The English Reader; Or, Pieces in Prose and Poetry, Selected from the Best Writers

And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
by brooks and groves, in hollow whifp'ring gales,
Thy bounty fhines in autumn unconfin'd,
And spreads a common feaft for all that lives.
n winter awful Thou! with clouds and ftorms
Around Thee thrown, tempeft o'er tempeft roll'd,
Majestic darkness ! On the whirlwinds wind,
Riding fublime, Thou bidft the world adore;
And humblest nature with Thy northern blaft.
Myfterious round! what fkill, what force divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a fimple train,
Tet fo delightful mix'd, with fuch kind art,
uch beauty and beneficence combin'd;
hade, unperceiv'd, fo foft'ning into shade,
And all fo forming and harmonious whole,
That, as they ftill fucceed, they ravish still.
But wand'ring oft, with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand,
That, ever busy, wheels the filent spheres ;

Works in the fecret deep; fhoots, ftreaming, thence
The fair profufion that o'erfpreads the spring;
Flings from the fun direct the flaming day;
Feeds ev'ry creature; hurls the tempeft forth;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With transport touches all the fprings of life.
Nature, attend! join ev'ry living foal,
Beneath the fpacious temple of the fky,
In adoration join! and, ardent, raise
One general fong !.

Ye, chief, for whom the whole creation fmiles,
At once the head, the heart, and tongue of all,
Crown the great hymn!

For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the bloffom blows; the fummer ray
Ruffets the plain; infpiring autumn gleams;
Or winter rifes in the black'ning eaft;
Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more,
And dead to joy forget my heart to beat!

Should fate command me to the fartheft verge

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Of the green earth, to diftant barb'rous climes,
Rivers unknown to fong: where first the sun
Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam
Flames on the Atlantic ifles; 'tis nought to me;
Since God is ever prefent, ever felt,

In the void waste as in the city full;

And where HE vital breathes there must be joy.
When e'en at last the folemn hour shall come,
And wing my myftic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey; there, with new pow'rs,
Will rifing wonders fing: I cannot go
Where UNIVERSAL LOVE fmiles not around,
Suftaining all yon orbs, and all their funs;
From feeming evil ftill educing good,
And better thence again, and better fill,
In infinite progreffion. But I lefe
Myfelf in HIM, in light ineffable!

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