Page:The Poems of John Dyer (1903).djvu/60

Invoke eternal blessings on his head.
Sheep also pleurisies and dropsies know,
Driven oft from Nature's path by artful man,
Who blindly turns aside, with haughty hand,295
Whom sacred Instinct would securely lead.
But thou, more humble Swain! thy rural gates
Frequent unbar, and let thy flocks abroad
From lea to croft, from mead to arid field,
Noting the fickle seasons of the sky. 300
Rain-sated pastures let them shun, and seek
Changes of herbage and salubrious flowers.
By their All-perfect Master inly taught,
They best their food and physic can discern;
For He, Supreme Existence! ever near, 305
Informs them. O'er the vivid green observe
With what a regular consent they crop,
At every fourth collection to the mouth,
Unsav'ry crow-flow'r; whether to awake
Languor of appetite with lively change,310
Or timely to repel approaching ills,
Hard to determine. Thou, whom Nature loves,
And with her salutary rules intrusts,
Benevolent Mackenzie! say the cause.
This truth howe'er shines bright to human sense;315
Each strong affection of th' unconscious brute,
Each bent, each passion of the smallest mite,
Is wisely giv'n: harmonious they perform
The work of perfect reason (blush, vain Man!),
And turn the wheels of Nature's vast machine. 320
See that thy scrip have store of healing tar,
And marking pitch and raddle; nor forget
Thy shears true pointed, nor th' officious dog,
Faithful to teach thy stragglers to return;
So may'sf thou aid who lag along, or steal 325
Aside into the furrows or the shades,