That, breathe a whisper, or discuss a feather, They nod, or shake their sapient heads together. But here we drop the simile, for you

Still keep your smoky tenement in view;

While I, by purling brook, and flowery dale,

A

pure unclouded element inhale.

What would you more? 'tis my transcendant lot
To live, to reign, the monarch of my cot;
Supremely blest in ignorance and want

Of that, on which with rapture you descant :
As the poor 'prentice who his trade forsook,
Tempted erewhile to serve a pastry-cook,
'Till gorg'd and surfeited with sweets, he fled
To make his meal upon a crust of bread.

Tu nidum servas; ego laudo ruris amœni
Rivos, et musco circumlita saxa, nemusque.
Quid quæris? vivo et regno, simul ista reliqui
Quæ vos ad cœlum effertis clamore secundo:
Utque sacerdotis fugitivus liba recuso;
Pane egeo, jam mellitis potiore placentis.
Vivere naturæ si convenienter oportet,

Ponendæque domo quærenda est area primùm,

Would you in peace

and comfort live, be wise,

And do as Nature and plain Sense advise:

First chuse a spot with air and elbow-room;

There build your house, secure of healthful bloom. -
"What! quit my chambers? burn my books? and dwell
For ever in the country?"-Where so well?

Where lowers the brow of Winter less austere ?
Or where more mildly glows the sultry year?
There no ambitious phantoms interpose,

To break the rest which toil to nature owes :

Say, do the Naiads of the Fount, who sport

And squirt through leaden pipes in Garden-court,

So sweetly murmur, as the crystal rills,

That gush spontaneous from their native hills?

Novistine locum potiorem rure beato?

Est ubi plus tepeant hyemes? ubi gratior aura
Leniat et rabiem Canis, et momenta Leonis,
Cum semel accepit solem furibundus acutum ?
Est ubi divellat somnos minus invidia cura?
Deterius Libycis olet aut nitet herba lapillis?

Purior in vicis aqua tendit rumpere plumbum,

Quam quæ per pronum trepidat cum murmure rivum?

Or vies the flinty pavement with the mead,
Sweet to the scent, elastic to the tread,
Oft as you trudge, amid th' incessant jar,

To Westminster, and back to Temple-Bar?

Nature triumphant o'er fastidious Art, Though elbow'd out, will still assert her part ; Rallies, though oft repuls'd, andmakes a stand, Where'er she finds a vacant inch of land:

Where poplars rang'd along suburban walls, Shut out the odious prospect of St. Paul's: Or where the Cit, by her inspir'd to set His stingy, starv'ling, stint of mignonette, Snatches a precious glimpse of something green Through dim eclipse of sooty sashes seen.

Not so the Courtier's gay viranda's face, South to the Park, or north from Portland-place;

Naturam expellas fureâ, tamen usque recurret,
Et mala perrumpet sensim fastidia victrix:

Nempe inter varias nutritur sylva columnas,

7

Thence oft with keener optics he supplies
The wear and tear of diplomatic eyes:
With what judicious poise the tube he points,
Varies the focus, and adjusts the joints,

Extends, diminishes, and shifts at will,

From Hampstead Bowers aloft to Highgate Hill;
And, leering through the speculative glass,
Ogles the Hamadryads, as they pass!

Lo! too with pious heed the Senate plants
Near William's Hall Egeria's sylvan haunts;
Where now the pensive Nymph auspicious waits
To prosper Parliamentary debates,
Prompting each grave Pompilius of the nation,
With patriotic schemes of Reformation:
This votes a vista; that industrious hunts
For antique precedents-or Gothic fronts;
Levels a church-abolishes a place-
And Science, Taste, and Politics embrace.
All this, my learned friend, directly proves
The exclusive right and title of the Groves :

Laudaturque domus, longos quæ prospicit agros.

M

For to what issue tend the boasted arts

Which Court or City-residence imparts? f Bassus, who late with analytic taste

Of mingled wines the separate flavour trac'd;
Could name the clime and vintage of the grape,
Blindfold, unaided by the bottle's shape,

Died of a plethora.-The world may lay
Ven son and

The blame, alas! to knowledge of Tokay.

Timon the rich, whose trade's extensive range, Dubs him to-day, the oracle of 'Change,

Deep in the Funds contracts for half the loan; To-morrow Bankrupt-cash and credit flown— With loss of life, the forfeit of Success

He weighs, and values e'en existence less : Victim to gold, o'erlooks the golden mean; And-Ah! forbear to paint the closing scene!

f Non qui Sidonio contendere callidus ostro
Nescit Aquinatem potantia vellera fucum,
Certius accepit damnum propiusve medullis,
Quàm qui non poterit vero distinguere falsum.
Quem res plus nimio delectavere secundæ,
Mutatæ quatient; Siquid mirabere, pones