Yet shall the cherubim his fancy bear

Hors'd on the sightless coursers of the air!

Yet shall the sweet south breathe o'er vi'let banks, And Oberon trip, for him, thro' glittering ranks.

But whether nature, or mimetic art To every fond emotion wake his heart; Enamour'd shall he cling to beauty's charms, And fold perfection in his fervent arms; Hang o'er the scene with living splendour bright And breathless faint with tremulous delight!

O! on that Taste if no untamed desire
Await, nor pleasure fan the sensual fire;
If passion, pouring no licentious sighs,
Chaste and subdued, with virtue harmonize;
Shall not her spirit escape from folly's brood,

And plunge into some sacred solitude?

There sympathize, tho' mute, with many a form, And greet, alike, a sun-blaze or a storm?

*

THE

PLEASURES OF TASTE.

THIRD PART.

IN the exemplification of Taste, in the Third Part,

are introduced an elegant mansion-house, its park and its woodlands: And their beauties are delineated in the form of a fictitious narrative; as Delucey, Osbert, and Isora display their various Taste, in architecture and the Picturesque English Garden," and in Painting, Poetry, and Music, under the influence of Love and Friendship. It were difficult to detach any passages from a Tale with effect. I shall not, therefore, put your patience to the test, any further than by submitting to you two or three descriptive passages.

*

"Fair laugh'd the morn; and hright the summer-bloom Wav'd in gay dance around his classic Dome;

When midst the extensive Park DELU EY threw

A glance of pleasure on the kindling view.

Light was the äerial haze; and all below Was one soft fragrance, one ambrosial glow: Smooth to his step, the velvet sod was prest, And every tree display'd a greener crest.”

"One favourite oak, that down the fractured steep, And o'er the ripling wave, with ampler sweep High soaring, its majestic shadow cast,

Was stored with many an image of the past

Its bark where quaint rhymes he was wont to grave;
Its hollow trunk, he deem'd a Druid's cave;

Its central boughs, where oft the raven croak'd,
Or the jay scream'd by boyish freaks provok'd;
Its acorns clustering—to his infant gripe

That slipp'd in tawny glossiness so ripe-
-Some harmless sport-some little transient grief,
Some childish fancy lurk'd in

every

leaf !"

Her pale cheek was spread

As with a quivering tincture, ere she fled,—

Like the weak blush that stains the wild-biar rose When to light airs its virgin beau ty blows,”

In one part of their landscape-t

“As they open'd all the sacred cirque

To the free sun, they schemed the pianter s work;

Bidding kind Genii slope the uncultur'd ground,
And from Cephisus' fount waft odours round;
Conjuring, in fond idea, to the Dome,

For simple bluebells and the yellow broom,
Shrubs that, embosom d in her golden isłe,

Had won to nectar'd flowers their Sappho's smile.”

*

*

*

*

*

After describing the simple beauties that crown'd the Arcadian scene-the Poet proceeds,

"But not the vales of pastoral Arcady

Could with this Eden of emotions vie,

Tho' every greenwood whisper'd, but to bless ;-
Tho' every fountain murmur'd happiness.

How.beat their hearts with rapture, where they rov'd Possessing all they wish'd, and all they lov'd!

In vernal airs if 'midst his silent walk

Some power invisible had seem'd to talk ;
If, where in deeper masses frown'd the wood,
Or toss'd its billowy foam the wintery flood,
Some mighty genius, darkling from on high,
Had in his soul awak'd the unwitness'd sigh;
If, thus alone, Delucey own'd delight;—
How soar'd, ascending to the sapphire height,
The happy Pair, who pour'd, at nature's shrine,
To nature's God, their orisons divine!

Such was the sentiment of Heavenly Love Inspir'd, thro' every age, the warbling grove : Nor fear, 'midst savage grandeur, left mankind Unmov'd, nor thrilling awe, the more refined.

Such was the feeling touch'd the Grecian chord,
And such with mimic shapes the temples stored :
Nor he, elate in philosophic pride,

Impious who dar'd his country's gods deride,
To the drear horrors of desertion driven,

Found music for his harp, without a Heaven !"

"Spirit of Grecian Taste! to thee again, To thee do I address my closing strain ;

Come, gentle Spirit! O come, ethereal power,

Shade these white cliffs, and breathe thro' every bower;
Smooth the rude slope, the marshy lowland swell,
And with pure sunbeams pierce the sombrous dell;
Bid o'er wild wastes luxuriant foliage heave,
And thro' deep dells conduct the glittering wave;
To sweetest notes attune the harmonious muse,
And give to Dædal art, sublimer views.

So shall yon Genius of the British isles, Caress thee, joyous in thy liberal smiles; Protect thee, if thou visit Greece once more; And, fond her pristine splendours to restore,