Swiftly, from the mountain's brow,

Shadows, purs'd by night, retire;
And the peeping sun-beam, now,
Paints with gold the village spire.
Philomel forsakes the thorn,

Plaintive where she prates at night;
And the lark to meet the morn,

Soars beyond the shepherd's sight.
From the low-roof'd cottage ridge,
See the chatt'ring swallow spring
Darting through the one-arch'd bridge,
Quick she dips her dappled wing.

Now the pine-tree's waving top
Gently greets the morning gale;
Kidlings, now, begin to crop
Daisies, on the dewy dale.

From the balmy sweets, uncloy'd
(Restless, till her task be done,
Now the busy bee's employ'd,
Sipping dew before the sun.
Trickling through the crevic'd rock,
Where the limpid stream distils,
Sweet refreshment waits the flock,
When 'tis sun-drove from the hills.

Colin's for the promis'd corn

(Ere the harvest hopes are ripe)-
Anxious-while the huntsman's hora,
Boldly sounding, drowns his pipe.
Sweet-O sweet, the warbling throng,
On the white emblosom'd spray!
Nature's universal song

251

The English Reader

Noon.

FERVID on the glitt'ring flood,
Now the noontide radiance glows:
Drooping o'er its infant bud,

Not a dew-drop's left the rose.
By the brook the shepherd dines,
From the fierce meridian heat,
Shelter'd by the branching pines,
Pendant oe'r his grassy seat.
Now the flock forsakes the glade,
Where uncheck'd the sun-beams fall,

Sure to find a pleasing shade

By the ivy'd abbey wall.

Echo, in her airy round,.

O'er the river, rock, and hill,

Cannot catch a single sound,

Save the clack of yonder mill.

Cattle court the zephyrs bland,

Where the streamlet wanders cool;
Or with languid silence stand
Midway in the marshy pool.

But from mountain, dell, or stream,
Not a flutt❜ring zephyr springs;

Fearful lest the noontide beam

Scorch its soft, its silken wings.

Not a leaf has leave to stir,

Nature's lull'd-serene-and still;

Quiet e'en the shepherd's cur,
Sleeping on the heath-clad hill.

Languid is the landscape round,
Till the fresh descending show'r,
Grateful to the thirsty ground,
Raises ev'ry faiuting flow'r.

Now the hill-the hedge-are green,

Now the warbler's throat's in tune;

Blithesome is the verdant scene,
Brighten'd by the beams of noon!

Part 2.

Chap. 6.

Promiscuous Pieces

Now the village windows blaze,
Burnish'd by the setting sun.
Now he sets behind the hill,
Sinking from a golden sky;
Can the pencil's mimic skill
Copy the refulgent dye?
Trudging as the Ploughmen go,

(To the smoaking hamlet bound,)
Giant-like their shadows grow,
Lengthen'd o'er the level ground.
Where the rising forest spreads
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 wide resplendent moon,
Breaking through a parted cloud.
Now the hermit howlet peeps

From the barn or twisted brake;
And the blue mist slowly creeps,
Curling on the silver lake,
As the trout in speckled pride,
Playful from his bosom springs;

To the banks a ruffled tide
Verges in successive rings.

Tripping through the silken grass,
O'er the path-divided dale,
Mark the rose-complexion'd lass,
With her well pois'd milking pail!
Linnets with unnumber'd notes,
And the cuckoo bird with two,
Tuning sweet their mellow throats,
Bid the setting sun adieu,

SECTION XX.

THE ORDER OF NATURE.

253

CUNNINGHAM,

SEE, through this air, this ocean, and this earth,

All matter cu

Above, how high progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Nature, ethereal, human, angel, man:
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,
From thee to nothing. On superior powers
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,

Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd :
From nature's chain whatever link-you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each system in gradation roll,.

Alike essential to th' amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall..
Let earth, unbalanc'd, from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky;
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.

All this dread oRDER break-for whom? for thee ?
Vile worm! Oh madness! pride! impiety!

What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread, Or hand, to toil, aspir'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 absurd for any part to claim To be another, in this gen'ral frame; Just as absurd to mourn the tasks or pains, The great directing MIND OF ALL ordains. All are but parts of one stupenduous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the soul: That, chang'd through all, and yet in all the same, Great in the earth as in th' ethereal frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; Breaths in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect, in a chair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the wrapt Seraph that adores and burns;

To him no high, no low, no great, no small,
He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all.

Cease then, nor ORDER imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee.
Submit. In this or any other sphere,

Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear;
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow's,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;

And, spite of Pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.

SECTION XII.

CONFIDENCE IN DIVINE PROTECTION;

How are thy servants blest, O Lord!
How sure 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 pass'd'unhurt,
And breath'd in tainted air.

Thy mercy sweeten'd ev'ry soil,
Made ev'ry region please;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd,
And smooth'd the Tyrrhene seas.

Think, O my soul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou saw'st the wide extended deep
In all its horrors rise.

Confusion dwelt in ev'ry face,

And fear in ev'ry heart,

When waves on waves, and gulphs in gulphs,

O'ercame the pilot's art.

Yet then, from all my griefs, O Lord,

Thy mercy set me free;

POPE.