BOOK THE NINTH.
357
Profuse her bounty. Forest-waving hills
Bosom'd the tranquil scene, beneath whose feet 805
A river roll'd along its willowy course,
And as it wound between the neighbouring coomb,
Allured the charmed eye. Here, as they pass
Beneath a woodbine bower, a manly form
They saw of open visage, who from wood 810
Of odorous Myrtle form'd the shafts of Love.
Yet whilst Humanity thus plied his toil,
Deceit would steal away the precious shafts
And in their stead the evil darts return,
Form'd from the Cypress or the Aspin wood, 815
Or from that tree that on the traveller drops
The dews of death. And as the Genius form'd
His shafts, he plunged them in the urn of bliss:
But brooding evil to the race of man,
Sat shameless Vice behind, and fann'd her fire, 820
Hell-kindled, heating in it's flames the darts
Deceit had form'd, and Avarice venom'd them
With his cold drugs that petrify the heart.
Bosom'd the tranquil scene, beneath whose feet 805
A river roll'd along its willowy course,
And as it wound between the neighbouring coomb,
Allured the charmed eye. Here, as they pass
Beneath a woodbine bower, a manly form
They saw of open visage, who from wood 810
Of odorous Myrtle form'd the shafts of Love.
Yet whilst Humanity thus plied his toil,
Deceit would steal away the precious shafts
And in their stead the evil darts return,
Form'd from the Cypress or the Aspin wood, 815
Or from that tree that on the traveller drops
The dews of death. And as the Genius form'd
His shafts, he plunged them in the urn of bliss:
But brooding evil to the race of man,
Sat shameless Vice behind, and fann'd her fire, 820
Hell-kindled, heating in it's flames the darts
Deceit had form'd, and Avarice venom'd them
With his cold drugs that petrify the heart.
"These
