Express'd the secret triumph of his soul, With conscious virtue, gratitnde and love, Above the vulgar joy divinely rais'd. Nor wailed be reply. Won by the charm Of goodness irresistible, and all In sweet disorder lost-she blush'd consent. The news immediate to her mother brought, While pierc'd with anxious thought, she pin’d away The lonely moments for Livinja's fate : Amaz’d and scarce believing what she heard, Joy seized her wither'd veins, and one bright gleam Of setting life shone on her evening hours: Not less enraptur'd than the happy pair, Who flourish'd long in tender bliss, and rear'd A numerous offspring lovely like themselves, And good, the grace of all the country round,
V. Celadon and Sinelia.-)R.
And his Amelia were a matchless pair, With equal virtue form’d, and equal grace, The same, distinguish'd by their sex alone. Hers, the mild lustre of the blooming morn, And his, the radiance of the risen day.
They lov’d. But such their guiltless passion was, As, in the dawn of time, informa'd the heart Or innocence and undissembling truth. 'Twas friendship heightened by the mutual wish, Th'enchanting hope and sympathetic glow Beam'd from the mutual eye. Deroting all To love, each was to each a dearer self; Supremely happy ia th' awaken'd power Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades, Still, in harmonious intercourse, they liv'd The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart; Or sigh'd and look'd-unutterable things.
So pass'd their life, a clear united stream, By care unruffled, till, in evil hour, The tempest caught them on the tender walk, Heedless how far and where its mazes stray'd ; While, with each other bless’d, creative love Still bade eternal Eden smile around. Presaging instant fate, her bosom heav'd Unwonted sighs ; and stealing ost a look Tow'rds the big gloom, on Celadon her eye
Fell tearful, wetting ber disorder'd cheek. - In vain assuring love and confidence In heaven repress'd her fear; it grew, and shook Her frame near dissolution. He perceiv'd
Th’ unequal conflict; and, as angels look On dying saints, his eyes compassion shed, With love illumin'd high. "Fear not," he said, Sweet innocence! thou stranger to offence And inward storm! He who yon skies involves In frowns of dark uiess, ever smiles on thee, With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft, That wastes at midnight, or th? undreaded hour Of noon, flies harınless; and that very voice Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, With tongues of seraphs whispers peace to thine. 'Tis safety to be near thee, sure, and thus To clasp perfection!" From liis roid embrace, (Mysterious Heavens!) that moment to the ground, A blacken'd corse was strack the beauteous maid. But who can paint the lover as he stood, Pierc'd by severe amazement, bating life, Speechless, and fix'd in all the death of woe. VII.Description of Mab, Queen of the Fairies.
SHAKESPEARE. THE is the fancy's midwife ; and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone, On the fore finger of an Alderman; Drawn by a team of little atomies, Athwart men'e noses as they lie asleep; Her wagon spokes; made of long spinner's legs : The cover of the wings of graseborpers ; T'he traces, of the smallest spider's web; The collar, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams; Her wbip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film; Her wagoner, a small grey coated gnat; Her chariot is an empty hazle put, Made by the joiner Squirrel, or old Grub, Time out of mind, the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops, night by night, Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love ; O’er lawyers' fingers, wiio straight dream of fers; O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream; And sometimes comes she with the title pig's tail, Tickling the parson as he lies asleep, Then dreams be of another benefice. Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck'; And then he dreams of cutting soreign hroats, of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades ; or healthe five fathons deep; and then, anon, Drums in his ears; at which he starts and wakes : And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again.
VIII.-- On the Existence of a Deity.—YOUNG. Remerinationes vairs wing repress.
ETIRE-The world shut out-thy thoughts call homem Lock up thy senses. Let no passion stir. Wake all to reason. Let her reigo alone. Then, in thy soul's deep silence, and the depth Of nature's silence, midnight, thus inquire. What am I? and from whence? I nothing know But that I am; and since I am, conclude Something eternal. Had there e'er been nought, Nought still had been. Eternal there must be. But, what eternal? Why not human race, And Adam's ancestors, without an end ? That's hard to be conceiv'd, since every link of thai long chain'd euccession is go frail ; Can every part depend, and not the whole? Yet, grant it true, new difficulties rise : I'm still quite out at sea, nor see the shore. Whence earth and these bright orbs ? Eternal too! Grant matter was eternal; still these orbs Would want some other father. Much design Is seen in all their motione, all their makes. Design implies intelligence and art, That can't be from themselves or man; that art Man scarce can comprehend, could man bestow : And nothing greater yet allow'd than man. Who, motion, foreign to the smallest grain, Shot through vast masses of evo:monis weight Who bid brute matter's restire lump Essume Such various forms, and gave it wings to dy ? Has matter innate motion ? Then each atom, Asserting its indisputable right To dance, would form ad universe of dust. Has matter none? Then whence these glorious fornis And boundless flights, from shapeless and repos'd ? Has matter more than motion? Has it thought, Judgment and genius? Is it deeply learn'd In mathematics? Has it fram'd such laws, Which, but to guess, a Newton made immortal: If art to form, and council to conduct, And that with greater far than human skill, Resides not in each block-a GODHEAD reigns- And if a God there isbat God how great!
IX.- Evening in Paradise described. Adam and Eve's
Conversation and Evening Worship.-MILTON. TOW came still erening on, and (wilight gray
U
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird, They to their grassy couch, these to their nest, Were sunk all but the wakeful nightingale ; She all night long her amorous descant sing : Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led The starry host, rode brightest; till the moon, Rising in clouded majesty, at length, Apparent queen, unveil'd her peerless light, And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.
Wben Adam thus to Eve. Fair consort, th' hour Of night, and all things now retir'd to rest, Mind us of like repose; since God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men, Successive ; and the timely dew of sleep Now falling, with soft slumbrous weight inclines, Our eyelids. Other creatures all day long Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest: Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed, which declares his dignity, And the regard of Heaven on all his ways: While other animals inactive range, And of their doing God takes no account. To-morrow, ere fresh morning streak the east With first approach of light, we must be risen, And at our pleasant labor, to reform Yon flow'ry arbors, yonder allies green, Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown, That mock our scant manuring, and require More hand, than our; to lop their wanton growth ; Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums, That lie bestrown, upsightly and unsmooth, Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease; Meanwhile, as nature wills, night bids us rest.
To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorn'd: My author and disposer! what thou bidd'st Unargu'd I obey; so God ordains: God is thy law, thou mine, to know no more Is women's happiest knowledge, and her praise. With thee conversing, I forget all time, All seasons and their change : all please alike. Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds : pleasant the sun, When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flower, Gliet’ning with dew; fragrant the fertile earth After soft showers; and sweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild ; then silerit night, With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon, And these the gems of Heagen, ber starry train; But neither breath of worn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising son, On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, Power, Glist’ning with dew ; nor fragrance after showers'; Nor grateful evening mild ; nor silent night, With this ber solemn bird ; nor walk by noon, Or glittering starlight, without thee, is sweet.
Thus, at their shady lodge arriv'd, both stood, Both turn'd; and under open sky ador'd The God that made both sky, air, earth, and Heaven, Which they beheld ; the moda's resplendent globe, And starry pole': Thou also mad'st the night, Maker omnipotent, and thou the day, Which we, in our appointed work employed, Have finish'd ; hoppy in our mutual belp, And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss, Ordain?d by thee; and this delicious place, For us too large ; where thy abundance wants Partakers, and uncropt, fans to the ground: But thou hast promis'd from us two, a race To fill the earth, who shall with us extol Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake, And when we seek, as now, the gift of sleep.
X.—Elegy written in a Country Churchyard. --GRAT MHE curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds; Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. Save that from yonder ivy mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign. Beneath these rugged elms, that yew-trees shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his Darrow cell forever laid, The rude forefatbers of the hamlet sleep. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow, twittring irom the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion or the echoing horn, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. ' For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care; No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb hie knees, the envied kiss to share,
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