The happy World. Attemper'd Suns arise,
Sweet-beam'd, and shedding oft thro' lucid Clouds
A pleasing Calm ; while broad, and brown, below, .
Unbounded Harvests hang the heavy Head.
Rich, filent, deep, they fiand; for not a Gale
Rolls its light Billows o'er the bending Plain;
A Calm of Plenty ! 'till the ruffled Xir
Falls from its Poize, and gives the Breeze to blow.
Rent is the fleecy Mantle of the Sky;
The Clouds fly different; and the sudden Sun,
By Fits effulgent, gilds th' illumin'd Field,
Ánd black by Fits the Shadows fweep along.
A gayly checker’d, wide extended View,
Far as the circling Eye can foot around,
Convolv’d, and toffing in a Flood of Corn.

DIALOGUE XI.
Of AUTUMN.

Euphrafyne. T Think we have had a very pleafing Speculation on the I two first Seasons, Spring and Summer ; and they succeed fo fast in this Machine, that Autumn is already very far advanced upon us, the Earth being some Degrees in Pifces (*)

. Cleon. Yes, the Days now grow shorter, and the Nights lengthen the Parts towards the North Pole, and within the Arctic Circle, are now carried farther and farther from the Sun, as those, towards and about the South Pole, are turned more and more to its Beams. And thus, with the former, the Summer-Heats as with the latter, the Winter-Colds abate, and Nature is again restored to an Equilibrium, or a due and equal Distribution of Light and Heat, Day and Night, to all, Parts of the Earth equally distant from the Equator, on each side. And this abtains, when the Earth enters Aries (n), or the Sun is seen in Libra (2).

Euphros. Though there be an Equality of Days and Nights, &c. in Autumn, as in the Spring; yet it is not near so pleasant a Season. The Trees and Fields are then green and blooming; now brown and fading.

Nature

the sun is obtains, when on the Equater allParts of the

Nature seems now fickening, and drawing towards its Dissolution; but then revived and regenerated in its various Produce. Yet I can't say, but Autumn has its Pleasures too; the Harvest-Fields of ripened Grain, the Labourers performing their several Tasks therein, the autumnal Seasons of Ploughing and Sowing, and various other Things, make rural Scenes delightful at this Season.

- I am greatly delighted with Hamer's beautiful Description of the HARVEST-FIELD

Another Field rose high with waving Grain;
With bended Sickles stand the Reaper-train :
Here ftretch'd in Ranks the levell’d Swarths are found,
Sheaves heap'd on Sheaves, here thicken up the Ground..
With sweeping Stroke the Mowers strow the Lands;
The Gath’rers follow, and collect in Bunds;
And last, the Children, in whose Arms are borne
(Too fort to gripe them) the brown Sheaves of Corn.
The ruftic Monarch of the Field descries,
With silent Glee, the Heaps around him rife.
A ready Banquet on the Turf is laid,
Beneath an ample Oak's expanded Shade ;
The Victim-ox the sturdy Youth prepare ;

The Reaper's due Repast, the Womens Care.
And of the Vintage

Next, ripe in yellow Gold, a Vineyard shines,
Bent with the pond'rous Harvest of its Vines;
A deeper Dye the dangling Clusters how,
And curs d'on silver Props, in Order glow :
A darker Metal mix'd, intrench'd the Place,
And Pales of glittring Tin th' Enclosure grace.
To this, one Path-way gently-winding leads,
Where mareh a Train with Baskets on their Hecd::
(Fair Maids and blooming Youths) that smiling rear
The purple Product of th' autumnal Year.
To thefe a Youth awakes the warbling Strings,
Whofe tender Lay the Fate of Linus sings;
In measur'd Dance behind him move the Train,

Tune soft the Voice, and answer to the Strain.
And that of Plowing seems to be admirably fine.

A Field deep furrow'd next the God design'd,
The third time labour'd by the freating Hind:

The

Ang Field deep he labour'd by

ocen their Subject. heis Lays,

** Autunmore;

The shining Shares full many Plowmen guide,
And turn their crooked Yokes on either Side,
Still as at either End they wheel around,
Their Master meets them with his Goblet crown'd;
The hearty Draught rewards, renews their Toil;
Then back the turning Plough-fhares ileave the Soil:
Bebind, the rising Earth in Ridges relld,
And sable look'd, tho' form’d of molten Gold. .

Pope's Homer, B. XVIII, Cleon. The Lines you repeat, are the most beautiful Part of Homer's Description of Rural Life.—The autumnal Season is the chiefest Time of Action abroad. And hence the Poets, fince Homer, have always made the Labours of the Harvest the chief Theme of their Lays, whenever this Season has been their Subject. Thus Sir Richard Blackmore:

Next Autumn, when the Sun's withdrawing Ray
The Night enlarges, and contracts the Day,
To crown his Labour to the Farmer yields
The Yellow Treasures of his fruitful Fields ;
Ripens the Harvests for the crooked Steel,
(While bending Stalks the rural Weapon feel)
The fragrant Fruit for the nice Palate fits,
And to the Press the swelling Grape submits. .

Creation, B. II. Virgil, from the various Incidents of this Season, gives many singular and notable Epithets thereto : thus, addres, sing his 2d Georgic to Bacchus, he says,

To thee his Joys the Jolly Autumn owes, When the fermenting Juice the Vat o'er flows. In another Place, on Account of the Vintage at this Time of the Year, he calls it the Vine-leav'd Autumn *; and because the Sun now enters Libra, or the Balance, he makes Autumn weigh the Year.

Now sing we stormy Stars, when Autumn weighs ?
The Tear, and adds ta Nights, and shortens Days;
And Suns declining shine with feeble Rays. Geor. B.I.

Lastly, he calls Autumn the Evening of the Year; as if Spring and Summer were the Morning and Noon, and ID'inter the Night thereof..

* Autumnus pampineus.