Of temper'd fun, and water, earth, and air,
In ever-changing compofition mixt.
Such, falling frequent through the chiller night,
The fragrant ftores, the wide-projected heaps
Of apples, which the lufty-handed year,
Innumerous, o'er the blufhing orchard fhakes.
A various fpirit, fresh, delicious, keen,
Dwells in their gelid pores; and, active, points
The piercing cyder for the thirsty tongue :
Thy native theme, and boon inspirer too,
Phillips, Pomona's bard, the fecond thou
Who nobly durft, in rhyme-unfetter'd verse,
With British freedom fing the British fong:
How, from Silurian vats, high-fparkling wines
Foam in transparent floods; fome strong, to cheer
The wintery revels of the labouring hind;
And tafteful fome, to cool the fummer-hours.
In this glad feafon, while his fweetest beams
The fun fheds equal o'er the meeken'd day;
Oh, lofe me in the green delightful walks
Of, Doddington, thy feat, ferene, and plain;
Where fimple Nature reigns; and every view,
Diffufive, fpreads the pure Dorsetian downs,
In boundless profpect: yonder fhagg'd with wood,
Here rich with harvest, and there white with flocks!
Meantime the grandeur of thy lofty dome,
Far-fplendid, feizes on the ravish'd eye.
New beauties rife with each revolving day;
New columns fwell; and still the fresh Spring finds
New plants to quicken, and new groves to green.
Full of thy genius all! the Mufes' feat:
Where in the secret bower, and winding walk,
For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay.
Here wandering oft, fir'd with the restlefs thirt
Of thy applause, I folitary court
Th' infpiring breeze: and meditate the book
Of Nature ever open; aiming thence,
Warm from the heart, to learn the moral fong.
Here, as I steal along the funny wall,
Where Autumn baks, with fruit empurpled deep,
My pleafing theme continual prompts my thought:
Prefents the downy peach; the shining plumb;
The ruddy, fragrant nectarine; and dark,
Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig.
The vine too here her curling tendrils shoots;
Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the fouth;
And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky.
Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight
To vigorous foils, and climes of fair extent;
Where, by the potent fun elated high,
The vineyard fwells refulgent on the day;
Spreads o'er the vale; or up the mountain climbs, 685 Profufę; and drinks amid the funny rocks,
From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heighten'd blaze.
Low bend the weighty boughs. The clusters clear,
Half through the foliage feen, or ardent flame,
Or fhine transparent; while perfection breathes
White o'er the turgent film the living dew.
As thus they brighten with exalted juice,
Touch'd into flavour by the mingling ray;
The rural youth and virgins o'er the field,
Each fond for each to cull th' autumnal prime,
Exulting rove, and speak the vintage nigh.
Then comes the crufhing fwain; the country floats,
And foams unbounded with the mashy flood;
That, by degrees fermented and refin'd,
Round the rais'd nations pours the cup
The claret fmooth, red as the lip we press
In fparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl;
The mellow-tafted Burgundy; and quick,
As is the wit it gives, the gay champaign.
Now, by the cool declining year condens'd,
Defcend the copious exhalations, check'd
As up the middle sky unfeen they stole,
And roll the doubling fogs around the hill.
No more the mountain, horrid, vaft, fublime,
Who pours a sweep of rivers from his fides,
And high between contending kingdoms rears
The rocky long divifion, fills the view
With great variety; but in a night
Of gathering vapour, from the baffled fenfe
Sinks dark and dreary. Thence expanding far,
The huge dufk, gradual, fwallows up the plain :
Vanish the woods; the dim-feen river seems
Sullen, and flow, to roll the mifty wave.
Ev'n in the height of noon opprest, the fun
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide-refracted ray;
Whence glaring oft, with many a broaden'd orb,
He frights the nations. Indiftinct on earth,
Seen through the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear; and, wilder'd, o'er the wafte
The fhepherd stalks gigantic. Till at last
Wreath'd dun around, in deeper circles still
Succeffive clofing, fits the general fog
Unbounded o'er the world; and, mingling thick,
A formless grey confufion covers all.
As when of old (fo fung the Hebrew Bard)
Light, uncollected, through the chaos urg'd
Its infant way; nor Order yet had drawn
His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.
These roving mists, that constant now begin
To smoke along the hilly country, these,
With weighty rains, and melted Alpine fnows,
The mountain-cisterns fill, those ample stores
Of water, fcoop'd among the hollow rocks;
Whence gush the ftreams, the ceaseless fountains play, And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw.
Some fages fay, that, where the numerous wave
For ever lashes the refounding fhore,
Drill'd through the fandy ftratum, every way,
The waters with the fandy ftratum rife;
Amid whofe angles infinitely ftrain'd,
They joyful leave their jaggy falts behind,
And clear and fweeten, as they foak along.
Nor stops the restless fiuid, mounting still,
Though oft amidft th' irriguous vale it fprings;
But to the mountain courted by the fand,
That leads it darkling on in faithful maze,
Far from the parent-main, it boils again
Fresh into day and all the glittering hill
Is bright with spouting rills. But hence this vain
Amufive dream! why fhould the waters love
To take so far a journey to the hills,
When the sweet vallies offer to their toil
Inviting quiet, and a nearer bed?
Or if, by blind ambition led astray,
They muft afpire; why should they sudden stop
Among the broken mountain's rushy dells,
And, ere they gain its highest peak, desert
Th' attractive fand that charm'd their courfe fo long?
Befides, the hard agglomerating falts,
The spoil of ages, would impervious choak
Their secret channels; or, by flow degrees,
High as the hills protrude the fwelling vales:
Old Ocean too, fuck'd through the porous globe,
Had long ere now forfook his horrid bed,
And brought Deucalion's watery times again.
Say then, where lurk the vast eternal springs,
That, like creating Nature, lie conceal'd
From mortal eye, yet with their lavish stores
Refresh the globe, and all its joyous tribes ?
O, thou pervading Genius, given to man,
To trace the fecrets of the dark abyfs,
O, lay the mountains bare! and wide display
Their hidden ftructure to th' astonish'd view!
Strip from the branching Alps their piny load;
The huge incumbrance of horrific woods
From Afian Taurus, from Imaus ftretch'd
Athwart the roving Tartar's fullen bounds!
Give opening Hemus to my fearching eye,
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