"With fond delight we feel the potent charm,
When Zephyrs cool us, or when sun-beams warm;
With fond delight inhale the fragrant flowers,
Taste the sweet fruits, which bend the blushing bowers,
Admire the music of the vernal grove,
Or drink the raptures of delirious love.
"So with long gaze admiring eyes behold
[The varied landscape] all its lights unfold; 160
Huge rocks opposing o'er the stream project
Their naked bosoms, and the beams reflect;
Wave high in air their fringed crests of wood,
And checker'd shadows dance upon the flood;
Green sloping lawns construct the sidelong scene,
And guide the sparkling rill that winds between;
Conduct on murmuring wings the pausing gale,
And rural echoes talk along the vale;
Dim hills behind in pomp aerial rise,
Lift their blue tops, and melt into the skies. 170
"So when by Handel tuned to measured sounds
The trumpet vibrates, or the drum rebounds;
Alarm'd we listen with ecstatic wonder
To mimic battles, or imagined thunder.
When the soft lute in sweet impassion'd strains
Of cruel nymphs or broken vows complains;
As on the breeze the fine vibration floats,
[We drink delighted] the melodious notes.
But when young Beauty on the realms above
Bends her bright eye, and trills the tones of love; 180
Seraphic sounds enchant this nether sphere;
And listening angels lean from Heaven to hear.
"Next by Sensation led, new joys commence
From the fine movements of the excited sense;
In swarms ideal urge their airy flight,
Adorn the day-scenes, and illume the night.
Her spells o'er all the hand of Fancy flings,
Gives form and substance to unreal things;
With fruits and foliage decks the barren waste,
And brightens Life with sentiment and taste; 190
Pleased o'er the level and the rule presides,
The painter's brush, the sculptor's chisel guides,
With ray ethereal lights the poet's fire,
Tunes the rude pipe, or strings the heroic lyre:
Charm'd round the nymph on frolic footsteps move
The angelic forms of Beauty, Grace, and Love.
"So dreams the Patriot, who indignant draws
The sword of vengeance in his Country's cause;
Bright for his brows unfading honours bloom,
Or kneeling Virgins weep around his tomb. 200
So holy transports in the cloister's shade
Play round thy toilet, visionary maid!
Charm'd o'er thy bed celestial voices sing,
And Seraphs hover on enamour'd wing.
"So Howard, Moira, Burdett, sought the cells,
Where want, or woe, or guilt in darkness dwells;
With Pity's torch illumed the dread domains,
Wiped the wet eye, and eased the galling chains;
With Hope's bright blushes warm'd the midnight air,
And drove from earth the Demon of Despair. 210
Erewhile emerging from the caves of night
The Friends of Man ascended into light;
With soft assuasive eloquence address'd
The ear of Power to stay his stern behest;
At Mercy's call to stretch his arm and save
His tottering victims from the gaping grave.
These with sweet smiles Imagination greets,
For these she opens all her treasured sweets,
Strews round their couch, by Pity's hand combined,
Bright flowers of joy, the sunshine of the mind; 220
While Fame's loud trump with sounds applausive breathes
And Virtue crowns them with immortal wreathes.
"Thy acts, Volition, to the world impart
The plans of Science with the works of art;
Give to proud Reason her comparing power,
Warm every clime, and brighten every hour.
In Life's first cradle, ere the dawn began
Of young Society to polish man;
The staff that propp'd him, and the bow that arm'd,
The boat that bore him, and the shed that warm'd, 230
Fire, raiment, food, the ploughshare, and the sword,
Arose, Volition, at thy plastic word.
"By thee instructed, Newton's eye sublime
Mark'd the bright periods of revolving time;
Explored in Nature's scenes the effect and cause,
And, charm'd, unravell'd all her latent laws.
Delighted Herschel with reflected light
Pursues his radiant journey through the night;
Detects new guards, that roll their orbs afar
In lucid ringlets round the Georgian star. 240
"Inspired by thee, with scientific wand
Pleased Archimedes [mark'd the figured sand];
Seized with mechanic grasp the approaching decks,
And shook the assailants from the inverted wrecks.
—Then cried the Sage, with grand effects elate,
And proud to save the Syracusian state;
While crowds exulting shout their noisy mirth,
'Give where to stand, and I will move the earth.'
[So Savery guided] his explosive steam
In iron cells to raise the balanced beam; 250
The Giant-form its ponderous mass uprears,
Descending nods and seems to shake the spheres.
"Led by Volition on the banks of Nile
Where bloom'd [the waving flax] on Delta's isle,
Pleased Isis taught the fibrous stems to bind,
And part with hammers from the adhesive rind;
With locks of flax to deck the distaff-pole,
And whirl with graceful bend the dancing spole.
In level lines the length of woof to spread,
And dart the shuttle through the parting thread. 260
[So Arkwright taught] from Cotton-pods to cull,
And stretch in lines the vegetable wool;
With teeth of steel its fibre-knots unfurl'd,
And with the silver tissue clothed the world.