By trap, or net; by arrow, or by sling; These he detested; those he scorned to wield:

He wished to be the guardian, not the king,

Tyrant far less, or traitor of the field. And sure the sylvan reign unbloody joy might yield.

Lo! where the stripling, wrapped in

wonder, roves

Beneath the precipice o'erhung with pine;

And sees, on high, amidst th' encircling groves,

From cliff to cliff the foaming torrents shine:

While waters, woods, and winds, in

concert join,

And Echoswells the chorus to the skies. Would Edwin this majestic scene resign

For aught the huntsmen's puny craft

supplies?

Ah! no; he better knows great Nature's charms to prize.

And oft he traced the uplands, to survey, When o'er the sky advanced the kindling dawn,

The crimson cloud, blue main, and mountain grey,

And lake, dim-gleaming on the smoky lawn:

Far to the west the long, long vale withdrawn,

Where twilight loves to linger for a while;

And now he faintly kens the bounding fawn,

And villager abroad at early toil. But, lo! the Sun appears! and heaven, earth, ocean smile.

And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb,

When all in mist the world below was lost.

What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,

Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert

coast,

And view th' enormous waste of vapour, tossed

In billows, lengthening to the horizon round,

Now scoop'd in gulfs, with mountains now emboss'd!

And hear the voice of mirth and song

rebound,

Flocks, herds, and waterfalls, along the hoar profound!

In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,

Fond of each gentle, and each dreadful

scene.

In darkness and in storm he found de

light:

Nor less than when an ocean wave serene The southern Sun diffused his dazzling

shene,

Even sad vicissitude amused his soul: And if a sigh would sometimes intervene, And down his cheek a tear of pity roll, A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wished not to control.

[FAIRY REVELS.]

Or, when the setting Moon, in crimson dyed,

Hung o'er the dark and melancholy deep,

To haunted stream, remote from man, he hied,

Where fays of yore their revels wont to keep;

And there let Fancy rove at large, till

sleep

A vision brought to his entranced sight. And first, a wildly murmuring mind

'gan creep

Rapid along with many-colour'd rays Of tapers, gems, and gold, the echoing forests blaze.

The dream is fled. Proud harbinger of day,

[RURAL SIGHTS AND SOUNDS.]

But who the melodies of morn can tell? The wild brook babbling down the mountain side;

The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell;

The pipe of early shepherd dim descried In the lone valley; echoing far and wide The clamorous horn along the cliffs above;

The hollow murmur of the ocean-tide; The hum of bees, the linnet's lay of love,

shrill,

Fell chanticleer; who oft hath reft away My fancied good, and brought sub

stantial ill!

O, to thy cursed scream, discordant still,

The whistling ploughman stalks afield; and, hark!

Rocks, torrents, gulfs, and shapes of giant size,

waggon rings;

Through rustling corn the hare astonish'd springs;

Slow tolls the village clock the drowsy hour;

The partridge bursts away on whirring wings;

Deep mourns the turtle in sequester'd bower,

And shrill lark carols clear from her aërial tour.

O Nature, how in every charm supreme! Whose votaries feast on raptures ever new!

O, for the voice and fire of seraphim, To sing thy glories with devotion due ! Bless'd be the day I'scaped the wrang

ling crew,

From Pyrrho's maze, and Epicurus' sty; And held high converse with the godlike few,

Who to th' enraptured heart, and ear, and eye,

Teach beauty, virtue, truth, and love, and melody.

[EDWIN'S LOVE OF NATURE.]

Oft when the winter storm had ceased to rave,

He roam'd the snowy waste at even, to view

The cloud stupendous, from th' Atlantic

wave

High-towering, sail along the horizon

blue;

Where, 'midst the changeful scen'ry,

ever new,

Fancy a thousand wondrous forms descries,

More wildly great than ever pencil drew

ramparts rise.

Thence musing onward to the sounding shore,

The lone enthusiast oft would take his

way,

Listening, with pleasing dread, to the deep roar

Of the wide-weltering waves. In black array,

When sulphurous clouds roll'd on th' autumnal day,

Even then he hastened from the haunt of man,

Along the trembling wilderness to stray, What time the lightning's fierce career began,

And o'er heaven's rending arch the rattling thunder ran.

Responsive to the sprightly pipe, when all

In sprightly dance the village youth were join'd,

Edwin, of melody aye held in thrall, From the rude gambol far remote reclined,

Sooth'd with the soft notes warbling in

the wind.

Ah, then all jollity seem'd noise and folly, To the pure soul by Fancy's fire refined! Ah, what is mirth but turbulence unholy, When with the charm compared of heavenly melancholy!

[CHANGE UNIVERSAL.]

Of chance or change, O let not man complain,

Else shall he never, never cease to wail; For, from the imperial dome, to where

the swain

Rears the lone cottage in the silent dale, All feel th' assault of Fortune's fickle

[THE EFFECTS OF PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.]

"But now let other themes our care engage;

For lo, with modest yet majestic grace, To curb Imagination's lawless rage, And from within the cherish'd heart to brace,

Philosophy appears! The gloomy race By Indolence and moping Fancy bred, Fear, Discontent, Solicitude, give place, And Hope and Courage brighten in their stead,

braid :

To friends, attendants, armies bought

with hire?

It is thy weakness that requires their aid: To palaces, with gold and gems inlaid? They fear the thief, and tremble in the

storm:

To hosts, through carnage who to conquest wade?

Behold the victor vanquish'd by the

worm !

Behold what deeds of woe the locust can perform!

"True dignity is his, whose tranquil mind

Virtue has raised above the things below: Who, every hope and fear to Heaven resign'd,

Shrinks not, though Fortune aim her deadliest blow."

This strain from midst the rocks was heard to flow

In solemn sounds. Now beam'd the

evening star,

are shed.

"Then waken from long lethargy to life The seeds of happiness and powers of thought;

Then jarring appetites forego their strife,

A strife by ignorance to madness wrought.

Pleasure by savage man is dearly bought With fell revenge; lust that defies con

trol,

With gluttony and death. The mind untaught

Is a dark waste, where fiends and tempests howl:

As Phoebus to the world, is science to the soul.

"And Reason now, through number,

time, and space,

Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye,

And learns, from facts compared, the laws to trace,