For the unfcented fictions of the loom;
Who, satisfied with only pencil'd scenes, Prefer to the performance of a God
Th' inferior wonders of an artist's hand!
Lovely indeed the mimic works of art; But Nature's works far lovelier. I admire- None more admires-the painter's magic skill, Who fhows me that which I fhall never fee, Conveys a diftant country into mine,
And throws Italian light on English walls:
But imitative ftrokes can do no more
Than please the eye-sweet Nature ev'ry sense. The air falubrious of her lofty hills, The cheering fragrance of her dewy vales, And music of her woods-no works of man May rival thefe; these all befpeak a pow'r Peculiar, and exclufively her own. Beneath the open sky she spreads the feast; 'Tis free to all-'tis ev'ry day renew'd; Who fcorns it starves deservedly at home.
He does not fcorn it, who, imprison'd long In fome unwholesome dungeon, and a prey To fallow fickness, which the vapours, dank And clammy, of his dark abode have bred, Escapes at laft to liberty and light:
His cheek recovers foon its healthful hue; His eye relumines its extinguish'd fires;
He walks, he leaps, he runs-is wing'd with joy, And riots in the sweets of ev'ry breeze.
He does not fcorn it, who has long endur'd
A fever's agonies, and fed on drugs.
Nor yet the mariner, his blood inflam'd
With acrid falts; his very heart athirst
To gaze at Nature in her green array, Upon the fhip's tall fide he ftands, poffefs'd With vifions prompted by intense defire: Fair fields appear below, fuch as he left Far diftant, fuch as he would die to find- He feeks them headlong, and is feen no more.
The spleen is feldom felt where Flora reigns; The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown, And fullen fadness, that o'ershade, distort,
And mar, the face of beauty, when no cause For fuch immeafurable wo appears,
Thefe Flora banishes, and gives the fair
Sweet fmiles, and bloom less transient than her own.
It is the constant revolution, stale
And taftelefs, of the fame repeated joys,
That palls and fatiates, and makes languid life A pedler's pack, that bows the bearer down. Health fuffers, and the fpirits ebb; the heart Recoils from its own choice-at the full feaft Is famifh'd-finds no mufic in the fong, No smartness in the jeft; and wonders why. Yet thousands ftill defire to journey on, Though halt, and weary of the path they tread. The paralytic, who can hold her cards,
But cannot play them, borrows a friend's hand To deal and fhuffle, to divide and fort,
Her mingled fuits and fequences; and fits, Spectatrefs both and spectacle, a fad And filent cypher, while her proxy plays. Others are dragg'd into the crowded room Between supporters; and, once feated, sit, Through downright inability to rise, Till the ftout bearers lift the corpfe again. Thefe fpeak a loud memento. Yet ev'n thefe Themselves love life, and cling to it, as he That overhangs a torrent to a twig.
They love it, and yet loath it; fear to die,
Yet fcorn the purposes for which they live.
. Then wherefore not renounce them? No-the dread, The flavish dread of folitude, that breeds
Reflection and remorse, the fear of shame, And their invet'rate habits, all forbid.
Whom call we gay? That honour has been long The boast of mere pretenders to the name.
The innocent are gay-the lark is gay,
That dries his feathers, faturate with dew,
Beneath the rofy cloud, while yet the beams Of day-spring overshoot his humble nest,
The peasant too, a witness of his fong, Himself a fongfter, is as gay as he.
But fave me from the gaiety of those
Whofe head-aches nail them to a noon-day bed;
And fave me too from their's whofe haggard eyes
Flash defperation, and betray their For property ftripp'd off by cruel chance; From gaiety that fills the bones with pain, The mouth with blafphemy, the heart with woe,
The earth was made fo various, that the mind Of defultory man, ftudious of change,
And pleas'd with novelty, might be indulg’d. Profpects, however lovely, may be feen
Till half their beauties fade; the weary fight, Too well acquainted with their smiles, slides off, Faftidious, seeking lefs familiar fcenes.
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