Leads on the gentle Hours; then forth he walks, Beneath the trembling languish of her beam, 1035 With foftened foul, and wooes the bird of eve To mingle woes with his; or while the world And all the fons of Care lie hush'd in sleep, Associates with the midnight shadows drear, And, fighing to the lonely taper, pours His idly-tortur'd heart into the page Meant for the moving messenger of love, Where rapture burns on rapture, every line With rising frenzy fir'd: but if on bed Delirious flung, sleep from his pillow flies: All night he toffes, nor the balmy power In any posture finds; till the grey Morn Lifts her pale lustre on the paler wretch, Exanimate by love; and then, perhaps, Exhausted Nature finks a while to rest, Still interrupted by distracted dreams, That o'er the fick imagination rife, And in black colours paint the mimic scene. Oft' with th' enchantress of his foul he talks, Sometimes in crowds distress'd; or if retir'd 1055 To fecret-winding flower-enwoven bowers, Far from the dull impertinence of Man, Just as he, credulous, his endless cares Begins to lofe in blind oblivious love,
Snatch'd from her yielded hand, he knows not how, Thro' forests huge, and long-untravell'd heaths, 1061 With defolation brown, he wanders waste,
In night and tempest wrapt, or shrinks, aghaft, Back from the bending precipice, or wades The turbid stream below, and strives to reach 1065 The farther shore, where, fuccourless and fad,
She with extended arms his aid implores, But strives in vain; borne by the outrageous flood To distance down, he rides the ridgy wave, Or whelm'd beneath the boiling eddy finks. These are the charming agonies of love, Whose mifery delights. But thro' the heart Should Jealousy its venom once diffuse, 'Tis then delightful misery no more, But agony unmix'd, incessant gall, Corroding every thought, and blasting all Love's paradife. Ye Fairy Prospects, then, Ye Beds of Roses, and ye Bowers of Joy, Farewell! ye Gleamings of departed Peace, Shine out your last! the yellow-tinging plague 1080
Internal vision taints, and in a night
Of livid gloom imagination wraps. Ah, then! instead of love-enlivened cheeks,
Of funny features, and of ardent eyes,
With flowingrapture bright, dark looks succeed,
Suffus'd, and glaring with untender fire;
A clouded aspect, and a burning cheek, Where the whole poison'd foul, malignant, fits, And frightens Love away. Ten thousand fears
Invented wild, ten thousand frantic views
Of horrid rivals, hanging on the charms
For which he melts in fondness, eat him up With fervent anguish and confuming rage. In vain reproacheslend their idle aid, Deceitful pride, and resolution frail, Giving false peace a moment. Fancy pours, Afresh her beauties on his busy thought, Her first endearments twining round the foul, With all the witchcraft of ensnaring love. Straight the fierce storm involves his mind anew, Flames thro' the nerves, and boils along the veins, While anxious doubt distracts the tortur'd heart; For even the fad afsurance of his fears
Were ease to what he feels. Thus the warm youth, Whom Love deludes into his thorny wilds Thro' flowery-tempting paths, or leads a life Of fevered rapture or of cruel care, His brighteft aims extinguish'd all, and all His lively moments running down to waste.
But happy they! the happiest of their kind! 1110 Whom gentler stars unite, and in one fate Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend.
'Tis not the coarfer tie of human laws,
Unnatural oft', and foreign to the mind, That binds their peace, but harmony itself,
Attuning all their passions into love,
Perfect esteem, enlivened by defire
Ineffable, and sympathy of foul;
Where Friendship full-exerts her foftest power,
Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, With boundless confidence; for nought but love 1121 Can answer love, and render bliss secure. Let him, ungenerous, who, alone intent To bless himself, from fordid parents buys The loathing virgin, in eternal care, Well-merited, confume his nights and days; Let barbarous nations, whose inhuman love Is wild defire, fierce as the funs they feel, Let Eastern tyrants, from the light of heaven Seclude their bofom-flaves, meanly poffefs'd 1130 Of a mere lifeless, violated form,
While those whom love cements in holy faith And equal transport, free as Nature live, Disdaining fear. What is the world to them, Its pomp, its pleasure, and its nonsense all! 1135 Who in each other clasp whatever fair High fancy forms, and lavish hearts can wish? Something than beauty dearer, should they look Or on the mind or mind-illumin'd face; Truth, goodness, honour, harmony, and love, 1140 The richest bounty of indulgent Heaven. Mean time a smiling offspring rifes round, And mingles both their graces. By degrees The human blossom blows, and every day, Soft as it rolls along, shews some new charm, 1145 The father's lustre, and the mother's bloom. Then infant Reason grows apace, and calls Volume 1.
For the kind hand of an affiduous care. Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot, To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind, To breathe th' enlivening spirit, and to fix The generous purpose in the glowing breaft. Oh speak the joy! ye, whom the sudden tear Surprises often, while you look around, And nothing strikes your eye but fights of blifs, All-various Nature preffing on the heart; An elegant sufficiency, content, Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Eafe and alternate labour, useful life, Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven. These are the matchless joys of virtuous love, And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus, As ceaselefs round a jarring world they roll, Still find them happy, and confenting Spring 1165 Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads; Till evening comes at last, serene and mild, When, after the long vernal day of life, Enamour'd more, as more remembrance swells
With many a proof of recollected love, Together down they fink in social fleep; Together freed, their gentle spirits fly To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.
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