10 COLUMBIAD.
Confas'd and (Iruck with fear, smaz'd the>- fland, Brood o'er the woes denounc'd againft the land i Sign cf fierce wrath, and future woes to men! Trognoftics dire in every cloud is feen! They finite their breads while tears of forrow flow, Then home return, with penfive fteps— and flow.
O bled f fimplicity 1 much- envied lot! Short are thy pains, thy forrows foon forgot; The breath of morn difpels each wayward fear. Jocund and free, to chafe the bounding deer : ^ The echoing horn refounds from hill to hill. The nimble (tag eludes the hunter's flvili; At length grown weary in the dangerous chafe. His head declines, unequal in his pace. When lo 1— the weli-kLown cry alfails each ear. The flag is down — the end of hopes and fear. Convivial mirth foon ends the cheerlul day, And each contented, homeward, bends his way.
Such rural Iports no more the mufe fhall fmg, War, dreadful war 1 fhall tune each founding llring.
Divine Urania i all my foul inlpire I
Teach me to fmg with true poetic fire; From all obdruftions purge the vifual ray, Andburd upon me in a flood of day;
■f It has long teen my opir.Ion, th;;t a larger (hare of real happinefs is to be found in the co.tige of the farmer, and that he enjoys a more exquifite relifn or the comforts of li'e, than is to be found in the ftudy of the philofophcr, or in the pa aces of rhe great; his dciires are natu- rally wi'.h n a rm.di conipafs and cafry gratified. On the contrary, the man of fcnfitiity, wiio poirenTcs an uncommnn fhare of under- ftanding, improved by edu:aticn, is more; feelingly alive to the woes incident CO humanity : true i' is, he has alfo a more elevated notioa of thingr,, and can enjoy the feaft of reafon in a fuperioi manner; yet even this he'ps to embitter the cup already la-gc>/ impregnated with the w -imwoDd and the gall, the draught prfpand f.r a 1 mankind : and which, I tbinic, bettor ii'iiftri'ted by Pope, in the foiiowing lines :
" Painful pre-eminence! you.fe'f to view,
" Above life s weaknsfs, and its com'orts too."
