A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown, below 30
Extensive 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 poife, and gives the breeze to blow. 35. Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky;

1

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

These are thy bleffings, INDUSTRY! rough power!
Whom labour still attends, and fweat, 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 breaft,
Slept the lethargic powers; Corruption ftill,
Voracious, fwallow'd what the liberal hand
Of bounty scatter'd o'er the favage year:
And still the fad harbarian, 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 froft:
Then to the fhelter of the hut he fled;

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50%

55%

60:

And

***** ***

And the wild feafon, 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 blifs.. {
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 miserable 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, i
And wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm, 85
Or bright in gloffy filk, and flowing lawn;
With wholefome viands fill'd his table, pour'de
The generous glass around, inspir'd to wake u
The life-refining foul of decent wit:

1.

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Nor stopp'd at barren bare neceflity ;; .0"
But still advancing bolder, led him on
To pomp, to pleasure, elegance, and grace; - {
And, breathing high ambition thro' his foul, A
Set science, wisdom, glory in his view,
L'eros
And bade him be the Lord of all below. Its d› 95
Then gathering men their natural powers combin'd,
And formed a Public; to the general good

L3

65

D

f

80.

Submitting,

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 arts,
And with joint force Oppreffion chaining, fet
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-ftraining, her aspiring fons.

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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, majestic, king of floods! Chofe for his grand refort. 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

Steer'd fluggish on; the fplendid barge along
Row'd, regular, to harmony; around,

7

The boat, light-skimming, stretch'd its oary wings;
While deep the various voice of fervent toil
From bank to bank encreas'd; whence, ribb'd with oak,

130

Το

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

135

Then, too, the pillar'd dome, magnific, heav'd Its ample roof; and Luxury within Pour'd out her glittering stores: the canvas fmooth, With glowing life protuberant, to the view Embodied rofe; the ftatue feem'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. 150 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 lusty sheaves; While thro' their chearful band the rural talk, The rural scandal, and the rural jeft, Fly harmless, to deceive the tedious time, And steal, unfelt, the fultry hours away. Behind the master walks, builds up the shocks; And, conscious, glancing oft on every fide His fated eye, feels his heart heave with joy.

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The gleaners spread around, and here and there, 165

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160

Spike after spike their scanty harvest pick.
Be not too narrow, husbandmen! but fling ·
From the full fheaf, 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 fimil'd, deceitful, on her birth.
For, in her helpless years, depriv'd of all,
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 bashful modefty, conceal'd.
Together thus they shunn'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-rose,
When the dew wets its leaves; unftain'd, and pure,,
As is the lily, or the mountain-fnow.

The modeft 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,

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·199

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Thrill'd