And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.
Hence every state to one lov'd blessing prone,
Conforms and models life to that alone.
Each to the favourite happiness attends,
And spurns the plan that aims at other ends;
Till carried to excess in each domain,
This favourite good begets peculiar pain.

But let us try these truths with closer eyes, And trace them through the prospect as it lies: Here for a while my proper cares resign'd, Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind; Like yon neglected shrub at random cast, That shades the steep, and sighs at every blast.

Far to the right where Appennine ascends, Bright as the summer, Italy extends; Its uplands sloping deck the mountain's side, Woods over woods in gay theatric pride; 4 While oft some temple's mouldering tops between With venerable grandeur mark the scene.

Could nature's bounty satisfy the breast, The sons of Italy were surely blest.

4 theatric pride] v. Lycophronis, Cass. v. 600. Θεατρομόρφωι πρὸς κλίσει γεωλό φωι.

Virg. En. v. 288.-quem Collibus undique curvis Cirgebant Silvæ; mediaque in valle theatri, Circus erat'

Seneca Troades, v. 1125. 'Crescit theatri more.'

Whatever fruits in different climes were found,
That proudly rise, or humbly court the ground;
Whatever blooms in torrid tracts appear,
Whose bright succession decks the varied year;
Whatever sweets salute the northern sky
With vernal lives, that blossom but to die;
These here disporting own the kindred soil,
Nor ask luxuriance from the planter's toil;
While sea-born gales their gelid wings expand
To winnow fragrance round the smiling land.

But small the bliss that sense alone bestows, And sensual bliss is all the nation knows. In florid beauty groves and fields appear, Man seems the only growth that dwindles here. Contrasted faults through all his manners reign: Though poor, luxurious; though submissive,vain; Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue; And even in penance planning sins anew. All evils here contaminate the mind,

That opulence departed leaves behind;

For wealth was theirs, not far remov'd the date, When commerce proudly flourish'd through the state;

At her command the palace learnt to rise,
Again the long fallen column sought the skies;
The canvass glow'd beyond e'en nature warm,
The pregnant quarry teem'd with human form.
Till, more unsteady than the southern gale,
Commerce on other shores display'd her sail;

While nought remain'd of all that riches gave,
But towns unmann'd, and lords without a slave:
And late the nation found with fruitless skill
5 Its former strength was but plethoric ill.

Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride; From these the feeble heart and long fallen mind An easy compensation seem to find.

Here may

be seen,

in bloodless pomp array'd, 6 The pasteboard triumph and the cavalcade; Processions form'd for piety and love,

A mistress or a saint in every grove.

By sports like these are all their carès beguil'd,
The sports of children satisfy the child;
Each nobler aim, represt by long control,
Now sinks at last, or feebly mans the soul;
While low delights, succeeding fast behind,
In happier meanness occupy the mind :
As in those domes, where Cæsars once bore sway,
Defac'd by time and tottering in decay,
There in the ruin, heedless of the dead,
The shelter-seeking peasant builds his shed;

5 Its] In short, the state resembled one of those bodies bloated with disease, whose bulk is only a symptom of its wretchedness their former opulence only endered them more impotent.' Cit. of the World, i. 98.

6 Where in the midst of porticos, processions, and cavalcades, Abbés turn shepherds; and shepherdesses without sheep indulge their innocent divertimenti.'

Pres. State of Learning, p. 39.

And, wondering man could want the larger pile, Exults, and owns his cottage with a smile.

My soul, turn from them, turn we to survey
Where rougher climes a nobler race display,
Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansion tread,
And force a churlish soil for scanty bread;
No product here the barren hills afford,

But man and steel, the soldier and his sword.
No vernal blooms their torpid rocks array,
But winter lingering chills the lap of May;
No zephyr fondly sues the mountain's breast,
But meteors glare, and stormy glooms invest.

Yet still, even here, content can spread a charm, Redress the clime, and all its rage disarm. Though poor the peasant's hut, his feasts tho' small, He sees his little lot the lot of all;

Sees no contiguous palace rear its head

To shame the meanness of his humble shed;
No costly lord the sumptuous banquet deal
To make him loathe his vegetable meal
But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil,
Each wish contracting, fits him to the soil.
Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes;
7 With patient angle trolls the finny deep,
Or drives his venturous ploughshare to the steep;

7 The best manner to draw up the finny prey.'

Cit. of the World, ii. 99.

way,

Or seeks the den where snow-tracks mark the
And drags the struggling savage into day.
At night returning, every labour sped,
He sits him down the monarch of a shed;
Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys
His childrens' looks, that brighten at the blaze;
While his lov'd partner, boastful of her hoard,
Displays her cleanly platter on the board:
And haply too some pilgrim, thither led,
With many a tale repays the nightly bed.

Thus every good his native wilds impart, Imprints the patriot passion on his heart; And e'en those ills, that round his mansion rise, Enhance the bliss his scanty fund supplies. Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms, And dear that hill which lifts him to the storms; And as a child, when scaring sounds molest, Clings close and closer to the mother's breast, So the loud torrent, and the whirlwind's roar, But bind him to his native mountains more.

Such are the charms to barren states assign'd; Their wants but few, their wishes all confin'd. Yet let them only share the praises due, If few their wants, their pleasures are but few;9

• 'Drive the reluctant savage into the toils.'

Cit. of the World, i. 112. 9 See Citizen of the World, i. lett. xi. where this position

is enlarged on.