They to their grassy couch, these to their nest
Where sunk, all but the wakeful nightingale ;
She all night long her amorous descant sung :
Silence was pleas'd. Now glow'd the firmament.
With living sapphires : Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest ; till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty at length,
Apparent queen unveil'd her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mant threw.

When Adam thus to Eve. Fair consort, th' hour
Of night, and all things now retir'd to rest,
Mind

us of like repose ; since God hath set Labor and rest, as day and night, to men, Successive ; and the timely dew of sleep Now falling, with soft slumb'rous weight inclines Our eyelids. Other creatures all day long Rove idle, unemployed, and less need rest: Man hath his daily work of body or mind Appointed, which declares his dignity, And the regard of Heaven on all his ways : : While other animals inactive range, And of their doings God takes no account. Tomorrow, ere fresh morning streak the east With first approach of light, we must be risen, And at our pleasant labor, to reform Yon flow‘ry arbors, yonder alleys green, Our walk at noon, with branches overgrown, That mock our scant manuring, and require More hands than ours to lop their wanton growth ; Those blossoms also, and those dropping gums, That lie hestrown, unsightly and unsmooth, Ask riddance, if we mean to tread with ease; Meanwhile, as nature wills, night bids us rest.

To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorn'd: My author and disposer ! what thou bidst Unargu'd I cbey ; so God ordains ; God is thy law, thou mine, to know.no more, Is woman's happiest knowledge, and her praise. With thee conversing, I forget all time, All seasons and their change :all please alike. Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds : pleasant the sun, When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flower, Glist'ning with dew; fragrant the fertile earth After soft showers; and sweet the coming on Of grateful evening mild ; then silent night, With this her solemo bird, and this fair moon. And these gems of Heaven, her starry train : But neither breath of morn, when she ascends

With charm of earliest birds ; nor rising sun,
On this delightful land ; nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glist’ning with dew; nor fragance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild ; nor silent night,
With this her solemn bird ; nor walk by moon,
Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.

Thus, at iheir shady lodge arriv’d, both stood,
Both turn'd and under open sky ador'd.
The God that made both sky, air, earth and Heavun,
Which they beheld ; the moon's resplendent globe,
And starry pole : Thou also madsit the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day,
Which we, in our appointed work employed;
Have finish'd ; happy in our mutual heip.
And mutual love, the crown of all our bliss
Ordain'd by thee ; and this delicious place,
For us too.large ; where thiy abundance wants
Partakers, and uncropt, fails to the ground:
But thou hast promis'd from us two, a race
To fill the earth, who shall with us extol
Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake,

And when we seek, as now, thy gift of sleep. X-Elegy written in a County Churchyard.-GRAY.

THE curfew tolls the knell of parting day ; The lowing herds wind slowly o’er the lea ; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimm’ring landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds; Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. Save that, from yonder ivy mahtled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complainOf such, as wand'ring near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign. Beneath these rugged elms, that yewtree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering hean, Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. The breezy call of incepse breathing morn, The swallow, twitt'ring from the straw built shed, The cock's shrill clarion or the echoing horn. No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care ; No children run to lisp their sire's return, Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share,

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield; Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke : How jocund did they drive their tea.n a field ! How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke ! Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure : Nor grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile, The short and simple annals of the poor. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await, alike the inevitable hour : The paths of glory lead-but to the grave. Nor you, ye proud, impute to these a fault, If mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where through the long drawn aisle and fretted vault, The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. Can story'd urn, or animated bust, Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, Or flatt'ry sooth the dull cold ear of death? Perhaps, in this neglected spot is laid Some heart, once pregnant with celestial fire: Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre: But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er enroll; Chili penury repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul. Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear ; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood ; Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest; Some Cromwell. guiltless of his country's blood. Th' applause of list’ning senates to command, The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, And read their hist’ry in a nation's eyes, Their list forbade; nor circumscrib'd alone, Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd; Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on inankind : The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame; Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride, With incense kindled at the muse's flame.

2

Far from the-madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray-
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life,
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Yet e'en these bones from insult to protect,
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply ;
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing, anxious being eter resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day;
Nor cast one longing, lingʻring look behind?
On some fond breast the parting soul relies ;
Some pious drops the closing eye requires ;
E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted sires.
For thee, who, mindful of the unhonor'd dead,
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate,
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,
Haply, some hoary headed swain may say,
“Oft' have we seen him at the peep of dawn,
Brushing, with hasty steps, the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.
There at the foot of yonder nodding beach,
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
His listless length at noontide would he stretch,
And pore upon the brook that babbles by.
Hard by yon wood, now smiling, as in scorn,
Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove;
Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,
Or craz'd with care, or crossd in hopeless love,
One morn I miss d him on th' accustom'd hill,
Along the heath, and near his fav‘rite tree,
Another came, nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he.
The next, with dirges due, in sad array,
Slow through the church way path we saw him borne,
Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,
'Gravid on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."

THE EPITAPH.
HERE rests bis head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown:

An eye,

Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'a him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send.
He gave to mis'ry all he had a tear ;
He gain'd from heaven ('twas all he wish’d)--a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they, alike, in trembling hope repose)

The bosom of his Father and his God.
XI.-Scipio restoring the Captive Lady to her Lover..

THOMSON.
WHEN to his glorious first essay in war,
New Carthage fell; there all the fower of Spain
Were kept in hostage ; a full field presenting
For Scipio's generosity to shine.--A noble virgin
Conspicuous far o'er all the captive dames,
Was mark'd the general's prize. She wept and blush'd,
Young, fresh and blooming like the morn.
As when the blue sky trembles through a cloud
Of purest white. A secret charm combin'd
Her features, and infus'd enchantment through them.
Her shape was harmony. But eloquence
Beneatli her beauty fails; which seem'don purpose
By nature lavish'd on her, that mankind
Might see the virtue of a hero try'd,
Almost berond the stretch of human force.
Soft as she pass'd along, with downcast eves,
Where gentle sorrow swelld, and now and then,
Dropp'd o'er her modest cheeks a trickling tear,
The Roman legions languish'd, and hard war
Felt more than pity ; e'en their chief himself,
As on his high tribunal rais'd he sat,
Turn'd from the dang'rous sight ; and, chiding, ask'd
His officers, if by this gift rhey meant
Tocloud his glory in its very dawn.

She, question d of her birth in trembling accents,
(With tears and blushes, broken told her tale.
But, when he found her royally descended;
Of her old captive parents the sole joy ;
And that a hapless Celsiberian privice.
Her lover and belov'd, forgot his chains,
His lost dominions and for her alone
Wept out his tender soul: sudden the heart
Of this young, conquering, loving godlike Roman,
Felt all the great divinity of virtue.
His wishing youth stocd check'd his tempting power
Restrain'd by kind humanity.At once,