That wondrous force of thought, which, mounting,
This dusky spot, and measures all the sky; While, from his far excursion through the wilds Of barren ether, faithful to his time, They see the blazing wonder rise anew, In seeming terror clad, but kindly bent To work the will of all-sustaining Love; From his huge vapoury train perhaps to shake Reviving moisture on the numerous orbs Through which his long ellipsis winds; perhaps To lend new fuel to delining suns,
To light up worlds, and feed the eternal fire. With thee, serene philosophy, with thee, And thy bright garland, let me crown my song! Effusive source of evidence and truth!
A lustre shedding o'er the ennobled mind, Stronger than summer noon; and pure as that Whose mild vibrations soothe the parted soul, New to the dawning of celestial day.
Hence thro' her nourish'd powers, enlarg'd by thee, She springs aloft, with elevated pride, Above the tangling mass of low desires
That bind the fluttering crowd; and, angel-wing'd, The heights of science and of virtue gains, Where all is calm and clear; with nature round, Or in the starry regions, or the abyss,
To reason's and to fancy's eye display'd:
The first up-tracing from the dreary void, The chain of causes and effects, to Him, The world-producing Essence, who alone
Possesses being; while the last receives The whole magnificence of heaven and earth, And every beauty, delicate or bold,
Obvious or more remote, with livelier sense, Diffusive painted on the rapid mind. Tutor❜d by thee, hence poetry exalts Her voice to ages, and informs the page With music, image, sentiment, and thought, Never to die, the treasure of mankind! Their highest honour, and their truest joy!
Without thee, what were unenlighten'd man? A savage roaming through the woods and wilds, In quest of prey; and with the unfashion'd fur Rough clad; devoid of every finer art, And elegance of life. Nor happiness Domestic, mix'd of tenderness and care, Nor moral excellence, nor social bliss, Nor guardian law, were his; nor various skill To turn the furrow, or to guide the tool Mechanic: nor the heaven-conducted prow Of navigation bold, that fearless braves The burning line, or dares the wintry pole; Mother severe of infinite delights! Nothing, save rapine, indolence, and guile, And woes on woes, a still-revolving train, Whose horrid circle had made human life Than non-existence worse; but, taught by thee, Ours are the plans of policy and peace; To live like brothers, and conjunctive all Embellish life. While thus laborious crowds Ply the tough oar, philosophy directs
The ruling helm; or, like the liberal breath Of potent Heaven, invisible, the sail Swells out, and bears the inferior world along. Nor to this evanescent speck of earth Poorly confin'd, the radiant tracts on high Are her exalted range; intent to gaze Creation through, and, from that full complex Of never-ending wonders, to conceive
Of the sole Being right, who spoke the word, And nature mov'd complete. With inward view, Thence on the ideal kingdom swift she turns Her eye; and instant, at her powerful glance, The obedient phantoms vanish or appear; Compound, divide, and into order shift, Each to his rank, from plain perception up To the fair forms of fancy's fleeting train; To reason then, deducing truth from truth; And notion quite abstract; where first begins The world of spirits, action all, and life Unfetter'd, and unmix'd. But here the cloud, So wills Eternal Providence, sits deep. Enough for us to know that this dark state, In inward passions lost, and vain pursuits, This infancy of being, cannot prove The final issue of the works of God,
By boundless love and perfect wisdom form'd, And ever rising with the rising mind.
THE subject proposed. Addressed to Mr. Onslow. A prospect of the fields ready for harvest. Reflections in praise of industry, raised by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest storm. Shooting and hunting, their barbarity. A ludicrous account of fox-hunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of Autumn; whence a digression, inquiring into the rise of fountains and rivers. Birds of season considered, that now shift their habitations. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western islands of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the discoloured, fading woods. After a gentle dusky day, moonlight. Autumnal meteors. Morning; to which succeeds a calm, pure, sunshiny day, such as usually shuts up the season. The harvest being gathered in, the country dissolved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philosophical country life.
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