L.

"And even where Nature loads the teeming plain "With the full pomp of vegetable store,

"Her bounty, unimproved, is deadly bane: "Dark woods and rankling wilds, from shore to shore, "Stretch their enormous gloom; which to explore "Even Fancy trembles, in her sprightliest mood; "For there each eyeball gleams with lust of gore, "Nestles each murderous and each monstrous brood, Plague lurks in every shade, and steams from every flood.

LI.

"'T was from Philosophy man learn'd to tame
"The soil by plenty to intemperance fed.
"Lo, from the echoing ax, and thundering flame,
"Poison and plague and yelling rage are fled.
"The waters, bursting from their slimy bed,

"Bring health and melody to every vale:

"And, from the breezy main, and mountain's head, "Ceres and Flora, to the sunny dale,

"To fan their glowing charms, invite the fluttering gale.

LII.

"What dire necessities on every hand

"Our art, our strength, our fortitude require!
"Of foes intestine what a numerous band
"Against this little throb of life conspire!
"Yet Science can elude their fatal ire

"A while, and turn aside Death's level'd dart,

"Sooth the sharp pang, allay the fever's fire,

"And brace the nerves once more, and chear the heart, "And yet a few soft nights and balmy days impart.

LIII.

"Nor less to regulate man's moral frame "Science exerts her all-composing sway.

"Flutters thy breast with fear, or pants for fame, "Or pines to Indolence and Spleen a prey,

"Or Avarice, a fiend more fierce than they?

"Flee to the shade of Academus' grove;

"Where cares molest not, discord melts away "In harmony, and the pure passions prove

"How sweet the words of truth breathed from the lips of Love.

LIV.

"What cannot Art and Industry perform, "When Science plans the progress of their toil! "They smile at penury, disease, and storm; "And oceans from their mighty mounds recoil. "When tyrants scourge, or demagogues embroil "A land, or when the rabble's headlong rage "Order transforms to anarchy and spoil, "Deep-versed in man the philosophic Sage "Prepares with lenient hand their phrenzy to assuage.

LV.

""T is he alone, whose comprehensive mind,
"From situation, temper, soil, and clime
"Explored, a nation's various powers can bind
"And various orders, in one Form sublime
"Of policy, that midst the wrecks of time,
"Secure shall lift its head on high, nor fear
"Th' assault of foreign or domestic crime,
"While public faith, and public love sincere,

"And Industry and Law maintain their sway severe."

LVI.

Enraptured by the Hermit's strain, the Youth Proceeds the path of Science to explore. And now, expanding to the beams of Truth, New energies, and charms unknown before, His mind discloses : Fancy now no more Wantons on fickle pinion through the skies; But, fix'd in aim, and conscious of her power, Aloft from cause to cause exults to rise, Creation's blended stores arraigning as she flies.

LVII.

Nor love of novelty alone inspires,

Their laws and nice dependencies to scan;

For, mindful of the aids that life requires,

And of the services man owes to man,

He meditates new arts on Nature's plan;
The cold desponding breath of Sloth to warm,

The flame of Industry and Genius fan,

And Emulation's noble rage alarm,

And the long hours of Toil and Solitude to charm.

LVIII.

But she, who set on fire his infant heart,

And all his dreams and all his wanderings shared
And bless'd, the Muse, and her celestial art,
Still claim th' Enthusiast's fond and first regard.
From Nature's beauties variously compared

And variously combined, he learns to frame

Those forms of bright perfection*, which the Bard, While boundless hope and boundless views inflame, Enamour'd consecrates to never-dying fame.

LIX.

Of late, with cumbersome, though pompous show,
Edwin would oft his flowery rhyme deface,
Through ardour to adorn; but Nature now
To his experienced eye a modest grace
Presents, where Ornament the second place
Holds, to intrinsic worth and just design
Subservient still. Simplicity apace

Tempers his rage: he owns her charm divine,

And clears th'ambiguous phrase, and lops th' unwieldy line.

* General ideas of excellence, the immediate archetypes of sublime imitation, both in painting and in poetry. See Aristotle's Poetics, and the Discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds.