But if to that unequal; if the blood,
In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That best ambition; under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,
And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin,
Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song;
And let me never never stray from thee!

AUTUMN'S END.

WINTER.

THE ARGUMENT.

THE subject proposed. Address to the earl of Wilmington. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the season, various storms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the nows: A man perishing among them; whence re flections on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves descending from the Alps and Apennines. A Winter-evening described as spent by philosophers; by the country-people; in the city. Frost. A view of Winter within the polar circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future state.

SEE, Winter comes, to rule the varied year,

Sullen and sad, with all his rising train;

Vapours, and clouds, and storms. Be these my theme,
These! that exalt the soul to solemn thought,
And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms,
Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot,
Pleas'd have I, in my chearful morn of life,
When nurs'd by careless solitude I liv'd,
And sung of Nature with unceasing joy,
Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domain;
Trod the pure virgin-snows; myself as pure;
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst;
Or seen the deep fermenting tempest brew'd,
In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the time',
Till thro' the lucid chambers of the south
Look'd out the joyous spring, look'd out, and smild.
To thee, the patron of her first essay;

The Muse, o Wilmington! renews her song.
Since has she rounded the revolving year :

Skim'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne

A

Attempted through the Summer-blaze to rise;
Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale,
And now among the wintry clouds again,
Roll'd in the doubling storm, she tries to soar;
To swell her note with all the rushing winds;
To suit her sounding cadence to the floods;
As in her theme, her numbers wildly great :
Thrice happy! could she fill thy judging ear
With bold description, and with manly thought.
Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone,
And how to make a mighty people thrive :
But equal goodness, sound integrity,
A firm, unshaken; uncorrupted soul
Amid a sliding age, and burning strong,
Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal,
A steady spirit regularly free;

These, each exalting each, the statesman light
Into the patriot; these, the public hope
And eye to thee converting, bid the Muse
Record what envy dares not flattery call.
Now when the chearless empire of the sky
To capricorn the centaur archer yields,
And fierce aquarius, stains th' inverted year;
Hung o'er the farthest verge of heaven,

the sun