A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown, below 30
Extenfive harvests hang the heavy head.

Rich, filent, deep, they ftand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain;
A calm of plenty! till the ruffled air

Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow. 35.
Rent is the fleecy mantle of the fky;

1

The clouds fly different; and the sudden fun
By fits effulgent gilds th' illumin'd field,
And black by fits the shadows sweep along,
A gaily-checquer❜d heart-expanding view,
Far as the circling eye can fhoot around,
Unbounded toffing in a flood of corn,

40

These are thy bleffings, INDUSTRY! rough power!
Whom labour still attends, and sweat, and pain;
Yet the kind fource of ev'ry gentle art,

And all the foft fimplicity of life:
Raifer of human kind! by Nature cast,
Naked, and helpless, out amid the woods
And wilds, to rude inclement elements;
With various feeds of art deep in the mind
Implanted, and profufely pour'd around
Materials infinite; but idle all.

Still unexerted, in th' unconfcious breast,
Slept the lethargic powers; Corruption still,
Voracious, fwallow'd what the liberal hand
Of bounty fcatter'd o'er the favage year:
And still the fad barbarian, roving, mix'd
With beasts of prey; or for his acorn-meal

Fought the fierce tulky boar; a fhivering wretch!
Aghaft, and comfortless, when the bleak north,
With winter charg'd, let the mix'd tempeft fly,
Hail, rain, and fnow, and bitter-breathing frost:
Then to the shelter of the hut he fled;

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50%

55%

60%

And

65

And the wild feason, fordid, pin'd away.
For home he had not; home is the resort
Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where
Supporting, and fupported, polifh'd friends,
And dear relations mingle into bliss.: (
But this the rugged favage never felt,
Even defolate in crouds, and thus his days
Roll'd heavy, dark, and unenjoy'd along:
A waste of time! till INDUSTRY approach'd,
And rous'd him from his miferable floth:
His faculties unfolded; pointed out,
Where lavish Nature the directing hand
Of Art demanded; fhew'd him how to raise
His feeble force by the mechanic powers,
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth,
On what to turn the piercing rage of fire,
On what the torrent, and the gather'd blaft;
Gave the tall ancient foreft to his axe;

Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone,
Till by degrees the finish'd fabric rofe;
Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur,
And wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm,
Or bright in gloffy filk, and flowing lawn;
With wholefome viands fill'd his table, pour'd
The generous glass around, infpir'd to wake
The life-refining foul of decent wit:
Nor stopp'd at barren bare neceffity;

80.

But still advancing bolder, led him on g

To pomp, to pleafure, elegance, and grace;
And, breathing high ambition thro' his foul,
Set science, wisdom, glory in his view,

And bade him be the Lord of all below. Itand› 95
Then gathering men their natural powers combin'd,
And formed a Public; to the general good

L3

Submitting,

100

105

Submitting, aiming, and conducting all.
For this the Patriot-council met, the full,
The free, and fairly-represented Whole;
For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws,
Diftinguish'd orders, animated artsy
And with joint force Oppreffion chaining, set
Imperial Justice at the helm; yet still
To them accountable: nor flavish dream'd
That toiling millions must refign their weal,
And all the honey of their fearch, to fuch
As for themfelves alone themselves have rais'd.
Hence every form of cultivated life-
In order fet, protected, and infpir'd,
Into perfection wrought. Uniting all,
Society grew numerous, high, polite,
And happy. Nurse of art! the city rear'd,
In beauteous pride, her tower-incircled head;
And, ftretching street on street, by thousands drew, HƑ
From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew
To bows strong-straining, her aspiring sons.

Then COMMERCE brought into the public walk
The bufy merchant; the big warehoufe built;
Rais'd the strong crane; choak'd up the loaded street

With foreign plenty; and thy stream, OTHAMES, 121
Large, gentle, deep, majeftic, king of floods!
Chose for his grand resort. On either hand,

Like a long wint'ry foreft, groves of mafts

Shot up their spires; the bellowing sheet between 125 Poffefs'd the breezy void; the footy hulk

7

Steer'd fluggish on; the splendid barge along
Row'd, regular, to harmony; around,
The boat, light-skimming, ftretch'd its oary wings;"
While deep the various voice of fervent toil'; 130
From bank to bank encreas'd; whence, ribb'd with oak,

Το

To bear the BRITISH THUNDER, black, and bold, The roaring veffel rufh'd into the main.

Then, too, the pillar'd dome, magnific, heav'd Its ample roof; and Luxury within

f

Pour'd out her glittering ftores: the canvas fmooth,
With glowing life protuberant, to the view
Embodied rofe; the statue seem'd to breathe,
And soften into flesh, beneath the touch
Of forming art, imagination-flush'd.

All is the gift of INDUSTRY; whate❜er
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life
Delightful. Penfive Winter, chear'd by him,
Sits at the focial fire, and happy hears.
Th' excluded tempeft idly rave along;
His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring:
Without him Summer were an arid waste;
Nor to th' autumnal months could thus tranfmit
Thofe full, mature, immeasurable ftores,
That, waving round, recall my wandering fong.
Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky,
And, unperceiv'd, unfolds the fpreading day;
Before the ripened field the reapers stand,
In fair array; each by the lass he loves,
To bear the rougher part, and mitigate,
By nameless gentle offices, her toil.

At once they stoop and fwell the lufty fheaves;
While thro' their chearful band the rural talk,
The rural scandal, and the rural jeft,

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160

Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time,
And steal, unfelt, the fultry hours away.
Behind the mafter walks, builds up the fhocks; t
And, confcious, glancing oft on every fide r
His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.
The gleaners spread around, and here and there, ~165

Spike after spike their scanty harvest pick.
Be not too narrow, husbandmen! but fling ·
From the full sheaf, with charitable stealth,
The liberal handful. Think, oh grateful think!
How good the GOD of HARVEST is to you;
Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields;
While these unhappy partners of your kind
Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of heaven,
And ask their humble dole. The various turns
Of fortune ponder; that your sons may want
What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give.
The lovely young LAVINIA once had friends;

And fortune finil'd, deceitful, on her birth.
For, in her helpless years, depriv'd of all, .

I

170

175

18

Of every stay, fave INNOCENCE and HEAVEN, 180
She with her widow'd mother, feeble, old,
And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd
Among the windings of a woody vale;
By folitude and deep-furrounding fhades,
But more by bafhful modefty, conceal'd.
Together thus they fhunn'd the cruel scorn.
Which virtue funk to poverty would meet <
From giddy paffion and low-minded pride:
Almoft on Nature's common bounty fed;
Like the gay birds that fung them to repose,
Content, and careless of to-morrow's fare.
Her form was fresher than the morning rofe,
When the dew wets its leaves;

190

unftain'd, and pure,,

As is the lily, or the mountain-fnow.
The modest virtues mingled in her eyes,
Still on the ground dejected, darting all r
Their humid beams into the blooming flowers:
Or when the mournful tale her mother told,
Of what her faithlefs fortune promis'd once,

195

Thrill'd