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W.Kentin.d del.

AUTUMN.

P.Fourdrinier Sculp

AUTUMN.

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ROWN'D with the fickle, and the wheaten fheaf, While AUTUMN, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more, Well-pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the wintry frost Nitrous prepar'd; the various bloffom'd Spring Put in white promise forth; and Summer funs Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme.

ONSLOW! the Mufe, ambitious of thy name,
To grace, inspire, and dignify her fong,
Would from the Public Voice thy gentle ear
A while engage. Thy noble cares she knows,
The patriot-virtues that diftend thy thought,

Spread on thy front, and in thy bofom glow;
While listening fenates hang upon thy tongue,
Devolving thro' the maze of eloquence
A rowl of periods, fweeter than her fong.
But fhe too pants for public virtue, fhe,
Tho' weak of power yet strong in ardent will,

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Whene'er

Whene'er her country rufhes on her heart,
Affumes a bolder note, and fondly tries
To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame.

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WHEN the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, And Libra weighs in equal scales the year; From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence fhook Of parting Summer, a ferener blue,

With golden light enlivened wide invests

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The happy world. Attemper'd funs arife,
Sweet-beam'd, and fhedding oft thro' lucid clouds
A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown, below 30
Extenfive harvefts hang the heavy head.

Rich, filent, deep, they ftand; for not a gale
Rolls its light billows o'er the bending plain:
A calm of plenty! till the ruffled air

Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow. 35
Rent is the fleecy mantle of the sky;

The clouds fly different; and the fudden fun
By fits effulgent gilds th' illumin'd field,
And black by fits the fhadows fweep along.
A gayly-checker'd heart-expanding view,
Far as the circling eye can fhoot around,
Unbounded toffing in a flood of corn.

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THESE are thy bleffings, INDUSTRY! rough power! Whom labour fill attends, and fweat, and pain; Yet the kind fource of every gentle art, And all the foft civility of life;

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Raifer

Raiser of human kind! by Nature cast,
Naked, and helplefs, out amid the woods.
And wilds, to rude inclement elements;
With various feeds of art deep in the mind
Implanted, and profufely pour'd around
Materials infinite; but idle all.

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Still unexerted, in th' unconfcious breast,
Slept the lethargic powers; corruption flill,
Voracious, swallowed what the liberal hand
Of bounty scatter'd o'er the favage year:
And still the fad barbarian, roving, mix'd
With beafts of prey; or for his acorn-meal
Fought the fierce tufky boar; a fhivering wretch!
Aghaft, and comfortless, when the bleak north, 60
With Winter charg'd, let the mix'd tempeft fly,
Hail, rain, and fnow, and bitter-breathing froft:
Then to the fhelter of the hut he fled;
And the wild feason, fordid, pin'd away.

For home he had not; home is the refort
Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where,

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Supporting and supported, polish'd friends,
And dear relations mingle into bliss.
But this the rugged favage never felt,
Even defolate in crouds; and thus his days
Roll'd heavy, dark, and unenjoy'd along :
A waste of time! till INDUSTRY approach'd,
And rous'd him from his miferable floth:
His faculties unfolded; pointed out,
Where lavish Nature the directing hand

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Of

Of Art demanded; fhew'd him how to raise
His feeble force by the mechanic powers,
To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth,
On what to turn the piercing rage of fire,
On what the torrent, and the gather'd blast;
Gave the tall ancient forest to his ax;

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Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the ftone,
Till by degrees the finish'd fabric rose;
Tore from his limbs the blood-polluted fur,

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And wrapt them in the woolly vestment warm,
Or bright in glofly filk, and flowing lawn ;
With wholesome viands fill'd his table, pour'd
The generous glafs around, infpir'd to wake
The life-refining foul of decent wit :
Nor stopp'd at barren bare neceffity;

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But ftill advancing bolder, led him on,

To pomp, to pleasure, elegance and grace;

And, breathing high ambition thro' his foul,
Set fcience, wisdom, glory, in his view,

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And bad him be the Lord of all below.

THEN gathering Men their natural powers com-
bin'd,

And form'd a Public; to the general good
Submitting, aiming, and conducting all.
For this the Patriot-Council met, the full,
The free, and fairly represented Whole;
For this they plann'd the holy guardian laws,
Diftinguifh'd orders, animated arts,

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And

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