Books are but formal dulness, tedious friends;
And fad amid the focial band he fits,
Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue
Th' unfinish'd period falls: while, borne away,
On fwelling thought, his wafted fpirit flies.
To the vain bofom of his diftant fair;
And leaves the semblance of a lover, fix'd;
In melancholy fite, with head declin'd,.
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,
Shook from his tender trance, and restless runs.
To glimmering shades, and sympathetic glooms;
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling ftream,
Romantic, hangs; there thro' the pensive dusk 1025)
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft,
Indulging all to love: or on the bank
Thrown, amid drooping lilies, fwells the breeze
With fighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.
Thus in soft anguish he consumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement till the Moon
Peeps thro' the chambers of the fleecy eatt,
Enlighten'd by degrees, and in her train
Leads on the gentle Hours; then forth he walks,
Beneath the trembling languish of her beam,
With foftened foul, and wooes the bird of eve
To mingle woes with his or, while the world
And all the fons of Care ly hush'd in sleep,
Affociates with the midnight-shadows drear;
And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours
His idly-tortur'd heart into the page
Meant for the moving meffenger of love;
Where rapture burns on rapture, every line.
With rifing frenzy fir'd. But if on bed
Delirious flung, fleep from his pillow flies 1045 All night he toffes nor the balmy power
In any posture finds; till the grey morn
Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch,
Exanimate by love:: and then, perhaps,
Exhausted nature finks a while to rest,
Still interrupted by distracted dreams,
That o'er the fick imagination rife,
And in black colours paint the mimic fcene.
Oft with th' inchantress of his foul he talks;
Sometimes in crouds distress'd; or if retir'd
To fecret-winding flower-enwoven bowers,
Far from the dull impertinence of man,
Juft as he, credulous, his endless cares
Begins to lose in blind oblivious love,
Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Thro' forefts huge, and long untravel'd heaths 1061
With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempelt wrapt; or fhrinks aghast,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and strives to reach
The farther flore; where fuccourless, and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores;
But strives in vain: born by th' outrageous flood
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,
Or, whelm❜d beneath the boiling eddy, finks.
These are the charming agonies of love,
Whofe mifery delights. But thro' the heart.
Should jealoufy, its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful mifery no more,.
But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall
Corroding every thought; and blasting all
Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then,
Ye beds of roles, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace,
Shine out your laft! the yellow-tinging plague 1080
Internal vision taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps.
Ah, then! instead of love-enlivened cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes
With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed;
Suffus'd, and glaring with untender fire;
A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,
Where the whole poifon'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondnefs, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and resolution frail,
Giving falle peace a moment. Fancy pours,
Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought,
Her first endearments, twining round the foul,
With all the witchcraft of ensnaring love.
Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew, 1100
Flames through the nerves, and boils along the veins;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For even the fad affurance of his fears
Were eafe to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds,
Thro' flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fevered rapture, or of cruel care;
His brighteft aims extinguish'd all, and all
His lively moments running down to waste.
But happy they! the happiest of their kind! 1110
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their being blend.
"Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their paffions into love;
Where friendship full exerts her softest power,
Perfect esteem, enlivened by defire
Ineffable, and sympathy of foul;
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence: 'for nought but love 1121
Can anfwer love, and render blifs fecure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To blefs himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgia, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days;
Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love
Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel;
Let Eastern tyrants, from the light of Heaven
Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a mere, lifeless, violated form-:
While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal tranfport, free as nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all!
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, fhould they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love, 1140
The richest bounty of indulgent HEAVEN.
Mean time a finiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm, 1145
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care..
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
O fpeak the joy! ye, whom the fudden tear
Surprises often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but fights of bliss, 1155
All various Nature preffing on the heart:
An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving HEAVEN.
These are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The seasons thus,
As ceafelefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting SPRING
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads:
Till evening comes at last, serene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they sink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly
To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.
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