Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note,
The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year ?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer.
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labors of this lord of alk

Know, nature's children all divide her care;
The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear.
While man exclaims, "See all things for my use !??
See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.
And just as short of reason I must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control,
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole;
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,
And helps another creature's wants and woes.
Say, will the falcon stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay, the insects gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sing
Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his-floods;
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride
All feed on one vain patro, and enjoy
Th'extensive blessing of his luxury.
That very life his learned hunger craves;
He saves from famine, from the savage saves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast;
And till he ends the being, makes it blest:
Which sees no more the stroke, nor feels the pain,
Then favor'd man by touch etherial slain..
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish when thy feast is o'er

i

SECTION XI.

HUMAN FRAILTY.

WEAK and irresolute is man;

The purpose of today,

Woven with pains into his plan,

Tomorrow rends away.

The bow well bent and smart the spring,
Vice seems already slain;
But passion rudely snaps the string,
And it revives again.

Seme foe to his upright intent,

Finds out his weaker part;

Virtue engages his assent,

But pleasure wins his heart.

'Tis here the folly of the wise,
Through all his art, we view ;
And while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.

Bound on a voyage of awful length,
And dangers little known,

A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail

To reach the distant coast;

The breath of heav'n must swell the sail,

Or all the toil is lost.

SECTION XII.

ODE TO PEACE.

COME, peace of mind, delightful guest;
Return and make thy downy nest

Once more in this sad heart:
Nor riches I, nor pow'r pursue,
Nor hold forbidden joys in view;
We therefore need not part.

COWPER

Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From av rice and ambition free,
And pleasure's fatal wiles;
For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?

The great, the gay, shall they partake
The heav'n that thou alone canst make,
And wilt thou quit the stream,
That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove and the sequester'd shade,
To be a guest with them?

For thee I pant, for thee I priz'd,
For thee I gladly sacrific'd

Whate'er I loved before;
And shall I see thee start away,
And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say
Farewell! we meet no more?

SECTION XIII.

ODE TO ADVERSITY.

BAUGHTER of heav'n, relentless power,
Then tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge, and tort'ring hour,.
The bad affright, afflict the best!
Bound in thy adamantine chain,
The proud are taught to taste of pain,
And purple tyrants vainly groan

With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone.

When first thy sire to send on earth

Virtue his darling child design'd,
To thee he gave the heav'nly birth,
And bade to form her infant mind..
Stern rugged nurse! Thy rigid lore,
With patience many a year she bore.
What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know;

COWPER

And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe.

Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly
Self pleasing felly's idle brood,

Wild laughter, noise and thoughtless joy,
Aud leave us leisure to be good,

Light they disperse; and with them go
The summer friend, the flatt'ring foe.

By vain prosperity receiv'd,

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.

Wisdom, in sable garb array'd,

Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound,

And melancholy, silent maid,

With leaden eye, that loves the ground,
Stili on thy solemn steps attend;
Warm charity thy gen'ral friend,
With justice, to herself severe,

And pity, dropping soft the sadly pleasing te

Oh, gently on thy suppliant's head,
Dread power lay thy chast'ning hand!
Not in thy gorgon terrors clad,
Not ciroled with the vengeful band,
(As by the impious thou art seen,)

With thend ring voice, and threat'ning mien,
With screaming horror's fun'ral cry,
Despair, and fell disease, and ghastly poverty

Thy form benign, propitious, wear,
Thy milder influence impart;
Thy philosophic train be there
To soften, not to wound my heart.
The gen'rous spark extinct revive;
Teach me to love and to forgive;
Exact my own defects to scan;

What others are to feel; and to myself a mar. GRAY

SECTION XIV.

THE CREATION REQUIRED TO PRAISE ITS AUTHORS

BEGIN, my soul, th'exalted lay!

Let each enraptur'd thought obey,

And praise th' Almighty's name:

Lo! heaven and earth, and seas and skies,

In one melodious concert rise,

Te swell th'inspiring theme

Ye fields of light, celestial plains,
Where gay transporting beauty reigns,
Ye scenes divinely fair!

Your Maker's wondrous pow'r proclaim,
Tell how he form'd your shining frame,
And breath'd the fluid air.

Ye angels, catch the thrilling sound!
While all th'adoring thones around,
His boundless mercy sing!
Iet ev'ry list'ning saint above,
Wake all the tuneful soul of love,
And touch the sweetest string.

Join, ye loud spheres, the vocal choir;
Thou dazzling orb of liquid fire,
The mighty chorus aid:

Soon as gray ev'ning gilds the plain,
Thou moon protract the melting strain,
And praise him in the shade.

Thou heav'n of heav'os, his vast abode; Ye clouds proclaim your forming God, Who call'd yon worlds from night: "Ye shades dispel !"—th' Eternal said; At once th'involving darkness fled, And nature sprung to light.

Whate'er a blooming world contains,
That wings the air, that skims the plain,
United praise bestow;

Ye dragons sound his awful name
To heav'n aloud; and roar acclaim,
Ye swelling deeps below.

Let ev'ry element rejoice;

Ye thunders burst with awful voice,