Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky.
And now their route design'd, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, clean'd their vigorous wings;
And many a circle, many a short essay,

856
Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full
The figured flight ascends; and, riding high
The' aerial billows, mixes with the clouds.

Or where the Northern ocean, in rast whirls, SCO Boils round the naked melancholy isles Of furthest Thulè, and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides ; Who can recount what transmigrations there Are annual made? what nations come and go? 865 And how the living clouds on clouds arise ? Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air, And rude resounding shore are one wild cry.

Here the plain harmless native his small flock, And herd dininutive of many hues,

870 Tends on the little island's verdant swell, The shepherd's seagirt reign; or, to the rocks Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food; Or sweeps the fishy shore! or treasures up The plumage, rising full, to form the bed 875 Of luxury. And here awhile the muse, High hovering o'er the broad cerulean scene, Sees Caledonia, in romantic view : Her airy mountains, from the waving main, Invested with a keen diffusive sky,

880 Breathing the soul acuto; her forests huge, Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand Planted of old; her azure lakes between, Pour'd out extensive, and of watery wealth Full; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales; 885 With many a cool translucent brimming flood Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent stream, Whose pastoral banks first heard my Doric reed, With, silvan Jed, thy tributary brook) To where the north-inflated tempest foams 890

O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak :
Nurse of a people, in Misfortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds; soon visited
By Learning, when before the gothic rage
She took her western flight. A manly race E95
of unsubmitting spirit, wise, and brave;
Who still through bleeding ages struggled hard,
(As well unhappy Wallace can attest,
Great patriot hero! ill requited chief!)
To hold a generous undiminish'd state ;

900
Too much in vain! Hence of unequal boun's
Impatient, and by tempting glory borne
O'er every land, for every land their life
Has flow'd profuse, their piercing genius plann'd,
And swelld the pomp of peace their faithful toil, 905
As from their own clear north, in radiant streams,
Bright over Europe bursts the boreal morn.

Oh! is there not sone patriot, in whose power That best, that gedlike, luxury is placed, Of blessing thousands, thousands yet unborn, 910 Through late posterity ? some, large of soul, To cheer dejected industry? to give A double harvest to the pining swain ? And teach the labouring hand the sweets of toil? How, by the finest art, the native robe

915 To weave; how, white as hyperborean snow, To form the lucid lawn; with venturous oar How to dash wide the billow; nor look on, Shamefully passive, while Batavian fleets Defraud us of the glittering finny swarms, 920 That heave our friths and crowd upon our shores; How all-enlivening trade to rouse, and wing The prosperous sail, from every growing port, Uninjured, round the sea-encircled globe ; And thus, in soul united as in name,

925 Bid Britain reign the mistress of the deep?

Yes, there are such. And full on thee, Argylo Her hope, her stay, her darling, and her boast,

From her first patriots and her heroes sprung,
Thy fond imploring country turns her eye;

930
In thee, with all a mother's triumph, secs
Her overy virtue, every grace combined,
Her genius, wisdom, her engaging turn,
Her pride of honour, and her courage tried,
Calın, and intrepid, in the very throat

935 Of sulphurous war, on Tenier's dreadful field. Nor less the palm of peace inwreathes thy brow: For, powerful as thy sword, from thy rich tongue Persuasion flows, and wins the high debate ; While mix'd in thee combine the charm of youth, 940 The force of manhood, and the depth of age. Thee, Forbes, too, whoin every worth attends, As truth sincere, as weeping friendship kind, Thee, truly generous, and in silence great, Thy country feels through her reviving arts,

945 Plann'd by thy wisdom, by thy soul inform'd ; And seldom has she known a friend like thee.

But see the fading many colour'd woods, Shade deepening over shade, the country round Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun, 950 Of every hue, from wan declining green To sooty dark. These now the lonesome Muse, Low whispering, lead into their leaf-strown walks, Ard give the Season in its latest view. Meantime, light-shadowing all, a sober calm

956 Fleeces unbounded ether: whose least wave Stands treinulous, uncertain where to turn The gentle current : while illuinined wide, The dewy-skirted clouds imbibe the sun, And through their lucid veil his soften'd force

960 Shed o'er the peaceful world. Then is the time, For those whom Wisdom and whom Nature charm, To steal themselves from the degenerate crowd, And soar above this little scene of things : To tread low-thoughted Vice beneath their feet : 965

To sooth the throbbing passions into peace;
And woo lone Quiet in her silent walks.

Thus solitary, and in pensive guise,
On let me wander o'er the russet mead,
And through the sadden'd grove, where scarce is heard
One dying strain, to cheer the woodman's toil. 971
Haply some widow'd songster pours his plaint,
Far, in faint warblings, through the tawny copse ·
While congregated thrushes, linnets, larks,
And each wild throat, whose artless strains so late
Swell'd all the music of the swarming shades, 976
Robb'd of their tuneful souls, now shivering sit
On the dead tree, a dull despondent foca;
With not a brightness waving o'er their plumes,
And nought save chattering discord in their note. 980
0, let not, aim'd from some inhuman eye,
The gun the music of the coming year
Destroy; and harmless, unsuspecting harm,
Lay the weak tribes a miserable prey,
In mingled murder, fluttering on the ground ! 985

The pale-descending year, yet pleasing still, A gentler mood inspires; for now the leaf Incessant rustles from the mournful grove; Oft startling such as, studious, walk below, And slowly circles through the waving air. 990 But should a quicker breeze amid the boughs Sob, o'er the sky the leafy deluge streams; Till, choked and matted with the dreary shower, Che forest-walks, at every rising gale, Roll wide the wither'd waste, and whistle bleak. 995 Flcd is the blasted verdure of the fields ; And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race Their sunny robes resign. Een what remaind of stronger fruits falls from the naked tree; And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around 1000 The desolated prospect thrills the soul.

Ho comes ! he comes ! in every breeze the Power

Of philosophic Melancholy comes :
Ilis near approach the sudden-starting tear,
The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air,

1005
The soften'd feature, and the beating heart,
Pierced deep with many a virtuous pang, declare.
O'er all the soul his sacred influence breathes !
Inflames imagination ; through the breast
Infuses every tenderness; and far

1010 Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought. Ten thousand thousand fleet ideas, such As never mingled with the vulgar dreain, Crowd fast into the mind's creative eye. As fast the correspondent passions rise,

1015 As varied, and as high: Devotion raised To rapture and divine astonishment; The love of Nature, unconfined, and, chief, Of human race; the large ambitious wish, To make them tless'd ; the sigh for suffering worth Lost in obscurity; the noble scorn

1021 Of tyrant pride; the fearless great resolve ; The wonder which the dying patriot draws, Inspiring glory through remotest time ; The' awaken'd throb for virtue and for fame; 1025 The sympathies of love and friendship dear. With all the social offspring of the heart.

Oh! bear me then to vast embowering shades, To twilight groves, and visionary vales; To weeping grottoes, and prophetic glooms ; 1030 Where angel forms athwart the solemn dusk Tremendous sweep, or seem to sweep along; And voices more than human, through the void Deep sounding, seize the enthusiastic ear!

Or is this gloom too much? Then lead, ye powers, That o'er the garden and the rural seat

10:36 Preside, which shining through the cheerful land In countless numbers bless d Britannia sees; 0, lead me to the wide extended walks,