And fitted all its motions to control?
Or are they sisters, tuned at once above,
And shake like unisons if either move?
For, when the numbers sing an eager fight,
I've heard a soldier's voice express delight,
I've seen his eyes with crowding spirits shine,
And round his hilt his hand unthinking twine.
When from the shore the fickle Trojan flies,
And in sweet measures poor Eliza dies,
I've seen the book forsake the virgin's hand,
And in her eyes the tears but hardly stand.
I've known her blush at soft Corinna's name,
And in red characters confess a flame :
Or wish success had more adorn'd his arms,
Who gave the world for Cleopatra's charms.
FAR in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a rev'rend Hermit grew;
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well;
Remote from men, with God he pass'd the days;
Pray'r all his business, all his pleasure, praise.
Réduit l'âme charmée à son obéissance?
Ah plutôt, si j'en crois ses grâces, sa douceur,
C'est un frère d'accord chantant avec sa sœur.
Voyez-vous, au récit d'une illustre victoire,
Tressaillir ce guerrier; il s'anime, la gloire
Fait pétiller son œil et palpiter son sein,
Et déjà sur son glaive il a porté la main.
Qu'en vers doux et plaintifs Didon abandonnée,
Monte au bûcher fatal en accusant Enée,
La lectrice s'émeut, souffre de ses douleurs,
Gémit, laisse échapper le volume et ses pleurs.
Qu'Ovide, en vers galans, chante son héroïne,
La vierge qui les lit soupire avec Corinne,
Rêve d'amour comme elle, et d'un tendre reflet
Sa pudique rougeur colore le feuillet;
Ou, suivant de ses vœux Cléopatre sur l'onde,
Pour elle, comme Antoine, aurait perdu le monde.
au fond d'un désert, loin des regards du monde, Un Hermite vivait dans une paix profonde, Séparé des humains, de son Dieu rapproché, Habitant sous le roc, sur la mousse couché, Et, mangeant des fruits secs, ou buvant une eau pure, Il priait, bénissait l'auteur de la nature.
A life so sacred, such serene repose,
Seem'd heav'n itself, till one suggestion rose,
That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey:
This sprung some doubt of Providence's sway :
His hopes no more a certain prospect boast,
And all the tenour of his soul is lost :
So when a smooth expanse receives imprest
Calm nature's image on its wat'ry breast,
Down bend the banks, the trees depending grow,
And skies beneath with answ'ring colours glow;
But if a stone the gentle sea divide,
Swift ruffling circles curl on ev'ry side,
And glimmering fragments of a broken sun,
Banks, trees, and skies, in thick disorder run.
To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight,
To find if books or swains report it right;
(For yet by swains alone the world he knew,
Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew)
He quits his cell: the pilgrim-staff he bore,
And fix'd the scallop in his hat before :
Then with the sun a rising journey went,
Sedate to think and watching each event.
The morn was wasted in the pathless grass,
And long and lonesome was the wild to pass;
But when the southern sun had warm'd the day,
A youth came posting o'er a crossing way;
His raiment decent, his complexion fair, :
Dix lustres l'avaient vu jouir de ce bonheur,
Quand un penser fatal en troubla la douceur :
Le triomphe du crime opprimant l'innocence
Soulève sa raison contre la Providence.
Il le repousse en vain, ce doute le poursuit,
Son espérance meurt, et son repos s'enfuit.
Tel d'un lac argenté l'onde tranquille et pure
Réfléchit des objets l'immobile peinture;
Les arbres répétés paraissent suspendus,
Et par de nouveaux cieux les cieux sont répondus.
Mais, s'il tombe une pierre, à l'instant tout s'efface,
Mille cercles des eaux agitent la surface,
Le soleil fracassé se disperse, les cieux,
Les arbres, tout se brise et s'écroule à nos yeux.
Mais, pour juger le monde, il faudrait le connaître:
Les livres, sur ce point, en imposent peut-être?
Faut-il croire aux récits de tous ceux qu'en ces lieux
Amène le hazard? L'hermite curieux
Quitte enfin sa cellule, en pélerin s'habille,
Et prenant un bourdon orné d'une coquille,
Part, au lever du jour, fier du sage projet
De voir tout, de juger la cause par l'effet.
Long-tems, seul, dans les bois voyagea notre hermite.
Mais, lorsque du désert il quittait la limite,
Une jeune pélerin vint s'offrir à ses yeux.
Sa mise était décente, et son air gracieux.
Il approche humblement ; « Bonjour, dit-il, mon père,
And soft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair.
Then near approaching; Father hail! he cry'd;
And hail, my son, the rev'rend sire reply'd :
Words follow'd words, from question answer flow'd,
And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road:
Till each with other pleas'd, and loth to part,
While in their age they differ, join in heart;
Thus stands an aged elm in ivy bound,
Thus youthful ivy clasps an elm around.
Now sunk the sun; the closing hour of day
Came onward, mantled o'er with sober gray;
Nature in silence bid the world repose,
When near the road a stately palace rose ;
There by the moon thro' ranks of trees they pass,
Whose verdure crown'd their sloping sides of grass.
It chanc'd the noble master of the dome
Still made his house the wand'ring stranger's home:
Yet still the kindness from a thirst of praise,
Prov'd the vain flourish of expensive ease.
The pair arrive; the liv'ry'd servants wait;
Their lord receives them at the pompous gate.
The table groans with costly piles of food
And all is more than hospitably good.
Then led to rest, the day's long toil they drown,
Deep sunk in sleep, and silk, and heaps of down.
At length 'tis morn, and at the dawn of day
Along the wide canals the zephyrs play:
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