O THOU, whose wisdom, folid yet refin'd, Whose patriot-virtues, and confummate skill To touch the finer springs that move the world, Join'd to whate'er the Graces can bestow,
And all Apollo's animating fire,
Give thee, with pleafing dignity, to fhine
At once the guardian, ornament, and joy,
Of polifh'd life; permit the Rural Muse,
O CHESTERFIELD, to grace with thee her fong!
Ere to the fhades again fhe humbly flies,
Indulge her fond ambition, in thy train,
(For every Mufe has in thy train a place)
To mark thy various full-accomplish'd mind:
To mark that spirit, which, with British Scorn,
Rejects th' allurements of corrupted power;
That elegant politenefs, which excels,
Even in the judgment of prefumptuous France,
The boasted manners of her fhining court;
That wit, the vivid energy of sense,
The truth of Nature, which, with Attic point, 675
And kind well-temper'd fatire, fimoothly keen,
Steals through the foul, and without pain corrects.
Or, rifing thence with yet a brighter flame,
O let me hail thee on fome glorious day,
When to the listening fenate, ardent, croud
BRITANNIA'S fons to hear her pleaded cause.
Then dreft by thee, more amiably fair,
Truth the foft robe of mild perfuafion wears:
Thou to affenting reason giv'ft again
Her own enlightened thoughts; call'd from the heart, Th' obedient paffions on thy voice attend;
And even reluctant party feels a while
Thy gracious power: as thro' the varied maze
Of eloquence, now smooth, now quick, now strong,
Profound and clear, you roll the copious flood. 690
To thy lov'd haunt return, my happy Mufe:
For now, behold, the joyous winter-days,
Frofty, fucceed; and thro' the blue serene,
For fight too fine, th' ethereal nitre flies;
Killing infectious damps, and the spent air
Storing afresh with elemental life.
Close crouds the shining atmosphere; and binds
Our ftrengthened bodies in its cold embrace,
Conftringent; feeds, and animates our blood;
Refines our spirits, thro' the new-ftrung nerves, 700
In fwifter fallies darting to the brain ;.
Where fits the foul, intenfe, collected, cool,
Bright as the skies, and as the feafon keen.
All Nature feels the renovating force
Of Winter, only to the thoughtless eye
In ruin feen. The froft-concocted glebe
Draws in abundant vegetable foul,
And gathers vigour for the coming year.
A ftronger glow fits on the lively cheek
Of ruddy fire and luculent along
The purer rivers flow; their fullen deeps,
Transparent, open to the shepherd's gaze,
And murmur hoarfer at the fixing froft.
WHAT art thou, froft? and whence are thy keen
Deriv'd, thou fecret all-invading power,
Whom even th' illufive fluid cannot fly ?
Is not thy potent energy, unfeen,
Myriads of little falts, or hook'd, or shap'd
Like double wedges, and diffus'd immenfe
Thro' water, earth, and ether? Hence at eve,
Steam'd eager from the red horizon round,
With the fierce rage of Winter deep fuffus'd,
An icy gale, oft fhifting, o'er the pool
Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career
Arrefts the bickering ftream. The loosened ice, 725
Let down the flood, and half diffolv'd by day,
Ruftles no more; but to the fedgy bank
Faft grows, or gathers round the pointed ftone,
A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven
Cemented firm; till, feiz'd from shore to fhore, 730
The whole imprifon'd river growls below,
Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects
A double noife; while, at his evening watch,
The village dog deters the nightly thief;
The heifer lows; the diftant water-fall
Swells in the breeze; and, with the hafty tread
Of traveller, the hollow-founding plain
Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round,
Infinite worlds difclofing to the view,
Shines out intensely keen; and, all one cope
Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole.
From pole to pole the rigid influence falls,
Thro' the still night, inceffant, heavy, strong,
And feizes Nature faft. It freezes on;
Till morn, late-rifing o'er the drooping world, 745
Lifts her pale eye unjoyous. Then appears
The various labour of the filent night:
Prone from the dripping eave, and dumb cascade,
Whofe idle torrents only seem to roar,
The pendant icicle; the froft-work fair,
Where tranfient hues, and fancy'd figures rife ;
Wide-spouted o'er the hill, the frozen-brook,
A livid tract, cold-gleaming on the morn;
The foreft bent beneath the plumy wave;
And by the froft refin'd the whiter snow,
Incrufted hard, and founding to the tread
Of early fhepherd, as he penfive feeks
His pining flock, or from the mountain top,
Pleas'd with the flippery furface, swift defcends.
ON blithfome frolicks bent, the youthful fwains,
While every work of Man is laid at reft,
Fond o'er the river croud, in various sport
And revelry diffolv'd; where mixing glad,
Happieft of all the train! the raptur'd boy
Lashes the whirling top. Or, where the Rhine 765
Branch'd out in many a long canal extends,
From every province fwarming, void of care,
Batavia rushes forth; and as they sweep,
On founding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along,
gay land is maddened all to joy.
The then
Nor less the northern courts, wide o'er the fnow,
Pour a new pomp. Eager, on rapid fleds,
Their vigorous youth in bold contention wheel 774
The long-refounding course. Mean-time, to raise
The manly ftrife, with highly blooming charms,
Flush'd by the feason, Scandinavia's dames,
Or Ruffia's buxom daughters glow around.
PURE, quick, and fportful, is the wholesome day;
But foon elaps'd. The horizontal fun,
Broad o'er the fouth, hangs at his utmost noon :
And, ineffectual, ftrikes the gelid cliff:
His azure glofs the mountain still maintains,
Nor feels the feeble touch. Perhaps the vale
Relents a while to the reflected ray;
Or from the foreft falls the cluster'd fnow,
Myriads of gems, that in the waving gleam
Gay-twinkle as they fcatter. Thick around
Thunders the sport of those, who with the gun,
And dog impatient bounding at the shot,
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