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THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

THE PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION.

ODES ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS:--

HYMN TO THE NAIADS.

Notes.

INSCRIPTIONS:--

AN EPISTLE TO CURIO.

THE VIRTUOSO.

AMBITION AND CONTENT. A FABLE.

THE POET. A RHAPSODY.

A BRITISH PHILIPPIC.

HYMN TO SCIENCE.

LOVE. AN ELEGY.

TO CORDELIA.

SONG.

AKENSIDE'S POETICAL WORKS.

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

A POEM, IN THREE BOOKS.

THE DESIGN.

There are certain powers in human nature which seem to hold a middle place between the organs of bodily sense and the faculties of moral perception: they have been called by a very general name, the Powers of Imagination. Like the external senses, they relate to matter and motion; and, at the same time, give the mind ideas analogous to those of moral approbation and dislike. As they are the inlets of some of the most exquisite pleasures with which we are acquainted, it has naturally happened that men of warm and sensible tempers have sought means to recall the delightful perceptions which they afford, independent of the objects which originally produced them. This gave rise to the imitative or designing arts; some of which, as painting and sculpture, directly copy the external appearances which were admired in nature; others, as music and poetry, bring them back to remembrance by signs universally established and understood.

But these arts, as they grew more correct and deliberate, were, of course, led to extend their imitation beyond the peculiar objects of the imaginative powers; especially poetry, which, making use of language as the instrument by which it imitates, is consequently become an unlimited representative of every species and mode of being. Yet as their intention was only to express the objects of imagination, and as they still abound chiefly in ideas of that class, they, of course, retain their original character; and all the different pleasures which they excite, are termed, in general, Pleasures of Imagination.

The design of the following poem is to give a view of these in the largest acceptation of the term; so that whatever our imagination feels from the agreeable appearances of nature, and all the various entertainment we meet with, either in poetry, painting, music, or any of the elegant arts, might be deducible from one or other of those principles in the constitution of the human mind which are here established and explained.

After these parts of the subject which hold chiefly of admiration, or naturally warm and interest the mind, a pleasure of a very different nature, that which arises from ridicule, came next to be considered. As this is the foundation of the comic manner in all the arts, and has been but very imperfectly treated by moral writers, it was thought proper to give it a particular illustration, and to distinguish the general sources from which the ridicule of characters is derived. Here, too, a change of style became necessary; such a one as might yet be consistent, if possible, with the general taste of composition in the serious parts of the subject: nor is it an easy task to give any tolerable force to images of this kind, without running either into the gigantic expressions of the mock heroic, or the familiar and poetical raillery of professed satire; neither of which would have been proper here.

The materials of all imitation being thus laid open, nothing now remained but to illustrate some particular pleasures which arise either from the relations of different objects one to another, or from the nature of imitation itself. Of the first kind is that various and complicated resemblance existing between several parts of the material and immaterial worlds, which is the foundation of metaphor and wit. As it seems in a great measure to depend on the early association of our ideas, and as this habit of associating is the source of many pleasures and pains in life, and on that account bears a great share in the influence of poetry and the other arts, it is therefore mentioned here, and its effects described. Then follows a general account of the production of these elegant arts, and of the secondary pleasure, as it is called, arising from the resemblance of their imitations to the original appearances of nature. After which, the work concludes with some reflections on the general conduct of the powers of imagination, and on their natural and moral usefulness in life.

ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Difficulty of treating it poetically. The ideas of the Divine Mind the origin of every quality pleasing to the imagination. The natural variety of constitution in the minds of men; with its final cause. The idea of a fine imagination, and the state of the mind in the enjoyment of those pleasures which it affords. All the primary pleasures of the imagination result from the perception of greatness, or wonderfulness, or beauty in objects. The pleasure from greatness, with its final cause. Pleasure from novelty or wonderfulness, with its final cause. Pleasure from beauty, with its final cause. The connexion of beauty with truth and good, applied to the conduct of life. Invitation to the study of moral philosophy. The different degrees of beauty in different species of objects; colour, shape, natural concretes, vegetables, animals, the mind. The sublime, the fair, the wonderful of the mind. The connexion of the imagination and the moral faculty. Conclusion.

Know then, whate'er of Nature's pregnant stores, Whate'er of mimic Art's reflected forms 140 With love and admiration thus inflame The powers of Fancy, her delighted sons To three illustrious orders have referr'd; Three sister graces, whom the painter's hand, The poet's tongue confesses--the Sublime, The Wonderful, the Fair. I see them dawn! I see the radiant visions, where they rise, More lovely than when Lucifer displays His beaming forehead through the gates of morn, To lead the train of Phoebus and the spring. 150

Say, why was man so eminently raised Amid the vast Creation; why ordain'd Through life and death to dart his piercing eye, With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame; But that the Omnipotent might send him forth In sight of mortal and immortal powers, As on a boundless theatre, to run The great career of justice; to exalt His generous aim to all diviner deeds; To chase each partial purpose from his breast; 160 And through the mists of passion and of sense, And through the tossing tide of chance and pain, To hold his course unfaltering, while the voice Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent Of nature, calls him to his high reward, The applauding smile of Heaven? Else wherefore burns In mortal bosoms this unquenched hope, That breathes from day to day sublimer things, And mocks possession? Wherefore darts the mind, With such resistless ardour to embrace 170 Majestic forms; impatient to be free, Spurning the gross control of wilful might; Proud of the strong contention of her toils; Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns To heaven's broad fire his unconstrained view, 175 Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame? Who that, from Alpine heights, his labouring eye Shoots round the wide horizon, to survey Nilus or Ganges rolling his bright wave Through mountains, plains, through empires black with shade, 180 And continents of sand, will turn his gaze To mark the windings of a scanty rill That murmurs at his feet? The high-born soul Disdains to rest her heaven-aspiring wing Beneath its native quarry. Tired of earth And this diurnal scene, she springs aloft Through fields of air; pursues the flying storm; Rides on the vollied lightning through the heavens; Or, yoked with whirlwinds and the northern blast, Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high she soars 190 The blue profound, and hovering round the sun Beholds him pouring the redundant stream Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway Bend the reluctant planets to absolve The fated rounds of Time. Thence far effused She darts her swiftness up the long career Of devious comets; through its burning signs Exulting measures the perennial wheel Of Nature, and looks back on all the stars, Whose blended light, as with a milky zone, 200 Invests the orient. Now amazed she views The empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold, Beyond this concave heaven, their calm abode; And fields of radiance, whose unfading light

Has travell'd the profound six thousand years, Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things. Even on the barriers of the world untired She meditates the eternal depth below; 208 Till, half recoiling, down the headlong steep She plunges; soon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up In that immense of being. There her hopes Rest at the fated goal. For from the birth Of mortal man, the Sovereign Maker said, That not in humble nor in brief delight, Not in the fading echoes of renown, Power's purple robes, nor pleasure's flowery lap, The soul should find enjoyment: but from these Turning disdainful to an equal good, Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view, Till every bound at length should disappear, 220 And infinite perfection close the scene.

Call now to mind what high capacious powers Lie folded up in man; how far beyond The praise of mortals, may the eternal growth Of Nature to perfection half divine, Expand the blooming soul! What pity then Should sloth's unkindly fogs depress to earth Her tender blossom; choke the streams of life, And blast her spring! Far otherwise design'd Almighty Wisdom; Nature's happy cares 230 The obedient heart far otherwise incline. Witness the sprightly joy when aught unknown Strikes the quick sense, and wakes each active power To brisker measures: witness the neglect Of all familiar prospects, though beheld With transport once; the fond attentive gaze Of young astonishment; the sober zeal Of age, commenting on prodigious things. For such the bounteous providence of Heaven, In every breast implanting this desire 240 Of objects new and strange, to urge us on With unremitted labour to pursue Those sacred stores that wait the ripening soul, In Truth's exhaustless bosom. What need words To paint its power? For this the daring youth Breaks from his weeping mother's anxious arms, In foreign climes to rove; the pensive sage, Heedless of sleep, or midnight's harmful damp, Hangs o'er the sickly taper; and untired The virgin follows, with enchanted step, 250 The mazes of some wild and wondrous tale, From morn to eve; unmindful of her form, Unmindful of the happy dress that stole The wishes of the youth, when every maid With envy pined. Hence, finally, by night The village matron, round the blazing hearth, Suspends the infant audience with her tales, Breathing astonishment! of witching rhymes, And evil spirits; of the death-bed call Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd 260 The orphan's portion; of unquiet souls Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt Of deeds in life conceal'd; of shapes that walk At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave The torch of hell around the murderer's bed. At every solemn pause the crowd recoil, Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd With shivering sighs: till eager for the event, Around the beldame all erect they hang, Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd. 270

ARGUMENT.

The separation of the works of Imagination from Philosophy, the cause of their abuse among the moderns. Prospect of their reunion under the influence of public Liberty. Enumeration of accidental pleasures, which increase the effect of objects delightful to the Imagination. The pleasures of sense. Particular circumstances of the mind. Discovery of truth. Perception of contrivance and design. Emotion of the passions. All the natural passions partake of a pleasing sensation; with the final cause of this constitution illustrated by an allegorical vision, and exemplified in sorrow, pity, terror, and indignation.

When shall the laurel and the vocal string Resume their honours? When shall we behold The tuneful tongue, the Prometh?an band Aspire to ancient praise? Alas! how faint, How slow the dawn of Beauty and of Truth Breaks the reluctant shades of Gothic night Which yet involves the nations! Long they groan'd Beneath the furies of rapacious force; Oft as the gloomy north, with iron swarms Tempestuous pouring from her frozen caves, 10 Blasted the Italian shore, and swept the works Of Liberty and Wisdom down the gulf Of all-devouring night. As long immured In noontide darkness, by the glimmering lamp, Each Muse and each fair Science pined away The sordid hours: while foul, barbarian hands Their mysteries profaned, unstrung the lyre, And chain'd the soaring pinion down to earth. At last the Muses rose, and spurn'd their bonds, And, wildly warbling, scatter'd as they flew, 20 Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa's bowers To Arno's myrtle border and the shore Of soft Parthenop?. But still the rage Of dire ambition and gigantic power, From public aims and from the busy walk Of civil commerce, drove the bolder train Of penetrating Science to the cells, Where studious Ease consumes the silent hour In shadowy searches and unfruitful care. Thus from their guardians torn, the tender arts 30 Of mimic fancy and harmonious joy, To priestly domination and the lust Of lawless courts, their amiable toil For three inglorious ages have resign'd, In vain reluctant: and Torquato's tongue Was tuned for slavish pasans at the throne Of tinsel pomp: and Raphael's magic hand Effused its fair creation to enchant The fond adoring herd in Latian fanes To blind belief; while on their prostrate necks 40 The sable tyrant plants his heel secure. But now, behold! the radiant era dawns, When freedom's ample fabric, fix'd at length For endless years on Albion's happy shore In full proportion, once more shall extend To all the kindred powers of social bliss A common mansion, a parental roof. There shall the Virtues, there shall Wisdom's train, Their long-lost friends rejoining, as of old, Embrace the smiling family of Arts, 50 The Muses and the Graces. Then no more Shall Vice, distracting their delicious gifts To aims abhorr'd, with high distaste and scorn Turn from their charms the philosophic eye, The patriot bosom; then no more the paths Of public care or intellectual toil, Alone by footsteps haughty and severe In gloomy state be trod: the harmonious Muse And her persuasive sisters then shall plant Their sheltering laurels o'er the bleak ascent, 60 And scatter flowers along the rugged way. Arm'd with the lyre, already have we dared To pierce divine Philosophy's retreats, And teach the Muse her lore; already strove Their long-divided honours to unite, While tempering this deep argument we sang Of Truth and Beauty. Now the same glad task Impends; now urging our ambitious toil, We hasten to recount the various springs Of adventitious pleasure, which adjoin 70 Their grateful influence to the prime effect Of objects grand or beauteous, and enlarge The complicated joy. The sweets of sense, Do they not oft with kind accession flow, To raise harmonious Fancy's native charm? So while we taste the fragrance of the rose, Glows not her blush the fairer? While we view Amid the noontide walk a limpid rill Gush through the trickling herbage, to the thirst Of summer yielding the delicious draught 80 Of cool refreshment, o'er the mossy brink Shines not the surface clearer, and the waves With sweeter music murmur as they flow?

Nor this alone; the various lot of life Oft from external circumstance assumes A moment's disposition to rejoice In those delights which, at a different hour, Would pass unheeded. Fair the face of Spring, When rural songs and odours wake the morn, To every eye; but how much more to his 90 Round whom the bed of sickness long diffused Its melancholy gloom! how doubly fair, When first with fresh-born vigour he inhales The balmy breeze, and feels the blessed sun Warm at his bosom, from the springs of life Chasing oppressive damps and languid pain!

Or shall I mention, where celestial Truth Her awful light discloses, to bestow A more majestic pomp on Beauty's frame? For man loves knowledge, and the beams of Truth 100 More welcome touch his understanding's eye, Than all the blandishments of sound his ear, Than all of taste his tongue. Nor ever yet The melting rainbow's vernal-tinctured hues To me have shown so pleasing, as when first The hand of Science pointed out the path In which the sunbeams, gleaming from the west, Fall on the watery cloud, whose darksome veil Involves the orient; and that trickling shower Piercing through every crystalline convex 110 Of clustering dewdrops to their flight opposed, Recoil at length where concave all behind The internal surface of each glassy orb Repels their forward passage into air; That thence direct they seek the radiant goal From which their course began; and, as they strike In different lines the gazer's obvious eye, Assume a different lustre, through the brede Of colours changing from the splendid rose To the pale violet's dejected hue. 120

What, when to raise the meditated scene, The flame of passion, through the struggling soul Deep-kindled, shows across that sudden blaze The object of its rapture, vast of size, With fiercer colours and a night of shade? 140 What, like a storm from their capacious bed The sounding seas o'erwhelming, when the might Of these eruptions, working from the depth Of man's strong apprehension, shakes his frame Even to the base; from every naked sense Of pain or pleasure, dissipating all Opinion's feeble coverings, and the veil Spun from the cobweb fashion of the times To hide the feeling heart? Then Nature speaks Her genuine language, and the words of men, 150 Big with the very motion of their souls, Declare with what accumulated force The impetuous nerve of passion urges on The native weight and energy of things.

''Twas in the windings of an ancient wood, When spotless youth with solitude resigns To sweet philosophy the studious day, What time pale Autumn shades the silent eve, 190 Musing I roved. Of good and evil much, And much of mortal man my thought revolved; When starting full on fancy's gushing eye The mournful image of Parthenia's fate, That hour, O long beloved and long deplored! When blooming youth, nor gentlest wisdom's arts, Nor Hymen's honours gather'd for thy brow, Nor all thy lover's, all thy father's tears Avail'd to snatch thee from the cruel grave; Thy agonising looks, thy last farewell 200 Struck to the inmost feeling of my soul As with the hand of Death. At once the shade More horrid nodded o'er me, and the winds With hoarser murmuring shook the branches. Dark As midnight storms, the scene of human things Appear'd before me; deserts, burning sands, Where the parch'd adder dies; the frozen south, And desolation blasting all the west With rapine and with murder: tyrant power Here sits enthroned with blood; the baleful charms 210 Of superstition there infect the skies, And turn the sun to horror. Gracious Heaven! What is the life of man? Or cannot these, Not these portents thy awful will suffice, That, propagated thus beyond their scope, They rise to act their cruelties anew In my afflicted bosom, thus decreed The universal sensitive of pain, The wretched heir of evils not its own?'

Thus I impatient: when, at once effused, 220 A flashing torrent of celestial day Burst through the shadowy void. With slow descent A purple cloud came floating through the sky, And, poised at length within the circling trees, Hung obvious to my view; till opening wide Its lucid orb, a more than human form Emerging lean'd majestic o'er my head, And instant thunder shook the conscious grove. Then melted into air the liquid cloud, And all the shining vision stood reveal'd. 230 A wreath of palm his ample forehead bound, And o'er his shoulder, mantling to his knee, Flow'd the transparent robe, around his waist Collected with a radiant zone of gold Aethereal: there in mystic signs engraved, I read his office high and sacred name, Genius of human kind! Appall'd I gazed The godlike presence; for athwart his brow Displeasure, temper'd with a mild concern, Look'd down reluctant on me, and his words 240 Like distant thunders broke the murmuring air:

'Vain are thy thoughts, O child of mortal birth! And impotent thy tongue. Is thy short span Capacious of this universal frame?-- Thy wisdom all-sufficient? Thou, alas! Dost thou aspire to judge between the Lord Of Nature and his works--to lift thy voice Against the sovereign order he decreed, All good and lovely--to blaspheme the bands Of tenderness innate and social love, 250 Holiest of things! by which the general orb Of being, as by adamantine links, Was drawn to perfect union, and sustain'd From everlasting? Hast thou felt the pangs Of softening sorrow, of indignant zeal, So grievous to the soul, as thence to wish The ties of Nature broken from thy frame, That so thy selfish, unrelenting heart Might cease to mourn its lot, no longer then The wretched heir of evils not its own? 260 O fair benevolence of generous minds! O man by Nature form'd for all mankind!'

He spoke; abash'd and silent I remain'd, As conscious of my tongue's offence, and awed Before his presence, though my secret soul Disdain'd the imputation. On the ground I fix'd my eyes, till from his airy couch He stoop'd sublime, and touching with his hand My dazzling forehead, 'Raise thy sight,' he cried, 'And let thy sense convince thy erring tongue.' 270

I look'd, and lo! the former scene was changed; For verdant alleys and surrounding trees, A solitary prospect, wide and wild, Rush'd on my senses. 'Twas a horrid pile Of hills with many a shaggy forest mix'd, With many a sable cliff and glittering stream. Aloft, recumbent o'er the hanging ridge, The brown woods waved; while ever-trickling springs Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine The crumbling soil; and still at every fall 280 Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock, Remurmuring rush'd the congregated floods With hoarser inundation; till at last They reach'd a grassy plain, which from the skirts Of that high desert spread her verdant lap, And drank the gushing moisture, where confined In one smooth current, o'er the lilied vale Clearer than glass it flow'd. Autumnal spoils Luxuriant spreading to the rays of morn, Blush'd o'er the cliffs, whose half-encircling mound 290 As in a sylvan theatre enclosed That flowery level. On the river's brink I spied a fair pavilion, which diffused Its floating umbrage 'mid the silver shade Of osiers. Now the western sun reveal'd Between two parting cliffs his golden orb, And pour'd across the shadow of the hills, On rocks and floods, a yellow stream of light That cheer'd the solemn scene. My listening powers Were awed, and every thought in silence hung, 300 And wondering expectation. Then the voice Of that celestial power, the mystic show Declaring, thus my deep attention call'd:--

'That rocky pile thou seest, that verdant lawn Fresh-water'd from the mountains. Let the scene Paint in thy fancy the primeval seat Of man, and where the Will Supreme ordain'd His mansion, that pavilion fair-diffused Along the shady brink; in this recess To wear the appointed season of his youth, 370 Till riper hours should open to his toil The high communion of superior minds, Of consecrated heroes and of gods. Nor did the Sire Omnipotent forget His tender bloom to cherish; nor withheld Celestial footsteps from his green abode. Oft from the radiant honours of his throne, He sent whom most he loved, the sovereign fair, The effluence of his glory, whom he placed Before his eyes for ever to behold; 380 The goddess from whose inspiration flows The toil of patriots, the delight of friends; Without whose work divine, in heaven or earth, Nought lovely, nought propitious, conies to pass, Nor hope, nor praise, nor honour. Her the Sire Gave it in charge to rear the blooming mind, The folded powers to open, to direct The growth luxuriant of his young desires, And from the laws of this majestic world To teach him what was good. As thus the nymph 390 Her daily care attended, by her side With constant steps her gay companion stay'd, The fair Euphrosyn?, the gentle queen Of smiles, and graceful gladness, and delights That cheer alike the hearts of mortal men And powers immortal. See the shining pair! Behold, where from his dwelling now disclosed They quit their youthful charge and seek the skies.'

I look'd, and on the flowery turf there stood Between two radiant forms a smiling youth 400 Whose tender cheeks display'd the vernal flower Of beauty: sweetest innocence illumed His bashful eyes, and on his polish'd brow Sate young simplicity. With fond regard He view'd the associates, as their steps they moved; The younger chief his ardent eyes detain'd, With mild regret invoking her return. Bright as the star of evening she appear'd Amid the dusky scene. Eternal youth O'er all her form its glowing honours breathed; 410 And smiles eternal from her candid eyes Flow'd, like the dewy lustre of the morn Effusive trembling on the placid waves. The spring of heaven had shed its blushing spoils To bind her sable tresses: full diffused Her yellow mantle floated in the breeze; And in her hand she waved a living branch Rich with immortal fruits, of power to calm The wrathful heart, and from the brightening eyes To chase the cloud of sadness. More sublime 420 The heavenly partner moved. The prime of age Composed her steps. The presence of a god, High on the circle of her brow enthroned, From each majestic motion darted awe, Devoted awe! till, cherish'd by her looks Benevolent and meek, confiding love To filial rapture soften'd all the soul. Free in her graceful hand she poised the sword Of chaste dominion. An heroic crown Display'd the old simplicity of pomp 430 Around her honour'd head. A matron's robe, White as the sunshine streams through vernal clouds, Her stately form invested. Hand in hand The immortal pair forsook the enamel'd green, Ascending slowly. Rays of limpid light Gleam'd round their path; celestial sounds were heard, And through the fragrant air ethereal dews Distill'd around them; till at once the clouds, Disparting wide in midway sky, withdrew Their airy veil, and left a bright expanse 440 Of empyrean flame, where, spent and drown'd, Afflicted vision plunged in vain to scan What object it involved. My feeble eyes Endured not. Bending down to earth I stood, With dumb attention. Soon a female voice, As watery murmurs sweet, or warbling shades, With sacred invocation thus began:

'Father of gods and mortals! whose right arm With reins eternal guides the moving heavens, Bend thy propitious ear. Behold well pleased 450 I seek to finish thy divine decree. With frequent steps I visit yonder seat Of man, thy offspring; from the tender seeds Of justice and of wisdom, to evolve The latent honours of his generous frame; Till thy conducting hand shall raise his lot From earth's dim scene to these ethereal walks, The temple of thy glory. But not me, Not my directing voice he oft requires, Or hears delighted: this enchanting maid, 460 The associate thou hast given me, her alone He loves, O Father! absent, her he craves; And but for her glad presence ever join'd, Rejoices not in mine: that all my hopes This thy benignant purpose to fulfil, I deem uncertain: and my daily cares Unfruitful all and vain, unless by thee Still further aided in the work divine.'

Here ceased that awful voice, and soon I felt The cloudy curtain of refreshing eve Was closed once more, from that immortal fire Sheltering my eyelids. Looking up, I view'd A vast gigantic spectre striding on Through murmuring thunders and a waste of clouds, With dreadful action. Black as night his brow Relentless frowns involved. His savage limbs 510 With sharp impatience violent he writhed, As through convulsive anguish; and his hand, Arm'd with a scorpion lash, full oft he raised In madness to his bosom; while his eyes Rain'd bitter tears, and bellowing loud he shook The void with horror. Silent by his side The virgin came. No discomposure stirr'd Her features. From the glooms which hung around, No stain of darkness mingled with the beam Of her divine effulgence. Now they stoop 520 Upon the river bank; and now to hail His wonted guests, with eager steps advanced The unsuspecting inmate of the shade.

As when a famish'd wolf, that all night long Had ranged the Alpine snows, by chance at morn Sees from a cliff, incumbent o'er the smoke Of some lone village, a neglected kid That strays along the wild for herb or spring; Down from the winding ridge he sweeps amain, And thinks he tears him: so with tenfold rage, 530 The monster sprung remorseless on his prey. Amazed the stripling stood: with panting breast Feebly he pour'd the lamentable wail Of helpless consternation, struck at once, And rooted to the ground. The Queen beheld His terror, and with looks of tenderest care Advanced to save him. Soon the tyrant felt Her awful power. His keen tempestuous arm Hung nerveless, nor descended where his rage Had aim'd the deadly blow: then dumb retired 540 With sullen rancour. Lo! the sovereign maid Folds with a mother's arms the fainting boy, Till life rekindles in his rosy cheek; Then grasps his hands, and cheers him with her tongue:--

So spake the goddess; while through all her frame 600 Celestial raptures flow'd, in every word, In every motion kindling warmth divine To seize who listen'd. Vehement and swift As lightning fires the aromatic shade In Aethiopian fields, the stripling felt Her inspiration catch his fervid soul, And starting from his languor thus exclaim'd:--

'Then let the trial come! and witness thou, If terror be upon me; if I shrink To meet the storm, or falter in my strength 610 When hardest it besets me. Do not think That I am fearful and infirm of soul, As late thy eyes beheld: for thou hast changed My nature; thy commanding voice has waked My languid powers to bear me boldly on, Where'er the will divine my path ordains Through toil or peril: only do not thou Forsake me; Oh, be thou for ever near, That I may listen to thy sacred voice, And guide by thy decrees my constant feet. 620 But say, for ever are my eyes bereft? Say, shall the fair Euphrosyn? not once Appear again to charm me? Thou, in heaven! O thou eternal arbiter of things! Be thy great bidding done: for who am I, To question thy appointment? Let the frowns Of this avenger every morn o'ercast The cheerful dawn, and every evening damp With double night my dwelling; I will learn To hail them both, and unrepining bear 630 His hateful presence: but permit my tongue One glad request, and if my deeds may find Thy awful eye propitious, oh! restore The rosy-featured maid; again to cheer This lonely seat, and bless me with her smiles.'

He spoke; when instant through the sable glooms With which that furious presence had involved The ambient air, a flood of radiance came Swift as the lightning flash; the melting clouds Flew diverse, and amid the blue serene 640 Euphrosyn? appear'd. With sprightly step The nymph alighted on the irriguous lawn, And to her wondering audience thus began:--

'Lo! I am here to answer to your vows, And be the meeting fortunate! I come With joyful tidings; we shall part no more-- Hark! how the gentle echo from her cell Talks through the cliffs, and murmuring o'er the stream Repeats the accents; we shall part no more.-- O my delightful friends! well pleased on high 650 The Father has beheld you, while the might Of that stern foe with bitter trial proved Your equal doings: then for ever spake The high decree, that thou, celestial maid! Howe'er that grisly phantom on thy steps May sometimes dare intrude, yet never more Shalt thou, descending to the abode of man, Alone endure the rancour of his arm, Or leave thy loved Euphrosyn? behind.'

She ended, and the whole romantic scene 660 Immediate vanish'd; rocks, and woods, and rills, The mantling tent, and each mysterious form Flew like the pictures of a morning dream, When sunshine fills the bed. Awhile I stood Perplex'd and giddy; till the radiant power Who bade the visionary landscape rise, As up to him I turn'd, with gentlest looks Preventing my inquiry, thus began:--

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