Juft as he, credulous, his endless cares
Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love,
Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Thro' forefts huge, and long untravel'd heaths 1061
With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempeft wrapt; or fhrinks aghaft,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and strives to reach 1065
The farther shore; where fuccourless, and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores ;
But strives in vain: borne by th' outrageous flood
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,
Or whelm❜d beneath the boiling eddy finks.
THESE are the charming agonies of love, Whofe mifery delights. But thro' the heart Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse, 'Tis then delightful mifery no more, But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall, Corroding every thought, and blafting all Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then, Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy, Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace, Shine out your laft! the yellow-tinging plague 1c80 Internal vifion taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps.
Ah then! inftead of love-enlivened cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes
With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed,
Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire;
A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,
Where the whole poifon'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondness, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and refolution frail,
Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours,
Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought,
Her first endearments twining round the foul,
With all the witchcraft of enfnaring love.
Straight the fierce ftorm involves his mind anew, Ico
Flames thro' the nerves, and boils along the veins;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For even the fad affurance of his fears
Were eafe to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom love deludes into his thorny wilds, 1105
Thro' flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fevered rapture, or of cruel care;
His brightest flames extinguish'd all, and all
His brightest moments running down to waste.
Bur happy they! the happieft of their kind! 1110
Whom gentler ftars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Áttuning all their passions into love;
Where friendship full-exerts her fofteft power,
Perfect esteem enlivened by defire
Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence: for nought but love 1121
Can answer love, and render blifs fecure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To bless himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days:
Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love
Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel;
Let eastern tyrants, from the light of Heaven
Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a meer, lifelefs, violated form:
While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal transport, free as Nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonfenfe all!
Who in each other clasp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, should they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love, 1140
The richest bounty of indulgent HEAVEN.
Meantime a fmiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to fhoot,
Το pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.
Oh speak the joy! ye, whom the fudden tear
Surprizes often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but fights of bliss,
All various Nature preffing on the heart:
An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving HEAVEN.
Thefe are the matchless joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceafelefs round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting SPRING 1165
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads :
Till evening comes at laft, ferene and mild;
When after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in focial sleep;
Together freed, their gentle fpirits fly
To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.
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