The first was with base dunghill rags yclad,
Tainting the gale, in which they flutter'd
light;

Of morbid hue his features, sunk and sad;
His hollow eyne shook forth a sickly light:
And o'er his lank jaw-bone, in piteous plight,
His black rough beard was matted, rank, and
vile;

Direful to see! and heart-appalling sight!
Meantime foul scurf and blotches him defile;
And dogs, where'er he went, still barked all the
while.

The other was a fell despightful fiend:
Hell holds none worse in baleful bow'r below:
By pride, and wit, and rage, and rancour
keen'd;

Of man alike if good or bad, the foe:
With nose up-turn'd, he always made a show
As if he smelt some nauseous scent; his eye
Was cold and keen, like blast from boreal

snow;

And taunts he casten forth most bitterly: [fry. Such were the twain that off drove this ungodly Even so through Brentford town, a town of

mud,

Romantic schemes, defended by the din
Of specious words, and tyranny of names;
But bidding his amazing mind attend,
And, with heroic patience, years and years
Deep searching saw at last the system dawn,
And shine of all his race on him alone. [strong!
What were his raptures then: how pure! how
And what the triumphs of old Greece and Rome,
By his diminish'd, but the pride of boys
In some small fray victorious! when instead
Of shatter'd parcels of this earth usurp'd
By violence unmanly, and sore deeds
Of cruelty and blood, Nature herself
Stood all-subdued by him, and open laid
Her ev'ry latent glory to his view.
All intellectual eye, our solar round
First gazing through, he, by the blended pow'r
Of gravitation and projection, saw
The whole in silent harmony revolve.
From unassisted vision hid, the moons,
To cheer remoter planets numerous form'd,
By him in all their mingled tracts were seen.
He also fix'd our wand'ring queen of night;
Whether she wanes into a scanty orb,
Or, waxing broad, with her pale shadowy light,
In a soft deluge overflows the sky.
Her ev'ry motion clear discerning, he
Adjusted to the mutual main, and taught
Why now the mighty mass of water swells

An herd of bristly swine is prick'd along;
The filthy beasts, that never chew the cud,
Still grunt and squeak, and sing their trou-esistless, heaving on the broken rocks,

blous song.

:

[among
And oft they plunge themselves the mire
But ay the ruthless driver goads them on,
And ay of barking dogs the bitter throng
Makes them renew their unmelodious moan;
Ne ever find they rest from their unresting fone.
§ 50. To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton.
THOMSON.

Inscribed to the Right Honorable
Sir Robert Walpole.

SHALL the great soul of Newton quit this earth,
To mingle with his stars; and every Muse,
Astonish'd into silence, shun the weight
Of honors due to his illustrious name? [light,
But what can man?-Even now the sons of
In strains high warbled to seraphic lyre,
Hail his arrival on the coast of bliss.
Yet am I not deterr'd, though high the theme,
And sung to harps of angels; for with you,
Ethereal flames! ambitious I aspire
In Nature's general symphony to join. [guest?
And what new wonders can you show your
Who, while on this dim spot, where mortals toil
Clouded in dust, from Motion's simple laws
Could trace the secret hand of Providence
Wide-working through this universal frame.
Have ye not listen'd, while he bound the suns
And planets to their spheres? th' unequal task
Of human kind till then. Oft had they roll'd
O'er erring man the year, and oft disgrac'd
The pride of schools, before their course was
Full in its causes and effects, to him, [known
All-piercing sage! who sat not down and dream'd

And the full river turning; till again
The tide revertive, unattracted leaves
A yellow waste of idle sands behind.

[flight

Through the blue infinite; and every star,
Then breaking hence, he took his ardent
Which the clear concave of a winter's night
Pours on the eye, or astronomic tube,
Far-stretching snatches from the dark abyss,
Or such as farther in successive skies
To fancy shine alone, at his approach
Blaz'd into suns, the living centre each
Of an harmonious system: all combin'd,
And ruled unerring by that single pow'r
Which draws the stone projected to the ground.
O unprofuse magnificence divine!
O wisdom truly perfect! thus to call,
From a few causes such a scheme of things,
Effects so various, beautiful, and great,
An universe complete! and, O belov'd
Of Heaven, whose well-purg'd penetrative eye,
The mystic veil transpiercing, inly scann'd
The rising, moving, wide-establish'd frame.

He first of men, with awful wing pursued
The Comet through the long elliptic curve,
As round in num'rous worlds he wound his way;
Till, to the forehead of our evening sky
Return'd, the blazing wonder glares anew,
And o'er the trembling nations shakes dismay.

The heavens are all his own; from the wild
Of whirling vortices and circling spheres, [rule
To their first great simplicity restor'd.
The schools astonish'd stood; but found it vain
To combat still with demonstration strong,
And, unawaken'd, dream beneath the blaze

Of truth. At once their pleasing visions fled,
With the gay shadows of the morning mix'd,
When Newton rose, our philosophic sun.

The aerial flow of sound was known to him,
From whence it first in wavy circles breaks,
Till the touch'd organ takes the message in.
Nor could the darting beam, of speed immense
Escape his swift pursuit, and measuring eye.
Even light itself, which every thing displays,
Shone undiscover'd, till his brighter mind
Untwisted all the shining robe of day;
And from the whitening undistinguish'd blaze
Collecting ev'ry ray into his kind,

To the charm'd eye educ'd the gorgeous train
Of parent-colors. First the flaming red
Sprung vivid forth; the tawny orange next;
And next delicious yellow, by whose side
Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing green;
Then the pure blue, that swells autumnal skies,
Ethereal play'd; and then, of sadder hue,
Emerg'd the deepen'd indigo, as when
The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost;
While the last gleamings of refracted light
Died in the fainting violet away.
These, when the clouds distil the
rosy show'r,
Shine out distinct adown the wat'ry bow;
While o'er our heads the dewy vision bends
Delightful, melting on the fields beneath.
Myriads of mingling dyes from these result
And myriads still remain-Infinite source
Of beauty, ever blushing, ever new!

Did ever poet image aught so fair, [brook!
Dreaming in whispering groves by the hoarse
Or prophet, to whose rapture heaven descends!
Even now the setting sun and shifting clouds,
Seen, Greenwich, from thy lovely heights, declare
How just, how beauteous the refractive law.

The noiseless tide of time, all bearing down
To vast eternity's unbounded sea,

Where the green islands of the happy shine,
He stemm'd alone: and to the source (involv'd
Deep in primæval gloom) ascending, rais'd
His lights at equal distances, to guide
Historian, wilder'd on his darksome way.

But who can number up his labors? who
His high discov'ries sing? when but a few
Of the deep studying race can stretch their minds
To what he knew: in fancy's lighter thought
How shall the Muse then grasp the mighty theme?
What wonder thence that his devotion swell'd
Responsive to his knowledge? for could he,
Whose piercing mental eye diffusive saw
The finish'd university of things,
In all its order, magnitude, and parts,
Forbear incessant to adore that Pow'r
Who fills, sustains, and actuates the whole?
Say, ye who best can tell, ye happy few,
Who saw him in the softest lights of life,
All unwithheld, indulging to his friends
The vast unborrow'd treasures of his mind;
Oh speak the wondrous man! how mild, how
How greatly humble, how divinely good; [calm,
How firm establish'd on eternal truth;
Fervent in doing well, with ev'ry nerve

Still pressing on, forgetful of the past,
And panting for perfection: far above
Those little cares and visionary joys
That so perplex the fond impassion'd heart
Of ever-cheated, ever-trusting man!

And you, ye hopeless gloomy-minded tribe,
You who, unconscious of those nobler flights
That reach impatient at immortal life,
Against the prime endearing privilege
Of being dare contend, say, can a soul
Of such extensive, deep, tremendous pow'rs,
Enlarging still, be but a finer breath
Of spirits dancing through their tubes a while,
And then for ever lost in vacant air?

But hark! methinks I hear a warning voice,
Solemn as when some awful change is come,
Sound through the world-" "Tis done! the
"measure's full;
[stones,
"And I resign my charge."-Ye mould'ring
That build the tow'ring pyramid, the proud
Triumphal arch, the monument effac'd
By ruthless ruin, and whate'er supports
The worshipp'd name of hoar antiquity,
Down to the dust! what grandeur can ye boast,
While Newton lifts his column to the skies,
Beyond the waste of time? Let no weak drop
Be shed for him. The virgin in her bloom
Cut off, the joyous youth, and darling child,
These are the tombs that claim the tender tear
And elegiac song. But Newton calls
For other notes of gratulation high,
That now he wanders through those endless
worlds

He here so well descried, and wond'ring talks,
And hymns their Author with his glad compeers.

O Britain's boast! whether with angels thou
Sittest in dread discourse, or fellow-blest,
Who joy to see the honor of their kind;
Or whether, mounted on cherubic wing,
Thy swift career is with the whirling orbs,
Comparing things with things, in rapture lost,
And grateful adoration, for that light
So plenteous ray'd into thy mind below,
From Light himself; O look with pity down
On human kind, a frail erroneous race!
Exalt the spirit of a downward world!
O'er thy dejected country chief preside,
And be her Genius call'd! her studies raise,
Correct her manners, and inspire her youth:
For, though deprav'd and sunk, she brought
thee forth,

And glories in thy name; she points thee out
To all her sons, and bids them eye thy star:
While, in expectance of the second life,
When time shall be no more, thy sacred dust
Sleeps with her kings, and dignifies the scene.

$51. Hymn on Solitude. THOMSON.
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 ev'ry 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 rival'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 angels 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 rapt 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.

§ 52. Education. WEST.

Written in imitation of the Style and Manner
of Spenser's Fairy Queen.

Inscribed to Lady Langham, widow of Sir Jo.
Langham, Bart.

To whom the Graces and the Nine belong,
Oh! bid those Graces, in fair chorus join'd
With each bright virtue that adorns the mind,
Oh! bid the Muses, thine harmonious train,
Who by thy aid erst humaniz'd mankind,
Inspire, direct, and moralize the strain
That doth essay to teach thy treasure how to
gain.

And thou, whose pious and maternal care,
The substitute of heavenly Providence,
With tend'rest love my orphan life did rear,
And train me up to manly strength and sense,
With mildest awe and virtuous influence
Directing my unpractis'd wayward feet
To the smooth walks of Truth aud Innocence,
Where Happiness heartfelt, Contentment sweet,
Philosophy divine, aye hold their blest retreat;
Thou, most belov'd, most honor'd, most rever'd!
Accept this Verse, to thy large merit due!
And blame me not, if, by each tie endear'd
Of nature, gratitude, and friendship true,
The whiles this moral thesis I pursue,
And trace the plan of goodly nurture o'er,
I bring thy modest virtues into view,
And proudly boast that from thy precious store,
Which erst enrich'd my heart, I drew this sa
cred lore.

And thus, I ween, thus shall I best repay
The valu'd gifts thy careful love bestow'd,
If imitating thee well as I may,

I labor to diffuse th' important good,
Till this great truth by all be understood-
"That all the pious duties which we owe
"Our parents, friends, our country, and our
"The seeds of ev'ry virtue here below, [God,
"From discipline alone and early culture
grow."

CANTO I.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Knight, as to Pædia's † house He his young son conveys, Is staid by Custom, with him fights, And his vain pride disdays. A GENTLE knight there was whose noble deeds O'er Fairyland by Fame were blazon'd round; "Unum studium vere liberale est, quod libe- For warlike enterprise and sage areeds "rum facit. Hoc sapientiæ studium est, Among the chief alike was he renown'd, "sublime, forte, magnanimum: cætera pu- Whence with the marks of highest honors "silla et puerilia sunt-Plus scire velle By Gloriana, in domestic peace, [crown'd "quam sit satis, intemperantiæ genus est. That port to which the wise are ever bound, Quid, quod ista liberalium artium consec- He anchor'd was, and chang'd the tossing seas "tatio molestos, verbosos, intempestivos, sibi Of bustling busy life for calm sequester'd ease. "placentes facit, et ideo non dicentes neces-There in domestic virtue rich and great, "saria, quia supervacua didicerunt." As erst in public, 'mid his wide domain Long in primeval patriarchal state, The lord, the judge, the father of the plain He dwelt; and with him in the golden chain

SEN. Ep. 88. O GOODLY Discipline! from Heaven ysprung, Parent of Science, queen of Arts refin'd !

* Nurture, education. ↑ Pædia is a Greek word, signifying education.

Areeds, counsels.