X.

*. Behold the merry minstrels of the Morn, • The swarming fongsters of the careless grove, “ Ten thousand throats, that, from the flowering thorn, “ Hymn their good God, and carol sweet of love, “ Such grateful kindly raptures them emove : “ They neither plough nor sow ; ne, fit for flail, 6. E'er to the barn the nodded sheaves they drove, " Yet theirs each harvest dancing in the gale, «. Whatever crowns the hill, or smiles along the vale..

XI.

« Outcast of Nature, Man! the wretched thrall

Of bitter dropping sweat, of sweltry pain, 6. Of cares that eat away thy heart with gall, 56 And of the vices an inhuman train, " That all proceed from savage thirst of gain ; 66. For when hard-hearted Interest first began “ To poison earth, Aftræa left the plain ; " Guile, Violence, and Murder, seiz'd on man,

And, for soft milky streams, with blood the rivers ran..

XII..

66. Come, ye ! who still the cumb'rous load of life

Push hard up hill, but as the farthest steep 16. You trust to gain, and put an end to strife, 66 Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweeps. 66 And hurls your labours to the valley deep,

66 For

A.3

Gel For ever vain; come, and, withouten fee,
66 I in oblivion will your forrows steep,
46 Your cares, your toils; will steep you

in a sea « Of full delight : O come, ye weary Wights ! to me,

XIII.

.

46 With me you need not rise at early dawn, 66 To pass the joyless day in various stounds ; 5. Or, louting low, on upstart fortune fawn, 65 And fell fair honour for some paltry pounds: " Or thro' the city take your dirty rounds, 66 To cheat, and dun, and lye, and visit pay, “ Now flattering base, now giving secret wounds.; 66. Or prowl in courts of law for human prey, 65 In venal senate thieve, or rob on broad highway.

XV.

" Here nought but Candour reigns, indulgent Ease, si Good-natur'd Lounging, fauntering up and down ; " They who are pleas'd themselves must always please ; 66 On others' ways they never squint a frown, 66 Nor heed what haps in hamlet or in town : 66 Thus, from the source of tender Indolence, 66 With milky blood the heart is overflown, “ Is footh'd and sweeten'd by the social sense ; « Fair intereft, envy, pride, and strife, are banish'd hence

XVI.

" What, what is virtue, but repose of mind, “ A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm, “ Above the reach of wild Ambition's wind, « Above those passions that this world deform. 66 And torture man, a proud malignant worm, 6 But here, instead, soft gales of paflion play, " And gently stir the heart, thereby to form " A quicker sense of joy : as breezes ftray. 4 Across th' enliven’d skies, and make them ftill more

[gay. XVII.

46 The best of men have lov'd repose : “ They hate to mingle in the filthy fray, 6 Where the soul fours, and graduat rancour grows, " Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day. 66. Ey’n those whom Faine has lent her faires ray.

The most renown'd of worthy wights of yore,

From a base world at last have stol'n away : “ So Scipio, to the soft Cumæen shore 66 Retiring, tafted joy he never knew before..

XVIII.

6 But if a little exercife

you

chuse.
« Some zest for ease, 'tis not forbidden here :-
“ Amid the groves you may indulge the Muse,
« Or tend the blooms, and deck the vernal year ::
« Or, softly stealing, with your watry gear,
« Along the brooks, the crimson spotted fry.
'06 You

may
delude ; the whilft, amus’d, you

hear " Now the hoarse stream, and now the zephyr's fighg. 66 Attuned to the birds and woodland melody.

XIX.

have won,

" O grievous folly ! to heap up estate, • Losing the days you see beneath the sun ; " When, sudden, comes blind unrelenting Fate, “ And gives th’untalled portion you 6 With ruthless toil, and many, a wretch undone,.. * To those who mock you gone to Pluto's reign, 66 There with sad ghosts to pine and shadows dim : 66. But sure it is of vanities molt vain, 66. To tell for what you here untoiling may

obtain."

Hea

XX.

He ceas'd : but fill their trembling ears retain'd
The deep vibrations of his witching song,
That, by a kind of magic power, constrain’d
To enter in, pell-mell, the liftening throng.
Heaps pour’d on heaps, and yet they slipt along
In filent ease; as when beneath the beam
Of summer-moons, the distant woods among,
Or by some flood all silver'd with the gleam,
The soft-embodied fays thro' airy portal stream,

XXI.

By the smooth demon so it order'd was,
And here his baneful bounty first began ;
Tho' some there were who would not farther pass,
And his alluring baits suspected han.
The wise distrust the too fair-fpoken man.
Yet thro' the gate they cast a wishful eye :
Not to move on, perdie, is all they can ;
For do their very best they cannot fly,
But often each way look, and often sorely sigh.

XXII.

When this the watchful wicked wizard saw,
With sudden spring he leap'd upon them (trait,
And soon as touch'd by his unhallowed paw,
They found themselves within the cursed gate,
Full hard to be repass’d, like that of Fate.

Not