To throw the lucid moisture trickling off; And wait th' approaching sign to strike, at once, Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales, And forests seem, impatient, to demand The promis'd sweetness. Man superior walks Amid the glad creation, musing praise, And looking lively gratitude. At last, The clouds consign their treasures to the fields; And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool Prelusive drops, let all their moisture flow, In large effusion, o'er the freshen'd world. The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard, By such as wander thro' the forest walks, Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves. But who can hold the shade, while Heaven descends In universal bounty, shedding herbs,
And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap? Swift fancy fir'd anticipates their growth; And, while the milky nutriment distils, Beholds the kindling country colour round.
Thus all day long the full-distended clouds Indulge their genial stores, and well-shower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life; Till, in the western sky, the downward sun
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush Of broken clouds, gay-shifting to his beam. The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes Th' illumin'd mountain, thro' the forest streams, Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist, Far smoaking o'er 'th' interminable plain, In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems. Moist, bright, and green, the landskip laughs around.
Full swell the woods; their very music wakes, Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks Increas'd, the distant bleatings of the hills, And hollow lows responsive from the vales, Whence blending all the sweetened zephyr spring Mean time refracted from yon eastern cloud, Bestriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds,
In fair proportion running from the red, To where the violet fades into the sky. Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds Form, fronting on the sun, thy showery prism; And to the sage-instructed eye unfold The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd From the white mingling maze. Not so the boy; He wondering views the bright enchantment bend, Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and rung To catch the falling glory; but anmaz'd Beholds th' amusive arch before him fly, Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds, A softened shade, and saturated earth Awaits the morning-beam, to give to light, Rais'd thro' ten thousand different plastic tubes, The balmy treasures of the former day.
Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild, O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power Of botanist to number up their tribes: Whether he steals along the lonely dale, In silent search; or thro' the forest, rank With what the dull incurious weeds account, Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain-rock, Fir'd by the nodding verdure of its brow. With such a liberal hand has Nature flung Their seeds abroad, blown them about in winds, Innumerous mix'd them with the nursing mold, The moistening current, and prolific rain,
But who their virtues can declare? who pierce, With vision pure, into these secret stores Of health, and life, and joy ? the food of Man, While yet he liv'd in innocence, and told
A length of golden years; unflesh'd in blood, A stranger to the savage arts of life, Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease; The lord, and not the tyrant,, of the world.
The first fresh dawn then wak'd the gladdened race Of uncorrupted Man, nor blush'd to see The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam: For their light slumbers gently sum'd away; And up they rose as vigorous as the sun, Or to the culture of the willing glebe, Or to the chearful tendance of the flock. Meantime the song went round; and dance and sport, Wisdom and friendly talk, successive, stole Their hours away while in the rosy vale Love breath'd his infant sighs, from anguish free, And full replete with bliss; save the sweet pain, That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more. Nor yet injurious act, nor surly deed, Was known among those happy sons of Heaven; For reason and benevolence were law. Harmonious Nature too look'd smiling on. Clear shone the skies, cool'd with eternal gales, And balmy spirit all. The youthful sun
Shot his best rays, and still the gracious clouds
Drop'd fatness down; as o'er the swelling mead, The herds and flocks, commixing, play'd secure. This when, emergent from the gloomy wood, The glaring lion saw, his horrid heart Was meekened, and he join'd his sullen joy. For music held the whole in perfect peace: Soft sigh'd the flute; the tender voice was heard, Warbling the varied heart; the woodlands round Apply'd their quire; and winds and waters flow'd In consonance. Such were those prime of days.
But now those white unblemish'd manners, whence The fabling poets took their golden age, Are found no more amid these iron times, These dregs of life! Now the distemper'd mind Has lost that concord of harmonious powers, Which forms the soul of happiness; and all Is off the poise within the passions all Have burst their bounds; and reason half extinct, Or impotent, or else approving, sees The foul disorder. Senseless, and deform'd, Convulsive anger storms at large; or pale, And silent, settles into fell revenge. Base envy withers at another's joy, And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
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