HYMN ON SOLITUDE.

HAIL, mildly pleasing Solitude,
Companion of the wise and good;
But from whose holy piercing eye,
The herd of fools and villains fly.
Oh! how I love with thee to walk,

And listen to thy whisper'd talk,
Which innocence and truth imparts,
And melts the most obdurate hearts.

A thousand shapes you wear with ease,
And still in every shape you please.
Now wrapt in some mysterious dream,
A lone philosopher you seem;
Now quick from hill to vale you fly,
And now you sweep the vaulted sky.
A shepherd next you haunt the plain,
And warble forth your oaten strain.
A lover now, with all the grace
Of that sweet passion in your face;
Then, calm'd to friendship, you assume
The gentle-looking Hartford's bloom,
As, with her Musidora, she
(Her Musidora fond of thee)
Amid the long withdrawing vale,
Awakes the rivall'd nightingale.

Thine is the balmy breath of morn, Just as the dew-bent rose is born; And while meridian fervors beat, Thine is the woodland dumb retreat; But chief, when evening scenes decay, And the faint landscape swims away, Thine is the doubtful soft decline, And that best hour of musing thine. Descending ages bless thy train, The virtues of the sage and swain; Plain innocence in white array'd, Before thee lifts her fearless head: Religion's beams around thee shine, And cheer thy glooms with light divine: About thee sports sweet liberty; And wrapt Urania sings to thee.

Oh, let me pierce thy secret cell, And in thy deep recesses dwell. Perhaps from Norwood's oak-clad hill, When meditation has her fill, I just may cast my careless eyes Where London's spiry turrets rise; Think of its crimes, its cares, its pain, Then shield me in the woods again.

HYMN TO DARKNESS.

DARKNESS, thou first great parent of us all,
Thou art our great original;
Since from thy universal womb

Does all thou shad'st below, thy numerous offspring

come.

Thy wondrous birth is even to Time unknown,
Or, like Eternity, thou'dst none;
Whilst Light did its first being owe

Unto that awful shade it dares to rival now.

Say, in what distant region dost thou dwell,
To Reason inaccessible ?

From form and duller matter free,
Thou soar'st above the reach of man's philosophy.

Involv'd in thee, we first receive our breath,
Thou art our refuge too in death:
Great Monarch of the grave and womb,
Where'er our souls shall go, to thee our bodies come

The silent globe is struck with awful fear,
When thy majestic shades appear:
Thou dost compose the air and sea,
And Earth a Sabbath keeps, sacred to rest and thee.

In thy serener shades our ghosts delight,
And court the umbrage of the night;
In vaults and gloomy caves they stray,
But fly the morning beams, and sicken at the day.

Though solid bodies dare exclude the light,

Nor will the brightest ray admit;
No substance can thy force repel,

Thou reign'st in depths below, dost in the centre dwell.

The sparkling gems, and ore in mines below,

To thee their beauteous lustre owe;

Tho' form'd within the womb of night,

Bright as their sire they shine, with native rays of light.

When thou dost raise thy venerable head,

And art in genuine night array'd,

Thy negro beauties then delight;

Beauties like polish'd jet, with their own darkness bright.

Thou dost thy smiles impartially bestow,

And know'st no difference here below;
All things appear the same by thee,

Tho' light distinction makes, thou giv'st equality.

Thou, Darkness, art the lover's kind retreat,
And dost the nuptial joys complete:
Thou dost inspire them with thy shade,

Giv'st vigour to the youth, and warm'st the yielding

Calm as the bless'd above the Anchorites dwell
Within their peaceful gloomy cell;

Their minds with heavenly joys are fill'd;
The pleasures Light deny, thy shades for ever yield.

In caves of night, the oracles of old
Did all their mysteries unfold:
Darkness did first Religion grace,

Gave terrors to the God, and reverence to the place.

When the Almighty did on Horeb stand,

Thy shades enclos'd the hallow'd land; In clouds of night he was array'd, And venerable darkness his pavilion made.

When he appear'd arm'd in his power and might,
He veil'd the beatific light;
When terrible with majesty,

In tempests he gave laws, and clad himself in thee.

Ere the foundation of the earth was laid,

Or brighter firmament was made;

Ere matter, time, or place was known,

Thou, Monarch Darkness, sway'dst these spacious

realms alone.

But now the moon (though gay with borrow'd light)
Invades thy scanty lot of Night:
By rebel subjects thou'rt betray'd,

The anarchy of stars depose their monarch, Shade