To reafon's bounded fearch; whether unveil'd,
Informing Wisdom treads the roughen'd fcenes
Of earth, or radiant in thy burfting noon
C
Religion! with fuperior port the walks,
And towers confpicuous; or illumes the shade
Of Human Life, or rolls the fecret wheels
Of Empire:-thefe the heav'n-afpiring muse
Unfolds though timid, her majestic step
Intent, yet trembling to purfue. Ev'n now,
As o'er fome mantling cliff the traveller hangs
Aghaft, and meditates the deep below
Dizzy and tottering! thus th' aftonish'd mind
Eyes it's
great theme with dread! rapt to a clime,
Where yet
the Mufe's wing has never foar'd.
O THOU, whofe fpirit thro' this moulded clay
First breathed the living foul, and taught its voice,
Young, faint, and unaffured, to lifp thy praise
With trembling accents, and th' impaffion'd heart
To feel the power of harmony, though placed
In this bleak scene; far from the happier seats
Where antient genius bloom'd! To Thee I call;
Who thro' the vaft of nature, fpace, and time,
Dart'ft thy keen glance all-piercing; that pervades
The heart of man. O lend thy powerful aid,
Propitious! Thee the Mufe invokes, (of all
Besides regardless ;) her faint voice to raise;
To brace her fluttering pinions to a flight
Daring, that scales the steep of time; to swell
Her thought, capacious of it's mighty plan,
That tries to meditate thy wondrous ways.
Now o'er the western skies, defcending Eve
Spread her
grey robe; the folitary hour,
To filence facred, and deep mufing thought,
Came ftill and plaintive on the fighing gale,
And ftole the ear of Wisdom. All was ftill,
Save where flow-trilling from the quivering bough
The thrush wild-warbling, to the echoing vale
Pour'd her foft lay, melodious as the voice
Of Harmony, when from his airy cell
Arrouz'd, loose Zephir waves his fportive wings;
And breathes it to the foul. The melting strains
Thus foothed my throbbing bosom to a calin.
LED by revolving thought, my wandering steps
Explored the vale of folitude. A rill
Slow-tinkling, murmur'd as I pass'd along,
It's bank gay-robed with Beauty's balmy train.
O'er me the steepy cliffs impending, frown'd
Horrific; from their fides, the mouldering earth
Crumbled, and gradual fhook the hanging arch,
Whose dark spire quiver'd o'er the void below.
Between their gleaming fides, refulgent flamed
The fun's broad orb. As on I walk'd, the fcene
Opened, and from the plain one winding path
(Ragged with stones loud rattling down the height;) 55 Led to the fummit of the cliff. I fcaled
Th' afcent, and wondering, from its brow beheld
A boundless profpect, fhagg'd with rifing hills,
Rocks, defarts, woods, dales, landscapes, groves, and spires.
Far on the left, a bare and barren heath,
(Save where the wild trees form'd a little grove,
Crown'd with fpontaneous herbage,) rushing chill'd
My veins. 'Twas all a folemn scene, retired
Like that where ancient Druids lived remote,
Converfing with the Moon! and airy shapes
(So Fame reports) beneath the wan dim ray,
Sweep fhadowy o'er the blighted lawn, or foar
High on the ftreamy flame, or ride the winds;
Or hear the murmuring wood, when darkness wraps
Her cloudy curtain round the world, and Fear 70
Knocks at the heart of Man.-Such is the haunt
Of Fairy-trains, when filver tips the hills;
That in the deep grove's fhadowy gloom difport;
Or hear the wild winds whistle, or repofed,
Lye on the daily's downy lap, or spring
Light as the glancing beam from flower to flower;
And fuck the powdering of a cowflip's eye,
And loosely-fwimming dink the pearly dew.
SLOW O'er the bleak heath roam'd my wandering fteps;
80
The mind deep-mufing, and the ftill retreat
All-lonefome; when the keen autumnal breeze
Chill from the nipping East, and piercing blew ;
The fpangling dew-drops from its clammy wing
Shook loofe, and sprinkling o'er the purple scene
Their liquid amber, mingled as they fell
A thousand trembling hues.-I mark'd the wafte
Penfive, and inly-murmuring, thus began.
"WHERE are the gales of Eden? Where the balm "Delicious, breathed from aromatic bowers
Line 88. Where are the gales of Eden.] This complaint of the inequality of the seasons (which introduceth, as the reader will observe afterwards, the firft Allegory) has alternately been employed by different writers, as a proof that man has degenerated from his primæval state, the fuand as an argument to prove perintendency of providence. Confidered in the former light it gave the poets an occafion to invent the fable of the gold, filver, brass and iron ages of the world, as in each of these the face of external nature was adapted to the character of mankind, and punishments were only
inflicted upon them by the Deity, in proportion to their degrees of degeneracy.
Τις μεν επείσα Ζευς Κρονίδης εκρυψε πολυμενος, συνεκα τιμάς
Ουκ εδιδε μακάρεσσι θέοις οι
Ολυμπον εχουσιν.
Says Hefiod, fpeaking of the fecond race of mortals. Oper. et Dier. L. 136. Ovid tells us in the fame spirit.
Subiit argentea proles
Auro deterior.-
Jupiter antiqui contraxit tempora
veris,
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