The flowing branches; what trees answer beft
From root, or kernel. She will best the hours
Of harvest, and feed-time declare: by her
The different qualities of things were found,
And secret motions; how with heavy bulk
Volatile Hermes, fluid and unmoist,

Mounts on the wings of air: to her we owe

330

The Indian weed, unknown to ancient times, 335
Nature's choice gift, whofe acrimonious fume
Extracts fuperfluous juices, and refines

The blood diftemper'd from its noxious falts;
Friend to the fpirits, which with vapors bland
It gently mitigates; companion fit

quà fe medio trudunt de cortice gemmæ
Et tenues rumpunt tunicas, anguftus in ipfo
Fit nodo finus; huc aliena ex arbore germen
Includunt, udoque docent inolefcere libro.

340

and

But P. Vaniere, in his Prædium Rufticum, notices this as erroneous, fays "the incifion fhould be made where the rind is perfectly smooth," which is now the common practice.

fiffus fcalpro cortex aperitur acuto :

Non tamen (ut Vatum princeps monftrabat) in ipfo
Quà tunicas oculus rumpit, fit rimula nodo;
Sed potius quà fe nullum de cortice trudet

Germen, ubi nitidus locus eft, et nulla cicatrix.
to her we owe

334.

2

The Indian weed] The invention of the Barometer might juftly be afcribed to experience (or rather to experiment); but how can we be faid to owe to either of thefe the difcovery of Tobacco? Our Author muft mean the difcovery of its medicinal qualities, and not of the herb itself, to the fmoking of which he was particularly addicted, as he fancied it relieved an asthmatic complaint with which he was much afflicted, and which put a period to his life two years after the publication of this poem.

Of

Of pleasantry and wine; nor to the bards
Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell
Warble melodious their well-labor'd songs.

She found the polifh'd glass, whose small convex
Enlarges to ten millions of degrees

The mite, invifible elfe, of Nature's hand

Least animal, and fhews what laws of life

Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell

Warble melodious their well-labor'd fongs.]

39

345

The cuftom of fmoking was very general in Philips's time, and was particularly fanctioned, in his college, by the practice of its very learned head, Dr. Aldridge, at that time Dean of Christ Church.- -Antony Alfop, a cotemporary, and fellow-collegian of our Author, begins a sapphic ode, which he addreffed to the Rev. Sir John Dolben, abfolutely with his pipe in his mouth.

Dum TUBUM, ut mos eft meus, ORE VERSANS
Martiis penfo quid agem calendis;

Pone ftat Sapho, monitifque mifcet

Blanda feveris.

Blowing my pipe, as cuftom taught,
One Lenten morn, and busying thought
How beft to spend the day;
Sapho foft whifp'ring ftood behind,
Mingling with threats monition kind,
And faid, or feem'd to say ;

From the Tranflation published, with the Ode, in the Gentleman's Maga xine, for 1735. P. 384.

346 The mite, invisible elfe, of nature's hand

Leaft animal, &c. &c.]

We cannot well pafs by these lines without remarking how, from the most common experiment with the Microscope, the Poet has taken occafion to introduce a moft truly poetical defcription of mites in cheese, and with what admirable addrefs he returns to his fubject.

We fhould be tempted, however, to call his natural philofophy in question, where he ftiles the mite" the leaft animal of nature's hand,' were it only for the fake of correcting fuch an error by the following exquifite paffage of a later Poet.

Gradual from these what numerous kinds defcend,
Evading ev'n the microscopic eye!

Full

The cheese-inhabitants obferve, and how

Fabrick their manfions in the harden'd milk,
Wonderful artifts! But, the hidden ways

350

Of Nature would'ft thou know, how firft fhe frames
All things in miniature, thy fpecular orb
Apply to well-diffected kernels; lo!

Strange forms arise, in each a little plant

Unfolds its boughs: obferve the flender threads 355
Of first beginning trees, their roots, their leaves,
In narrow feeds defcrib'd; thou'lt wondering fay,
An inmate orchat ev'ry apple boasts.

Full Nature fwarms with life; one wonderous mass
Of animals or atoms organiz'd,

Waiting the vital breath, when Parent Heaven
Shall bid his fpirit blow. The hoary fen,

In putrid fteams, emits the living cloud
Of peftilence. Through fubterranean cells,

Where fearching fun-beams fcarce can find a way,
Earth animated heaves. The flowery leaf
Wants not its foft inhabitants.

Secure,

Within its winding citadel, the ftone

Holds multitudes. But chief the foreft boughs,
That dance unnumber'd to the playful breeze,
The downy orchard, and the melting pulp
Of mellow fruit, the nameless nations feed
Of evanefcent infects. Where the pool
Stands mantled o'er with green, invifible
Amid the floating verdure millions stray,
Each liquid too, whether it pierces, fooths,
Inflames, refreshes, or exalts the taste,

With various forms abounds. Nor is the ftream
Of pureft cryftal, nor the lucid air,

Tho' one tranfparent vacancy it seems,

Void of its unfeen people, Thefe, conceal'd
By the kind art of forming heaven, escape

The groffer eye of man.

Thomson's SUMMER. V. 287.

Thus

Thus all things by Experience are display'd,
And most improv'd. Then fedulously think
To meliorate thy ftock; no way, nor rule
Be unaffay'd; prevent the morning star
Affiduous, nor with the western fun

Surcease to work. Lo! thoughtful of thy gain,
Not of my own, I all the livelong day

41

360

365

Confume in meditation deep, reclufe

From human converfe, nor, at shut of eve,
Enjoy repose; but oft at midnight lamp
Ply my brain-racking ftudies, if by chance
Thee I

may counsel right; and oft this care

Disturbs me flumbering. Wilt thou then repine
To labor for thyself, and rather chuse

To lie fupinely, hoping Heav'n will bless

370

Thy flighted fruits, and give thee bread unearn'd? "Twill profit, when the ftork, fworn foe of fnakes, Returns, to fhew compaffion to thy plants,

376

The fame expreffion, on the fame fubject, occurs in Sir John Denham's Poetical Imitation of Cicero's Cato Major.

But when we graft or buds inoculate,
Nature by art we nobly MELIORATE.
at fout of eve,]

367.

Milton has

AT SHUT of evening flowers,

P. L. ix. 278.

375.

when the ftork, fworn foe of fnakes,

Returns,

Here is another undeniable mark of imitation. (See note on V. 27.)

G

The

Fatigu'd with breeding. Let the arched knife
Well sharpen'd now affail the spreading fhades
Of vegetables, and their thirsty limbs
Diffever for the genial moisture, due
To apples, otherwife mifpends itself

380

385

In barren twigs, and, for th'expected crop,
Naught but vain fhoots and empty leaves abound.
When fwelling buds their odorous foliage fhed,
And gently harden into fruit, the wife
Spare not the little offsprings, if they grow
Redundant; but the thronging clusters thin
By kind avulfion: else the starveling brood,
Void of fufficient fuftenance, will yield
A flender autumn; which the niggard foul
Too late fhall weep, and curse his thrifty hand,
That would not timely ease the ponderous boughs.

It much conduces all the cares to know
Of gardening; how to fcare nocturnal thieves;

390

The Stork, a bird of paffage, comes into Italy in the Spring. It does not appear that Storks ever come into England; but our Author has taken this circumftance, which marks the Italian Spring, from Virgil's fecond GEORGIC, V. 319.

Cum vere rubenti

Candida venit avis longis invifa colubris.

in blufhing Spring's fresh bloom When the white bird, the dread of fnakes, is come.

WARTON.

Storks, we are told by Pliny, were held in fuch efteem in Theffaly, for destroying serpents, that it was made a capital crime to kill them.

And