Shoots through the confcious heart; where honour ftill,
And great defign, against the oppreffive load
Of luxury, by fits, impatient heave.
But abfent, what fantastic woes arous'd,
Rage in each thought, by restlefs mufing fed,
Chill the warm cheek, and blaft the bloom of life?
Neglected fortune flies; and fliding fwift,
Prone into ruin, fall his fcorn'd affairs.
'Tis nought but gloom around: the darken'd fun
Lofes his light. The rofy-bofom'd Spring
To weeping Fancy pines; and yon bright arch,
Contracted, bends into a dusky vault.
All Nature fades extinct; and fhe alone
Heard, felt, and feen, poffeffes every thought,
Fills every fenfe, and pants in every vein.
Books are but formal dulnefs, tedious friends;
And fad amid the focial band he fits,
Lonely, and unattentive. From his tongue
Th' unfinish'd period falls: while, borne away
On fwelling thought, his wafted fpirit flies
To the vain bofom of his diftant fair;
And leaves the femblance of a lover, fix'd
In melancholy fite, with head declin'd,
And love-dejected eyes. Sudden he starts,
Shook from his tender trance, and reftlefs runs
To glimmering fhades, and fympathetic glooms;
Where the dun umbrage o'er the falling ftream,
Romantic, hangs; there through the penfive dufk
Strays, in heart-thrilling meditation loft,
Indulging all to love: or on the bank
Thrown, amid drooping lilies, ifwells the breeze:
With fighs unceafing, and the brook with tears. –
Thus in soft anguish he confumes the day,
Nor quits his deep retirement, till the moon
Peeps through the chambers of the fleecy east,
Enlighten'd by degrees, and in her train
Leads on the gentle hours; then forth he walks,
Beneath the trembling languifh of her beam,
With foften'd foul, and wooes the bird of eve
To mingle woes with his or while the world
And all the fons of Care lie hufh'd in sleep,
Affociates with the midnight fhadows drear;
And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours
His idly-tortur'd heart into the
Meant for the moving meffenger of love;
Where rapture burns on rapture, every line
With rifing frenzy fir'd. But if on bed
Delirious flung, fleep from his pillow flies.
All night he toffes, nor the balmy power
In any posture finds; till the grey morn
Lifts her pale luftre on the paler wretch,
Exanimate by love: and then perhaps
Exhaufted Nature finks a while to reft,
Still interrupted by distracted dreams,
That o'er the fick imagination rise,
And in black colours paint the mimic scene.
Oft with th' enchantrefs of his foul he talks;
Sometimes in crowds diftrefs'd; or if retir'd
fecret winding flower-enwoven bowers,
om the dull impertinence of Man,
Juft as he, credulous, his endless cares
Begins to lose in blind oblivious love,
Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how,
Through forefts huge, and long untravel'd heaths
With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempeft wrapt; or shrinks aghast,
Back, from the bending precipice; or wades
The turbid ftream below, and strives to reach
The farther fhore; where fuccourlefs, and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores ;
But strives in vain: borne by th' outrageous flood.
To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave,
Or whelm❜d beneath the boiling eddy sinks.
These are the charming agonies of love,
Whofe mifery delights. But through the heart
Should jealoufy its venom once diffuse,
'Tis then delightful mifery no more,
But agony unmix'd, inceffant gall,
Corroding every thought, and blasting all
Love's paradife. Ye fairy profpects, then,
Ye beds of rofes, and ye bowers of joy,
Farewel! Ye gleamings of departed peace,
Shine out your laft! The yellow-tinging plague 1080 Internal vifion taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps.
Ah, then instead of love-enliven'd cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes
With flowing rapture bright, dark looks fucceed, 1085
Suffus'd and glaring with untender fire;
A clouded afpect, and a burning cheek,
Where the whole poifon'd foul, malignant, fits,
And frightens love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondness, eat him up
With fervent anguish, and confuming rage.
In vain reproaches lend their idle aid,
Deceitful pride, and refolution frail,
Giving falfe
peace a moment. Fancy pours,
Afresh, her beauties on his busy thought,
Her firft endearments twining round the foul,
With all the witchcraft of enfnaring love.
Straight the fierce ftorm involves his mind anew,
Flames through the nerves, and boils along the veins;
While anxious doubt diftracts the tortur'd heart:
For ev'n the fad affurance of his fears
Were eafe to what he feels. Thus the warm youth,
Whom Love deludes into his thorny wilds,
Through flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life
Of fever'd rapture, or of cruel care;
His brightest flames extinguish'd all, and all
His lively moments running down to waste.
But happy they! the happieft of their kind!
Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate
Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft, and foreign to the mind,
That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their paffions into love;
There friendship full-exerts her softest power,
Perfect esteem enliven❜d by defire
Ineffable, and fympathy of foul;
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will,
With boundless confidence: for nought but love
Can answer love, and render blifs fecure.
Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent
To blefs himself, from fordid parents buys
The loathing virgin, in eternal care,
Well-merited, confume his nights and days
Let barbarous nations, whofe inhuman love
Is wild defire, fierce as the suns they feel;
Let eastern tyrants, from the light of heaven
Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd
Of a mere, lifelefs, violated form:
While those whom love cements in holy faith,
And equal transport, free as Nature live,
Difdaining fear. What is the world to them,
Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonfenfe all !
Who in each other clafp whatever fair
High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish;
Something than beauty dearer, fhould they look
Or on the mind, or mind-illumin'd face;
Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love,
The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven.
Meantime a smiling offspring rifes round,
And mingles both their graces. By degrees,
The human bloffom blows; and every day,
Soft as it rolls along, fhews fome new charm,
The father's luftre, and the mother's bloom.
Then infant reafon grows apace, and calls
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