Sees no contiguous palace rear its head, To shame the meanness of his humble shed- To make him loathe his vegetable meal But calm, and bred in ignorance and toil, Or drives his venturous ploughshare to the steep; And drags the struggling savage into day. At night returning, every labour sped, He sits him down the monarch of a shed; Smiles by his cheerful fire, and round surveys Displays her cleanly platter on the board: And haply too some pilgrim, thither led, With many a tale repays the nightly bed. Thus every good his native wilds impart Imprints the patriot passion on his heart; And even those ills, that round his mansion rise, 180 190 200 And as a child, when scaring sounds molest, If few their wants, their pleasures are but few: Becomes a source of pleasure when redress'd. Unfit for raptures, or, if raptures cheer On some high festival of once a year, In wild excess the vulgar breast takes fire, Till, buried in debauch, the bliss expire. But not their joys alone thus coarsely flow→→→ Their morals, like their pleasures, are but low; 210 220 For, as refinement stops, from sire to son And love's and friendship's finely pointed dart Some sterner virtues o'er the mountain's breast May sit, like falcons cowering on the nest; But all the gentler morals, such as play 230 Through life's more cultur'd walks, and charm the way-These, far dispers'd, on timorous pinions fly, To sport and flutter in a kinder sky. To kinder skies, where gentler manners reign, I turn; and France displays her bright domain. Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease, How often have I led thy sportive choir, And, freshened from the wave, the zephyr flew ! Alike all ages: dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze; 240 250 |