IN bower and field he sought, where any tuft Of grove or garden-plot more pleasant lay, Their tendance, or plantation for delight; By fountain or by shady rivulet
He sought them both, but wished his hap might find Eve separate; he wished, but not with hope Of what so seldom chanced; when to his wish, Beyond his hope, Eve separate he spies, Veiled in a cloud of fragrance, where she stood, Half spied, so thick the roses blushing round About her glowed, oft stooping to support
Each flower of slender stalk, whose head, though gay, Carnation, purple, azure, or specked with gold, Hung drooping unsustained; them she upstays Gently with myrtle band, mindless the while Herself, though fairest unsupported flower, From her best prop so far, and storm so nigh Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm; Then voluble and bold, now hid, now seen, Among thick-woven arborets, and flowers Imbordered on each bank, the hand of Eve: Spot more delicious than those gardens feigned Or of revived Adonis, or renowned
Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son;
Or that, not mystic, where the sapient king Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse. Much he the place admired, the person more. As one who long in populous city pent, Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air, Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe Among the pleasant villages and farms
Adjoined, from each thing met conceives delight; The smell of grain, or tedded grass, or kine, Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound; If chance, with nymph-like step, fair virgin pass, What pleasing seemed, for her now pleases more ; She most, and in her look sums all delight: Such pleasure took the serpent to behold This flowery plat, the sweet recess of Eve, Thus early, thus alone.
EXTRACTS FROM PARADISE REGAINED.
He brought our Saviour to the western side. Of that high mountain, whence he might behold Another plain, long, but in breadth not wide, Washed by the southern sea, and, on the north To equal length backed with a ridge of hills, That screened the fruits of the earth, and seats of men, From cold septentrion blasts; thence in the midst Divided by a river, of whose banks On each side an imperial city stood, With towers and temples proudly elevate On seven small hills, with palaces adorned, Porches, and theatres, baths, aqueducts, Statues, and trophies, and triumphal arcs, Gardens and groves presented to his eyes, Above the heighth of mountains interposed, (By what strange parallax or optic skill Of vision, multiplied through air, or glass Of telescope, were curious to inquire :) And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:
"The city which thou seest, no other deem Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth, So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched Of nations; there the Capitol thou seest, Above the rest lifting his stately head On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel Impregnable; and there mount Palatine, The imperial palace, compass huge, and high, The structure, skill of noblest architects, With gilded battlements, conspicuous far, Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires : Many a fair edifice besides, more like Houses of gods, (so well I have disposed My aëry microscope,) thou may'st behold, Outside and inside both, pillars and roofs, Carved work, the hand of famed artificers, In cedar, marble, ivory, or gold.
"Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see What conflux issuing forth, or entering in: Prætors, proconsuls to their provinces
Hasting, or on return, in robes of state,
Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings; Or embassies from regions far remote, In various habits, on the Appian road,
Or on the Emilian: some from farthest south, Syene, and where the shadow both way falls, Meroe, Nilotic isle; and, more to west,
The realm of Bocchus to the Black-moor sea; From the Asian kings, and Parthian among these, From India and the Golden Chersonese,
And utmost Indian isle Taprobane,
Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed; From Gallia, Gades, and the British west: Germans, and Scythians, and Sarmatians, north Beyond Danubius to the Tauric pool.
All nations now to Rome obedience pay."
“WESTWARD, much nearer by south-west behold; Where on the Egean shore a city stands, Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil; Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence, native to famous wits, Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,
City or suburban, studious walks and shades. See there the olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long; There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls His whispering stream: within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages; his who bred Great Alexander to subdue the world, Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:
There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit
By voice or hand, and various measured verse, Eolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,
And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer call'd, Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own: Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught In chorus or iambic, teachers best
Of moral prudence, with delight received In brief sententious precepts, while they treat Of fate, and chance, and change in human life, High actions and high passions best describing: Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: To sage philosophy next lend thine ear, From heaven descended to the low-roofed house Of Socrates; see there his tenement, Whom well inspired the oracle pronounced Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools Of Academics old and new, with those Surnamed Peripatetics, and the sect Epicurean, and the Stoic severe."
I. ON MRS. CATHERINE THOMPSON.
WHEN faith and love, which parted from thee never, Had ripened thy just soul to dwell with God, Meekly thou didst resign this earthly load
Of death, called life; which us from life doth sever. Thy works, and alms, and all thy good endeavour, Štaid not behind, nor in the grave were trod; But, as faith pointed with her golden rod, Followed thee up to joy and bliss for ever. Love led them on, and faith, who knew them best, Thy hand-maids clad them o'er with purple beams, And azure wings, that up they flew so drest, And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes Before the Judge; who thenceforth bid thee rest, And drink thy fill of pure immortal streams.
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