The breezy covert of the warbling grove, 19 That only shelter'd thefts of harmless love. Good heaven! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day, That call'd them from their native walks away; When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, 20 Hung round the bowers, and fondly look'd their last, And took a long farewell, and wish'd in vain 19 That only] - Thy shady groves Only relieve the heats, and cover loves, v. Nicholls' Poems, ii. 80. 'Often in amorous thefts of lawless love!' v. Nicholls' Poems, ii. 278. 20 Compare Quinctiliani Declam. xiii. p. 272. Quod cives pascebat, nunc divitis unius hortus est. Æquatæ solo villæ, et excisa patria sacra, et cum conjugibus, parvisque liberis, respectantes patrium larem migraverunt veteres coloni,' &c. 21 good old sire] The good old sire!' v. Dryden's Ovid, vol. iii. p. 302. And The good old sire unconscious of decay! The modest matron clad in homespun gray.' v. Threnod. August. E His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears, O, luxury! thou curst by heaven's decree, How ill exchang'd are things like these for thee! How do thy potions with insidious joy Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy! Kingdoms by thee, to sickly greatness grown, Boast of a florid vigour not their own. At every draught more large and large they grow, A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe; Till sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound, Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round. Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done; Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand, I see the rural virtues leave the land. Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail That idly waiting flaps with every gale, Downward they move, a melancholy band, Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand. Contented toil, and hospitable care, And kind connubial tenderness are there; And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, |