Thou, when the wise, by contemplation led,
The darksome grove, or winding valley tread,
Wilt join the walk, and breathe into the breast
The sweet complacence of a mind at rest;
Whence purer reason, heighten'd wisdom flow,
An Hoadly's calmness, or a Seraph's glow.
There nor dependent, and by none confin'd,
We act the sober dictates of the mind;
There dare we give the generous smile to flow,
Not basely fashion'd from another's brow;
Or sit, or walk, uncumber'd with the train
That swells the little great, and meanly vain;
Our guard pure innocence and wisdom brings,
More solemn than the tedious pomp of Kings.
This, this is freedom! O'er the peaceful plains
In all her glory bright the Goddess reigns:
Behold her winning and majestic air!
The laws before her their firm guardians bear;
Plenty, and Peace, and Industry, and Wealth,
And sweet Content, and ever-blooming Health
Attend her side; Joy sheds his smiles around;
Each Muse walks honour'd, and each science crown'd;
Whilst pleas'd she views her chariot wheels beneath
Ambition, Pride, Lust, Fortune, Fear, and Death.
Forgive a verse the love of virtue warms,
Nor think these only visionary charms;
You'll find them, list'ning to the moral strain,
More than a flatt'ring fiction of the brain.
Come then, with me the heat of rapture quit;
Hear sober reas'ning in exchange for wit;
Preach on the world; but first the text divide;
Of business first, of pleasure next decide.
How can the man, whose ev'ry thought is pelf,
Search his own mind, and look into himself?
Unheard without all gråve reflections wait,
Like humble suitors at a great man's gate;
Intent on each low artifice to thrive,
Strangers to virtue and themselves they live:
An honest man, if honest such may be,
Breathes many
'a sigh, and wishes to be free;
But, like the Roman parricide, is found
With serpents, dogs, and apes shut up and bound.
How are the silken sons of pleasure lost,
In all her wild rotations madly tost?
The flow'ry round unthinkingly they tread,
Where vanities to vanities succeed;
Amusements ever new their reason blind,
Hope plays before, but mockery steals behind.
Lead them from these pursuits at some grave hour,
To the calm garden, or sequester'd bow'r;
Collected there each scatter'd beam of thought,
They learn to think, and reason as they ought;
Fame drops the wreath; the pageantry of pow'r,
And wealth's own magic cheats the sense no more:
No more the wanton ask the painted toy,
True solid pleasures realize their joy;
They find that happiness in reason lies,
Reason, that makes us, and that keeps us wise.
Nor end we here: new joys enrich the scene
In the calm sunshine of a soul serene.
On life's wide sea unsteadily we sail,
Sport of the dashing tide, or driving gale;
Or Hope misleads the flatter'd sense, or Fear
Embitters each tumultuous hour with care;
Each conversation pains; on ev'ry side
Fancied or real insults hurt our pride;
We pine with envy at the prosp❜rous state,
But toss the head, and mock th' unfortunate:
In Passion's giddy whirl we vainly strive,
Converse in storms, and in a tempest live.
But, from the world retir'd, we find that rest
Which calms the troubled ocean of the breast;
The distant images, erewhile so gay,
Languid and faint upon the fancy play;
And with them every image dies away.
Still let me raise the verse, and point the road,
That leads thro' Nature up to Nature's God:
The heighten'd theme requires a stronger wing,
"The God, the God, the vocal vallies ring."
On ev'ry mountain we confess his pow'r,
In ev'ry bush the still small voice adore;
When 'mongst yon' venerable oaks I rove,
I own the Deity that fills the grove;
If the sage tree no voice prophetic gives,
If in its bark no fabled Druid lives,
He gave each tow'ring trunk to rise, he spread
The waving foliage of each rev'rend head;
Known in each leaf unfolding to the spring,
Seen in each insect of the meanest wing,
Found in each herb, each flow'r that decks the field,
In ev'ry walk convers'd with and beheld:
Blest intercourse! when deigns with man to join
Th' all-gracious presence of the pow'r divine;
When, great example of primæval grace,
Man communes with his God as face to face.
Hence, bence, ye vain, with all your pomp remove;
For Kings and Courts quit all the wise approve;
For Kings and Courts the godhead and the grove!
There are who feel these truths, the joy serene,
The humble blessings of the rural scene;
But false desires their erring judgments cheat,
And ruin all their bliss to make them great.
Fools! not to know that happiness and pride,
Things inconsistent, will not be allied;
That Nature, craving no luxurious feast,
Asks but a little, and rejects the rest.
Not that this lust of pomp wou'd be so ill,
Cou'd we, like Joshua, bid the sun stand still;
Or to our wishes set a certain bound,
Stop when we reach it, nor aspire beyond:
But here not more than foolish children wise,
Who covet ev'ry star that decks the skies;
The skies appear to their unjudging sight
As resting on yon' hill's aspiring height;
The little wantons pant and glow with joy,
Eager to gather up each sparkling toy ;
Their breasts in vain a nearer hope inspires,
The moving sky, as they advance, retires;
Till, having gain'd the summit, they deplore
The flying stars as distant as before :
Than these no wiser we our wishes bound,
The bound we find, Content, is never found;
Still we toil on in warning Nature's spite,
Fix no horizon to our appetite;
Run the same round with never-resting haste,
Till death th' enchanted circle bursts at last.
Wou'dst thou be blest? Thy false desires resign;
Now, now retire; the future is not thine:
Dare to be wise; for he that here delays,
The clown upon the river's margin stays
Expecting till the passing stream be dried,
Still glides the passing stream, and will for ever glide.
Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis: at ille
Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.
But how retire? Shall we, like Timon, fly
From all mankind, and in a desert die?
In fretful pique, or indolence forego
Life's various duty, and its comforts too?
Each kindly seed of social joy suppress,
No friend to comfort, and no child to bless ?
A brother's bliss nor feel, nor wants relieve,
And Heav'n's own gifts unthankfully receive?
Man's common nature, common good resign'd,
The wretched expletives of human kind?
Or, say, too liberal for ascetic hate,
Shall we Statilius' bounties imitate?
Think to retire but to forsake the town,
And carry all its noise and nonsense down?
Unfelt the rapture of the silent hour,
No shade sequester'd sought, no thoughtful bow'r;
Drive sage Reflection from her favour'd groves,
Haunts of mad bacchanals and lawless loves;
With Riot's voice bid ev'ry echo ring,
And fright the Muses from their wood and spring?
Oh! 'twixt the mad extreme on either side
Let wisdom lead us, or let C-d guide.
Above the vanity of greatness great,
His decent life e'en sanctifies retreat:
By him superior wealth is understood.
But a superior order to do good;
Hence the deserving poor receive their part
Large like his fortunes, liberal as his heart.
Strong manly sense adorns his open mind,
And much he knows, and knows for all mankind;
Lover of justice, faithful to the laws,
The person he respects not, but the cause;
Hence from litigious suits and quarrels free
Contending parties hear him, and agree.
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