And silent, settles into fell revenge.
Base envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach. Desponding fear, of feeble fancies full, Weak and unmanly, loosens ev'ry pow'r. E'en love itself is bitterness of soul, A pensive anguish pining at the heart; Or, sunk to sordid interest, feels no more That noble wish, that never-cloy'd desire, Which, selfish joy disdaining, seeks alone To bless the dearer object of its flame. Hope sickens with extravagance; and grief, Of life impatient, into madness swells; Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. These, and a thousand mix'd emotions more, From ever-changing views of good and ill, Form'd infinitely various, vex the mind
With endless storm; whence, deeply rankling,
The partial thought, a listless unconcern,
Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; Then dark disgust, and hatred, winding wiles, Coward deceit, and ruffian violence:
At last, extinct each social feeling, fell And joyless inhumanity pervades
And petrifies the heart. Nature disturb'd Is deem'd, vindictive, to have chang'd her course. Hence, in old dusky time, a deluge came: When the deep-cleft disparting orb, that arch'd The central waters round, impetuous rush'd, With universal burst, into the gulph,
And o'er the high-pil'd hills of fractur'd earth Wide dash'd the waves, in undulation vast; Till, from the centre to the streaming clouds, A shoreless ocean tumbled round the globe.
The Seasons since have, with severer sway, Oppress'd a broken world: the Winter keen Shook forth his waste of snows; and Summer shot His pestilential heats. Great Spring, before, Green'd all the year; and fruits and blossoms blush'd,
In social sweetness, on the self-same bough. Pure was the temp'rate air; an even calm Perpetual reign'd, save what the zephyrs bland Breath'd o'er the blue expanse: for then nor storms Were taught to blow, nor hurricanes to rage;
Sound slept the waters; no sulphureous glooms Swell'd in the sky, and sent the lightning forth; While sickly damps, and cold autumnal fogs, Hung not, relaxing, on the springs of life. But now, of turbid elements the sport, From clear to cloudy toss'd, from hot to cold, And dry to moist, with inward-eating change, Our drooping days are dwindled down to nought, Their period finish'd ere 'tis well begun.
And yet the wholesome herb neglected dies; Though with the pure exhilarating soul Of nutriment and health, and vital pow'rs, Beyond the search of art, 'tis copious blest. For, with hot ravine fir'd, ensanguin'd man Is now become the lion of the plain,
And worse. The wolf, who from the nightly fold Fierce drags the bleating prey, neʼer drunk her
Nor wore her warming fleece: nor has the steer, At whose strong chest the deadly tiger hangs, E'er plough'd for him. They too are temper'd high, With hunger stung and wild necessity, Nor lodges pity in their shaggy breast.
But man, whom nature form'd of milder clay, With ev'ry kind emotion in his heart,
And taught alone to weep; while from her lap She pours ten thousand delicacies, herbs,
And fruits, as num'rous as the drops of rain Or beams that gave them birth: shall he, fair form! Who wears sweet smiles, and looks erect on heav'n, E'er stoop to mingle with the prowling herd,
And dip his tongue in gore? The beast of prey, Blood-stain'd, deserves to bleed: but you, ye flocks, What have ye done; ye peaceful people, what, To merit death? you, who have giv'n us milk In luscious streams, and lent us your own coat Against the winter's cold? And the plain ox, That harmless, honest, guileless anima, In what has he offended? he, whose toil, Patient and ever ready, clothes the land With all the pomp of harvest; shall he bleed, And struggling groan beneath the cruel hands E'en of the clown he feeds? and that, perhaps, To swell the riot of th' autumnal feast, Won by his labour? Thus the feeling heart Would tenderly suggest: but 'tis enough,
In this late age, advent'rous to have touch'd Light on the numbers of the Samian sage. High heav'n forbids the bold presumptuous strain, Whose wisest will has fix'd us in a state
That must not yet to pure perfection rise.
Now when the first foul torrent of the brooks, Swell'd with the vernal rains, is ebb'd away, And, whit'ning, down their mossy-tinctur'd stream Descends the billowy foam: now is the time, While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile, To tempt the trout. The well-dissembled fly, The rod fine-tap'ring with elastic spring, Snatch'd from the hoary steed the floating line, And all thy slender wat'ry stores prepare. But let not on thy hook the tortur'd worm, Convulsive, twist in agonizing folds;
Which, by rapacious hunger swallow'd deep, Gives, as you tear it from the bleeding breast Of the weak, helpless, uncomplaining wretch, Harsh pain and horror to the tender hand.
When with his lively ray the potent sun Has pierc'd the streams, and rous'd the finny race, Then, issuing cheerful, to thy sport repair;
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