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Your fate unmerited, once more rejoice
That yet a remnant of your race furvives.
How airy and how light the graceful arch,
Yet awful as the confecrated roof
Re-echoing pious anthems! while beneath
The chequer'd earth seems restless as a flood
Brush'd by the wind. So fportive is the light
Shot through the boughs, it dances as they dance,
Shadow and sunshine intermingling quick,

And darkning and enlightning, as the leaves
Play wanton, ev'ry moment, ev'ry spot.

And now with nerves new-brac'd and spirits chear'd We tread the wilderness, whofe well-roll'd walks With curvature of flow and eafy fweep,

Deception innocent-give ample space

To narrow bounds. The grove receives us next;
Between the upright fhafts of whofe tall elms
We may difcern the thresher at his task.

Thump after thump, refounds the conftant flail,

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That feems to fwing uncertain, and yet falls
Full on the deftin'd ear. Wide flies the chaff,
The rustling ftraw fends up a frequent mist
Of atoms sparkling in the noon-day beam.
Come hither, ye that prefs your beds of down
And fleep not: fee him fweating o'er his bread
Before he eats it.-'Tis the primal curse,
But foften'd into mercy; made the pledge
Of chearful days, and nights without a groan.

By ceafelefs action, all that is, fubfists.

Conftant rotation of th' unwearied wheel

That nature rides upon, maintains her health,
Her beauty, her fertility. She dreads.

An inftant's paufe, and lives but while fhe moves.

Its own revolvency upholds the world.

Winds from all quarters agitate the air,

And fit the limpid element for use,

Elfe noxious: oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams

All feel the fresh'ning impulse, and are cleanfed

By restless undulation; ev'n the oak

Thrives by the rude concuffion of the ftorm;
He feems indeed indignant, and to feel

Th' impreffion of the blast with proud difdain,
Frowning as if in his unconscious arm

He held the thunder. But the monarch owes His firm ftability to what he fcorns,

More fixt below, the more disturb'd above.

The law by which all creatures else are bound, Binds man the lord of all.

Himfelf derives

No mean advantage from a kindred cause,

From ftrenuous toil his hours of sweetest ease.

The fedentary stretch their lazy length

When custom bids, but no refreshment find,
For none they need the languid eye, the cheek
Deserted of its bloom, the flaccid, fhrunk,
And wither'd muscle, and the vapid foul,
Reproach their owner with that love of reft
To which he forfeits ev'n the reft he loves.

Not fuch th' alert and active.

Measure life

By its true worth, the comforts it affords,
And theirs alone feems worthy of the name.
Good health, and its affociate in the most,
Good temper; fpirits prompt to undertake,'
And not foon spent, though in an arduous task;
The pow'rs of fancy and strong thought are theirs ;
Ev'n age itself seems privileged in them
With clear exemption from its own defects.
A fparkling eye beneath a wrinkled front
The vet'ran fhows, and gracing a grey beard
With youthful fmiles, defcends toward the grave
Sprightly, and old almost without decay.

Like a coy maiden, eafe, when courted moft, Fartheft retires-an idol, at whose shrine

Who oft'neft facrifice are favor'd leaft.

The love of Nature, and the scenes the draws

Is Nature's dictate. Strange! there should be found Who felf-imprifon'd in their proud faloons,

Renounce the odors of the open field

For

For the unfcented fictions' of the loom.
Who fatisfied with only pencil'd scenes,
Prefer to the performance of a God

Th' inferior wonders of an artist's hand.
Lovely indeed the mimic works of art,
But Nature's works far lovelier. I admire-
None more admires the painter's magic skill,
Who fhews me that which I fhall never fee,
Conveys a distant country into mine,

And throws Italian light on English walls.
But imitative ftrokes can do no more

Than please the eye, fweet Nature ev'ry sense.
The air falubrious of her lofty hills,

The chearing fragrance of her dewy vales
And mufic of her woods-no works of man
May rival these; these all bespeak a power
Peculiar, and exclusively her own.
Beneath the open sky she spreads the feast ;
'Tis free to all-'tis ev'ry day renew'd,
Who fcorns it, ftarves defervedly at home.

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