• Go then, brave youth, where'er the Fates may call;
• Live with defign, and fearless wait thy fallSCA
• Whatever space of life the gods decree,"

More than another Peleus rife in thee.

Thy fame the prince of facred bards fhall fire *,
Thy deeds the conqueft of the world infpire +.'

}

THE ENTHUSIAST;

OR,

THE LOVER OF NATURE.

BY DR. JOSEPH WARTON.

́E green-rob'd Dryads, oft at dusky eve

YE

By wondering shepherds feen, to forests brown,

To unfrequented meads, and pathless wilds,

Lead me from gardens deck'd with Art's vain pomps.
Can gilt alcoves, can marble-mimick gods,
Parterres embroider'd, obelisks, and urns
Of high relief; can the long, fpreading lake,
Or vista leffening to the fight; can Stow,
With all her Attick fanes, fuch raptures raise,
As the thrush-haunted copfe, where lightly leaps
The fearful fawn the ruftling leaves along,..
And the brifk fquirrel fports from bough to bough,
While from an hollow oak, whofe naked roots
O'erhang a penfive rill, the bufy bees

Hum drowsy lullabies? The bards of old,

21 7

Fair Nature's friends, fought fuch retreats, to charm

14

↑ By Alexander, who had Homer's Iliad always with him, propofing Achilles for his examples

1

Sweet

430

BEAUTIES OF POETRY.

Sweet Echo with their fongs; oft, too, they met,
In fummer evenings, near fequefter'd bow'rs,
Or mountain-nymph, or mufe, and eager learnt
The moral strains fhe taught to mend mankind.
As to a fecret grot Ægeria ftole
With patriot Numa, and in filent night
Whisper'd him facred laws, he lift'ning fat
Rapt with her virtuous voice, old Tyber lean'd
Attentive on his urn, and hufh'd his waves.

Rich in her weeping country's fpoils, Verfailles
May boast a thoufand fountains, that can caft
The tortur'd waters to the diftant heav'ns;
Yet let me chufe fome pine-topp'd precipice
Abrupt and fhaggy, whence a foamy ftream,
Like Anio, tumbling roars; or fome black heath,
Where ftraggling ftands the mournful juniper,
Or yew-tree feath'd; while in clear profpect round,"
From the grove's bofom fpires emerge, and fmoke
In bluish wreaths afcends, ripe harvests wave,
Low, lonely cottages, and ruin'd tops
Of Gothick battlements appear, and streams
Beneath the fun-beams twinkle. The fhrill lark,
That wakes the woodman to his early task;
Or love-fick Philomel, whofe lufcious lays
Soothe lone night-wanderers; the moaning dove
Pitied by liftening milk-maid; far excel
The deep-mouth'd viol, the foul-lulling lute,
And battle-breathing trumpet: artful founds!
That please not like the chorifters of air,
When firft they hail th' approach of laughing May.
Can Kent design like Nature? Mark where Thames
Plenty and pleafure pours thro' Lincoln's meads *;
Can the great artist, tho' with taste supreme
Endu'd, one beauty to this Eden add?

The Earl of Lincoln's terrace, at Weybridge in Surry.

Tho'

Tho' he, by rules unfetter'd, boldly scorns
Formality and method, round and fquare w
Difdaining, plans irregularly great.

Creative Titian, can thy vivid ftrokes,"
Or thine, O graceful Raphael! dare to vie
With the rich tints that paint the breathing mead!
The thousand-colour'd tulip, violet's bell,
Snow-clad and meek, the vermil-tinctur'd role,
And golden crocus? Yet with these the maid,
Phillis or Phoebe, at a feast or wake,
Her jetty locks enamels; fairer fhe,
In innocence and home-spun vestments dress'd,
Than if cœrulean faphires at her ears
Shone pendant, or a precious diamond-crofs
Heav'd gently on her panting bofom white.

Yon fhepherd idly ftretch'd on the rude rock,
Liftening to dafhing waves, and fea-mews clang-
High-hovering o'er his head, who views beneath
The dolphin dancing o'er the level brine,
Feels more true blifs than the proud admiral
Amid his veffels bright with burnish'd gold (
And filken streamers, tho' his lordly nod
Ten thousand war-worn mariners revere.

And great Æneas gaz'd with more delight

On the rough mountain fhagg'd with horrid fhades,
(Where cloud-compelling Jove, as fancy dream'd,j»?
Descending shook his direful Egis black)

Than if he enter'd the high capitolour 95
On golden columns rear'd, a conquer'd world
Exhaufted, to enrich it's ftately head.

More pleas'd he flept in poor Evander's cot,
On fhaggy fkins, lull'd by fweet nightingales,
Than if a Nero,
Nero, in an
an age refin'd, Budissiq au vinu, )
Beneath a gorgeous canopy had plae'dfutus 5597g un

* Æneid VIII.

*

His royal gueft, and bade his minstrels found
Soft flumb'rous Lydian airs, to foothe his reft.
Happy the first of men, ere yet confin'd
To fmoaky cities; who in fheltering groves,
Warm caves, and deep-funk vallies, liv'd and lov'd,
By cares unwounded; what the fun and fhowers,
And genial earth untillag'd could produce,
They gather'd grateful, or the acorn brown,
Or blushing berry; by the liquid lapfe

Of murmuring waters call'd to flake their thirft,
Or with fair nymphs their fun-brown limbs to bathe;
With nymphs who fondly clafp'd their fav'rite youths,
Unaw'd by shame, beneath the beechen shade,
Nor wiles, nor artifical coyness knew.

Then doors and walls were not; the melting fair
Nor frowns of parents fear'd, nor husband's threats;
Nor had curs'd gold their tender hearts allur'd:
Then beauty was not venal. Injur'd Love,

O whither, god of raptures, art thou filed?
While Avarice waves his golden wand around,
Abhorr'd magician, and his coftly cup
Prepares with baneful drugs, t' inchant the foul
Of each low-thoughted fair to wed for gaiu.

In earth's first infancy (as fung the bard †,
Who ftrongly painted what he boldly thought)
Tho' the fierce north oft fmote with iron whip
Their fhiv'ring limbs, tho' oft the briftly boar.
Or hungry lion 'woke them with their howls,
And fear'd them from their mofs-grown caves to rove
Houfelefs and cold in dark tempestuous nights;

Yet were not myriads in embattled fields

Swept off at once, nor had the raging feas

O'erwhelm'd the found'ring bark and fhrieking crew;
In vain the glaffy ocean fmil'd to tempt

* See Lucretius, Lib. V.

† Lucretius.

The

The jolly failor unfufpecting harm,

For commerce ne'er had spread her fwelling fails,
Nor had the wond'ring Nereids ever heard

The dashing oar: then famine, want, and pine,
Sunk to the grave their fainting limbs; but us,
Diseaseful dainties, riot, and excefs,

And feverish luxury deftroy. In brakes,
Or marfhes wild, unknowingly, they cropp'd
Herbs of malignant juice; to realms remote
While we for powerful poifons madly roam,
From every noxious herb collecting death.
What tho' unknown to those primeval fires
The well-arch'd dome, peopled with breathing forms
By fair Italia's fkilful hand, unknown

The shapely column, and the crumbling bufts
Of aweful ancestors in long defcent ?

Yet why fhould man, mistaken, deem it nobler
To dwell in palaces and high-roof'd halls,
Than in God's forefts, Architect fupreme!
Say, is the Perfian carpet, than the field's
Or meadow's mantle gay, more richly wov'n;
Or fofter to the votaries of eafe

Than bladed grafs, perfum'd with dew-dropp'd flow'rs?
O tafte corrupt that luxury and pomp,

In fpecious names of polish'd manners veil'd,
Should proudly banith Nature's fimple charms!
All-beauteous Nature! by thy boundless charms
Opprefs'd, O where fhall I begin thy praise,
Where turn th' extatick eye, how eafe my breaft,
That pants with wild aftonishment and love!
Dark foreft, and the opening lawn, refresh'd
With ever-gufhing brooks, hill, meadow, dale,
The balmy bean-field, the gay-clover'd close,
So fweetly interchang'd, the lowing ox,
The playful lamb, the diftant water-fall,
Now faintly heard, now fwelling with the breeze,
3 I

The