FERVID on the glitt'ring flood,
Now the noontide radiance glows;
Drooping o'er its infant bud,
Not a dew-drop's left the rofe.
By the brook the fhepherd dines,
From the fierce meridian heat,
Shelter'd by the branching pines,
Pendant o'er his graffy feat.
Now the flock forfakes the glade,
Where uncheck'd the fun-beams fall,
Sure to find a pleasing fhade '
By the ivy'd abbey wall.
Echo in her airy round,
O'er the river, rock, and hill,
Cannot catch a fingle found,
Save the clack of yonder mill.
Cattle court the zephyrs bland,
Where the streamlet wanders cool;
Or with languid filence stand
Midway in the marshy pool.
But from mountain, dell, or stream,
Not a flutt❜ring zephyr fprings;
Fearful left the noontide beam
Scorch its foft, its filken wings,
Not a leaf has leave to ftir,
Nature's lull'd-ferene and ftill!
Quiet e'en the fhepherd's cur,
Sleeping on the heath-clad hill.
Languid is the landscape round,
Till the fresh defcending fhow'r,
Grateful to the thirsty ground,
Raises ev'ry fainting flow'r.
Now the hill-the hedge-are green,
Now the warblers' throats in tune;
Blithfome is the verdant fcene,
Brighten'd by the beams of Noon!
O'ER the heath the heifer ftrays
Free-(the furrow'd task is done;)
Now the village windows blaze,
Burnish'd by the fetting fun.
Now he fets behind the hill,
Sinking from a golden fky:
Can the pencil's mimic skill
Copy the refulgent dye?
Trudging as the ploughmen go,
(To the fmoaking hamlet bound,)
Giant like their fhadows grow,
Lengthen'd o'er the level ground.
Where the rifing foreft fpreads,
Shelter for the lordly dome!
To their high-built airy beds,
See the rooks returning home!
As the lark, with vary'd tune,
Carols to the ev’ning loud;
Mark the mild refplendent moon,
Breaking through a parted cloud!
Now the hermit howlet peeps
From the barn or twisted brake;
And the blue mift flowly creeps,
Curling on the filver lake.
As the trout in fpeckled pride,
Playful from its bofom fprings;
To the banks, a ruffled tide
Verges in fucceffive rings.
Tripping through the filken grass.
O'er the path-divided dale,
Mark the rofe-complexion'd lafs
With her well-pois'd milking pail !
Linnets with unnumber'd notes,
And the cuckoo-bird with two,
Tuning fweet their mellow throats,
Bid the fetting fun adieu.
SB, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progreffive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vaft chain of being! which from God began,
Nature ethereal, human; angel, man;
Beat, bird, fish, infect, what no eye can see,
Ne glafs can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing.-On fuperior pow'rs
Were we to prefs, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one ftep broken, the great fcale's deftroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you ftrike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each fyftem in gradation roll,
Alike effential to th' amazing whole,zaq3%
The least confusion but in one, not all yet wedd
That fyftem only, but the whole must fall.
Let earth, unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and funs run lawless thro' the fky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And Nature trembles to the throne of God. A
All this dread ORDER break-for whom? for
thee?
Vile worm! Oh madness! pride! impiety!["
What if the foot, ordain'd the duft to tread,
Or hand, to toil, afpir'd to be the head?
What if the head, the eye, or ear, repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as abfurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame:
Juft as abfurd, to mourn the tasks or pains,
The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains.
All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body Nature is, and God the foul:
That, changed thro' all, and yet in all the fame,
Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame;
Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unfpent;
Breathes in our foul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt feraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no fmall;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all.
Cease then, nor ORDER imperfection name:A Our proper blifs depends on what we blame
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree L
Of blindness, weaknefs, Heav'n bestows on theel
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as bleft as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one difpofing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not fee;
All difcord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, univerfal good;
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear,-WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.
SECTION XXI.
Hymn compofed during Sickness.
How are thy fervants bleft, O Lord!
How fure is their defence!
Eternal Wisdom is their guide,
Their help Omnipotence.
In foreign realms, and lands remote,
Supported by thy care,
Through burning climes I pafs'd unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air.
Thy Mercy fweeten'd ev'ry foil,
Made ev'ry region please;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd,
And fmooth'd the Tyrrhene feas.
Think, O my foul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou faw'ft the wide-extended deep
In all its horrors rife !
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