Sweet; O fweet the warbling throng, On the white embloffom'd fpray! Nature's univerfal fong
Echos to the rifing day.
FERVID on the glitt'ring flood,
Now the noontide radiance glows: Drooping o'er its infant bud,
Not a dew drop's left the rofe. By the brook the fhepherd dines, From the fierce meridian heat, Shelter'd by the branching pines, Pendant o'er his graffy feat. Now the flock forfakes the glade, Where uncheck'd the funbeams fall,
Sure to find a pleafing fhade
By the ivy'd abbey wall.
Echo, in her airy round,
O'er the river, rock, and hill, Cannot catch a fingle found,
Save the clack of yonder mill.
Cattle court the zephyrs bland,
Where the streamlet wanders cool,
Or with languid filence stand,
Midway in the marshy pool.
But from mountain, dell, or ftream,
Not a flutt'ring zephyr fprings;
Fearful left the noontide beam
Scorch its foft, its filken wings.
Not a leaf has leave to stir,
Nature's lull'd, ferene and ftill!
Quiet e'en the fhepherd's cur,
Sleeping on the heath clad hill.
Languid is the landfcape round-
Till the fresh defcending how's,
Grateful to the thirfty ground,
Raifes ev'ry fainting flow'r.
Now the hill, the hedge, are green,
Now the warbler's throat's in tune
Blithfome is the verdant scene,
Brighten'd by the beams of Noon !
O'ER the heath the heifer ftrays.
Free, (the furrow'd tafk is done ;)
Now the village windows blaze,
Burnish'd by the fetting fun.
Now he fets behind the hill,
Sinking from a golden fky:
Can the pencil's mimic skill
Copy the refulgent dye?
Trudging as the ploughmen go,
(To the fmoking hamlet bound,)
Giant like their fhadows grow,
Lengthen'd o'er the level ground.
Where the rifing foreft fpreads
Shelter for the lordly dome !
To their high built airy beds,
See the rooks returning home!
As the lark with vari'd tune,
Carols to the ev'ning loud;
Mark the mild refplendent moon,
Breaking through a parted cloud;.
Now the hermit howlet peeps
From the barn or twifted brake;
And the blue mift flowly creeps,
Curling on the filver lake.
As the trout in fpeckled pride,
Playful from its bofom springs;.
To the banks a ruffled tide
Verges in fucceffive rings.
Tripping through the filken grafs
O'er the path divided dale,
Mark the rofe complexion'd lafs
With her well pois'd milking pail ;.
Linnets with unnumber'd notes,
And the cuckoo bird with two,
Tuning fweet their mellow throats,
Bid the fetting fun adieu.
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 progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being which from God begun,
Nature etherial, human, angel, man;
Beaft, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can fee,.
No glafs can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On fuperior pow'rs
Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Were, one step broken, the great fcale's deftroy'd :
From nature's chain, whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth or ten thoufandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll,
Alike effential to th' amazing whole,
The leaft confufion but in one, not all
That fyftem only, but the whole muft fall,
Let earth, unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawless thro' the fky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature tremble to the throne of God.
All this dread ORDER break, for whom? for thee?
Vile worm! Oh madnefs! pride! impiety!
What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,
Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd
To ferve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Juft as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame :
Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.
All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,.
Whofe body nature is, and God the foul:
That chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the earth, as in th' etherial frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and bloffoms in the trees;
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent ;
Breathes in our foul, informs our moral part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt feraph that adores and burns;
To him no high no low, no great no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
Ceafe then, nor ORDER imperfection name;
Our proper blits depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canft bear :
Safe in the hand of one difpofing 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 fee;
All difcord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, univerfal good:
And, fpite of Pride, in erring Reafon's fpite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.
Confidence in Divine Protection.
How are thy fervants bleft, O Lord!
How fure is their defence ! Eternal Wisdom is their guide,
Their help Omnipotence.
In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
Through burning climes I pafs'd unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air.
Thy mercy fweeten'd ev'ry foil,
Made ev'ry region please ;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd,
And fmooth'd the Tyrrhene seas.
Think, O my foul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou faw'ft the wide extended deep,
In all its horrors rife !
Confufion 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.
Yet then, from all my griefs, O Lord,
fet me free ;
While in the confidence of pray'r
My foul took hold on thee.
For tho' in dreadful whirls we hung.
High on the broken wave,
I knew thou wert not flow to hear,
Nor impotent to fave.
The form was laid, the winds retir'd,.
Obedient to thy will;
The fea, that roar'd at thy command,
At thy command was ftill.
In midst of dangers, fears and deaths,
Thy goodness I'll adore
And praife thee for thy mercies paft,
And humbly hope for more.
My life, if thou preferv'ft my life,
Thy facrifice fhall be ;
And death, if death must be my doom,
Shall join my foul to thee.
Hymn on a Review of the Seasons.
THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, thefe,
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love,
Wide flush the fields; the foft'ning air is balm ;
Echo the mountains round; the foreft fmiles;
And every fenfe, and every heart is joy.
Then comes Thy glory in the Summer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy fun
Shoots full perfection thro' the fwelling year;
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