The promis'd sweetness. Man fuperior walks
Amid the glad creation, mufing praise,
And looking lively gratitude. At laft,

The clouds confign their treasures to the fields;
And, foftly fhaking on the dimpled pool
Prelufive drops, let all their moisture flow,
In large effufion, o'er the freshened world.
The stealing shower is fcarce to patter heard,
By fuch as wander thro' the forreft walks,
Beneath the umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the fhade, while heaven defcends
In univerfal bounty, fhedding herbs,

And fruits, and flowers, on nature's ample lap?
Swift fancy fir'd anticipates their growth;
And while the mighty nutriment diftills,
Beholds the kindling country colour round.

Thus all day long the full diftended clouds Indulge their genial ftores, and well-shower'd earth Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life;

Till, in the western sky, the downward fun
Looks out, effulgent, from amid the flush
Of broken clouds, gay-fhifting to his beam.
The rapid radience inftantaneous ftrikes
Th'illumin'd mountain, thro' the foreft ftreams,
Shakes on the floods, and in a yellow mist,
Far fmoaking o'er th' interminable plain,
In twinkling myriads lights the dewy gems.

Moift, bright, and green, the landskip laughs around.
Full fwell the woods; their every mufic wakes,
Mix'd in wild concert with the warbling brooks
Increas'd, the diftant bleatings of the hills,
And hollow lows refponfive from the vales,
Whence blending all the fweetened zephyr springs.
Mean time refracted from yon eastern cloud,
Beftriding earth, the grand ethereal bow
Shoots up immense; and every hue unfolds,
In fair proportion running from the red,
To where the violet fades into the sky.
Here, awful NEWTON, the diffolving clouds
Form, fronting on the fun, the fhowry prifm;
And to the fage-inftructed eye unfold
The various twine of light, by thee disclos'd

From the white mingling maze. Not fo the boy;
He wondering views the bright enchantment bend,
Delightful, o'er the radient fields, and runs
To catch the falling glory; but amaz'd
Beholds th' amufive arch before him fly,
Then vanquish quite away. Still night fucceeds,
A foftened fhade, and faturated earth
Awaits the morning beam, to give to light,
Rais'd thro' ten thousand different plaftic tubes,
The balmy treasures of the former day.

That part where he prefers the vegetable to the animal food, and inveighs against the cruelty of destroying thofe creatures, that are not only inoffenfive, but ferviceable to us, is pathetic and fublime.

Shall Man, whom nature form'd of milder clay,
With every kind emotion in his heart,
And taught alone to weep; while from her lap
She pours ten thousand delicacies, herbs,
And fruits, as numerous as the drops of rain,
Or beams that gave them birth: fhall he fair form!
Who wears sweet fmiles, and looks erect on heaven,
E'er ftoop to mingle with the prowling herd
And dip his tongue in gore? The beast of prey,
Blood-ftain'd deferves to bleed: but you, ye flocks,
What have you done; ye peaceful people, what,
To merit death? You, who have given us milk
In luscious ftreams, and lent us your own coat
Against the winter's cold? And the plain Ox ;
That harmless, honeft, guilelefs animal,
In what has he offended? He, whose toil,
Patient and ever ready, clothes the land
With all the pomp of harveft; fhall he bleed,
And ftruggling groan beneath the cruel hands
Even of the clown he feeds?

The description of the garden, and the apoftrophe to the Supreme being on that occafion, are both pious and poetical; as alfo is. the defcription of the feathered fongfters, and their Loves; but thefe and other parts, equally beautiful, are too long to be here inferted. The author con

cludes his poem on Spring with an Eulogium on a happy marriage state.

As the Summer feason is more uniform than the Spring, and does not admit of equal variety, the poet, after defcribing the motion of those heavenly bodies which occafion the fucceffion of feafons, introduces the defcription of a Summer's day, and speaks particularly of the dawn, funrifing, and the forenoon; where he confiders the Summer infects, and gives us a scene of hay-making, and theepfhearing, which are natural and poetical. He then defcribes the noon-day, a wood-land retreat, a groupe of flocks and herds, a folemn grove, and the effect it has on a contemplative mind. He next prefents us with a cataract, and a landscape, rude and romantic; whence we are led into the To rid Zone, to view a Summer there. He then defcribes a ftorm of thunder and light'ning, which is fufficiently terrible, but is made more fo by a pathetic tale of two lovers loft in the tempeft. This ftorm is fucceeded by a ferene afternoon, in which are described the pastime of bathing and walking. After this, we are prefented with the profpect of a well cultivated country, which paves the way for a panegyric on Great Britain, that immediately follows. We are then entertained with defcriptions of the fun fetting, of the evening, night, fummer meteors, and of a comet; and the Poem concludes in praise of natural philofophy.

His defcription of the morning, of the fun rifing, and the hymn on that occafion, are too beautiful to be omitted.

WHEN now no more th' alternate Tavins are fix'd,

And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east:
Till far o'er ether spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,

White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step,
Brown night retires: young day pours in a-pace,
And opens all th' lawny profpect wide.

The dripping rock, the mountain's mifty top
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue thro' the dusk, the fmoaking currents shine;

And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward: while along the foreft glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic awakes

The native voice of undiffembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arise.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad fhepherd leaves
His moffy cottage, where with Peace he dwells;
And from the crowded fold, in order, drives
His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.

FALSELY luxurious, will not Man awake;
And, fpringing from the bed of floth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent hour,
To mediation due and facred fong?

For is there aught in fleep can charm the wife?
To lie in dead oblivion, loofing half
The fleeting moments of too fhort a life?
Total extinction of th' enlightned foul!
Or else to feverish vanity alive,

Wildered, and toffing thro' diftemper'd dreams?
Who would in fuch a gloomy ftate remain,
Longer than nature craves; where every mufe
And every blooming pleasure wait without,
To bless the wildly-devious morning-walk?

But yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The leffening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo! now apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;

And sheds the shining day, that burnish'd plays

On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams,

High gleaming from a-far. Prime chearer light!

Of all material beings first, and best!

Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe !
Without whofe vefting beauty all were wrapt
In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Sun!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee?

'Tis by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy fyftem rolls entire: from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whofe disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.

Informer of the planetary train !

Without whofe quick'ning glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mafs, inert and dead,
And not as now the green abodes of life;
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling fpirit; from th' unfettered mind,
By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam.

The vegetable world is alfo thine,
Parent of feafons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as thro' thy vast domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing ftate, it moves fublime.
Mean-time th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up

A common hymn: while, round the beaming ear,
High-feen, the feafons lead, in sprightly dance.
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd hours.
The zephyrs floating loofe, the timely rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed dews,
And softened into joy the furly ftorms.
Thefe, infucceffive turn, with lavish hand,
Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower,

Herbs, flowers, and fruits; 'till, kindling at thy touch, From land to land is flush'd the vernal year.

Nor to the surface of enliven’d earth,

Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods,
Her liberal treffes, is thy force confin'd:
But, to the bowel'd cavern darting deep,
The mineral kinds confefs thy mighty power.
Effulgent, hence the veiny marble fhines;

Hence labour draws his tools; hence burnifh'd war