341 AUTUM N. RowN'o with the fickle, and the wheaten fheaf, Crow While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more, Well-pleas'd, I tune. Whate'er the wintry froft Nitrous prepar'd; the various bloffom'd spring Put in white promife forth; and fummer-funs Concocted ftrong, rush boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and fwell my glorious theme. When the bright Virgin gives the beau teous days, And Libra weighs in equal fcales the year; From heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence fhook Of parting Summer, a ferener blue With golden light enliven'd wide invefts A pleafing calm; while broad, and brown, below Extenfive harvefts hang the heavy head... Falls from its poife, and gives the breeze to blow. Rent is the fleecy mantle of the fky The clouds fly different, and the fudden fun By fits effulgent gilds th' illumen'd field, Ef3 And And black by fits the fhadows sweep along. Soon as the morning trembles o'er the sky, At once they stoop and fwell the lufty fheaves; Spike after spike, their fparing harvest pick. think! How good the God of harveft is to you; Who pours abundance o'er your flowing fields; While these unhappy partners of your kind Wide-hover round you, like the fowls of hea ven And ask their humble dole. The various turns Of fortune ponder; that your fons may want What What now, with hard reluctance, faint, ye give. The lovely young Lavinia once had friends; And fortune fmil'd, deceitful, on her birth. For in her helplefs years depriv'd of all, Of every stay, fave innocence and heaven, She with her widow'd mother, feeble, old, And poor, liv'd in a cottage, far retir'd Among the windings of a woody vale; By folitude and deep furrounding fhades,. But more by bashful modefty, conceal'd. Together thus they fhunn'd the cruel fcorn Which virtue, funk to poverty, would meet From giddy fashion and low-minded pride :Almoft on nature's common bounty fed. Like the gay birds that fung them to repofe, Content and careless of to-morrow's fare. Her form was fresher than the morning-rose, When the dew wets its leaves, unftain'd and pure,. As is the lily, or the mountain-fnow.. The modeft virtues mingled in her eyes, Still on the ground dejected, darting all Their humid beams into the blooming flowers :: Or when the mournful tale her mother told, Of what her faithlefs fortune promis'd once,. Thrill'd in her thought, they, like the dewy star Of evening, fhone in tears. A native graceSat fair-proportion'd on her polish'd limbs, Veil'd in a fimple robe, their best attire, Beyond the pomp of drefs; for loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament, But is when unadorn'd adorn'd the moft. Thoughtless of beauty, fhe was beauty's felf, Reclufe amid the clofe-embowering woods. As in the hollow breaft of Appenine, Beneath the fhelter of encircling hills,, A A myrtle rifes far from human eye, And breathes its balmy fragrance o'er the wild; So flourish'd blooming, and unfeen by all, The sweet Lavinia, till, at length, compell'd By ftrong Neceffity's fupreme command, With fmiling patience in her looks, he went To glean Palemon's fields. The pride of fwains Palemon was, the generous, and the rich He faw her charming, but he faw not half Which fcarce the firm philofopher can scorn, Should his heart own a gleaner in the field : And thus in fecret to his foul he figh'd. "What pity! that fo delicate a form, "By beauty kindled, where enlivening sense, "And more than vulgar goodnefs feem to dwell, "Should be devoted to the rude embrace "Of fome indecent clown? She looks, me thinks "Of old Acafto's line; and to my mind. 6 Recalls "Recals that patron of my happy life, "From whom my liberal fortune took its rife; "Now to the duft gone down; his houses, lands, "And once fair-fpreading family diffolv'd. "Tis faid that in fome lone obfcure retreat, "Urg'd by remembrance fad, and decent pride,. "Far from those scenes which knew their bet-ter days, "His aged widow and his daughter live, "Whom yet my fruitless fearch could never find. "Romantic wish, would this the daughter When, ftrict inquiring, from herself he found She was the fame, the daughter of his friend, Of bountiful Acafto; who can fpeak The mingled paffions that furpriz'd his heart, And thro' his nerves in fhivering tranfport ran? Then blaz'd his fmother'd-flame, avow'd and bold; And as he view'd her, ardent, o'er and o'er, Love, gratitude, and pity wept at once. Confus'd, and frighten'd at his fudden tears, Her rifing beauties flufh'd a higher bloom; As thus Palemon, paffionate, and juft, Pour'd out the pious rapture of his foul. "And art thou then Acafto's dear remains "She, whom my restlefs gratitude has fought, "So long in vain? Oh yes! the very fame, "The foften'd image of my noble friend, "Alive, his every feature, every look, "More elegantly touch'd. Sweeter than fpring! "Thou fole furviving bloffom from the root, 6. That |