A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure,

And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing,
O'er land and sea imagination roams;

Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind,
Elates his being, and unfolds his powers;
Or in his breast heroic virtue burns.
The touch of kindred too and love he feels;
The modest eye, whose beams on his alone
Extatic shine; the little strong embrace

1335

Of prattling children, twin'd around his neck,

1340

And emulous to please him, calling forth

The fond parental soul. Nor purpose gay,

Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns;

For happiness and true philosophy

Are of the social still, and smiling kind.

1345

This is the life which those who fret in guilt,

And guilty cities, never knew; the life,

Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,

When angels dwelt, and GoD himself, with Man.

OH NATURE! all-sufficient! over all!
Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works!
Snatch me to heaven; thy rolling wonders there,
World beyond world, in infinite extent,
Profusely scatter'd o'er the blue immense,
Shew me; their motions, periods, and their laws,
Give me to scan; thro' the disclosing deep
Light my blind way: the mineral strata there;
Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world;

Ꮓ 2

1350

1356

O'er that the rising system, more complex,

Of animals; and higher still, the mind,

1360

The varied scene of quick-compounded thought,

And where the mixing passions endless shift;

These ever open to my ravish'd eye;

A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust.
BUT if to that unequal; if the blood,
In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid
That best ambition; under closing shades,
Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook,

1365

And whisper to my dreams. From THEE begin,
Dwell all on THEE, with THEE conclude my song;
And let me never never stray from THEE.

1371

Published as the Act. Firects Nov 1. 1,92. by AHamilton

WINTER.

BOOK THE FOURTH.