Exulting o'er the painful steep to foar
High as the fummit: there to breath at large
Etherial air; with bards and fages old,

Immortal fors of praise. These flatt'ring scenes
To this neglecting labour court my fong;

Yet not (b) unconscious what a doubtful task,
To paint the finest features of the mind,
And to moft fubtile and myfterious things

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Give colour, strength and motion. But the love
Of nature and the mufes bids explore,
Thro' fecret paths erewhile untrod by man,
The fair poetic region, to detect

Untafted fprings, to drink infpiring draughts;
And fhade my temples with unfading flow'rs.
Cull'd from the laureat vale's profound recefs,
Where never poet gain'd a wreath before.

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FROM heav'n my strains begin; from heav'n defcends The flame of genius to the human breast,

And love and beauty, and poetic joy

And inspiration. Ere the radiant fun

Sprung from the east, or 'mid the vault of night

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The moon fufpended her ferener lamp;

Ere mountains, woods, or ftreams adorn'd the globe;

Or wisdom taught the fons of men her lore;

Then liv'd th' eternal ONE: then deep-retir❜d

In his unfathom'd effence, view'd at large

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The uncreated images of things;

The radiant fun, the moon's nocturnal lamp,

The mountains, woods and ftreams, the rolling globe,

་ ་་

And wifdom's form celeftial. From the first

Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd,
His admiration till in time compleat,

:

What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile
Unfolded into being. Hence the breath

Of life informing each organic frame,

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Hence the green earth, and wild refounding waves; 75
Hence light and fhade alternate; warmth and cold;
And clear autumnal skies and vernal show'rs,
And all the fair variety of things.

BUT not alike to every mortal eye

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Is this great fcene unveil'd. For fince the claims 80
Of focial life, to different labours urge
The active pow'rs of man; with wife intent
The hand of nature on peculiar minds
Imprints a diff'rent byafs, and to each
Decrees its province in the common toil.
To fome fhe taught the fabric of the sphere,
The changeful moon, the circuit of the stars,
The golden zones of heav'n: to some she gave
To weigh the moment of eternal things,
Of time, and fpace, and fate's unbroken chain,
And will's quick impulfe: others by the hand
She led o'er vales and monntains, to explore
What healing virtue fwells the tender veins.
Of herbs and flow'rs; or what the beams of morn
Draw forth, diftilling from the clifted rind
In balmy tears. But fome to higher hopes
Were deftin'd; fome within a finer mould

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95.

She

She wrought and temper'd with a purer flame.
To these the fire omnipotent unfolds
The world's harmonious volume, there to read
The transcript of himself. On every part
They trace the bright impreffions of his hand :
In earth or air, the meadow's purple stores,
The moon's mild radiance, or the virgins form
Blooming with rofy smiles, they see pourtray'd 105
That uncreated beauty, which delights

The mind fupreme. THEY alfo feel her charms;
Enamour'd, THEY partake th' eternal joy.

As (c) Memnon's marble harp, renown'd of old By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch Of Titan's ray, with each repulfive ftring Confenting, founded thro' the warbling air Unbidden ftrains; ev'n fo did nature's hand To certain fpecies of external things, Attune the finer organs of the mind : So the glad impulfe of congenial powers, Or of sweet found, or fair-proportion'd form, The grace of motion, or the bloom of light, Thrills thro' imagination's tender frame, From nerve to nerve: all naked and alive]. They catch the spreading rays: till now the foul At length discloses every tuneful spring, To that harmonious movement from without, Responsive. Then the inexpreffive strain Diffufes its enchantment: fancy dreams · Of facred fountains and elyfian grovės,

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And

And vales of bliss: the intellectual pow'r

Bends from his awful throne a wond'ring ear,

And fmiles the paffions gently footh'd away,
Sink to divine repofe, and love and joy

Alone are walking; love and joy, ferene
O! attend,

As airs that fan the fummer,
Whoe'er thou art whom those delights can touch,
Whofe candid bofom the refining love

Of nature warms, O! listen to my song;

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And I will guide thee to her favʼrite walks,

And teach thy folitude her voice to hear,
And point her lovelieft features to thy view.

KNOW then whate'er of nature's pregnant ftores, Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms

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With love and admiration thus inflame

The pow'rs of fancy, her delighted fons
To three illuftrious orders have referr'd;

Three fifter graces, whom the painter's hand,

The poet's tongue confeffes; the SUBLIME

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The WONDERFUL, the FAIR. I fee them dawn!

I fee the radiant vifions, where they rife,
More lovely than when Lucifer displays

His beaming forehead thro' the gates of morn,
To lead the train of Phoebus and the spring.

SAY, (d) why was man fo eminently rais'd
Amid the vast creation; why ordain'd
Thro' life and death to dart his piercing eye,

With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame;

But

But that th' omnipotent might fend him forth
In fight of mortal and immortal pow'rs,
As on a boundless theatre, to run
The great career of juftice; to exalt

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His gen'rous aim to all diviner deeds;

To shake each partial purpose from his breaft;
And thro' the mifts of paffion and of sense,

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And thro' the toffing tide of chance and pain

To hold his courfe unfalt'ring, while the voice
Of truth and virtue, up the steep afcent

Of nature, calls him to his high reward,

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Th' applauding smile of heav'n? elfe wherefore burns

In mortal bofoms, this unquenched hope

That breaths from day to day fublimer things,

And mocks poffeffion? wherefore darts the mind,
With fuch refiftlefs ardor to imbrace

Majestic forms? impatient to be free,

Spurning the grofs controul of wilful might;
Proud of the ftrong contention of her toils;
Proud to be daring? who but rather turns

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To heav'n's broad fire his unconstrained view,

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Than to the glimm'ring of a waxen flame?
Who that, from Alpine heights, his labʼring eye
Shoots round the wide horizon to survey

The Nile or Ganges rowl his wasteful tide

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Thro' mountains,plains, thro' empires black with fhade
And continents of fand; will turn his gaze
To mark the windings of a scanty rill

That murmurs at his feet? the high born foul
Difdains to rest her heav'n aspiring wing

Beneath