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As all that saw and tasted know:
But for his Latin vein, so clear,
Strong, full, and high, it doth appear *),
That were immortal Virgil here,'
Him for his judge he would not fear.
Of that great portraiture so true
A copy pencil never drew,

My Muse her song had ended here,
But both their Genii straight appear:
Joy and amazement her did strike;
Two twins she never saw so like.
'Twas taught by wise Pythagoras,

One soul might through more bodies pass:
Seeing such transmigration there,

She thought it not a fable here.
Such a resemblance of all parts,

Life, death, age, fortune, nature, arts,
Then lights her torch at theirs, to tell
And shew the world this parallel:
Fix'd and contemplative their looks,
Still turning over Nature's books;
Their works chaste, moral, and divine,
Where profit and delight combine;
They, gilding dirt, in noble verse
Rustic philosophy rehearse.

When heroes, gods, or godlike kings,

They praise, on their exalted wings
To the celestial orbs they climb,

And with th' harmonious spheres keep time.
Nor did their actions fall behind

Their words, but with like candour shin'd;
Each draw fair characters, yet none

Of these they feign'd excels their own.
Both by two gen'rous princes lov'd, '

Who knew, and judg'd what they approv'd;

Yet having each the same desire,

Both from the busy throng retire.
Their bodies, to their minds resign'd,
Car'd not to propagate their kind:

*) His last works.

Yet though both fell before their hour,
Time on their offspring hath no pow'r:
Nor fire nor Fate their bays shall blast,
Nor death's dark veil their day o'ercast.

2) COOPER'S HILL *).

- My eye, descending from the Hill, surveys

Where Thames among the wanton vallies strays.
Thames, the most lov'd of all the Ocean's sons,
By his old sire, to his embraces runs;

Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea,

Like mortal life to meet eternity;

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold:
His genuine and less guilty wealth t'explore,
Search not his bottom, but survey his shore;
O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing,
And hatches plenty for th' ensuing spring;
Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay,
Like mothers which their infants overlay;
Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave,
Like profuse kings, resumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations spoil

The mower's hopes, nor mock the ploughman's toil;

But godlike his unweary'd bounty flows;

First loves to do, then loves the good he does.
Nor are his blessings to his banks confin'd,
But free, and common, as the sea or wind;
When he, to boast or to disperse his stores,
Full of the tributes of his grateful shores,
Visits the world, and in his flying tow'rs
Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, bestows it where it wants,
Cities in deserts, woods in cities, plants.
So that to us no thing, no place, is strange,.
While his fair bosom is the world's exchange.
O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream

*) Wegen Beschränktheit des Raums theilen wir hier nur die zweite, aber vorzüglichere Hälfte dieses Gedichts mit.

My great example, as it is my theme!

Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.,
Heav'n her Eridanus no more shall boast,

Whose fame in thine, like lesser current, 's lost;
Thy nobler streams shall visit Jove's abodes,
To shine among the stars *) and bathe the gods.
Here Nature, whether more intent to please
Us for herself, with strange varieties,
(For things of wonder give no less delight
To the wise Maker's than beholder's sight:
Though these delights from several causes move;
For so our children, thus our friends, we love), .
Wisely she knew the harmony of things,

As well as that of sounds, from discord springs.
Such was the discord which did first disperse
Form, order, beauty, through the universe;
While dryness moisture, coldness heat resists,
All that we have, and that we are, subsists;
While the steep horrid roughness of the wood
Strives with the gentle calmness of the flood;
Such huge extremes when Nature doth unite,
Wonder from thence results, from thence delight.
The stream is so transparent, pure and clear,
That had the self- enamour'd youth **) gaz'd here,
So fatally deceiv'd he had not been,

While he the bottom, not his face, had seen.
But his proud head the airy mountain hides
Among the clouds; his shoulders and his sides
A shady mantle clothes; his curled brows
Frown on the gentle stream, which calmly flows,
While winds and storms his lofty forehead beat,
The common fate of all that's high or great.
Low at his foot a spacious plain is plac'd,
Between the mountain and the stream embrac'd,
Which shade and shelter from the Hill derives,
While the kind river wealth and beauty gives;
And in the mixture of all these appears
Variety, which all the rest endears.

*) The forest. **) Narcissus.

This scene had some bold Greek or British bard
Beheld of old, what stories had we heard

Of Fairies, Satyrs, and the Nymphs, their dames,
Their feasts, their revels, and their am'rous flames!
Tis still the same, although their airy shape
All but a quick poetic sight escape.

There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts,
And thither all the horned host resorts

To graze the ranker mead; that noble herd,
On whose sublime and shady fronts is rear'd
Nature's great master - piece, to shew how soon
Great things are made, but sooner are undone.
Here have I seen the King, when great affairs
Gave leave to slacken and unbend his cares,
Attended to the chace hy all the flow'r
Of youth, whose hopes a 'nobler prey devour:
Pleasure with praise and danger they would buy,
And wish a foe that would not only fly.
The stag, now conscious of his fatal growth,
At once indulgent to his fear and sloth,
To some dark covert his retreat had made,
Where nor man's eye, nor heaven's should invade
His soft repose; when th' unexpected sound
Of dogs, and men, his wakeful ear does wound.
Rouz'd with the noise, he scarce believes his ear,
Willing to think th' illusions of his fear
-Had given this false alarm, but straight his view
Confirms that more then all he fears is true.
Betray'd in all his strengths, the wood beset,
All instruments, all arts of ruin met;

He calls to mind his strength, and then his speed,
His winged heels, and then his armed head;
With these t'avoid, with that his fate to meet:
But fear prevails, and bids him trust his' feet.
So fast he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has lost, the chasers, and his ear the cry;
Exulting, till he finds their nobler sense
Their disproportion'd speed doth recompense;
Then curses his conspiring feet, whose scent
Betrays that safety which their swiftness lent.
Then tries his friends; among the baser herd,
Where he so lately was obey'd and fear'd,

His safety seeks: the herd, unkindly wise,
Or chases him from thence, or from him.flies;
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn
To his friends' pity, 'and pursuers' scorn;
With shame remembers, while himself was one
Of the same herd, himself the same had done.
Thence to the coverts, and the conscious groves,
The scenes of his past triumphs and his loves,
Sadly surveying where he rang'd alone,
Prince of the soil, and all the herd his own,
And, like a bold knight- errant, did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the dame;
And taught the woods to echo to the stream
His dreadful challenge and his clashing beam,
Yet faintly now declines the fatal strife,
So much his love was dearer than his life,
Now ev'ry leaf and ev'ry moving breath
Presents a foe, and ev'ry foe a death.
Weary'd, forsaken, and pursu'd, at last
All safety in despair of safety plac'd,
Courage he thence resumes, resolv'd to bear
All their assaults, since 'tis in vain to fear.
And now, too late, he wishes for the fight
That strength he wasted in ignoble flight:
But when he sees the eager chace renew'd,
Himself by dogs, the dogs by men pursu'd,
He straight revokes his bold resolve, and more
Repents his courage than his fear before;
Finds that uncertain ways unsafest are,

And doubt a greater mischief than despair,

Then to the stream, when neither friends, nor force,
Nor speed, nor art, avail, he shapes his course;
Thinks not their rage so desp'rate to essay

An element more merciless than they,
But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood
Quench their dire thirst; alas! they thirst for blood!
So t'wards a ship the oar-finn'd gallies ply,
Which wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly,
Stands but to fall reveng'd on those that dare
Tempt the Last fury of extreme despair.
So fares the stag, among th' enraged hounds
Repels their force and wounds returns for wounds.

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