Disdaining little delicacies, seized
The plough, and greatly independent lived. 65

Ye generous Britons, venerate the plough!
And o'er your hills and long-withdrawing vales
Let Autumn spread his treasures to the sun,
Luxuriant and unbounded : as the sea,
Far through his azure, turbulent domain,

70
Your empire owns, and from a thousand shores
Wafts all the pomp of life into your ports ;
So with superior boon may your rich soil,
Exuberant, Nature's better blessings pour
O’er every land, the naked nations clothe,

75 And be th’exhaustless granary of a world !

Nor only through the lenient air this change,
Delicious, breathes; the penetrative sun,
His force deep darting to the dark retreat
Of vegetation, sets the steaming Power

80
At large, to wander o'er the verdant earth,
In various hues; but chiefly thee, gay green!
Thou smiling Nature's universal robe !
United light and shade! where the sight dwells
With growing strength and ever new delight. 85

From the moist meadow to the wither'd hill,
Led by the breeze, the vivid verdure runs,
And swells and deepens to the cherished eye.
The hawthorn whitens; and the juicy groves
Put forth their buds, unfolding by degrees, 90
Till the whole leafy forest stands displayed,
In full luxuriance, to the sighing gales :
Where the deer rustle through the twining brake,
And the birds sing concealed. At once arrayed
In all the colors of the flushing year,

95
By Nature's swift and secret-working hand,
The garden flows, and fills the liberal air
With lavish fragrance; while the promised fruit
Lies yet a little embryo, unperceived,
Within its crimson folds. Now from the town, 100
Buried in smoke, and sleep, and noisome damps,

2

Oft let me wander o'er the dewy fields,
Where freshness breathes, and dash the trembling drops
From the bent bush, as through the verdant maze
Of sweetbriar hedges I pursue my walk; 105
Or taste the sinell of dairy; or ascend
Some eminence, Augusta, in thy plains,
And see the country, far diffused around,
One boundless blush, one white-empurpled shower
Of mingled blossoms; where the raptured eye 110
Hurries from joy to joy, and, hid beneath
The fair profusion, yellow Autumn spies.

If, brushed from Russian wilds, a cutting gale
Rise not, and scatter from his humid wings
The clammy mildew; or, dry blowing, breathe 115
Untimely frost; before whose baleful blast
The full-blown Spring through all her foliage shrinks,
Joyless and dead, a wide, dejected waste.
For oft, engendered by the hazy north,
Myriads on myriads, insect armies waft

120 Keen in the poisoned breeze; and wasteful eat, Through buds and bark, into the blackened core, Their eager way. A feeble race! yet oft The sacred sons of vengeance ; on whose course Corrosive Famine waits, and kills the year. 125 To check this plague the skilful farmer chaff And blazing straw before his orchard burns; Till, all involved in smoke, the latent foe From every cranny suffocated falls : Or scatters o'er the blooms the pungent dust 130 Of pepper, fatal to the frosty tribe : Or, when th'envenomed leaf begins to curl, With sprinked water drowns them in their nest : Nor, while they pick them up with busy bill, The little trooping birds unwisely scares.

135 Be patient, swains; these cruel-seeming winds Blow not in vain. Far hence they keep repress'd Those deepening clouds on clouds,surcharg'd with rain, That o'er the vast Atlantic hither borne,

In endless train, would quench the summer blaze, 140
And, cheerless, drown the crude, unripen'd year.

The north-east spends his rage; he now shut up
Within his iron cave, th' effusive south
Warms the wide air, and o’er the void of heaven
Breathes the big clouds with vernal showers distent.
As first a dusky wreath they seem to rise, 146
Scarce staining ether; but, by swift degrees,
In heaps on hea the doubling vapor sails
Along the loaded sky, and mingling deep
Sits on th' horizon round a settled gloom :

150
Not such as wintry storms on mortals shed,
Oppressing life; but lovely, gentle, kind,
And full of every hope and every joy,
The wish of Nature. Gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath

155
Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling turn the many-twinkling leaves
Of aspen tall. Th’uncurling floor, diffused
In glassy breadth, seem through ist esive lapse
Forgetful of their course. 'Tis silence all, 160
And pleasing expectation. Herds and flocks
Drop the dry sprig, and mute imploring eye
The falling verdure. Hushed in short suspense,
The plumy people streak their wings with oil,
To throw the lucid moisture trickling off: 165
And wait th' approaching sign to strike, at once,
Into the general choir. Even mountains, vales,
And forests seem impatient to demand
The promised sweetness. Man superior walks
Amid the glad creation, musing praise,

170
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 freshened world. 175
The stealing shower is scarce to patter heard,
By such as wander through the forest walks,

Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the shade while Heaven descends
In universal bounty, shedding herbs

180
And fruits and flowers on Nature's ample lap!
Swift Fancy fired anticipates their growth;
And, while the milky nutriment distils,
Beholds the kindling country color round.

Thus all day long the full-distended clouds 185 Indulge their genial stores, and well-showered earth Is deep enriched 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. 190 The rapid radiance instantaneous strikes Th’illumined mountain, through the forest streams, Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist, Far smoking o'er th’interminable plain, In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems. 195 Moist, bright, and green, the landscape laughs around; Full swell the woods; their very music wakes, Mixed in wild concert with the warbling brooks Increased, the distant bleatings of the hills, And hollow lows responsive from the vales, 200 Whence blending, all the sweetened zephyr springs. Meantime, 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

205 To where the violet fades into the sky. Here, awful Newton, the dissolving clouds Form, fronting on the sun, thy showery prism; (b) And to the sage-instructed eye unfold The various twine of light, by thee disclosed 210 From the white mingling maze. - Not so the boy : He wondering views the bright enchantment bend, Delightful, o'er the radiant fields, and runs To catch the falling glory; but amazed Beholds th'amusive arch before him fly,

215

Then vanish quite away. Still night succeeds, | A softened shade, and saturated earth

Awaits the morning boam, to give to light,
Raised through ten thousand different plastic tubes,
The balmy treasures of the former day.

220
Then spring the living herbs, profusely wild,
O'er all the deep-green earth, beyond the power
Of botanists to number up their tribes:
Whether he steals along the lonely dale,
In silent search; or, through the forest, rank 225
With what the dull, incurious weeds account,
Bursts his blind way; or climbs the mountain rock,
Fired by the nodding verdure of its brow.
With such a liberal hand has Nature flung
Thrir seeds abroad, blown them about in winds, 230
Innumerous mixed them with the nursing mould,
The moistening current, and prolific rain.

But who their virtues can declare? who pierce, Withi vision pure, into these secret stores Of health, and life, and joy? the food of Man, 235 While yet he lived in innocence, and told A length of golden years; unfleshed 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.

240 The first fresh dawn then waked the gladdened race Of uncorrupted Man, nor blushed to see The sluggard sleep beneath its sacred beam; For their light slumbers gently fumed away ; And up they rose as vigorous as the sun,

245 Or to the culture of the willing glebe, Or to the cheerful 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 250 Love breathed his infant sighs, from anguish free, And full replete with bliss; save the sweet pain, That, inly thrilling, but exalts it more.