# The Pleasures of Imagination (Akenside, 1744)/Book 1

ARGUMENT of the FIRST BOOK.
The subject propos'd; verse 1, to 30. Difficulty of treating it poetically; v. 45. The ideas of the divine mind, the origin of every quality pleasing to the imagination; v. 56, to 78. The natural variety of constitution in the minds of men; with its final cause; to v. 96. The idea of a fine imagination, and the state of the mind in the enjoyment of those pleasures which it affords; v. 100, to 132. All the primary pleasures of the imagination result from the perception of greatness, or wonderfulness, or beauty in objects; v. 145. The pleasure from greatness, with its final cause; v. 151, to 221. Pleasure from novelty or wonderfulness, with its final cause; v. 222, to 270. Pleasure from beauty, with its final cause; v. 275, to 372. The connection of beauty with truth and good, applied to the conduct of life; v. 384. Invitation to the study of moral philosophy; to v. 428. The different degrees of beauty in different species of objects; v. 448. Colour; shape; natural concretes; vegetables; animals; the mind; v. 445. The sublime, the fair, the wonderful of the mind; v. 497, to 526. The connection of the imagination and the moral faculty; v. 557. Conclusion.
page
THE
PLEASURES
OF
IMAGINATION.
Book the First.
With what attractive charms this goodly frame Of nature touches the consenting hearts Of mortal men; and what the pleasing stores Which beauteous imitation thence derives To deck the poet's, or the painter's toil;5 My verse unfolds. Attend, ye gentle Pow'rs Of musical Delight! and while I sing Your gifts, your honours, dance around my strain. Thou, smiling queen of every tuneful breast,
Indulgent Fancy! from the fruitful Banks10 Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull Fresh flow'rs and dews to sprinkle on the turf Where Shakespeare lies, be present: and with thee Let Fiction come, upon her vagrant wings Wafting ten thousand colours thro' the air,15 And, by the glances of her magic eye, Combining each in endless, fairy forms, Her wild creation. Goddess of the lyre Which rules the Accents of the moving sphere, Wilt thou, eternal Harmony! descend,20 And join this festive train? for with thee comes The guide, the guardian of their lovely sports, Majestic Truth; and where TRUTH deigns to come, Her sister Liberty will not be far. Be present all ye Genii who conduct25 The wand'ring footsteps of the youthful bard, New to your springs and shades: who touch his ear With finer sounds: who heighten to his eye The bloom of nature, and before him turn The gayest, happiest attitude of things.30
Oft have the laws of each poetic strain The critic-verse imploy'd; yet still unsung Lay this prime subject, tho' importing most A poet's name: for fruitless is th' attempt, By dull obedience and the curb of rules,35
For creeping toil to climb the hard ascent Of high Parnassus. Nature's kindling breath Must fire the chosen genius; nature's hand Must string his nerves, and imp his eagle-wings Exulting o'er the painful steep to soar40 High as the summit; there to breathe at large Æthereal air; with bards and sages old, Immortal sons of praise. These flatt'ring scenes To this neglected labour court my song; Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task45 To paint the finest features of the mind, And to most subtile and mysterious things Give colour, strength, and motion. But the love Of nature and the muses bids explore, Thro' secret paths erewhile untrod by man,50 The fair poetic region, to detect Untasted springs, to drink inspiring draughts; And shade my temples with unfading flow'rs Cull'd from the laureate vale's profound recess, Where never poet gain'd a wreath before.55
From heav'n my strains begin; from heaven descends The flame of genius to the human breast, And love and beauty, and poetic joy And inspiration. Ere the radiant sun Sprung from the east, or 'mid the vault of night60 The moon suspended her serener lamp; Ere mountains, woods, or streams adorn'd the globe; Or wisdom taught the sons of men her lore; Then liv'd th' almighty One: then, deep-retir'd In his unfathom'd essence, view'd at large65 The uncreated images things; The radiant sun, the moon's nocturnal lamp, The mountains, woods and streams, the rolling globe, And wisdom's form cœlestial. From the first Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd,70 His admiration: till in time compleat, What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile Unfolded into being. Hence the breath Of life informing each organic frame, Hence the green earth, and wild resounding waves;75 Hence light and shade alternate; warmth and cold; And clear autumnal skies and vernal show'rs, And all the fair variety of things.
But not alike to every mortal eye Is this great scene unveil'd. For since the claims80 Of social life, to different labours urge The active pow'rs of man; with wise intent The hand of nature on peculiar minds Imprints a diff'rent byass, and to each Decrees its province in the common toil.85 To some she taught the fabric of the sphere, The changeful moon, the circuit of the starrs, The golden zones of heav'n: to some she gave To weigh the moment of eternal things, Of time, and space, and fate's unbroken chain,90 And will's quick impulse: others by the hand She led o'er vales and mountains, to explore What healing virtue swells the tender veins Of herbs and flow'rs; or what the beams of morn Draw forth, distilling from the clifted rind95 In balmy tears. But some, to higher hopes Were destin'd; some within a finer mould She wrought, and temper'd with a purer flame. To these the sire omnipotent unfolds The world's harmonious volume, there to read100 The transcript of himself. On every part They trace the bright impressions of his hand: In earth or air, the meadow's purple stores, The moon's mild radiance, or the virgin's form Blooming with rosy smiles, they see portray'd105
That uncreated beauty, which delights The mind supreme. They also feel her charms; Enamour'd, they partake th' eternal joy.
As Memnon's marble harp, long renown'd of old By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch110 Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string Consenting, sounded thro' the warbling air Unbidden strains; ev'n so did nature's hand To certain species of external things, Attune the finer organs of the mind:115 So the glad impulse of congenial pow'rs, Or of sweet sound, or fair proportion'd form, The grace of motion, or the bloom of light, Thrills thro' imagination's tender frame, From nerve to nerve: all naked and alive120 They catch the spreading rays: till now the soul At length discloses every tuneful spring, To that harmonious movement from without Responsive. Then the inexpressive strain
Diffuses its inchantment: fancy dreams125 Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves, And vales of bliss: the intellectual pow'r Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear, And smiles: the passions, gently sooth'd away, Sink to divine repose, and love and joy130 Alone are waking; love and joy, serene As airs that fan the summer. O! attend, Whoe'er thou art, whom these delights can touch, Whose candid bosom the refining love Of nature warms, O! listen to my song;135 And I will guide thee to her fav'rite walks, And teach thy solitude her voice to hear, And point her loveliest features to thy view.
Know then, whate'er of nature's pregnant stores, Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms140 With love and admiration thus inflame The pow'rs 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,145 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 thro' the gates of morn, To lead the train of Phœbus and the spring.150
Say, why was man so eminently rais'd Amid the vast creation; why ordain'd Thro' life and death to dart his piercing eye, With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame; But that th' Omnipotent might send him forth155 In sight of mortal and immortal pow'rs, As on a boundless theatre, to run The great career of justice; to exalt His gen'rous aim to all diviner deeds; To chase each partial purpose from his breast;160 And thro' the mists of passion and of sense,
And thro' the tossing tide of chance and pain To hold his course unfalt'ring, while the voice Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent Of nature, calls him to his high reward,165 The applauding smile of heav'n? 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 embrace170 Majestic forms? Impatient to be free, Spurning the gross controul of wilful might; Proud of the strong contention of her toils; Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns To heav'n's broad fire his unconstrained view,175 Than to the glimmering of a waxen flame? Who that, from Alpine heights, his lab'ring eye Shoots round the wide horizon to survey The Nile or Ganges rowl his wasteful tide Thro' mountains, plains, thro' empires black with Shade180 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 heav'n-aspiring wing Beneath its native quarry. Tir'd of earth185 And this diurnal Scene, she springs aloft Thro' fields of air; pursues the flying storm;
Rides on the volly'd lightning thro' the heav'ns; Or yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blast, Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high she soars190 The blue profound, and hovering o'er 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 effus'd195 She darts her swiftness up the long career Of devious comets; thro' 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 amaz'd she views Th' empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold, Beyond this concave heav'n, their calm abode; And fields of radiance, whose unfading light Has travell'd the profound six thousand years,205
Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things. Ev'n on the barriers of the world untir'd She meditates th' eternal depth below; Till, half recoiling, down the headlong steep She plunges; soon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up210 In that immense of being. There her hopes Rest at the fated goal. For from the birth Of mortal man, the sov'reign Maker said, That not in humble nor in brief delight, Not in the fading echoes of renown,215 Pow'rs purple robes, nor pleasure's flow'ry lap, The Soul should find enjoyment: but from these Turning disdainful to an equal good, Thro' all th' ascent of things inlarge her view, Till every bound at length should disappear,220 And infinite perfection close the scene.
Call now to mind what high, capacious pow'rs Lie folded up in man; how far beyond The praise of mortals, may th' eternal growth Of nature to perfection half divine,225 Expand the blooming soul? What pity then Should sloth's unkindly fogs depress to earth Her tender blossom; choak the streams of life, And blast her spring! Far otherwise design'd Almighty wisdom; nature's happy cares230 Th' obedient heart far otherwise incline. Witness the sprightly joy when aught unknown
Strikes the quick sense, and wakes each active pow'r To brisker measures: witness the neglect Of all familiar prospects, tho' beheld235 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 heav'n,
In every breast implanting this desire240
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 pow'r? For this, the daring youth245 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 untir'd The virgin follows, with inchanted 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 pin'd. Hence, finally, by night255 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 To him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd260 The orphan's portion; of unquiet souls Ris'n 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 murd'rer's bed.265 At every solemn pause the croud recoil Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd With shivering sighs: till eager for th' event, Around the beldame all arrect they hang, Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd.270
But lo! disclos'd in all her smiling pomp, Where Beauty onward moving claims the verse Her charms inspire: the freely-flowing verse In thy immortal praise, O form divine,
Smooths her mellifluent stream. Thee, Beauty, thee275
The regal dome, and thy enlivening ray
The mossy roofs adore: thou, better sun! For ever beamest on th' inchanted heart
Love, and harmonious wonder, and delight Poetic.
Brightest progeny of heav'n!280 How shall I trace thy features? where select
The roseate hues to emulate thy bloom?
Haste then, my song, thro' nature's wide expanse,
Haste then, and gather all her comeliest wealth,
Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains,285 Whate'er the waters, or the liquid air,
To deck thy lovely labour. Wilt thou fly
With laughing Autumn to th' Atlantic isles,
And range with him th' Hesperian field, and see,
Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove,290 The branches shoot with gold; where'er his step
Marks the glad soil, the tender clusters glow
With purple ripeness, and invest each hill
As with the blushes of an evening sky.
Or wilt thou rather stoop thy vagrant plume,295
Where, gliding thro' his daughter's honour'd shades, The smooth Penéus from his glassy flood Reflects purpureal Tempe's pleasant scene? Fair Tempe! haunt belov'd of sylvan pow'rs, Of nymphs and fawns; where in the golden age300 They play'd in secret on the shady brink With ancient Pan: while round their choral steps Young hours and genial gales with constant hand Show'r'd blossoms, odours, show'r'd ambrosial dews, And spring's Elysian bloom. Her flow'ry store305 To thee nor Tempe shall refuse; nor watch Of winged Hydra guard Hesperian fruits From thy free spoil. O bear then, unreprov'd, Thy smiling treasures to the green recess Where young Dione stays. With sweetest airs310 Intice her forth to lend her angel-form For beauty's honour'd image. Hither turn Thy graceful footsteps; hither, gentle maid, Incline thy polish'd forehead: let thy eyes Effuse the mildness of their azure dawn;315 And may the fanning breezes waft aside Thy radiant locks, dissolving as it bends With airy softness from the marble neck The cheek fair-blooming, and the rosy lip
Where winning smiles and pleasures sweet as love,320 With sanctity and wisdom, temp'ring blend Their soft allurement. Then the pleasing force Of nature, and her kind parental care Worthier I'd sing: then all th' enamour'd youth, With each admiring virgin, to my lyre325 Should throng attentive, while I point on high Where beauty's living image, like the morn That wakes in Zephyr's arms the blushing May, Moves onward; or as Venus, when she stood Effulgent on the pearly car, and smil'd,330 Fresh from the deep, and conscious of her form, To see the Tritons tune their vocal shells, And each cœrulean sister of the flood With fond acclaim attend her o'er the waves, To seek th' Idalian bow'r. Ye smiling band335 Of youths and virgins, who thro' all the maze Of young desire with rival-steps pursue This charm of beauty; if the pleasing toil Can yield a moment's respite, hither turn Your favourable ear, and trust my words.340 I do not mean to wake the gloomy form Of Superstition drest in wisdom's garb, To damp your tender hopes; I do not mean To bid the jealous thund'rer fire the heav'ns, Or shapes infernal rend the groaning earth345 To fright you from your joys: my chearful song With better omens calls you to the field,
Pleas'd with your generous ardour in the chace, And warm as you. Then tell me, for you know, Does beauty ever deign to dwell where health350 And active use are strangers? Is her charm Confess'd in aught, whose most peculiar ends Are lame and fruitless? Or did nature mean This awful stamp the herald of a lye; To hide the shame of discord and disease,355 And catch with fair hypocrisy the heart Of idle faith? O no! with better cares, Th' indulgent mother, conscious how infirm Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill, By this illustrious image, in each kind360 Still most illustrious where the object holds Its native pow'rs most perfect, she by this Illumes the headstrong impulse of desire, And sanctifies his choice. The generous glebe Whose bosom smiles with verdure, the clear tract365 Of streams delicious to the thirsty soul, The bloom of nectar'd fruitage ripe to sense, And every charm of animated things, Are only pledges of a state sincere, Th' integrity and order of their frame,370 When all is well within, and every end Accomplish'd. Thus was beauty sent from heav'n, The lovely ministress of truth and good
In this dark world: for truth and good are one,
And beauty dwells in them, and they in her,375
With like participation. Wherefore then, O sons of earth! would you dissolve the tye? O wherefore, with a rash, imperfect aim, Seek you those flow'ry joys with which the hand Of lavish fancy paints each flatt'ring scene380 Where beauty seems to dwell, nor once inquire Where is the sanction of eternal truth, Or where the seal of undeceitful good, To save your search from folly? Wanting these, Lo! beauty withers in your void embrace,385 And with the glitt'ring of an idiot's toy
Did fancy mock your vows. Nor let the gleam Of youthful hope that shines upon your Hearts, Be chill'd or clouded at this awful task To learn the lore of undeceitful good,390 And truth eternal. Tho' the pois'nous charms Of baleful superstition, guide the feet Of servile numbers, thro' a dreary way To their abode, thro' desarts, thorns and mire; And leave the wretched pilgrim all forlorn395 To muse, at last, amid the ghostly gloom Of graves, and hoary vaults, and cloister'd cells; To walk with spectres thro' the midnight shade, And to the screaming owl's accursed song Attune the dreadful workings of his heart;400 Yet be not you dismay'd. A gentler star Your lovely search illumines. From the grove Where wisdom talk'd with her Athenian sons, Could my ambitious hand intwine a wreath Of Plato's olive with the Mantuan bay,405 Then should my pow'rful verse at once dispel Those monkish horrors: then in light divine Disclose th' Elysian prospect, where the steps Of those whom nature charms, thro' blooming walks, Thro' fragrant mountains and poetic streams,410 Amid the train of sages, heroes, bards, Led by their winged Genius and the choir Of laurell'd science and harmonious art,
Proceed exulting to th' eternal shrine, Where truth inthron'd with her cœlestial twins,415 The undivided partners of her sway, With good and beauty reigns. O let not us, Lull'd by luxurious pleasure's languid strain, Or crouching to the frowns of bigot-rage, O let us not a moment pause to join420 That god-like band. And if the gracious pow'r That first awaken'd my untutor'd song, Will to my invocation breathe anew The tuneful spirit; then thro' all our paths, Ne'er shall the sound of this devoted lyre425 Be wanting; whether on the rosy mead, When summer smiles, to warn the melting heart Of luxury's allurement; whether firm Against the torrent and the stubborn hill To urge bold virtue's unremitted nerve,430 And wake the strong divinity of soul That conquers chance and fate; or whether struck For sounds of triumph, to proclaim her toils Upon the lofty summit, round her brow To twine the wreathe of incorruptive praise;435 To trace her hallow'd light thro' future worlds, And bless heav'n's image in the heart of man.
Thus with a faithful aim have we presum'd, Advent'rous, to delineate nature's form; Whether in vast, majestic pomp array'd,440
Or drest for pleasing wonder, or serene In beauty's rosy smile. It now remains, Thro' various being's fair-proportion'd scale To trace the rising lustre of her charms, From their first twilight, shining forth at length445 To full meridian splendour. Of degree The least and lowliest, in th' effusive warmth Of colours mingling with a random blaze, Doth beauty dwell. Then higher in the line And variation of determin'd shape,450 Where truth's eternal measures mark the bound Of circle, cube, or sphere. The third ascent Unites this varied symmetry of parts With colour's bland allurement; as the pearl Shines in the concave of its azure bed,455 And painted shells indent their speckled wreath, Then more attractive rise the blooming forms Thro' which the breath of nature has infus'd Her genial pow'r to draw with pregnant veins Nutritious moisture from the bounteous earth,460 In fruit and seed prolific: thus the flow'rs Their purple honours with the spring resume; And such the stately tree which autumn bends With blushing treasures. But more lovely still Is nature's charm, where to the full consent465 Of complicated members, to the bloom Of colour, and the vital change of growth, Life's holy flame and piercing sense are giv'n,
And active motion speaks the temper'd soul: So moves the bird of Juno; so the steed470 With rival ardour beats the dusty plain, And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy Salute their fellows. Thus doth beauty dwell There most conspicuous, ev'n in outward shape, Where dawns the high expression of a mind:475 By steps conducting our inraptur'd search To that eternal origin, whose pow'r, Thro' all th' unbounded symmetry of things, Like rays effulging from the parent sun, This endless mixture of her charms diffus'd.480 Mind, Mind alone, bear witness, earth and heav'n! The living fountain in itself contains Of beauteous and sublime: here, hand in hand, Sit paramount the Graces; here inthron'd, Cœlestial Venus, with divinest airs,485 Invites the soul to never-fading joy. Look then abroad thro' nature, to the range Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres Wheeling unshaken thro' the void immense; And speak, O man! does this capacious scene 490 With half that kindling majesty dilate Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate, Amid the croud of patriots; and his arm Aloft extending, like eternal Jove495 When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel, And bade the father of his country, hail! For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust, And Rome again is free? — Is aught so fair500 In all the dewy landscapes of the spring, In the bright eye of Hesper or the morn, In nature's fairest forms, is aught so fair As virtuous friendship? as the candid blush Of him who strives with fortune to be just?505 The graceful tear that streams for others woes? Or the mild majesty of private life, Where peace with ever-blooming olive crowns The gate; where honour's liberal hands effuse Unenvied treasures, and the snowy wings510 Of innocence and love protect the scene? Once more search, undismay'd, the dark profound Where nature works in secret; view the beds Of min'ral treasure, and th' eternal vault That bounds the hoary ocean; trace the forms515 Of atoms moving with incessant change Their elemental round; behold the seeds Of being, and the energy of life Kindling the mass with ever-active flame: Then to the secrets of the working mind520
Attentive turn, from dim oblivion call Her fleet, ideal band; and bid them, go! Break thro' time's barrier, and o'ertake the hour That saw the heav'ns created: then declare If aught were found in those external scenes525 To move thy wonder now. For what are all The forms which brute, unconscious matter wears, Greatness of bulk, or symmetry of parts? Not reaching to the heart, soon feeble grows The superficial impulse; dull their charms,530 And satiate soon, and pall the languid eye. Not so the moral species, nor the pow'rs Of genius and design; th' ambitious mind There sees herself: by these congenial forms Touch'd and awaken'd, with intenser act535 She bends each nerve, and meditates well-pleas'd Her features in the mirror. For of all The inhabitants of earth, to man alone Creative wisdom gave to lift his eye To truth's eternal measures; thence to frame540 The sacred laws of action and of will, Discerning justice from unequal deeds, And temperance from folly. But beyond This energy of truth, whose dictates bind Assenting reason, the benignant sire,545 To deck the honour'd paths of just and good, Has added bright imagination's rays:
Where virtue, rising from the awful depth Of truth's mysterious bosom, doth forsake The unadorn'd condition of her birth;550 And dress'd by fancy in ten thousand hues, Assumes a various feature, to attract, With charms responsive to each gazer's eye, The hearts of men. Amid his rural walk, Th' ingenuous youth whom solitude inspires555 With purest wishes from the pensive shade Beholds her moving, like a virgin-muse That wakes her lyre to some indulgent theme Of harmony and wonder: while among The herd of servile minds, her strenuous form560 Indignant flashes on the patriot's eye, And thro' the rolls of memory appeals To ancient honour; or in act serene, Yet watchful, raises the majestic sword Of public pow'r, from dark ambition's reach565 To guard the sacred volume of the laws.
Genius of ancient Greece! whose faithful steps Well-pleas'd I follow thro' the sacred paths
Of nature and of science; nurse divine Of all heroic deeds and fair desires!570 O! let the breath of thy extended praise Inspire my kindling bosom to the height Of this untempted theme. Nor be my thoughts Presumptuous counted, if, amid the calm That sooths this vernal evening into smiles,575 I steal impatient from the sordid haunts Of strife and low ambition, to attend Thy sacred presence in the sylvan shade, By their malignant footsteps ne'er profan'd. Descend, propitious! to my favour'd eye;580 Such in thy mien, thy warm, exalted air, As when the Persian tyrant, foil'd and stung With shame and desperation, gnash'd his teeth To see thee rend the pageants of his throne; And at the lightning of thy lifted spear585 Crouch'd like a slave. Bring all thy martial spoils, Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal songs, Thy smiling band of arts, thy godlike sires Of civil wisdom, thy heroic youth Warm from the schools of glory. Guide my way590 Thro' fair Lycéum's walk, the green retreats Of Academus, and the thymy vale, Where oft inchanted with Socratic sounds,
Ilissus pure devolv'd his tuneful stream
In gentler murmurs. From the blooming store595
Of these auspicious fields, may I unblam'd
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn
My native clime: while far above the flight
Of fancy's plume aspiring, I unlock.
The springs of ancient wisdom; while I join600 Thy name, thrice honour'd! with th' immortal praise
Of nature; while to my compatriot youth
I point the high example of thy sons,
And tune to Attic themes the British lyre.
End of the FIRST BOOK.
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