Grainger.. Nor need the driver, Aethiop authoriz❜d,
Thence more inhuman, crack his horrid whip;
From fuch dire founds the indignant Mule averts
Her virgin-ear, where mufick loves to dwell:
'Tis malice now, 'tis wantonnefs of power
To lafh the laughing, labouring, finging throng.

7

What cannot fong? all nature feels its power:
The hind's blithe whistle, as thro' ftubborn foils
He drives the fhining fhare; more than the goad,
His tardy fteers impells. The Mufe hath feen,
When health danc'd frolic in her youthful veins
And vacant gambols wing'd the laughing hours;
The Mule hath feen on Annan's paftoral hills.
Of theft and flaughter erft the fell retreat,
But now the fhepherd s beft- beloved walk.
Hath feen the fhepherd, with his fylvan pipe,
Lead on his flock o'er crags, thro' bogs, and
ftreams,

A tedious journey; yet not weary they,

Drawn by the enchantment of his artless fong.
Wat cannot mufick! -When brown Ceres afks
The reaper's fickle; what like magic found,
Puff'd from fonorous bellows by the fqueeze
Of tuneful artist, can the rage difarm

Of the fwart dog-star, and make harvest light?

Mason.

Mafon.

Eben so sehr, als sich die englische Nation in den neus ern Zeiten durch den edelsten und größten Geschmack in der Gartenkunft auszeichnet, unterscheidet sie sich auch durch den vorzüglichen Werth mancher ihrer prosaischen und poe tischen Schriften über diese Kunst. Unter den leztern ist das aus vier Büchern bestehende Gedicht, The English Garden, von dem noch lebenden, auch in andern Gattungen sehr glücklichen Dichter, William Mason, M. A. Nach der neuesten vollständigern Ausgabe, mit dem ausführlichen Kommentar und Anmerkungen von Dr. Burgh, hat es Hr. Benzler im ersten Bande seiner Poetical Library abdrucken lassen, und es wird hier daher an nachstehender kurzen Probe genug seyn. Das erste Buch enthält die allgemeinen Grundsäge der Gartenkunst, welche mit den Regeln` der Schönheit in der Landschaftsmahlerei die nämlichen find, wobei zugleich das Zwecklose der französischen und niederländis schen Manier im Gartenbau gezeigt wird. Im zweiten Bus che wird der Hauptgegenstand praktischer behandelt, und die Vertheilung des Plans zu einem reizenden Garten, im englis schen Geschmack, einzeln zergliedert; den Schluß dieses Buchs macht die, hier mitgetheilte, aus dem Curtius bec kannte Geschichte des fidonischen Königs Abdolonimus. Das dritte Buch betrifft die Verschönerung der Gärten durch Waffer' und Gehölz; und das vierte die künftlichen Verzierungen von architektonischer, und andrer, zum Theil fehlerhafter, Art. Auch hier ist eine, ziemlich lange, rührende Erzählung eins gewebt. Bei aller Anerkennung der mannichfaltigen Schöns heiten dieses Gedichts, wünschten die englischen Kunstrichter doch einstimmig, daß der Verf. lieber den Reim, als die reimlosen Jamben, oder blankverse, gewählt haben möchte; und seine Erklärung war ihnen nicht ganz befriedigend, daß ihm diese freiere Versart für einen Gegenstand, der selbst so viel Freiheit und Mannichfaltigkeit fodert, und für die Schilderung zwangloser Natur, die schicklichste gedünkt habe.

Mason.

THE ENGLISH GARDEN.
B. II. v. 448. fl.

Pride of the year, purpureal fpring! attend

And in the cheek of these fweet innocents
Behold your beauties pictur'd, as the cloud

That weeps

its moment from thy fapphire heav'n They frown with causeless forrow; as the beam Gilding that cloud, with caufelefs mirth they fmile

Stay, pitying Time! prolong their venal blifs.
Alas! ere we can note it in our fong,

Comes manhood's feverifh fummer, chill'd full
foon

By cold autumnal care, till wintry age
Sinks in the frore severity of death.

Ah! who, when fuch life's momentary,
dream,

Would mix in hireling fenates, ftrenuous there
To crush the venal Hydra, whose fell crests
Rife with recruited venom from the wound!
Who, for fo vain a conflict, would forego
Thy fylvan haunts, celeftial folitude!

Where felf-improvement, crown'd with felf-con

tent,

Await to blefs thy votary? Nurtur'd thus.
In tranquil groves, lift'ning to Nature's voice,
That preach'd from whispering trees, and babbling
brooks

A leflon feldom learnt in Reafon's school,
The wife Sidonian liv'd: and, tho' the peft
Of lawless tyranny around him rag'd;
Tho' Strato, great alone in Perfia's gold.
Uncall'd, unhallow'd by the people's choice,
Ufurp'd the throne of his brave ancestors,
Yet was his foul all peace; a garden's care
His only thought, its charms his only pride.

But

But now the conquering arms of Macedon
Had humbled Perfia. Now Phoenicia's realm
Receives the fon of Ammon; at whofe frown
Her tributary kings, or quit their thrones,
Or at his fimile retain; and Sidon, now
Freed from her tyrant, points the Victor's step
To where her rightful fov'reign, doubly dear
By birth and virtue, prun'd his garden grove.
'Twas at that early hour, when now the fun
Behind majestic Lebanon's dark veil

Hid his afcending fplendor; yet thro'each
Her cedar-vefted fides, his flaunting beams
Shot to the ftrand, and purpled all the main,
Where Commerce faw her Sidon's freighted wealth,
With languid ftreamers, and with folded fails,
Float in a lake of gold. The wind was huf h'd,
And to the beach, each flowly-lifted wave,
Creeping with silver curl just kift the fhore,
And f'lept in filence. At this tranquil hour
Did Sidon's fenate, and the Grecian hoft,
Led by the conqueror of the world, approach.
The fecret glade that veil'd the man of toil.

Now near the mountain's foot the chief ar-
riv'd

Where, round that glade, a pointed aloe fcreen,
Entwin'd with myrtle, met intangled brakes
That bar'd all entrance, fave at one low gate
Whofe time disjointed arch with ivy chain'd
Bad ftoop the warrior train. A pathway brown
Led thro' the pafs, meeting a fretful brook,
And wandering near its channel, while it leapt
O'er many a rocky fragment, where rude Art
Had eas'd perchange, but not prefcrib'd its way."

Clofe was the vale and fhady; yet ere long
Its foreft fides retiring, left a lawn

Of ample circuit, where the widening stream
Now o'er its pebbled channel nimbly tript
In many a lucid maze. From the flower'd verge

Of

Mason.

mason. Of this clear rill now ftray'd the devious path, Amid ambrofial tufts where fpicy plants,

Weeping their perfum'd tears of myrrh and nard,

Stood crown'd with fharon's rofe; or where, apart,

The patriarch Palm his load of fugar'd dates
Shower'd plenteous; where the Fig, of ftandard
ftrength,

And rich Pomegranate, wrapt in dulcet pulp
Their racy feeds; or where the Citron's bough
Bent with its load of golden fruit mature.
Meanwhile the lawn beneath the fcatter'd fhade
Spread its ferene extent; a ftately file

Of circling Cyprefs mark'd the diftant bound.

Now, to the left, the path afcending pierc'd
A fmaller fylvan theatre, yet deck'd
With more majeftic foliage. Cedars here,
Coeval with the fky-crown-d mountain's felf
Spread wide their giant arms; whence from a rock,
Craggy and black, that feem'd its fountain head,
The ftream fell headlong; yet ftill higher rofe,
Ev'n in th' eternal fnows of Lebanon,

That hallow'd fpring; thence, in the porous earth,
Long while ingulph'd, its crystal weight here
forc'd

Its way to light and freedom. Down it dash'd;
A bed of native marble pure receiv'd

The new-born Naiad, and repos'd her wave,
Till with o'er-flowing pride it skim'd the lawn.

Fronting this lake there rofe a folemn grot,
O'er which an ancient vine luxuriant fung
Its purple clusters, and beneath its roof
An unhewn altar. Rich Sabaea gums
That altar pil'd, and there with torch of pine,
The venerable Sage, now firft defcry'd,
The fragrant incenfe kindled. Age had fhed
That duft of filver o'er his fable locks,