The leaft and lowlieft, in the effufive warmth
Of colours mingling with a random blaze,
Doth Beauty dwell. Then higher in the line
And variation of determin'd shape,
Where Truth's eternal measures mark the bound
Of circle, cube, or fphere. The third afcent
Unites this varied fymmetry of parts
With colour's bland allurement; as the pearl
Shines in the concave of its azure bed,
And painted fhells indent their fpeckled wreath.
Then more attractive rise the blooming forms
Through which the breath of nature has infus'd
Her genial power to draw with pregnant veins
Nutritious moifture from the bounteous earth,
In fruit and feed prolific: thus the flowers
Their purple honours with the fpring resume ;
And fuch the stately tree which autumn bends
With blushing treasures. But more lovely still
Is nature's charm, where to the full confent
Of complicated members, to the bloom
Of colour, and the vital change of growth,
Life's holy flame and piercing sense are given,
And active motion speaks the temper'd soul :
So moves the bird of Juno; fo the steed
With rival ardour beats the dufty plain,
And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy
Salute their fellows. Thus doth beauty dwell
There moft confpicuous, even in outward shape,
Where dawns the high expreffion of a mind :
By fteps conducting our inraptur'd search
To that eternal origin, whose
Through all the unbounded fymmetry of things,
Like rays effulging from the parent fun,
This endless mixture of her charms diffus'd.
Mind, mind alone, (bear witness, earth and heaven!)
The living fountains in itself contains
Of beauteous and fublime: here hand in hand,
Sit paramount the Graces; here inthron'd,
Coeleftial Venus, with divineft airs,
Invites the foul to never-fading joy.
Look then abroad through nature, to the range
Of planets, funs, and adamantine spheres
Wheeling unfhaken through the void immenfe ;
And fpeak, O man! does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy ftrong conception, as when Brutus rofe
Refulgent from the ftroke of Cæfar's fate,
Amid the croud of patriots; and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and fhook his crimson steel,
And bade the father of his country, hail!
For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the duft,
And Rome again is free! Is aught so fair
In all the dewy landscapes of the spring,
In the bright eye of Hefper or the morn,
In nature's fairest forms, is aught so fair
As virtuous friendship? as the candid blush
Of him who strives with fortune to be just?
The graceful tear that ftreams for others woes?
Or the mild majesty of private life,
Where peace with ever-blooming olive crowns
The gate; where honour's liberal hands effufe
Unenvied treafures, and the fnowy wings
Of innocence and love protect the scene?
Once more fearch, undifmay'd, the dark profound
Where nature works in fecret; view the beds
Of mineral treasure, and the eternal vault
That bounds the hoary ocean; trace the forms
Of atoms moving with inceffant change
Their elemental round; behold the feeds
Of being, and the energy of life
Kindling the mafs with ever-active flame :
Then to the fecrets of the working mind
Attentive turn; from dim oblivion call
Her fleet, ideal band; and bid them, go!
Break through time's barrier, and o'ertake the hour
That faw the heavens created: then declare
If aught were found in those external scenes
To move thy wonder now.
The forms which brute, unconscious matter wears,
Greatness of bulk, or fymmetry of parts?
Not reaching to the heart, foon feeble grows
The fuperficial impulse; dull their charms,
And fatiate foon, and pall the languid eye.
Not so the moral species, nor the powers
Of genius and defign; the ambitious mind
There fees herself: by thefe congenial forms
Touch'd and awaken'd, with intenser act
She bends each nerve, and meditates well-pleas'd
Her features in the mirror. For of all
The inhabitants of earth, to man alone
Creative wisdom gave to lift his eye
To truth's eternal measures.; thence to frame
The facred laws of action and of will,
Difcerning juftice from unequal deeds,
And temperance from folly. But beyond
This energy of truth, whose dictates bind
Affenting reason, the benignant fire,
To deck the honour'd paths of just and good,
Has added bright imagination's rays:
Where virtue, rifing from the awful depth
Of truth's mysterious bofom, doth forsake
The unadorn'd condition of her birth;
And drefs'd by fancy in ten thousand hues,
Affumes a various feature, to attract,
With charms refponfive to each gazer's eye,
The hearts of men. Amid his rural walk,
The ingenuous youth, whom solitude inspires
With purest wishes, from the penfive shade
Beholds her moving, like a virgin-muse
That wakes her lyre to fome indulgent theme
Of harmony and wonder: while among
The herd of fervile minds, her ftrenuous form
Indignant flashes on the patriot's eye,
And through the rolls of memory appeals
To ancient honour, or, in act ferene,
Yet watchful, raises the majestic sword
Of public power, from dark ambition's reach
To guard the facred volume of the laws.
Genius of ancient Greece! whofe faithful steps
Well-pleas'd I follow through the facred paths
Of nature and of fcience; nurse divine
Of all heroic deeds and fair defires!
O! let the breath of thy extended praise
Infpire my kindling bofom to the height
Of this untempted theme. Nor be my thoughts
Prefumptuous counted, if amid the calm
That fooths this vernal evening into smiles,
I fteal impatient from the fordid haunts
Of ftrife and low ambition, to attend
Thy facred prefence in the sylvan shade,
By their malignant footsteps ne'er profan'd.
Defcend, propitious! to my favour'd
eye;
Such in thy mien, thy warm, exalted air,
As when the Perfian tyrant, foil'd and stung
With shame and desperation, gnash'd his teeth
To see thee rend the pageants of his throne;
And at the lightning of thy lifted spear
Crouch'd like a flave. Bring all thy martial spoils,
Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal fongs,
Thy fmiling band of arts, thy god-like fires
Of civil wisdom, thy heroic youth
Warm from the schools of glory. Guide my way 590
Through fair Lycéum's walk, the green retreats
Of Academus, and the thymy vale,
Where oft inchanted with Socratic founds,
Iliffus pure devolv'd his tuneful stream
In gentler murmurs. From the blooming store
Of these auspicious fields, may I unblam'd
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