: No cruel purpose lurked within his heart,


s: And no distrust of his intent in theirs.


s: Where kindness on his part who ruled the whole


s: And fear as yet was not, nor cause for fear.


s: But sin marred all; and the revolt of man,


s: Was punished with revolt of his from him.


s: Thy groves and lawns then witnessed! every heart,


s: And, conscious of some danger, either fled


s: As taught him too to tremble in his turn.


s: Were driven from Paradise; and in that hour


s: The seeds of cruelty, that since have swelled


s: Were sown in human nature's fruitful soil.


s: That man inflicts on all inferior kinds,


s: Regardless of their plaints.  To make him sport,


s: And just in his account, why bird and beast


s: Should suffer torture, and the streams be dyed


s: With blood of their inhabitants impaled.


s: Earth groans beneath the burden of a war


s: Waged with defenceless innocence, while he,


s: Adds tenfold bitterness to death by pangs


s: Needless, and first torments ere he devours.


s: Now happiest they that occupy the scenes


s: The most remote from his abhorred resort,


s: They feared, and as His perfect image loved.


s: The wilderness is theirs with all its caves,


s: Its hollow glens, its thickets, and its plains


s: And howl and roar as likes them, uncontrolled,


s: Nor ask his leave to slumber or to play.


s: Within the confines of their wild domain;


s: The lion tells him, "I am monarch here;"


s: And if he spares him, spares him on the terms


s: Of royal mercy, and through generous scorn


s: In measure, as by force of instinct drawn,


s: Dependent upon man, those in his fields,


s: These at his crib, and some beneath his roof;


s: He sells protection.  Witness, at his foot


s: The spaniel dying for some venial fault,


s: Under dissection of the knotted scourge;


s: Witness the patient ox, with stripes and yells


s: Driven to the slaughter, goaded as he runs


s: To madness, while the savage at his heels


s: Laughs at the frantic sufferer's fury spent


s: Upon the guiltless passenger o'erthrown.


s: That wait on man, the flight-performing horse:


s: His murderer on his back, and, pushed all day,


s: With bleeding sides, and flanks that heave for life,


s: To the far-distant goal, arrives and dies.


s: So little mercy shows who needs so much!


s: Does law, so jealous in the cause of man,


s: Denounce no doom on the delinquent?  None.


s: He lives, and o'er his brimming beaker boasts


s: The inglorious feat, and, clamorous in praise


s: Of the poor brute, seems wisely to suppose


s: The honours of his matchless horse his own.


s: But many a crime, deemed innocent on earth,


s: Is registered in heaven, and these, no doubt,


s: Have each their record, with a curse annexed.


s: Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,


s: To assist his foe's down-fallen beast to rise,


s: And when the bush-exploring boy that seized


s: The young, to let the parent bird go free,


s: Proved He not plainly that His meaner works


s: Are yet His care, and have an interest all,


s: The charter was conferred by which we hold


s: O'er all we feed on, power of life and death.


s: But read the instrument, and mark it well;


s: Can find no warrant there.  Feed then, and yield


s: Thanks for thy food.  Carnivorous, through sin,


s: Feed on the slain, but spare the living brute.


s: The unfledged raven and the lion's whelp


s: The injurious trampler upon nature's law,


s: That claims forbearance even for a brute.


s: He hates the hardness of a Balaam's heart,


s: And, prophet as he was, he might not strike


s: On which he rode.  Her opportune offence


s: Saved him, or the unrelenting seer had died.


s: To interfere, though in so just a cause,


s: And helpless victims with a sense so keen


s: Of injury, with such knowledge of their strength,


s: That oft the beast has seemed to judge the man.


s: (If such, who plead for Providence may seem


s: In modern eyes) shall make the doctrine clear.


s: Where England, stretched towards the setting sun,


s: Narrow and long, o'erlooks the western wave,


s: Vicious in act, in temper savage-fierce.


s: He journeyed, and his chance was, as he went,


s: To join a traveller of far different note--


s: Whose face, too, was familiar to his view.


s: Their way was on the margin of the land,


s: O'er the green summit of the rocks whose base


s: Beats back the roaring surge, scarce heard so high.


s: The charity that warmed his heart was moved


s: At sight of the man-monster.  With a smile


s: Much to persuade, he plied his ear with truths


s: Not harshly thundered forth or rudely pressed,


s: But, like his purpose, gracious, kind, and sweet.


s: "And dost thou dream," the impenetrable man


s: Exclaimed, "that me the lullabies of age,


s: Can cheat, or move a moment's fear in me?


s: Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave


s: To steel their hearts against the dread of death."


s: Pushed with a madman's fury.  Fancy shrinks,


s: And the blood thrills and curdles at the thought


s: Of such a gulf as he designed his grave.


s: But though the felon on his back could dare


s: The dreadful leap, more rational, his steed


s: Declined the death, and wheeling swiftly round,


s: Or ere his hoof had pressed the crumbling verge,


s: Baffled his rider, saved against his will.


s: The frenzy of the brain may be redressed


s: By medicine well applied, but without grace


s: Enraged the more by what might have reformed


s: Destruction, with a zeal to be destroyed,


s: With sounding whip and rowels dyed in blood.


s: But still in vain.  The Providence that meant


s: Spared yet again the ignobler for his sake.


s: And now, his prowess proved, and his sincere,


s: His rage grew cool; and, pleased perhaps to have earned


s: With looks of some complacence he resumed


s: Of good Evander, still where he was left


s: Fixed motionless, and petrified with dread.


s: So on they fared; discourse on other themes


s: (As is the course of rash and fiery men)


s: The rude companion smiled as if transformed.


s: But 'twas a transient calm.  A storm was near,


s: An unsuspected storm.  His hour was come.


s: Was now to learn that Heaven, though slow to wrath,


s: His horse, as he had caught his master's mood,


s: Snorting, and starting into sudden rage,


s: Rushed to the cliff, and having reached it, stood.


s: Sheer o'er the craggy barrier, and, immersed


s: Deep in the flood, found, when he sought it not,


s: The death he had deserved, and died alone.


s: So God wrought double justice; made the fool


s: The victim of his own tremendous choice,


s: And taught a brute the way to safe revenge.


s: (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,


s: That crawls at evening in the public path;


s: Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.


s: The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,


s: And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes


s: Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove,


s: Not so when, held within their proper bounds


s: And guiltless of offence, they range the air,


s: Or take their pastime in the spacious field.


s: There they are privileged; and he that hunts


s: Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong,


s: Who, when she formed, designed them an abode.


s: The sum is this:  if man's convenience, health,


s: Or safety interfere, his rights and claims


s: Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.


s: Else they are all--the meanest things that are--


s: As God was free to form them at the first,


s: Who in His sovereign wisdom made them all.


s: Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons


s: To love it too.  The spring-time of our years


s: By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand


s: To check them.  But, alas! none sooner shoots,


s: Than cruelty, most devilish of them all.


s: By which Heaven moves in pardoning guilty man;


s: And he that shows none, being ripe in years,


s: And conscious of the outrage he commits,


s: Shall seek it and not find it in his turn.


s: Distinguished much by reason, and still more


s: From creatures that exist but for our sake,


s: Which having served us, perish, we are held


s: Will reckon with us roundly for the abuse


s: Of what He deems no mean or trivial trust.


s: Not more on human help, than we on theirs.


s: Their strength, or speed, or vigilance, were given


s: In aid of our defects.  In some are found


s: That man's attainments in his own concerns,


s: Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs,


s: Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind.


s: And read with such discernment, in the port


s: We could not teach, and must despair to learn.


s: But learn we might, if not too proud to stoop


s: Attachment never to be weaned, or changed


s: Against unkindness, absence, and neglect;


s: Can move or warp; and gratitude for small


s: And trivial favours, lasting as the life,


s: Man praises man.  Desert in arts or arms


s: Wins public honour; and ten thousand sit


s: But less, methinks, than sacrilege might serve--


s: (For was it less?  What heathen would have dared


s: To strip Jove's statue of his oaken wreath


s: Much less might serve, when all that we design


s: And give the day to a musician's praise.


s: Yes--we remember him; and, while we praise


s: That His most holy Book from whom it came


s: But hush!--the muse perhaps is too severe,


s: And measure of the offence, rebukes a deed


s: Less impious than absurd, and owing more


s: To want of judgment than to wrong design.


s: When wandering Charles, who meant to be the third,


s: Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,


s: The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce,


s: And eke did rear right merrily, two staves,


s: Sung to the praise and glory of King George.


s: --Man praises man; and Garrick's memory next,


s: When time has somewhat mellowed it, and made


s: Shall have its altar; and the world shall go


s: Its squeezed contents, and more than it admits


s: Shall sigh at their exclusion, and return


s: Shall stuff his shoulders with King Richard's bunch,


s: And strut, and storm, and straddle, stamp, and stare,


s: To show the world how Garrick did not act,


s: He drew the liturgy, and framed the rites


s: And called the world to worship on the banks


s: Of Avon famed in song.  Ah! pleasant proof


s: Some place, a spark or two not yet extinct.


s: The mulberry-tree was hung with blooming wreaths,


s: The mulberry-tree stood centre of the dance,


s: The mulberry-tree was hymned with dulcet airs,


s: And from his touchwood trunk the mulberry-tree


s: Still sacred, and preserves with pious care.


s: So 'twas a hallowed time:  decorum reigned,


s: And mirth without offence.  No few returned


s: Doubtless much edified, and all refreshed.


s: --Man praises man.  The rabble all alive,


s: From tippling benches, cellars, stalls, and styes,


s: Swarm in the streets.  The statesman of the day,


s: A pompous and slow-moving pageant, comes;


s: Some shout him, and some hang upon his car


s: To gaze in his eyes and bless him.  Maidens wave


s: Their kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy


s: His steeds, usurp a place they well deserve.


s: Why? what has charmed them?  Hath he saved the state?


s: No.  Doth he purpose its salvation?  No.


s: That finds out every crevice of the head


s: That is not sound and perfect, hath in theirs


s: Wrought this disturbance.  But the wane is near,


s: And his own cattle must suffice him soon.


s: Thus idly do we waste the breath of praise,


s: Doomed to the dust, or lodged already there.


s: The task now falls into the public hand;


s: The vale of Nature, where it creeps and winds


s: And unambitious course, reflecting clear


s: If not the virtues yet the worth of brutes.


s: And teach one tyrant pity for his drudge.


s: The groans of Nature in this nether world,


s: Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end.


s: Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,


s: Whose fire was kindled at the prophets' lamp,


s: The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes.


s: Six thousand years of sorrow have well-nigh


s: Of this tempestuous state of human things,


s: Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest.


s: For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds


s: The dust that waits upon His sultry march,


s: When sin hath moved Him, and His wrath is hot,


s: Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend


s: Propitious, in His chariot paved with love,


s: And what His storms have blasted and defaced


s: For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair.


s: Sweet is the harp of prophecy; too sweet


s: Not to be wronged by a mere mortal touch;


s: Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at last


s: On some fair theme, some theme divinely fair,


s: Such is the impulse and the spur he feels


s: To give it praise proportioned to its worth,


s: That not to attempt it, arduous as he deems


s: The labour, were a task more arduous still.


s: Oh scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,


s: Scenes of accomplished bliss! which who can see,


s: Though but in distant prospect, and not feel


s: His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy?


s: And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach


s: Of barrenness is past.  The fruitful field


s: Laughs with abundance, and the land once lean,


s: Exults to see its thistly curse repealed.


s: The garden fears no blight, and needs no fence,


s: For there is none to covet, all are full.


s: Graze with the fearless flocks.  All bask at noon


s: Of the same grove, and drink one common stream.


s: Lurks in the serpent now.  The mother sees,


s: And smiles to see, her infant's playful hand


s: Stretched forth to dally with the crested worm,


s: The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue.


s: All creatures worship man, and all mankind


s: One Lord, one Father.  Error has no place;


s: That creeping pestilence is driven away,


s: The breath of heaven has chased it.  In the heart


s: Is not.  The pure and uncontaminated blood


s: Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age.


s: One song employs all nations; and all cry,


s: "Worthy the Lamb, for He was slain for us!"


s: The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks


s: Shout to each other, and the mountain-tops


s: From distant mountains catch the flying joy,


s: Till nation after nation taught the strain,


s: Behold the measure of the promise filled,


s: All kingdoms and all princes of the earth


s: Flock to that light; the glory of all lands


s: And endless her increase.  Thy rams are there,


s: Nebaioth,* and the flocks of Kedar there;


s: The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind,


s: And Saba's spicy groves pay tribute there.


s: Praise is in all her gates.  Upon her walls,


s: And in her streets, and in her spacious courts


s: Kneels with the native of the farthest West,


s: And worships.  Her report has travelled forth


s: Into all lands.  From every clime they come


s: Saw never; such as heaven stoops down to see.


s: * Nebaioth and Kedar, the sons of Ishmael, and progenitors of the


s: Thus heavenward all things tend.  For all were once


s: Perfect, and all must be at length restored.


s: So God has greatly purposed; who would else


s: Dishonour, and be wronged without redress.


s: Haste then, and wheel away a shattered world,


s: Ye slow-revolving seasons!  We would see


s: (A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet)


s: A world that does not dread and hate His laws,


s: And suffer for its crime:  would learn how fair


s: The creature is that God pronounces good,


s: How pleasant in itself what pleases Him.


s: Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers,


s: And even the joy, that haply some poor heart


s: Derives from heaven, pure as the fountain is,


s: Is sullied in the stream; taking a taint


s: From touch of human lips, at best impure.


s: As this is gross and selfish! over which


s: Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway,


s: That govern all things here, shouldering aside


s: The meek and modest Truth, and forcing her


s: To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife


s: In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men,


s: Where violence shall never lift the sword,


s: Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong,


s: Where he that fills an office, shall esteem


s: More than the perquisite; where laws shall speak


s: Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts,


s: A worthless form, than to decide aright;


s: Nor smooth good-breeding (supplemental grace)


s: With lean performance ape the work of love.


s: Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,


s: By ancient covenant, ere nature's birth,


s: And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since,


s: Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and in their hearts


s: Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and Thy delay


s: Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see


s: The dawn of Thy last advent, long-desired,


s: Would creep into the bowels of the hills,


s: And flee for safety to the falling rocks.


s: Of its own taunting question, asked so long,


s: "Where is the promise of your Lord's approach?"


s: Till, his exhausted quiver yielding none,


s: He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoiled,


s: And aims them at the shield of truth again.


s: The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,


s: And all the mysteries to faith proposed,


s: As useless, to the moles and to the bats.


s: They now are deemed the faithful and are praised,


s: And quit their office for their error's sake.


s: Blind and in love with darkness! yet even these


s: Worthy, compared with sycophants, who kneel,


s: Thy Name adoring, and then preach Thee man!


s: So fares Thy Church.  But how Thy Church may fare,


s: The world takes little thought; who will may preach,


s: And what they will.  All pastors are alike


s: To wandering sheep resolved to follow none.


s: Two gods divide them all, Pleasure and Gain;


s: For these they live, they sacrifice to these,


s: With conscience and with Thee.  Lust in their hearts,


s: And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth


s: To prey upon each other; stubborn, fierce,


s: High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace.


s: Thy prophets speak of such; and noting down


s: The features of the last degenerate times,


s: Due to Thy last and most effectual work,


s: Thy Word fulfilled, the conquest of a world.


s: He is the happy man, whose life even now


s: Shows somewhat of that happier life to come;


s: Who, doomed to an obscure but tranquil state,


s: Is pleased with it, and, were he free to choose,


s: Would make his fate his choice; whom peace, the fruit


s: Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith,


s: Below the skies, but having there his home.


s: The world o'erlooks him in her busy search


s: Of objects more illustrious in her view;