With sobbing accents, with such sad regret,
Leaves his kind feather'd mate: the widow bird
Wanders in lonesome shades, forgets her food,
Forgets her life; or falls a speedier prey
To talon'd falcons, and the crooked beak
Of hawks athirst for blood.-

PART II.

THE BRIGHT VISION.

THUS far the Muse, in unaccustom❜d mood,
And strains unpleasing to a lover's ear,
Indulg'd a gloom of thought: and thus she sang
Partial; for melancholy's hateful form

Stood by in a sable robe: the pensive Muse
Survey'd the darksome scenes of life, and sought
Some bright relieving glimpse, some cordial ray
In the fair world of love: but while she gaz'd
Delightful on the state of twin-born souls
United, bless'd, the cruel shade applied
A dark long tube, and a false tinctur'd glass
Deceitful; blending love and life at once
In darkness, chaos, and the common mass
Of misery now Urania feels the cheat,
And breaks the hated optic in disdain.
Swift vanishes the sullen form, and lo!

The scene shines bright with bliss: behold the place
Where mischiefs never fly, cares never come,
With wrinkled brow, nor anguish, nor disease,
Nor malice forky-tongued. On this dear spot,
Mitio, my love would fix and plant thy station,
To act thy part of life, serene and bless'd
With thy fair consort fitted to thy heart.

Sure 'tis a vision of that happy grove,
Where the first authors of our mournful race
Liv'd in sweet partnership! one hour they liv'd,
But chang'd the tasted bliss (imprudent pair!)
For sin and shame, and this vast wilderness
Of briars, and nine hundred years of pain.
The wishing Muse new-dresses the fair garden
Amid this desert world, with budding bliss,
And evergreens, and balms, and flowery beauties,
Without one dangerous tree; there heavenly dews,
Nightly descending, shall impearl the grass
And verdant herbage; drops of fragrancy

Sit trembling on the spires: the spicy vapours
Rise with the dawn, and through the air diffus'd
Salute your waking senses with perfume:
While vital fruits, with their ambrosial juice,
Renew life's purple flood and fountain, pure
From vicious taint; and with your innocence
Immortalize the structure of your clay.
On this new paradise the cloudless skies
Shall smile perpetual, while the lamp of day
With flames unsullied, (as the fabled torch
Of Hymen) measures out your golden hours
Along his azure road. The nuptial moon
In milder rays serene, should rightly rise
Full orb'd (if Heaven and Nature will indulge
So fair an emblem) big with silver joys,
And still forget her wane. The feather'd choir,
Warbling their Maker's praise on early wing,
Or perch'd on evening bough, shall join your
worship,

Join your sweet vespers, and the morning song.

O sacred symphony! hark, through the grove I hear the sound divine! I'm all attention,

All ear, all ecstasy; unknown delight!

And the fair Muse proclaims the Heaven below.
Not the seraphic minds of high degree
Disdain converse with men: again returning,
I see the' ethereal host on downward wing.
Lo, at the eastern gate young cherubs stand
Guardians, commission'd to convey their joys
To earthly lovers. Go, ye happy pair,

Go taste their banquet, learn the nobler pleasures
Supernal, and from brutal dregs refin’d.

Raphael shall teach thee, friend, exalted thoughts
And intellectual bliss. 'Twas Raphael taught
The patriarch of our progeny the' affairs
Of Heaven (so Milton sings, enlighten'd bard!
Nor miss'd his eyes, when in sublimest strain
The angel's great narration he repeats

To Albion's sons high favour'd) thou shalt learn
Celestial lessons from his awful tongue;
And with soft grace and interwoven loves
(Grateful digression) all his words rehearse
To thy Charissa's ear, and charm her soul.
Thus with divine discourse, in shady bowers
Of Eden, our first father entertained
Eve, his sole auditress; and deep dispute
With conjugal caresses on her lip
Solv'd easy, and obstrusest thoughts reveal'd.
Now the day wears apace, now Mitio comes
From his bright tutor, and finds out his mate.
Behold the dear associates seated low

On humble turf, with rose and myrtle strow'd;
But high their conference! how self-suffic'd
Lives their Eternal Maker, girt around

With glories; arm'd with thunders; and his throne
Mortal access forbids, projecting far

Splendors unsufferable and radiant death.

With reverence and abasement deep they fall
Before his Sovereign Majesty, to pay

Due worship: then his mercy on their souls
Smiles with a gentler ray, but sovereign still;
And leads their meditation and discourse
Long ages backward, and across the seas
To Bethlehem of Judah: there the Son,
The filial Godhead, character express
Of brightness inexpressible, laid by
His beamy robes, and made descent to earth;
Sprung from the sons of Adam he became
A second father, studious to regain
Lost paradise for men, and purchase Heaven.
The lovers with endearment mutual thus
Promiscuous talk'd, and questions intricate
His manly judgment still resolv'd, and still
Held her attention fix'd: she musing sat
On the sweet mention of incarnate love,
Till rapture wak'd her voice to softest strains:-
'She sang the infant God; (mysterious theme!)
How vile his birth-place, and his cradle vile!
The ox and ass his mean companions; there
In habit vile the shepherds flock around,
Saluting the great mother, and adore
Israel's anointed king, the' appointed heir
Of the creation. How debas'd he lies
Beneath his regal state; for thee, my Mitio,
Debas'd in servile form; but angels stood
Ministering round their charge with folded wings
Obsequious, though unseen; while lightsome hours
Fulfill'd the day, and the grey evening rose.
Then the fair guardians hovering o'er his head,
Wakeful all night, drive the foul spirits far,

And with their fanning pinions purge the air
From busy phantoms, from infectious damps,
And impure taint; while their ambrosial plumes
A dewy slumber on his senses shed.

Alternate hymns the heavenly watchers sung
Melodious soothing the surrounding shades,
And kept the darkness chaste and holy. Then
Midnight was charm'd, and all her gazing eyes
Wonder'd to see their mighty Maker sleep.
Behold the glooms disperse, the rosy morn
Smiles in the east with eye-lids opening fair,
But not so fair as thine; O, I could fold thee,
My young Almighty, my Creator-babe,
For ever in these arms! for ever dwell
Upon thy lovely form with gazing joy,
And every pulse shall beat seraphic love!
Around my seat should crowding cherubs come
With swift ambition, zealous to attend

Their prince, and form a Heaven below the sky.'
'Forbear, Charissa, O forbear the thought
Of female-fondness, and forgive the man
That interrupts such melting harmony!'
Thus Mitio; and awakes her nobler powers
To pay just worship to the sacred King,
Jesus, the God; nor with devotion pure
Mix the caresses of her softer sex;

(Vain blandishment) Come, turn thine eyes aside From Bethlehem, and climb up the doleful steep Of bloody Calvary, where naked skulls

Pave the sad road, and fright the traveller.

Can my beloved bear to trace the feet

Of her Redeemer, panting up the hill
Hard-burden'd? can thy heart attend his cross?
Nail'd to the cruel wood he groans, he dies;