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THE

MINSTREL;

O R, THE

PROGRESS OF GENIUS.

THE SECOND BOOK.

Doctrina fed vim promovet infitam,

Rectique cultus pectoro roborant.

I.

HORAT.

F chance or change O let not man complain,

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Elfe fhall he never never ceafe to wail:
For, from the imperial dome, to where the swain
Rears the lone cottage in the filent dale.
All th' affault of fortune's fickle gale;

Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doom'd; Earthquakes have raifed to heaven the humble vale, And gulfs the mountain's mighty mass entomb'd, And where th' Atlantick rolls wide continents have bloom'd.*

See PLATO's Timeus.

II.

But fure to foreign climes we need not range, Nor fearch the ancient records of our race, To learn the dire effects of time and change, Which in ourselves, alas, we daily trace. Yet at the darken'd eye, the wither'd face, Or hoary hair, I never will repine : But fpare, O Time, whate'er of mental Of candour, love, or fympathy divine, Whate'er of fancy's ray, or friendship's flame is mine.

III.

grace,

So I, obfequious to Truth's dread command, Shall here without reluctance change my lay, -And smite the Gothic lyre with harsher hand; Now when I leave that flowery path for aye Of childhood, where I fported many a-day, Warbling and fauntering carelefly along; Where every face was innocent and gay, Each vale romantick, tuneful every tongue, Sweet, wild, and artlefs all, as Edwin's infant fong.

IV.

Perish the lore that deadens young defire' Is the foft tenor of my fong no more.

Edwin, though loved of Heaven, muft not afpire To blifs, which mortals never new before. On trembling wings let youthful-fancy foar, Nor always haunt the funny realms of joy; But now and then the fhades of life explore; Though many a found and fight of woe annoy. And many a qualm of care his rifing hopes deftroy.

V.

Vigour from toil, from trouble patience grows.
The weakly bloffom, warm in fummer bower,
Some tints of tranfient beauty may difclofe;
But ah it withers in the chilling hour.
Mark yonder oaks: Superior to the power
Of all the warring winds of heaven they rise,

And from the ftormy promontory tower, And tofs their giant arms amid the skies, While each affailing blaft encrease of ftrength fupplica.

VI.

And now the downy cheek and deepen'd voice
Gave dignity to Edwin blooming prime ;
And walks of wider circuit was his choic,
And vales more wide, and mountains more fublime.
One evening as he framed the careless rhyme,
It was his chance to wander far abroad,
And o'er a lonely eminence to climb,

Which heretofore his foot had never trode;
A vale appeared below, a deep retir'd abode.

VII.

Thither he hied, enamour'd of the scene;
For rocks on rocks piled, as by magic spell,
Here fcorch'd with lightning, there with ivy green,
Fenced from the north and eaft this favage dell;
Southward a mountain rose with eafy fwell,
Whofe long long groves eternal murmur

made ; And towards the western fun a streamlet fell,

Where, through the cliffs, the eye, remote, furvey'd Blue hills, and glittering waves, and fkies in gold array'd.

VIII.

Along this narrow valley you might fee

The wild deer fporting on the meadow ground,
And here and there, a folitary tree,

Or moffy ftone, or rock with woodbine crown'd.
Oft did the cliffs reveberate the found
Of parted fragments tumbling from on high;
And from the fummit of that craggy mound
The perching eagle oft was heard to cry,
Or on refounding wings to fhoot athwart the sky.

IX.

One cultivated spot there was, that fpread
Its flowery bofom to the noonday beam,

Where many a rofe-bud rears its blufhing head,
And herbs for food with future plenty teem.
Sooth'd by the lulling found of grove and fream
Romantick vifions fwarm on Edwin's foul:
He minded not the fun's laft trembling gleam,
Nor heard from far the twilight curfew toll;-
When flowly on his car thefe moving accents ftole.

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.X.

Hail, awful fcenes that calm the troubled breast,
And woo the weary to profound repose;

Can paffion s wildeft uproar lay to reft,
And whisper comfort to the man of woes !
Here Innocence may wander fafe from foes,
And Contemplation foar on feraph wings.
O Solitude, the man who thee foregoes,
• When lucre lures him, or ambition ftings,
Shall never know the fouice whence real grandeur
• fprings.

XI.

Vain man, is grandeur given to gay attire ?
Then let the butterfly thy pride upbraid :-
To friends, attendants, armies, bought with hire?
It is thy weakness that requires their aid :-
To palaces, with gold and gems inlay'd?

• They fear the thief, and tremble in the storm :~
To hofts, through carnage who to conqueft wade?
Behold the victor vanquish'd by the worm!
Behold, what deeds of woe the locufts can perform!
XII.

True dignity is his, whofe tranquil mind
Virtue has raised above the things below,
Who, every hope and fear to heaven refign'd,
Shrinks not, though Fortune aim her deadliest blow,
This ftrain from amidit the rocks was heard to flow
In folemn founds. Now beam'd the evening ftar;
And from embattled clouds emerging flow
Cynthia came riding on her filver car;

And hoary mountain-cliffs fhone faintly from afar.

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XIII.

Soon did the folemn voice its theme renew;
(While Edwin wrapt in wonder liftening ftood)
Ye tools and toys of tyranny, adieu,
'Scorn'd by the wife and hated by the good!
Ye only can engage the fervile brood

'Of Levity and Luft, who, all their days,
Afhamed of truth and liberty, have woo'd,

And hug'd the chain, that glittering on their gaze Seems to outfhine the pomp of heaven's empyreal

• blaze.

XIV.

Like them, abandon'd to Ambition's sway,
I fought for glory in the paths of guile;
And fawn'd and fmil'd to plunder and betray,
'Myfelf betray'd and plunder'd all the while
So gnaw'd the viper the corroding file.
But now with pangs of keen remorfe I rue

• Thofe years of trouble and debasement vile.—
Yet why fhould I this cruel theme pursue!

Fly, fly, detefted thoughts, for ever from my view.

XV.

The gufts of appetite, the clouds of care, And terms of disappointment all o'erpait, 'Henceforth no earthly hope with heaven fhall fhare This heart, where peace ferenely fhines at last. ' And if for me no treasure be amass'd, And if no future age fhall hear my name, 'I lurk the more fecure from fortune's blaft, ' And with more leisure feed this pious flame, 'Whofe rapture far transcends the fairest hopes of fame.

XVI.

'The end and the reward of toil is reft.

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Be all my prayer for virtue and for peace.

Of wealth and fame, of pomp and power poffefs'd, 'Who ever felt his weight of woe decrease!

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