AND yet was every faultering tongue of Man, 185 ALMIGHTY FATHER! filent in thy praise;

Thy Works themselves would raise a general voice,
Even in the depth of folitary, woods

By human foot untrod; proclaim thy power,
And to the quire celeftial THEE refound,

Th' eternal cause, fupport, and end of all!

To me be Nature's volume broad-difplay'd;
And to perufe its all-inftructing page,
Or, haply catching infpiration thence,
Some eafy paffage, raptur'd, to translate,
My fole delight; as thro' the falling glooms
Penfive I fray, or with the rifing dawn
On Fancy's eagle-wing excurfive foar.

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Now, flaming up the heavens, the potent fun Melts into limpid air the high-rais'd clouds, And morning fogs, that hovered round the hills. In party-colour'd bands; till wide unveil'd The face of Nature fhines, from where earth feems, Far-ftretch'd around, to meet the bending sphere.

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* HALF in a blush of clustering roses loft, Dew-dropping Coolness to the fhade retires; There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed, By gelid founts and careless rills to muse; While tyrant Heat, difpreading thro' the sky, With rapid fway, his burning influence darts On Man, and beaft, and herb, and tepid ftream.

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WHO

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WHO can unpitying fee the flowery race, Shed by the morn, their new-flush'd bloom refign, Before the parching beam? So fade the fair, When fevers revel thro' their azure veins. But one, the lofty follower of the fun, Sad when he fets, fhuts up her yellow leaves, Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns, Points her enamour'd bofom to his ray.

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HOME, from his morning task, the swain retreats ; His flock before him stepping to the fold: While the full-udder'd mother lows around The chearful cottage, then expecting food, The food of innocence, and health! The daw, The rook and magpie, to the grey-grown oaks 225 That the calm village in their verdant arms, Sheltering, embrace, direct their lazy flight; Where on the mingling boughs they fit embower'd, All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise.

Faint, underneath, the houshold fowls convene; 230 And, in a corner of the buzzing shade,

The house-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies,
Out-ftretch'd, and sleepy. In his flumbers one
Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults

O'er hill and dale; till, wakened by the wafp, 235
They starting fnap. Nor fhall the Mufe difdain
To let the little noisy summer-race

Live in her lay, and flutter thro' her fong:
Not mean tho' fimple; to the fun ally'd,'
From him they draw their animating fire.

D 4

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WAK'D

WAK'D by his warmer ray, the reptile young Come wing'd abroad; by the light air upborn, Lighter, and full of foul. From every chink, And fecret corner, where they slept away

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The wintry storms; or rifing from their tombs, 245
To higher life; by myriads, forth at once,
Swarming they pour; of all the vary'd hues
Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose.
Ten thoufand forms! ten thousand different tribes!
People the blaze. To funny waters some
By fatal inftinct fly; where on the pool
They, sportive, wheel; or, failing down the stream,
Are fnatch'd immediate by the quick-ey'd trout,
Or darting falmon. Thro' the green-wood glade
Some love to ftray; there lodg'd, amus'd and fed, 255
In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make
The meads their choice, and visit every flower,
And every latent herb: for the sweet task,
To propagate their kinds, and where to wrap,
In what foft beds, their young yet undisclos'd, 260
Employs their tender care. Some to the house,
The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight;
Sip round the pail, or tafte the curdling cheese :
Oft, inadvertent, from the milky ftream
They meet their fate; or, weltering in the bowl, 265
With powerlefs wings around them wrapt, expire.

BUT chief to heedlefs flies the window proves

1

A conftant death; where, gloomily retir'd,

The

The villain spider lives, cunning, and fierce,
Mixture abhor'd! Amid a mangled heap

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Of carcaffes, in eager watch he fits,
O'erlooking all his waving fnares around.
Near the dire cell the dreadlefs wanderer oft
Paffes, as oft the ruffian fhows his front;
The prey at last ensnar'd, he dreadful darts,
With rapid glide, along the leaning line;
And, fixing in the wretch his cruel fangs,
Strikes backward grimly pleas'd: the fluttering wing,
And fhriller found declare extreme distress,
And ask the helping hofpitable hand..

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RESOUNDS the living furface of the ground: Nor undelightful is the ceaseless hum, To him who mufes thro' the woods at noon; Or drowsy fhepherd, as he lies reclin'd, With half-fhut eyes, beneath the floating shade 285, Of willows grey, clofe-crouding o'er the brook.

Gradual, from these what numerous kinds descend, Evading even the microscopic eye!

Full Nature fwarms with life; one wondrous mafs Of animals, or atoms organiz'd,

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Waiting the vital Breath, when PARENT-HEAVEN.
Shall bid his spirit blow. The hoary fen,
In putrid fteams, emits the living cloud.
Of peftilence. Thro' fubterranean cells,

Where searching fun-beams fcarce can find a way, 295

Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf
Wants not its foft inhabitants. Secure,
Within its winding citadel, the stone

Holds multitudes. But chief the foreft-boughs,
That dance unnumber'd to the playful breeze, 300
The downy orchard, and the melting pulp
Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed
Of evanefcent infects. Where the pool
Stands mantled o'er with green, invifible,
Amid the floating verdure millions stray.
Each liquid too, whether it pierces, fooths,
Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the tafte,

With various forms abounds. Nor is the ftream
Of pureft cryftal, nor the lucid air,

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Tho' one tranfparent vacancy it seems,
Void of their unfeen people. These, conceal'd
By the kind art of forming HEAVEN, escape
The groffer eye of Man: for, if the worlds
In worlds inclos'd should on his senses burst,
From cates ambrofial, and the nectar'd bowl, 315
He would abhorrent turn; and in dead night,
When filence fleeps o'er all, be stunn'd with noise.

LET no prefuming impious railer tax
CREATIVE WISDOM, as if aught was form'd
In vain, or not for admirable ends.

Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwife, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vifion of her mind?

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As