"Rude Nature's state had been our state to-day;
"No cities e'er their towery fronts had rais'd,
"No arts had made us opulent and gay;

"With brother-brutes the human race had graz'd; "None e'er had soar'd to fame, none honour'd been, none prais'd.

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"Great Homer's song had never fir'd the breast "To thirst of glory, and heroic deeds; "Sweet Maro's muse, sunk in inglorious rest, "Had silent slept amid the Mincian reeds: “The wits of modern time had told their beads, "And monkish legends been their only strains; "Our Milton's Eden had lain wrapt in weeds, "Our Shakspeare stroll'd and laugh'd with War"wick swains,

"Ne had my master Spenser charm'd his Mulla's plains.

"Dumb too had been the sage historic muse, “And perish'd all the sons of ancient fame; "Those starry lights of virtue, that diffuse "Through the dark depth of time their vivid flame, "Had all been lost with such as have no name. "Who then had scorn'd his ease for others' good? "Who then had toil'd rapacious men to tame? "Who in the public breach devoted stood, "And for his country's cause been prodigal of blood?

"But should your hearts to fame unfeeling be, "If right I read, your pleasure all require : "Then hear how best may be obtain❜d this fee, "How best enjoy'd this nature's wide desire. "Toil, and be glad! let industry inspire "Into your quicken'd limbs her buoyant breath! "Who does not act is dead; absorpt entire "In miry sloth, no pride, no joy he hath: "O leaden-hearted men, to be in love with death!

"Ah! what avail the largest gifts of heaven, "When drooping health and spirits go amiss? "How tasteless then whatever can be given? "Health is the vital principle of bliss,

"And exercise of health. In proof of this,
"Behold the wretch, who slugs his life away,
"Soon swallow'd in disease's sad abyss;

"While he whom toil has brac'd, or manly play,

"Has light as air each limb, each thought as clear as

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day.

"O, who can speak the vigorous joy of health!

Unclogg'd the body, unobscur'd the mind: "The morning rises gay, with pleasing stealth, "The temperate evening falls serene and kind. "In health the wiser brutes true gladness find. "See! how the younglings frisk along the meads, "As May comes on, and wakes the balmy wind; "Rampant with life, their joy all joy exceeds: "Yet what but high-strung health this dancing plea"saunce breeds?

"But here, instead, is foster'd every ill,

"Which or distemper'd minds or bodies know. "Come then, my kindred spirits! do not spill "Your talents here. This place is but a show, "Whose charms delude you to the den of woe: Come, follow me, I will direct you right,

"Where pleasure's roses, void of serpents, grow, "Sincere as sweet; come, follow this good knight, "And you will bless the day that brought him to your "sight.

"Some he will lead to courts, and some to camps; "To senates some, and public sage debates, "Where, by the solemn gleam of midnight-lamps, "The world is pois'd, and manag'd mighty states; "To high discovery some, that new-creates

"The face of earth; some to the thriving mart;
"Some to the rural reign, and softer fates;
"To the sweet muses some, who raise the heart;
"All glory shall be yours, all nature, and all art.

"There are, I see, who listen to my lay,
"Who wretched sigh for virtue, but despair.
"All may be done, (methinks I hear them say)
"Ev'n death despis'd by generous actions fair;

All, but for those who to these bowers repair, "Their every power dissolv'd in luxury,

"To quit of torpid sluggishness the lair, "And from the powerful arms of sloth get free. ""Tis rising from the dead.-Alas!-It cannot be ! "Would you then learn to dissipate the band "Of these huge threatening difficulties dire, "That in the weak man's way like lions stand, "His soul appal, and damp his rising fire? "Resolve, resolve, and to be men aspire. "Exert that noblest privilege, alone,

"Here to mankind indulg'd: control desire: "Let godlike reason, from her sov'reign throne, "Speak the commanding word-I will-and it is done.

"Heavens! can you then thus waste, in shameful "wise,

"Your few important days of trial here ? "Heirs of eternity! yborn to rise

"Through endless states of being, still more near "To bliss approaching, and perfection clear,

"Can you renounce a fortune so sublime,

"Such glorious hopes, your backward steps to steer, "And roll, with vilest brutes, through mud and slime? "No! no!-Your heaven-touch'd heart disdains the "sordid crime!"

"Enough! enough!" they cry'd-straight from the crowd,

The better sort on wings of transport fly:
As when amid the lifeless summits proud
Of Alpine cliffs, where to the gelid sky
Snows pil'd on snows in wintery torpor lie,
The rays divine of vernal Phoebus play;
Th' awaken'd heaps, in streamlets from on high,
Rous'd into action, lively leap away,

Glad warbling through the vales, in their new being gay.

Not less the life, the vivid joy serene,

That lighted up these new-created men,

Than that which wings th' exulting spirit clean,
When, just deliver'd from his fleshly den,

It soaring seeks its native skies agen:

How light its essence! how unclogg'd its powers,
Beyond the blazon of my mortal pen!

Ev'n so we glad forsook these sinful bowers,
Ev'n such enraptur'd life, such energy was ours.

But far the greater part, with rage inflam'd, Dire mutter'd curses, and blasphem'd high Jove. "Ye sons of hate! (they bitterly exclaim'd) "What brought you to this seat of peace and love? "While with kind nature, here amid the grove, "We pass'd the harmless sabbath of our time, "What to disturb it could, fell men, emove "Your barbarous hearts? Is happiness a crime? "Then do the fiends of hell rule in yon heaven "sublime."

"Ye impious wretches," (quoth the knight in wrath) "Your happiness behold !"-Then straight a wand He wav'd, an anti-magic power that hath, Truth from illusive falsehood to command. Sudden the landskip sinks on every hand;

The pure quick streams are marshy puddles found; On baleful heaths the groves all blacken'd stand; And, o'er the weedy foul abhorred ground,

Snakes, adders, toads, each loathsome creature crawls around.

And here and there, on trees by lightning scath'd,
Unhappy wights who loathed life yhung;
Or, in fresh gore and recent murder bath'd,
They weltering lay; or else, infuriate flung
Into the gloomy flood, while ravens sung
The funeral dirge, they down the torrent roll'd :
These, by distemper'd blood to madness stung,
Had doom'd themselves; whence oft, when night

control'd

The world, returning hither their sad spirits howl'd.

Meantime a moving scene was open laid;
That lazar-house, I whilom in my lay
Depainted have, its horrors deep-display'd,
And gave unnumber'd wretches to the day,

Who tossing there in squalid misery lay.
Soon as of sacred light th' unwonted smile
Pour'd on these living catacombs its ray,

Through the drear caverns stretching many a mile, The sick up-rais'd their heads, and dropp'd their woes awhile.

"O heaven! (they cry'd) and do we once more see "Yon blessed sun, and this green earth so fair? "Are we from noisome damps of pest-house free? "And drink our souls the sweet ethereal air? "O, thou! or knight, or god! who holdest there "That fiend, oh, keep him in eternal chains! "But what for us, the children of despair,

Brought to the brink of hell, what hope remains? Repentance does itself but aggravate our pains."

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The gentle knight, who saw their rueful case, Let fall adown his silver beard some tears. "Certes (quoth he), it is not ev'n in grace, "T" undo the past, and eke your broken years: Nathless, to nobler worlds repentance rears, "With humble hope, her eye; to her is given "A power the truly contrite heart that cheers; "She quells the brand by which the rocks are riven; "She more than merely softens, she rejoices heaven.

"Then patient bear the sufferings you have earn'd, "And by these sufferings purify the mind; "Let wisdom be by past misconduct learn'd: "Or pious die, with penitence resign'd, "And to a life more happy and refin'd, "Doubt not, you shall, new creatures, yet arise. "Till then, you may expect in me to find

"One who will wipe your sorrow from your eyes, "One who will sooth your pangs, and wing you to the

"skies."

They silent heard, and pour'd their thanks in tears. "For you (resum'd the knight, with sterner tone) "Whose hard dry hearts th' obdurate demon fears, "That villain's gifts will cost you many a groan;