This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The tortoise, here, and elephant unite,
Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white;
Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billetdoux.
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms,
The fair, each moment, rises in her charms,
Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face.
FAR in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a rev'rend hermit grew.
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruit, his drink the chrystal well:
Remote from man, with God he pass'd the days,
Prayer all his bus'ness, all his pleasure praise.
A life so sacred, such serene repose,
Seem'd heaven itself, till one suggestion rose :
That vice should triumph, virtue vice obey;
Thus sprung some doubt of Providence's sway..
His hopes no more a certain prospect boast,
And all the tenor of his soul is lost.
So, when a smooth expanse receives, imprest
Calm nature's image on its wat'ry breast,
Down bend the banks; the trees depending grow;
And skies beneath with answ'ring colours glow:
But if a stone the gentle sea divide,
Swift ruffling circles curl on ev'ry side:
And glimm'ring fragments of a broken sun,
Banks, trees and skies in thick disorder run.
To clear this doubt; to know the world by sight;
To find if books or swains report it right;
(For yet by swains alone the world he knew,
Whose feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew.)
He quits his cell; the pilgrim's staff he bore,
And fix'd the scallop in his hat before;
Then, with the sun a rising journey went,
Sedate to think, and watching each event.
The morn was wasted in the pathless grass, And long and loathsome was the wild to pass
But when the southern sun had warm'd the day,
A youth came boasting o'er the crossing way;
His raiment decent, his complexion fair,
And soft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair.
Then near approaching, Father, hail! he cry'd;
And hail! my son, the rev'rend sire reply'd :
Words follow'd words; from question answer flow'd;
And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road;
Till, each with other pleas'd, and loth to part,
While in their age they differ, join'd in heart.
Thus stands an aged elm in ivy bound;
Thus youthful ivy clasps an elm around.
Now sunk the sun; the closing hour of day
Came onward, mantl'd o'er with sober gray;
Nature, in silence bid the world repose;
When near the road, a stately palace rose:
There, by the moon, through ranks of trees they pass,
Whose verdure crown'd their sloping sides of grass.
It chanc'd the noble master of the dome
Still made his house the wand'ring stranger's home:
Yet stil, the kindness, from a thirst of praise,
Prov'd the vain flourish of expensive ease.
The pair arrive; the liv'ry'd servants wait,
The lord receives them at the pompous gate;
A table groans with costly piles of food;
And all is more than hospitably good.
Then led to rest the day's long toil they drown,
Deep sunk in sleep, and silk, and heaps of down.
At length 'tis morn; and at the dawn of day,
Along the wide canals the zephyrs play;
Fresh o'er the gay parterres, the breezes creep,
And shake the neighb'ring wood, to banish sleep.
Up rise the guests obedient to the call;
An early banquet deck'd the splendid hall;
Rich luscious wine a golden goblet grac❜d,
Which the kind master forc'd the guests to taste.
Then, pleas'd and thankful from the porch they go ;
And, but the landlord, none had cause of woe;
His cup was vanish'd; for in secrét guise,
The younger guest purloin'd the glitt'ring prize.
As one who sees a serpent in his way,
Glist'aing and basking in the summer ray,
Disorder'd stops, to shun the danger near,
Then walks with faintness on, and looks with fear;
So seem'd the sire, when, far upon the road,
The shining spoil his wily partner show'd.
He stopt with silence, walk'd with trembling heart,
And much he wish'd, but durst not ask to part:
Murm'ring he lifts his eyes, and thinks it hard,
That gen'rous actions meet a base reward.
While thus they pass, the sun his glory shrouds:
The changing skies hang out their sable clouds ;
A sound in air presag'd approaching rain,
And beasts to covert scud across the plain.
Warn'd by the signs, the wand'ring pair retreat,
To seek for shelter in a neighboring seat.
'Twas built with turrets on a rising ground;
And strong and large, and unimproved around;
Its owner's temper, tim'rous and severe,
Unkind and griping, caus'd a desert there.
As near the miser's heavy doors they drew,
Fierce rising gusts with sudden fury blew ;
The nimble lightning, mix'd with showers began,,
And o'er their heads loud rolling thunder ran.
Here long they knock; but knock or call in vain,
Driven by the wind, and batter'd by the rain.
At length, some pity warm'd the master's breast:
('Twas then his threshold first received a guest ;)
Slow creaking turns the door, with jealous care,
And half he welcomes in the shiv'ting pair.
One frugal faggot lights the naked walls,
And nature's fervour through their limbs recalls;
Bread of the coarsest sort, with meagre wine,
(Each hardly granted) serv'd them both to dine; -
And when the tempest first appear'd to cease,
A ready warning bid them part in peace.
With still remark, the pond'ring hiermit view'd,
In one so rich, a life so poor and rude:
And why should such (within himself he cry'd
Lock the lost wealth, a thousand want beside ?
But, what new marks of wonder soon took place,
In every settling feature of his face,
When, from his vest, the young companion bere That cup, the geu‘rous landlord own'd before,
And paid profusely with the precious bowl,
The stinted kindness of his churlish soul!
But, now the clouds in airy tumult fly:
The sun, emerging, opes an azure sky;
A fresher green the smelling leaves display,
And glitt'ring as they tremble, cheer the day:
The weather courts them from the poor retreat ;
And the glad master bolts the wary gate.
While hence they walk, the pilgrim's bosom wrought With all the travail of uncertain thought.
His partner's acts without their cause appear―
'Twas there a vice, and seem'd a madness here.
Detesting that, and pitying this, he goes,
Lost and confounded with the various shows.
Now night's dim shades again involve the sky-
Again the wanderers want a place to lie→
Again they search, and find a lodging nigh-
The soil improv'd around-the mansion neat―
And neither poorly low, nor idly great:
It seem'd to speak its master's turn of mind-
Content, and not for praise, but virtue, kind.
Hither the walkers turn with weary feet;
Then bless the mansion, and the master greet;
Their greeting fair, bestow'd with modest guise,
The courteous master hears, and thus replies.
Without a vain, without a grudging heart,
To him who gives us all, I yield a part:
From him you come, from him accept it here-
A frank and sober, more than costly cheer.
He spoke; and bade the welcome table spread ?
Then talk'd of virtue till the time of bed;
When the grave household round his hall repair,
Warn'd by the bell, and close the hours with prayer.
At length the world renew'd by calm repose,
Was strong for toil; the dappled morn arose ;
Before the pilgrims part, the younger crept
Near the clos'd cradle, where an infant slept,
And writh'd his neck; the landlord's little pride-
O strange return !-grew black, and gasp'd and died.
Horror of horrors! what! his only son!
How look'd our hermit when the deed was done!
Not hell, though hell's black jaws in sunder part,
And breath blue fire, could more assault his heart.
Confus'd and struck with silence at the deed, He flies; but trembling, fails to fly with speed. His steps the youth pursues. The country lay Perplex'd with roads; a servant show'd the way. A river cross'd the path. The passage o'er Was nice to find; the servant trod before; Long arms of oak, an open bridge supply'd, And the deep waves, beneath the bending, glide. The youth who seem'd to watch a time to sin, Approach'd the careless guide, and thrust him in: Plunging, he falls; and rising, lifts his head; Then flashing, turns, and sinks among the dead. Wild sparkling rage inflames the father's eyes; He bursts the bands of fear, and madly cries, Detested wretch !-But scarce his speech began, When the strange partner seem'd no longer man; His youthful face grew more serenely sweet, His robe turn'd white, and flowd upon his feet; Fair rounds of radiant points invest his hair, Celestial adours breathe through purpled air; And wings, whose colours glitter'd on the day. Wide at his back, their gradual plumes display. The form etherial bursts upon his sight, And moves in all the majesty of light.
Though loud, at first, the pilgrim's passion grew, Sudden he gaz'd, and wist not what to do; Surprise, in secret chains, his word suspends, And, in a calm, his settled temper ends. But silence here, the beauteous angel broke: The voice of music ravish'd as he spoke.
Thy prayer, thy praise, thy life, to vice unknown, In sweet memorial rise before the throne: These charms success in our bright region find, And force an angel down to calm thy mind. For this commission'd, I forsook the sky; Nay, cease to kneel, thy fellow servant I. Then know the truth of government divine, And let these scruples be no longer thine. The Maker justly claims that world he made; In this the right of Providence is laid; Its sacred majesty, through all, depends On using second means to work his ends.
|