And admiration of her lover's flame,
By modesty exalted; even a sense
Of self-approving beauty stole across

Her busy thought. At length, a tender calm 1360
Hushed by degrees the tumult of her soul;
And on the spreading beech, that o'er the stream
Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan pen

Of rural lovers this confession carved,

Which soon her Damon kissed with weeping joy: 1365 "Dear youth! sole judge of what these verses mean, By fortune too much favored, but by love,

Alas! not favored less, be still as now

Discreet: the time may come you need not fly."

The sun has lost his rage: his downward orb 1370 Shoots nothing now but animating warmth,

And vital lustre; that, with various ray,

Lights up the clouds, those beauteous robes of heaven, Incessant rolled into romantic shapes,

The dream of waking fancy! broad below,
Covered with ripening fruits, and swelling fast
Into the perfect year, the pregnant earth

1375

And all her tribes rejoice. Now the soft hour
Of walking comes, for him who lonely loves
To seek the distant hills, and there converse
With Nature; there to harmonize his heart,
And in pathetic song to breathe around
The harmony to others. Social friends,

Attuned to happy unison of soul;

To whose exalting eye a fairer world,

Of which the vulgar never had a glimpse,

1380

1385

1390

Displays its charms; whose minds are richly fraught
With philosophic stores, superior light;
And in whose breast, enthusiastic, burns
Virtue, the sons of interest deem romance;
Now called abroad enjoy the falling day:
Now to the verdant portico of woods,
To Nature's vast Lyceum, forth they walk;

By that kind School where no proud master reigns,

The full free converse of the friendly heart,
Improving and improved. Now from the world,
Sacred to sweet retirement, lovers steal,

And pour their souls in transport, which the Sire

Of love approving hears, and calls it good.

1395

Which way, (Amanda,) shall we bend our course? 1400 as we
The choice perplexes. Wherefore should we choose?

All is the same with thee. Say, shall we wind
Along the streams? or walk the smiling mead?
Or court the forest glades? or wander wild
Among the waving harvest? or ascend,
While radiant Summer opens all its pride,

1405

Thy hill, delightful Shene ?* Here let us sweep/mutes.
The boundless landscape: now the raptured eye,' -
Exulting swift, to huge Augusta send;

of the his

1415

Now to the the sister hills that skirt her plain; 1410
To lofty Harrow now, and now to where
Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow.,
In lovely contrast to this glorious view,
Calmly magnificent, then will we turn
To where the silver Thames first rural grows;
There let the feasted eye unwearied stray;
Luxurious, there, rove through the pendant woods,
That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat;
And, stooping thence to Ham's embowering walks,
Beneath whose shades, in spotless peace retired, 1420
With her the pleasing partner of his heart,
The worthy Queensberry yet laments his Gay,
And polished Cornbury woos the willing Muse.
Slow let us trace the matchless Vale of Thames;
Fair winding up to where the Muses hauntul 1425
In Twit'nam's bowers, and for their Pope implores
The healing God; to royal Hampton's pile,
To Clermont's terraced height, and Esher's groves,
Where in the sweetest solitude, embraced

*The old name of Richmond, signifying, in Saxon, Shining or Splendor.

† Highgate and Hampstead.

In his last sickness,

Surrey

baly

By the soft windings of the silent Mole, ve 1430 From courts and senates (Pelham finds repose. Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Muse ****Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung! ww 7420 vale of bliss! O softly-swelling hills! On which the Power of Cultivation lies, And joys to see the wonders of his toil.

1435

Heavens! what a goodly prospect spreads around,
Of hills, and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires,
And glittering towns, and gilded streams, till all
The stretching landscape into smoke decays!
Happy Britannia! where the Queen of Arts,
Inspiring vigor, Liberty abroad

Walks, unconfined, e'en to thy farthest cots,
And scatters plenty with unsparing hand.

1440

1445

Rich is thy soil, and merciful thy clime;
Thy streams unfailing in the Summer's drought;
Unmatched thy guardian oaks; thy valleys float
With golden waves: and on thy mountains flocks
Bleat numberless! while, roving round their sides,`
Bellow the blackening herds in lusty droves.
Beneath, thy meadows glow, and rise unquelled
Against the mower's scythe. On every hand

1450

Thy villas shine. Thy country teems with wealth;
And property assures it to the swain,

Pleased and unwearied, in his guarded toil.

Full are thy cities with the sons of art;
And trade and joy, in every busy street,
Mingling are heard: e'en Drudgery himself,

1455

As at the car he sweats, or dusty hews

The palace stone, looks gay. Thy crowded ports,

Where rising masts an endless prospect yield,

1461

With labor burn, and echo to the shouts

Of hurried sailor, as he hearty waves

His last adieu, and, loosening every sheet,
Resigns the spreading vessel to the wind.

1465

Bold, firm, and graceful are thy generous youth,

By hardship sinewed, and by danger fired,

Scattering the nations where they go; and first
Or on the listed plain, or stormy seas.
Mild are thy glories, too, as o'er the plains
Of thriving peace thy thoughtful sires preside;
In genius and substantial learning high;
For every virtue, every worth, renowned;
Sincere, plain-hearted, hospitable, kind;

1470

Yet like the mustering thunder when provoked, 1475
The dread of tyrants, and the sole resource
Of those that under grim oppression groan.
Thy sons of glory many! Alfred thine, wy
In whom the splendor of heroic war,

1485/

And more heroic peace, when governed well,
Combine; whose hallowed name the Virtues saint,
And his own Muses love; the best of kings!
With him thy Edwards and thy Henries shine,
Names dear to fame; the first who deep impressed,
On haughty Gaul the terror of thy arms,
That awes her genius still. In statesmen thou,
And patriots fertile. Thine a steady More,
Who, with a generous though mistaken zeal,
Withstood a brutal tyrant's direful rage,
Like Cato firm, like Aristides just,

Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor,

A dauntless soul erect, who smiled on death.

Frugal and wise, a Walsingham is thine;

A Drake, who made thee mistress of the deep,

1490

And bore thy name in thunder round the world. 1495
Then flamed thy spirit high: but who can speak
The numerous worthies of the Maiden Reign?
In Raleigh mark their every glory mixed;

Raleigh, the scourge of Spain! whose breast with all

The sage, the patriot, and the hero burned.
Nor sunk his vigor, when a coward reign

The warrior fettered, and at last resigned,
To glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe.
Then, active still and unrestrained, his mind
Explored the vast extent of ages past,

1500

1505

And with his prison hours enriched the world;
Yet found no times, in all the long research,
So glorious or so base as those he proved,
In which he conquered, and in which he bled.
Nor can the Muse the gallant Sidney pass,
The plume of war! with early laurels crowned,
The lover's myrtle, and the poet's bay.
A Hampden too is thine, illustrious land,
Wise, strenuous, firm, of unsubmitting soul,
Who stemmed the torrent of a downward age
To slavery prone, and bade thee rise again,
In all thy native pomp of freedom bold.
Bright, at his call, thy Age of Men effulged,
Of Men on whom late time a kindling eye

1510

1515

Shall turn, and tyrants tremble while they read. 1520 Bring every sweetest flower, and let me strew

The grave where Russel lies, whose tempered blood, With calmest cheerfulness for thee resigned,

Stained the sad annals of a giddy reign;

Aiming at lawless power, though meanly sunk 1525 In loose, inglorious luxury. With him

His friend, the British Cassius,* fearless bled;
Of high determined spirit, roughly brave,
By ancient learning to th' enlightened love

Of ancient freedom warmed.. Fair thy renown

1530

In awful sages and in noble bards;

Soon as the light of dawning Science spread
Her orient ray, and waked the Muses' song:
Thine is a Bacon; hapless in his choice,
Unfit to stand the civil storm of state,

1535

And through the smooth barbarity of courts,

With firm but pliant virtue, forward still

To urge his course him for the studious shade

Kind Nature formed, deep, comprehensive, clear,
Exact, and elegant: in one rich soul,

1540

Plato, the Stagyrite, and Tully joined. Anslethe. The great deliverer he! who from the gloom

* Algernon Sidney.