of

the Village, CRABBE. afk, thefe humble crimes relate, Why make the poor as guiity as the great? To fhew the great, thofe mightier fons of pride, How near in vice the loweit are allied: Such are their natures, and their paffions fuch, But thefe difguife too little, thofe too much: So fhall the man of pow'r and pleasure fee In his own flave as vile a wretch as he; In his luxuriant lord the fervant find His own low pleasures and degenerate mind: And each in all the kindred vices trace Of a poor, blind, bewilder'd, erring race; Who, a fhort time in varied fortune pait, Die, and are equal in the duft at last, And you, ye poor, who ftill lament your fate, Forbear to envy thofe you reckon great; And know, amid thofe bleffings they poffefs, They are, like you, the victims of distress;

Waft fighs alternate to each other's heart:
But not the concord of harmonious founds,
When the foft lute or pealing organ ftrikes
The well-attemper'd ear; nor the fweet breath
Of honeft love, when nymph and gentle fwain
Waft fighs alternate to each other's heart,
So charm with ravishment the raptur'd fenfe,
As does the voice of well-deferv'd report
Strike with sweet melody the confcious foul.
On ev'ry object thro' the giddy world
Which fashion to the dazzled eye prefents,
Fresh is the glofs of newnefs; look, dear youth,
O look, but not admire: 0 let not these
Rafe from thy noble heart the fair records
Which youth and education planted there:
Let not affection's full, impetuous tide,
Which riots in thy generous breaft, be check'd
By felfish cares; nor let the idle jeers

Of laughing fools make thee forget thyself.
When didst thou hear a tender tale of woe,
And feel thy heart at reft? Have I not feen
In thy fwoln eye the tear of fympathy,
The milk of human kindness? When didst thou,
With envy rankling, hear a rival prais'd?
When didst thou flight the wretched? when def-
The modeft humble fuit of poverty? [pife
Thefe virtues ftill be thine; nor ever learn
To look with cold eye on the charities
Of brother, or of parents; think on thofe
Whofeanxiouscarethro'childhood slipperypath
Suftain'd thy feeble steps; whose every with
Is wafted still to thee; remember thofe,
Even in thy heart, while memory holds her feat.
And oft as to thy mind thou fhalt recal
The fweet companions of thy earliest years,
Mates of thy fport, and rivals in the ftrife
Of every generous art, remember me.

132. Great Cities, and London in particular, allowed their due Praije. CowPER.

BUT

A lucid mirror, in which Nature fees
All her reflected features. Bacon there
Gives more than female beauty to a ftone,
And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips.
Nor does the chifel occupy alone
The pow'rs of fculpture, but the ftyle as much i
Each province of her art her equal care.
With nice incifion of her guided fteel
She ploughs a brazen field, and clothes a foil
So fterile with what charms foe'er. fhe will,
The richest fcenery, and the lovelieft forms.
Where finds Philofophy her eagle eye,
With which the gazes at yon burning dik
Undazzled, and detects and counts his fpots!
In London. Where her implements exact,
With which the calculates, computes, and scans
All distance, motion, magnitude; and now
Measures an atom, and now girds a world?
In London. Where has commerce fuch a mart,
So rich, fo throng'd, fo drain'd, and fo fupplied
As London, opulent, enlarg'd, and ftill
Increafing London? Babylon of old
Not more the glory of the earth, than the
A more accomplish'd world's chief glory now,

She has her praife. Now mark a spot or two
That fo much beauty would do well to purge;
And fhew this queen of cities, that fo fair,
May yet be foul, fo witty, yet not wife.
It is not feemly, nor of good report,
That she is flack in difcipline; more prompt
T' avenge than to prevent the breach of law.
That the is rigid in denouncing death
On petty robbers, and indulges life
And liberty, and oft-times honour too.
To peculators of the public gold.
That thieves at home muft hang; but he that puts
Into his overgorg'd and bloated purse
The wealth of Indian provinces, efcapes.
Nor is it well, nor can it come to good,
That, through profane and infidel contempt
Of holy writ, fhe has prefum'd t'annul
The total ordinance and will of God;
And abrogate, as roundly as the may,
And centing all authority in modes
Advancing fashion to the poft of truth,
And cuftoms of her own, till Sabbath rites
Have dwindled into unrefpected forms,
And knees and haflocks are well-nigh divorc'd

tho' true worth and virtue in the mild And genial foil of cultivated life Thrive moft, and may perhaps thrive only there, Yet not in cities oft; in proud, and gay, And gain-devoted cities. Thither flow, As to a common and most noisome fewer, The dregs and feculence of ev'ry land. In cities, foul example on moft minds God made the country, and man made the town. Begets its likeness. Rank abundance breeds What wonder then that health and virtue, gifts In grofs and pamper'd cities floth and luft, That can alone make sweet the bitter draught And wantonness, and gluttonous excefs. That life holds out to all, fhould moft abound, In cities, vice is hidden with most eafe, And leaft be threaten'd, in the fields and groves? Or feen with leaft reproach; and virtue, taught Poffefs ye therefore, ye who, borne about By frequent lapfe, can hope no triumph there In chariots and fedans, know no fatigue. Beyond th' achievement of fuccefsful flight. But that of idlenefs, and tafte no fcenes I do confess them nurs'ries of the arts, But fuch as art contrives, poffefs ye ftill In which they flourish moft; where, in the beams Your element; there only ye can fhine,, Of warm encouragement, and in th' eye There only minds like yours can do no harm. Of public note, they reach their perfect fize. Such London is, by tafte and wealth proclaim'd The penfive wand'rer in their shades. At eve Our groves were planted to confole at noon The fairest capital of all the world, The moon-beam, fliding foftly in between By riot and incontinence the worst. [comes The fleeping leaves, is all the fight they with; There, touch'd by Reynolds, a dull blank be-Birds warbling, all the mufic. We can spare

The

The fplendour of your lamps; they but eclipfe
Our fofter fatellite. Your fongs confound
Dur more harmonious notes. The thrush departs
Scar'd, and th' offended nightingale is imute.
I here is a public mifchief in your mirth;
It plagues your country. Folly fuch as yours,
Grac'd with a fword, and worthier of a fan,
Has made,which enemies could ne'er have done,
Our arch of empire, steadfast but for you,
A mutilated ftructure, foon to fall.

Till gowns at length are found mere mafquerade;
The tallel'd cap and the fpruce band a jeft,
A mock'ry of the world. What need of thefe
For gamefter's, jockies, brothellers impure,
Spendthrifts, and booted fportfmen, oft'ner feen
With belted waift, and pointers at their heels,
Than in the bounds of duty? What was learn'd,
If aught was learn'd in childhood, is forgot;
And fuch expence as pinches parents blue,
And mortifies the lib'ral hand of love,
Is fquander'd in purfuit of idle fports

$133. The Want of Difcipline in the English And vicious pleafures; buys the boy a name

Univerfities. COWPER.

N colleges and halls, in ancient days,

Were precious, and inculcated with care,
There dwelt a fage, call'd Difcipline. His head,
Not yet by time completely filver'd o'er,
Bespoke him paft the bounds of freakish youth,
But ftrong for fervice ftill, and unimpair'd.
His eye was meek and gentle, and a mile
Play'd on his lips, and in his fpeech was heard
Paternal fweetness, dignity, and love.
The occupation deareft to his heart
Was to encourage goodness. He would ftroke
The head of modeft and ingenuous worth
That blush'd at its own praife,and prefs the youth
Clofe to his fide that pleas'd him. Learning grew,
Beneath his care, a thriving vigorous plant;
The mind was well inform d, the pallions held
Subordinate, and diligence was choice,

If e'er it chanc'd, as fometimes chance it must,
That one, among fo many, overleap'd
The limits of controul, his gentle eye
Grew ftern, and darted a fevere rebuke,
His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with fuch fits of awe
As left him not, till penitence had won
Loft favour back again, and clos'd the breach.
But Difcipline, a faithful fervant long,
Declin'd at length into the vale of years:
A palfy ftruck his arm; his fparkling eye
Was quench'd in rheums of age; his voice
unitrung,

Grew tremulous, and mov'd derifion more
Than rev'rence in perverfe rebellious youth.
So colleges and halls neglected much
Their good old friend; and Difcipline at length,
O'erlook'd and unemploy'd, fell fick, and died.
Then Study languish 'd, Emulation flept,
And Virtue fled. The schools became a fcene
Of tolemn farce, where Ignorance in stilts,
His cap well lin'd with logic not his own,
With parrot tongue perform'd the scholar's part,
Proceeding foon a graduated Dunce.
Then Compromite had place, and Scrutiny
Became ftone blind, Precedence went in truck,
And he was competent whofe purse was so.
A diffolution of all bonds enfued:
The curbs invented for the mulish mouth
Of headstrong youth were broken; bars and bolts
Grew rufty by difufe; and mafly gates
Forgot their office, op'ning with a touch;

That fits a ftigma on his father's house,
And cleaves through life infeparably clofe
To him that wears it. What can after-games
Of riper joys, and commerce with the world,
The lewd vain world that muft receive him foon,
Add to fuch erudition thus acquir'd,
Where fcience and where virtue are profefs'd?
They may confirm his habits, rivet fast
His folly; but to spoil him is a task
That bids defiance to th' united pow'rs
of fashion, diffipation, taverns, stews.
Now, blane we moft the nurflings or the nurfe
The children, crook'd, and twiffed,and deform'd
Through want of care, or her, whofe winking eye
And lumb'ring ofcitancy mars the brood?
The nurse, no doubt. Regardless of her charge,
She needs herself correction; needs to learn,
That it is dang'ous fporting with the world,
With things to facred as a nation's truft,
The nurture of her youth, her dearest pledge.

§ 134. Happy the Freedom of the Man whom Grace makes free-His relish of the Works of God-Address to the Creator. COWPER.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,

And all are flaves befide. There's not a chain
I hat hellish foes confed'rate for his harm
Can wind around him, but he cafts it off
With as much eafe as Samfon his green withes.
He looks abroad into the varied field

of Nature; and tho' poor, perhaps, compar'd
With thofe whofe manfions glitter in his fight,
Calls the delightful fcen'ry all his own.
His are the mountains, and the yalleys his,
And the refplendent rivers; his t' enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspir'd,
Can lift to Heaven an unprefumptuous eye,
And fmiling fay--My Father made them all;
Are they not his by a veculiar right?
And by an emphafis of int'reft his,
Whofe eye they fill with tears of holy joy,
Whofe heart with praife,and whofe exalted mind
With worthy thoughts of that unwearied love
That plann`d,and built,and still upholds a world,
So cloath'd with beauty, for rebellious man?
Yes-ye may fill your garners; ye that reap
The loaded foil, and ye may waite much good
In fenfelefs riot; but ye will not find
In feaft or in the chace, in fong or dance,
A liberty like his, who, uniinpeach'd

of

"Beneath a vault unsullied with a cloud,
"If from your elevation, whence ye view
Diftinctly scenes invisible to man,
"And fyftems, of whose birth no tidings yet
"Have reach'd this nether world, ye fpy a race
"Favour'd as ours, tranfgreffors from the womb,
"And hafting to a grave, yet doom'd to rile,
"And to poffefs a brighter heaven than yours!
"As one who, long detain'd on foreign hores,
"Pants to return, and when he fees afar [rocks
"His country's weather-bleach'd and batter'd
"From the green wave emerging, darts an eye
Radiant with joy towards the happy land;
"So I with animated hopes behold,
" And many an aching with, your beamy fires,
"That fhew like beacons in the blue abys,
"Ordain'd to guide th' embodied fpirit home
"From toilfome life to never-ending reft.

Of ufurpation, and to no man's wrong,
Appropriates nature as his Father's work,
And has a richer ufe of yours than you.
He is indeed a freeman; free by birth
Of no mean city, plann'd or ere the hills
Were built, the fountains open'd, or the fea,
With all his roaring multitude of waves.
His freedom is the fame in ev'ry state;
And no condition of this changeful life,
So manifold in cares, whofe ev'ry day
Brings its own evil with it, makes it less:
For he has wings that neither fickness, pain,
Nor penury can cripple or confine;
No nook fo narrow but he spreads them there
With eafe, and is at large. Th' oppreffor holds
His body bound, but knows not what a range
His fpirit takes, unconscious of a chain;
And that to bind him is a vain attempt,
Whom God delights in, and in whom he dwells." Love kindles as I gaze. I feel defires
Acquaint thy felf with God,if thou wouldst tafte" That give affurance of their own fuccefs,
His works. Admitted once to his embrace,
Thou fhalt perceive that thou wast blind before:
Thine eye fhall be inftructed; and thine heart,
Made pure, fhall relish with divine delight,
Tillthenunfelt,what hands divine have wrought.
Brutes graze the mountain-top with faces prone,
And eyes intent upon the scanty herb

"Andthatinfus'd from heav'nmuftthither tend

It yields them; or, recumbent on its brow,
Ruminate, heedlefs of the fcene outspread
Beneath, beyond, and stretching far away
From inland regions to the diftant main.
Man views it and admires, but refts content
With what he views. Thelandscapehashispraife, In vain thy creatures teftify of thee
But not its Author. Unconcern'd who form'd
The paradife he fees, he finds it fuch;
And, fuch well-pleas'd to find it, afks no more.
Not fo the mind that has beentouch'dfrom Heav'n,
And in the fchool of facred wisdom taught
To read his wonders,in whofe thought the world,
Fair as it is, exifted ere it was:

Not for its own fake merely, but for his
Much more who fashion'd it, he gives it praife;
Praise that, from earth refulting, as it ought,
To earth's acknowledg'dSovereign, finds at once
Its only juft proprietor in Him.

The foul that fees him, or receives fublim'd
New faculties, or learns at least t' employ
More worthily the pow'rs the own'd before,
Descerns in all things, what, with ftupid gaze
Of ignorance, till then the overlook'd,
A ray of heavenly light gilding all forms
Terrestrial, in the vast and the minute,
The unambiguous footsteps of the God
Who gives its luftre to an infect's wing,
And wheels his throne upon the rolling worlds.
Much converfant with Heaven, the often holds
With those fair minifters of light to man,
That fill the skies nightly with filent pomp,
Sweet conference! enquires what strains werethey
With which heaven rang, when ev'ry ftar, in hafte
To gratulate the new created earth,

Sent forth a voice, and all the fons of God
Shouted for joy-"Tell me ye fhining hosts,
That navigate a fea that knows no ftorms,

So reads he nature, whom the lamp of truth
Illuminates; thy lamp, myfterious Word!
Which whofo fees no longer wanders loft,
With intellects bemaz'd, in endless doubt,
But runs the road of wisdom. Thou haft bu,
With means that were not, till by thee employ
Worlds that had never been,haditthouinftrengta
Been lefs, or lefs benevolent than strong.
They are thy witneffes, who fpeak thy pow'r
And goodness infinite, but fpeak in cars
That hear not, or receive not their report.
Till thou proclaim thy felf. Theirs is indeed
A teaching voice; but 'tis the praife of thine,
That whom it teaches it makes prompt to learn,
And with the boon gives talents for its use.
Till thou art heard, imaginations vain
Poffefs the heart, and fables falfe as hell,
Yet deem'd oracular, lure down to death
The uninform'd and heedlefs fons of men.
Wegivetochance, blind chance,ourfelvesasbling,
The glory of thy work, which yet appears
Perfect and unimpeachable of blame,
Challenging human fcrutiny, and prov'd
Then fkilful moft when moft feverely judg'd.
But chance is not, or is not where thou reign't
Thy providence forbids that fickle pow'r
(If pow'r the be that works but to confound)
To mix her wild vagaries with thy laws.
Yet thus we dote, refufing, while we can,
Inftruction, and inventing to ourfelves
Godsfuchasguiltmakes welcome, Godsthatfleep,
Or difregard our follies, or that fit
Amus'd fpectators of this bustling stage.
Thee we reject, unable to abide
Thy purity, till pure as thou art pure,
Made fuch by thee, we love thee for that cause
For which we fhunn'd and hated thee before.
Then we are free: then liberty, like day,
Breaks on the foul, and by a flash from Heaven
Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.
A voice is heard, that mortal ears hear not
Till thou hast touch'd them; 'tis the voiceofiong,

A loud

A loud Hofanna fent from all thy works,
Which he that hears it with a fhout repeats,
And adds his rapture to the gen'ral praise.
In that bleft moment, Nature, throwing wide
Her veil opake, difclofes with a smile
The Author of her beauties, who, retir'd
Behind his own creation, works unfeen
By the impure, and hears his pow'r denied.

Form'd for his ufe, and ready at his will?
Go, drefs thine eyes with eye-falve; ask of him,
Or afk of whom foever he has taught,
And learn, tho' late, the genuine caufe of all.

§ 136. Rural Sounds as well as Sights delightful.

COWPER.

Thou art the fource and centre of all minds,NOR rural fights alone, but rural founds

Their only point of reft, Eternal Word!
From thee departing, they are loft, and rove
At random, without honour, hope, or peace.
From thee is all that fooths the life of man,
His high endeavour, and his glad fuccefs,
His ftrength to fuffer, and his will to serve.
But, O! thou bounteous Giver of all good,
Thou art of all thy gifts thyfelf the crown!
Give what thou canft, without thee we are poor;
And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away.
$135. That Philosophy which flops at Secondary
Caufes reproved. CowPER.

HAPPY the man who fees a God employ'd
In all the good and ill that chequer life!
Refolving all events, with their effects
And manifold refults, into the will
And arbitration wife of the Supreme.
Did not his eye rule all things, and intend
The leaft of our concerns (fince from the leaft
The greateft oft originate); could chance
Find place in his dominion, or difpofe
One lawless particle to thwart his plan;
Then God might be furpris'd, and unforeseen
Contingence might alarm him, and disturb
The fmooth and equal courfe of his affairs,
This truth, philofophy, though eagle-eyed
In nature's tendencies, oft overlooks;
And, having found, his inftrument, forgets
Or difregards, or, more prefumptuous ftill,
Denies the pow'r that wields it. God proclaims
His hot difpleasure against foolish men
That live an atheist lite; involves the heaven
In tempefts; quits his grafp upon the winds,
And gives them all their fury; bids a plague
Kindle a fiery bile upon the skin,

And putrefy the breath of blooming health.
He calls for famine; and the meagre fiend
Blows mildew from between his thrivell'd lips.
And taints the golden ear: he fprings his mines,
And defolates a nation at a blatt.
Forth iteps the fpruce philofopher, and tells
Of homogeneal and difcordant fprings
And principles; of caufes, how they work
By neceflary laws their fure effects,
Of action and re-action. He has found
The fource of the difeale that Nature feels,
And bids the world take heart and banish fear.
Thou fool! will thy difcovery of the cause
Sufpend the effect, or heal it? Has not God
Still wrought by means fince firft he made the
And did he not of old employ his means [world?
To drown it? What is his creation lefs
Than a capacious reservoir of means

Exhilarate the spirit, and restore

The tone of languid Nature. Mighty winds,
That fweep the skirt of fome far-fpreading wood
Of ancient growth, make mufic not unlike
The dafh of ocean on his winding fhore,
And lull the fpirit while they fill the mind,
Unnumber'd branches waving in the blaft,
And all their leaves faft flutt'ring all at once.
Nor lefs compofure waits upon the roar
|Of distant floods, or on the softer voice
Of neighb'ring fountain, or of rills that flip
Through the cleft rock, and chiming as they fall
Upon loofe pebbles, lofe themselves at length
In matted grafs, that with a livelier green
Betrays the fecret of their filent course.
Nature inanimate employs fweet founds,
But animated nature fweeter still,
To footh and fatisfy the human ear.
Ten thoufand warblers cheer the day, and one
The live-long night: nor thefe alone, whose
Nice-finger'd art muft emulate in vain, [notes
But cawing rooks, and kites, that swim fublime
In ftill repeated circles, fcreaming loud,
The jaye, the pye, and ev'n the boding owl
That hails the riting moon, have charms for me.
Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh,
Yet, heard in fcenes where peace for ever reigns,
And only there, pleafe highly for their fake.

$137. The Wearifomeness of what is commonly
COWPER.
called a Life of Pleasure.

TH

[own.

HE fpleen is feldom felt where Flora reigns;
The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown,
And fullen fadnefs, that o'erfhade, distort
And mar the face of beauty, when no caufe
For fuch immeasurable woe appears;
Thefe Flora banithes, and gives the fair
Sweet fmiles and bloom, lefs tranfient than her
It is the conftant revolution, ftale
And taftelefs, of the fame repeated joys,
That palls and fatiates, and makes languid life
A pedlar's pack, that bows the hearer down.
Health fuffers, and the fpirits ebb; the heart
Recoils from its own choice-at the full feast
Is famith'd---finds no mufic in the fong,
No fmartness in the jeft, and wonders why.
Yet thoufands till defire to journey on,
Though halt, and weary of the path they tread.
The paralytic, who can hold her cards,
But cannot play them, borrows a friend's hand
To deal and shuffle, to divide and fort
Her mingled fuits and fequences, and fits,
Spectatrefs both and spectacle, a fad
And filent cypher, while her proxy plays.

Othes