NOW
OW early shepherds o'er the meadow país, And print long footsteps in the glitt'ring The cows neglectful of their pasture ftand, [grafs ; By turns obfequious to the milker's hand.
When Damon softly trod the fhaven lawn,
Damon a youth from city cares withdrawn ;
Long was the pleafing walk he wander'd thro',
A cover'd arbour clos'd the diftant view; -
There refts the youth, and while the feather'd throng
Raise their wild mufic, thus contrives a fong.
Here wafted o'er by mild Etefian air,
Thou country Goddess, beauteous Health ! repair;
Here let my breaft thro' quiv'ring trees inhale
Thy rofy bleffings with the morning gale.
What are the fields, or flow'rs, or all I fee?
Ah! tasteless all, if not enjoy'd with thee.
Joy to my foul! I feel the Goddess nigh,
The face of nature cheers as well as I;
O'er the flat green refreshing breezes run,
The smiling dazies blow beneath the fun,
The brooks run purling down with filver waves,
The planted lanes rejoice with dancing leaves,
The chirping birds from all the compafs rove
To tempt the tuneful echoes of the grove:
High funny fummits, deeply fhaded dales,
Thick moffy banks, and flow'ry winding vales,
With various prospect gratify the fight,
And scatter fix'd attention in delight.
Come, country Goddefs, come, nor thou fuffice, But bring thy mountain-fifter, Exercise. Call'd by thy lovely voice, fhe turns her pace, Her winding horn proclaims the finish'd chace; She mounts the rocks, she skims the level plain, Dogs, hawks and horfes, croud her early train Her hardy face repels the tanning wind, And lines and meshes loosely float behind. All these as means of toil the feeble see, But these are helps to pleasure join'd with thee.
F 4
Let
Let Sloth lie foftning 'till high noon in down, Or lolling fan her in the fult'ry town,
Unnerv'd with reft; and turn her own disease,
Or fofter others in luxurious ease :
I mount the courfer, call the deep-mouth'd hounds,
The fox unkennell'd flies to covert grounds;
I lead where ftags thro' tangled thickets tread,
And shake the faplings with their branching head;
I make the faulcons wing their airy way,
And foar to seize, or stooping strike their prey;
To fnare the fifh I fix the luring bait;
To wound the fowl I load the gun with fate.
'Tis thus thro' change of exercise I range,
And strength and pleasure rise from ev'ry change.
Here beauteous Health for all the year remain,
When the next comes, I'll charm thee thus again.
Oh come, thou Goddess of my rural fong,
And bring thy daughter, calm Content, along,
Dame of the ruddy cheek and laughing eye,
From whose bright presence clouds of sorrow fly:
For
For her I mow my walks, I plat my bow'rs,
Clip my low hedges, and support my flow'rs;
To welcome her, this fummer feat I dreft,
And here I court her when she comes to reft;
When fhe from exercise to learned eafe
Shall change again, and teach the change to please.
Now friends converfing my soft hours refine,
And Tully's Tufculum revives in mine :
Now to grave books I bid the mind retreat,
And fuch as make me rather good than great..
Or o'er the works of eafy fancy rove,
Where flutes and innocence amuse the grove :.
The native Bard that on Sicilian plains
1
First fung the lowly manners of the swains;
Or Maro's mufe that in the fairest light
Paints rural prospects and the charms of fight;
These soft amusements bring Content along,
And fancy, void of forrow, turns to fong.
Here beauteous Health for all the year remain,
When the next comes, I'll charm thee thus again.
The
F 5
WH
HEN in the river cows for coolness ftand,
And sheep for breezes feek the lofty land,
A youth, whom Æsop taught that ev'ry tree,
Each bird and infect spoke as well as he;
Walk'd calmly mufing in a fhady way,
Where flow'ring hawthorn broke the funny ray,
And thus inftructs his moral pen to draw
A scene that obvious in the field he faw.
Near a low ditch, where fhallow waters meet,
Which never learnt to glide with liquid feet,
Whofe Naiads never prattle as they play,
But fcreen'd with hedges.flumber out the day,
There stands a flender fern's aspiring shade,
Whose anfw'ring branches regularly laid,
Put forth their answ’ring boughs, and proudly rise
Three ftories upward, in the neither skies.
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