Now the busy bee's employ'd',
Sipping dew before the sun.
7 Trickling through the crevic'd rock',
Where the limpid stream distils',
Sweet refreshment waits the flock',
When 'tis sun-drove from the hills`.
8 Colin's for the promis'd corn',
(Ere the harvest hopes are ripe',) Anxious; whilst the huntsman's horn', Boldly sounding', drowns his pipe`. 9 Sweet-O sweet, the warbling throng', On the white emblossom'd spray`! Nature's universal song,
Echoes to the rising day`.
10 FERVID on the glitt'ring flood',
Now the noontide radiance glows':
Drooping o'er its infant bud',
Not a dew-drop's left the rose`.
11 By the brook the shepherd dines',
From the fierce meridian heat',
Shelter'd by the branching pines',
Pendant o'er his grassy seat`.
12 Now the flock forsakes the glade',
Where', uncheck'd', the sun-beams fall`,
Sure to find a pleasing shade'
By the ivy'd abbey wall.
13 Echo', in her airy round',
O'er the river, rock`, and hill',
Cannot catch a single sound',
Save the clack of yonder mill'.
14 Cattle court the zephyrs bland',
Where the streamlet wanders cool`;
Or with languid silence stand
Midway in the marshy pool'.
15 But from mountain`, dell`, or stream",
Not a flutt'ring zephyr springs';
Fearful lest the noontide beam',
Scorch its soft, its silken wings`.
16 Not a leaf has leave to stir`;
Nature's lull'd-serene'-and still:
Quiet e'en the shepherd's cur',
Sleeping on the heath-clad hill.
17 Languid is the landscape round',
Till the fresh descending show'r',
Grateful to the thirsty ground',
Raises ev'ry fainting flow'r`.
13 Now the hill--the hedge-are green',
Now the warblers' throats in tune';
Blithsome is the verdant scene',
Brighten'd by the beams of Noon!
19 O'ER the heath the heifer strays
Free; (the furrow'd task is done';}
Now the village windows blaze',
Burnish'd by the setting sun`.
20 Now he sets behind the hill',
Sinking from a golden sky`:
Can the pencil's mimic skill,
Copy the refulgent dye'?
21 Trudging as the ploughmen go”,
(To the smoking hamlet bound',)
Giant-like their shadows grow',
Lengthen'd o'er the level ground.
22 Where the rising forest spreads
Shelter for the lordly dome'!
To their high-built airy beds',
See the rooks returning home!
23 As the lark', with vary'd tune',
Carols to the ev'ning loud';
Mark the mild resplendent moon',
Breaking through a parted cloud.
24 Now the hermit owlet peeps',
From the barn' or twisted brake`;
And the blue mist slowly creeps',
Curling on the silver lake.
25 As the trout in speckled pride',
Playful from its bosom springs';
To the banks a ruffled tide,
Verges in successive rings`.
26 Tripping through the silken grass',
O'er the path-divided dale',
Mark the rose-complexion'd lass',
With her well-pois'd milking pail` !
27 Linnets with unnumber'd notes',
And the cuckoo bird with two',
Tuning sweet their mellow throats,'
Bid the setting sun adieu-CUNNINGHAM.
SECTION XX.
The order of nature.
SEE, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below;
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Nature ethereal, human; angel, man;
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On superior pow'rs
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
2 And, if each system in gradation roll,
Alike essential to the amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth, unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless thro' the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature trembles to the throne of God.
All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm! Oh madness! pride! impiety!
5 What if the foot ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame:
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.
4 All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul:
That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent ;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
5 Cease then, nor ORDER imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear-WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.-POPE.
SECTION XXI.
Confidence in Divine protection.
TOW are thy servants blest, O Lord!
How sure is their defence!
Eternal wisdom is their guide,
Their help Omnipotence.
2 In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
Through burning climes I pass'd unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air.
3 Thy mercy sweeten'd ev'ry scil,
Made ev'ry region please;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd,
And smooth'd the Tyrrhene seas.
4 Think, O my soul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou saw'st the wide extended deep
In all its horrors rise!
5 Confusion dwelt in ev'ry face,
And fear in ev'ry heart,
When waves on waves, and gulfs in gulfs,
O'ercame the pilot's art.
6 Yet then, from all my griefs, O Lord!
Thy mercy set me free;
While in the confidence of pray'r,
My soul took hold on thee.
7 For tho' in dreadful whirls we hung
High on the broken wave,
I knew thou wert not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.
8 The storm was laid, the winds retir'd,
Obedient to thy will;
The sea that roar'd at thy command,
At thy command was still.
9 In midst of dangers, fears, and deaths,
Thy goodness I'll adore;
And praise thee for thy mercies past,
And humbly hope for more.
10 My life, if thou preserve my life,
Thy sacrifice shall be ;
And death, if death must be my doom,
Shall join my soul to thee.—ADDISON.
SECTION XXII.
Hymn on a review of the seasons.
THESE, as they change, Almighty Father! these,
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is fur of thee. Forth in the pleasing spring
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the soft'ning air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles,
And ev'ry sense, and ev'ry heart is joy.
2 Then comes Thy glory in the summer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year;
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whisp'ring gales.
3 Thy bounty shines in autumn unconfin'd,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In winter, awful Thou! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roll'd,
Majestic darkness! On the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, Thou bidst the world adore;
And humblest nature with Thy northern blast.
4 Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train,
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