Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap

Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose:
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; meanwhile murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their choir apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance
Led on the eternal Spring.

EXERCISE XL.

From Night VI.-DR. YOUNG.

Genius and art, ambition's boasted wings,
Our boast but ill deserve. If these alone
Assist our flight, Fame's flight is Glory's fall.
Heart merit wanting, mount we ne'er so high,
Our height is but the gibbet of our name.
A celebrated wretch when I behold,
When I behold a genius bright and base,
Of towering talents and terrestrial aims,
Methinks I see, as thrown from her high sphere,
The glorious fragments of a soul immortal,
With rubbish mixed, and glittering in the dust:
Struck at the splendid, melancholy sight,
At once compassion soft, and envy, rise, –

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But wherefore envy? talents, angel-bright,
If wanting worth, are shining instruments
In false Ambition's hand, to finish faults
Illustrious, and give infamy renown.

Great ill is an achievement of great powers.
Plain sense but rarely leads us far astray.
Reason the means, affections choose our end.
Means have no merit, if our end amiss.

If wrong our hearts, our heads are right in vain.
Hearts are proprietors of all applause.

Right ends and means make wisdom: worldly-wise
Is but half witted at its highest praise.

Let genius, then, despair to make thee great;
Nor flatter station. What is station high?
'Tis a proud mendicant; it boasts and begs;
It begs an alms of homage from the throng,
And oft the throng denies its charity.
Monarchs and ministers are awful names!
Whoever wear them, challenge our devoir.
Religion, public Order, both exact

External homage and a supple knee,

To beings pompously set up to serve

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The meanest slave: all more is Merit's due,
Her sacred and inviolable right,

Nor ever paid the monarch, but the man.
Our hearts ne'er bow but to superior worth;
Nor ever fail of their allegiance there.
Fools, indeed, drop the man in their account,
And vote the mantle into majesty.
Let the small savage boast his silver fur,
His royal robe, unborrowed and unbought,
His own, descending fairly from his sires.
Shall man be proud to wear his livery,
And souls in ermine scorn a soul without?
Can place or lessen us, or aggrandize?

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Pigmies are pigmies still, though perched on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.

Each man makes his own stature, builds himself:
Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids :

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Her monuments shall last, when Egypt's fall.

Of these sure truths dost thou demand the cause?

The cause is lodged in immortality.

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Hear and assent. Thy bosom burns for power;
What station charms thee? I'll install thee there;
"T is thine. And art thou greater than before?

Then thou before wast something less than man.
Has thy new post betrayed thee into pride?
That treacherous pride betrays thy dignity;
That pride defames humanity, and calls

The being mean which staffs or strings can raise :
That pride, like hooded hawks, in darkness soars,
From blindness bold, and towering to the skies.
"T is born of Ignorance, which knows not man:
An angel's second, nor his second long.
A Nero, quitting his imperial throne,
And courting glory from the tinkling string,
But faintly shadows an immortal soul,
With empire's self, to pride or rapture fired.
If nobler motives minister no cure,
Even vanity forbids thee to be vain.

High worth is elevated place: 't is more;

It makes the post stand candidate for thee;
Makes more than monarchs, makes an honest man;
Though no exchequer it commands, 't is wealth;
And, though it wears no ribbon, 't is renown;
Renown that would not quit thee, though disgraced,
Nor leave thee pendent on a master's smile.
Other ambition Nature interdicts;
Nature proclaims it most absurd in man,
By pointing at his origin and end;

Milk and a swathe, at first, his whole demand;
His whole domain, at last, a turf or stone;
To whom, between, a world may seem too small.

'Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty man
How little they, who think aught great below!
All our ambitions Death defeats, but one,
And that it crowns.

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EXERCISE XLI.

Contemplation of the Starry Heavens.-DR. YOUNG.

Stars teach, as well as shine.

This prospect vast, what is it? "T is Nature's system of divinity,

Weighed aright,

And every student of the night inspires:

'T is elder Scripture, writ by God's own hand.

--

Why from yon arch,
that infinite of space,
With infinite of lucid orbs replete,
Which set the living firmament on fire,-
At the first glance, in such an overwhelm
Of wonderful, on man's astonished sight
Rushes Omnipotence? To curb our pride,
Our reason rouse, and lead it to that Power

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Whose love lets down these silver chains of light,

And see! Day's amiable sister sends

Her invitation, in the softest rays

Which suffers from her tyrant brother's blaze.
Night grants thee the full freedom of the skies,
Nor rudely reprimands thy lifted eye:

With gain and joy, she bribes thee to be wise.
Night opes
the noblest scenes, and sheds an awe
Which gives those venerable scenes full weight,
And deep reception, in the entendered heart.
This theatre! what eye can take it in?
By what divine enchantment was it raised,
For minds of the first magnitude to launch
In endless speculations, and adore?

One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine,
And light us deep into the Deity;
How boundless in magnificence and might!

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Oh! what a confluence of ethereal fires,

From urns unnumbered, down the steep of heaven,

Streams to a point, and centres in my sight!

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Nor tarries there; I feel it in my heart:
My heart, at once, it humbles and exalts;
Lays it in dust, and calls it to the skies!

Who sees it unexalted or unawed?

Who sees it, and can stop at what is seen?

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Material offspring of Omnipotence!

Inanimate, all-animating birth!

Work worthy Him who made it!-worthy praise!

All praise! - praise more than human! nor denied

Thy praise divine!

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But though man, drowned in sleep,

Withholds his homage, not alone I wake;

Bright legions swarm unseen, and sing, unheard

By mortal ear, the glorious Architect,

In this His universal temple, hung

With lustres, with innumerable lights,

That shed religion on the soul; at once

The temple and the preacher! Oh! how loud
It calls Devotion!-genuine growth of Night!

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