Of happy labour, love, and focial glee.

Or rushing thence, in one diffufive band,
They drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog
Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook
Forms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high,
And that fair-fpreading in a pebbled shore.
Urg'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil,
The clamour much, of men, and boys, and dogs,
Ere the foft fearful people to the flood

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375

Commit their woolly fides. And oft the swain,

On fome impatient seizing, hurls them in :
Embolden'd then, nor hesitating more,

380

Faft, faft, they plunge amid the flashing wave,
And, panting, labour to the farthest shore.

Repeated this, till deep the well-walh'd fleece

Has drunk the flood, and from his lively haunt

385

The trout is banish'd by the fordid stream ;

Heavy, and dripping, to the breezy brow

3୨୧

39.5

Slow move the harmless race: where, as they spread
Their fwelling treafures to the funny ray,
Inly disturb'd, and wondering what this wild
Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints.
The country fill; and, toss'd from rock to rock,
Inceffant bleatings run around the hills.
At last, of fnowy white, the gather'd flocks
Are in the watled pen innumerous prefs'd,
Head above head; and, rang'd in lufty rows,
The shepherds fit, and whet the founding fhears.
The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores,
With all her gay-drefs'd maids attending round.
One, chief, in gracious dignity inthron'd,
Shines o'er the reft, the paftoral queen, and rays
Her fmiles, fweet-beaming, on her fhepherd king;^
While the glad circle round them yield their fouls

400

То

To festive mirth, and wit that knows no gall.
Meantime, their joyous task goes on apace:
Some mingling ftir the melted tar; and some,
Deep on the new-fhorn vagrant's heaving fide,
To stamp his master's cypher ready stand;
Others th' unwilling wedder drag along;
And, glorying in his might, the sturdy boy
Holds by the twisted horns th' indignant ram
Behold, where bound, and of its robe bereft,
By needy Man, that all-depending lord,
How meek, how patient, the mild creature lyes!
What softness in its melancholy face,

What dumb complaining innocence appears!!
Fear not, ye gentle tribes, 'tis not the knife
Of horrid slaughter that is o'er you wav'd;
No, 'tis the tender fwain's well-guided shears,
Who having now, to pay his annual care,
Borrow'd your fleece, to you a cumbrous load,
Will fend you bounding to your hills again.

495

410

415

420

A fimple fcene! yet hence BRITANNIA fees Her folid grandeur rife: hence she commands Th' exalted ftores of every brighter clime,.. 425 The treasures of the fun without his ráge:

Hence, fervent all, with culture, toil, and arts,

Wide glows her land: her dreadful thunder hence: 1.1.
Rides o'er the waves fublime, and now, even now, asid
Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coaft£30,
Hence rules the circling deep, and awes the world.
'Tis raging noon; and, vertical, the Sun
Darts on the head direct his forceful rays.
O'er heaven and earth, far as the ranging eye.
Can sweep, a dazzling deluge reigns; and all
From pole to pole is undistinguish'd blaze. 9:
In vain the fight, dejected to the ground,
G 3

435

Stoops

Stoops for relief; thence hot afcending fteams
And keen reflection pain. Deep to the root
Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields
And flippery lawn an arid hue disclofe,

Blaft Fancy's blooms, and wither even the foul.
Echo no more returns the chearful found

440

Of sharpening fcythe: the mower, finking, heaps
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd; 445
And scarce a chirping grafshopper is heard
Thro' the dumb mead. Distressful Nature pants.
The very streams look languid from afar;

ar, thro' th' unfhelter'd glade, impatient, seem.
To hurt into the covert of the grove.

All-conquering Heat, oh intermit thy wrath!

And on my throbbing temples potent thus
Beam not fo fierce! Inceffant ftill you flow,
And still another fervent flood fucceeds,
Pour'd on the head profufe. In vain I figh,

And restless turn, and look around for Night;
Night is far off; and hotter hours approach.
Thrice happy he who on the funless fide
Of a romantic mountain, forest-crown'd,
Beneath the whole collected fhade reclines:
Or in the gelid caverns, woodbine-wrought,
And fresh bedew'd with ever-fpouting streams,
Sits coolly calm; while all the world without,
Unfatisfy'd, and fick, toffes in noon.

Emblem inftructive of the virtuous Man,

Who keeps his temper'd mind ferene, and pure,

And every passion aptly harmoniz'd,

Amid a jarring world with vice inflam'd.

450

455

460

465

Welcome, ye fhades! ye bowery thickets, hail!
Ye lofty pines! ye venerable oaks ! »
Ye afhes wild, refounding o'er the steep!

470

Delicious

Delicious is your fhelter to the foul,

475

As to the hunted hart the fallying spring,
Or stream full-flowing, that his fwelling fides.
Laves, as he floats along the herbag'd brink..
Cool, thro' the nerves, your pleasing comfort glides;
The heart beats glad; the fresh expanded eye:
And ear refume their watch; the finews knit;
And life fhoots fwift thro' all the lighten'd limbs.
Around th' adjoining brook, that purls along 480
The vocal grove, now fretting o'er a rock,
Now scarcely moving thro' a reedy pool,
Now starting to a sudden stream, and now
Gently diffus'd into a limpid plain;

490

A various groupe the herds and flocks compose, 485
Rural confufion! On the graffy bank
Some ruminating ly; while others stand
Half in the flood, and often bending fip
The circling furface. In the middle droops
The strong laborious ox, of honest front,
Which incompos'd he shakes; and from his fides. ·
The troublous infects lashes with his tail,..
Returning ftill. Amid his fubjects safe,
Slumbers the monarch-swain; his careless arm
Thrown round his head, on downy moss sustain'd
Here laid his scrip, with wholesome viands fill❜d; 496
There, lift'ning every noise, his watchful dog.

Light fly his flumbers, if perchance a flight

5.00

Of angry gad-flies faften on the herd;;
That startling scatters from the shallow brook,
In fearch of lavish stream. Toffing the foam,
They scorn the keeper's voice, and fcour the plain,
Thro' all the bright feverity of noon;
While, from their labouring breasts, a hollow moan
Proceeding, runs low-bellowing round the hills. 505

Oft

Oft in this feafon too, the horfe, provok'd,
While his big finews full of fpirits fwell,
Trembling with vigour, in the heat of blood,
Springs the high fence; and, o'er the field effus'd,
Darts on the gloomy flood, with stedfast eye,

510

And heart eftrang'd to fear: his nervous cheft,
Luxuriant, and erect, the feat of strength!...!
Bears down th' opposing stream: quenchless his thirst,
He takes the river at redoubled draughts ;

And with wide noftrils, fnorting, fkims the wave. 51§
Still let me pierce into the midnight-depth
Of yonder grove, of wildeft, largest growth
That, forming high in air a woodland quire,
Nods o'er the mount beneath. At every step,
Solemn, and flow, the fhadows blacker fall,.
And all is awful lift'ning gloom around.

› 520

525

These are the haunts of Meditation, thefe The scenes where antient bards th' infpiring breath, Ecftatic, felt; and, from this world retir'd, Convers'd with angels, and immortal forms, On gracious errands bent: to fave the fall Of virtue struggling on the brink of vice; if In waking whifpers, and repeated dreams, To hint pure thought, and warn the favour'd foul For future trials fated to prepare ;

To prompt the poet, who devoted gives

His mufe to better themes; to foothe the pangs
Of dying worth, and from the patriot's breaft
(Backward to mingle in detefted war,

530

But foremost when engag'd) to turn the death; 5-35 And numberless fuch offices of love,

Daily and nightly, zealous to perform.

Shook fudden from the bofom of the sky,

A thousand shapes or glide athwart the dusk,