Old Midnight's sister, Contemplation sage, (Queen of the rugged brow and stern-fixt eye,) To lift my soul above this little earth, This folly-fettered world: to purge my ears, That I may hear the rolling planets' song, And tuneful turning spheres: if this be barred The little fays, that dance in neighbouring dales, Sipping the night-dew, while they laugh and love, Shall charm me with aërial notes.--As thus I wander musing, lo, what awful forms Yonder appear! sharp-eyed Philosophy Clad in dun robes, an eagle on his wrist, First meets my eye; next, virgin Solitude Serene, who blushes at each gazer's sight; Then Wisdom's hoary head, with crutch in hand, Trembling, and bent with age; last Virtue's self, Smiling, in white arrayed, who with her leads Sweet Innocence, that prattles by her side, A naked boy!--Harassed with fear I stop, I gaze, when Virtue thus--'Whoe'er thou art, Mortal, by whom I deign to be beheld In these my midnight walks; depart, and say, That henceforth I and my immortal train Forsake Britannia's isle; who fondly stoops To vice, her favourite paramour.' She spoke, And as she turned, her round and rosy neck, Her flowing train, and long ambrosial hair, Breathing rich odours, I enamoured view. O who will bear me then to western climes, Since virtue leaves our wretched land, to fields Yet unpolluted with Iberian swords, The isles of innocence, from mortal view Deeply retired, beneath a plantain's shade, Where happiness and quiet sit enthroned. With simple Indian swains, that I may hunt The boar and tiger through savannahs wild, Through fragrant deserts and through citron groves? There fed on dates and herbs, would I despise The far-fetched cates of luxury, and hoards Of narrow-hearted avarice; nor heed The distant din of the tumultuous world. JOHN GILBERT COOPER FROM THE POWER OF HARMONY THE HARMONY OF NATURE Hail, thrice hail! Ye solitary seats, where Wisdom seeks Beauty and Good, th' unseparable pair, Sweet offspring of the sky, those emblems fair Of the celestial cause, whose tuneful word From discord and from chaos raised this globe And all the wide effulgence of the day. From him begins this beam of gay delight, When aught harmonious strikes th' attentive mind; In him shall end; for he attuned the frame Of passive organs with internal sense, To feel an instantaneous glow of joy, When Beauty from her native seat of Heaven, Clothed in ethereal wildness, on our plains Descends, ere Reason with her tardy eye Can view the form divine; and through the world The heavenly boon to every being flows. * * * * *