Retain the sound: the broad responsive low, Ye valleys, raise; for the GREAT SHEPHERD reigns; And his unsuffering kingdom yet will come. Ye woodlands all, awake: a boundless song Burst from the groves! and when the restless day, Expiring, lays the warbling world asleep, Sweetest of birds! sweet Philomela, charm The listening shades, and teach the night His praise. Or if you rather choose the rural shade, Be my tongue mute, may fancy paint no more, Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on th' Atlantic isles; 'tis naught to me: Since GOD is ever present, ever felt, In the void waste as in the city full; And where HE vital breathes there must be joy. Myself in Him, in Light ineffable! Come then, expressive Silence muse HIS praise. INDOLENCE. "It was not by vile loitering in ease In all supreme! complete in every part! It was not thence majestic Rome arose, And o'er the nations shook her conquering dart: For sluggard's brow the laurel never grows; Renown is not the child of indolent repose. "Had unambitious mortals minded nought, With brother-brutes the human race had graz'd; None e'er had soar'd to fame, none honor'd been, none prais'd. ALLAN RAMSAY. 1686-1758. ALLAN RAMSAY was born in the village of Leadhills, Lanarkshire, where his father held the situation of manager of Lord Hopeton's mines. At fifteen he was put apprentice to a wig-maker in Edinburgh. In 1712 he married and commenced the more congenial. business of book-selling. In 1725 appeared his pastoral drama of the Gentle Shepherd. It was received with universal approbation, and was republished both in London and Dublin. It is by far the best of Ramsay's works, and perhaps the finest pastoral drama in the world. It is a genuine picture of Scottish life, but of life passed in simple, rural employments, apart from the guilt and fever of large towns, and reflecting only the pure and unsophisticated emotions of our nature. |