A germ, preparing in the winter's frost, To rise and bud and blossom in the spring; An unfledged eagle by the tempest tost, Unconscious of his future strength of wing:-- The child of trial, to mortality, And all its changeful influences given: On the green earth decreed to move and die; And yet by such a fate prepared for Heaven.-- Soon as it breathes, to feel the mother's form Of orbed beauty, through its organs thrill; To press the limbs of life with rapture warm, And drink of transport from a living rill: To view the skies with morning radiance bright, Majestic mingling with the ocean blue, Or bounded by green hills, or mountains white; Or peopled plains of rich and varied hue: The nobler charms astonish'd to behold Of living loveliness, to see it move, Cast in expression's rich and varied mould, Awakening sympathy, compelling love:-- The heavenly balm of mutual hope to taste, Soother of life; affection's bliss to share, Sweet as the stream amidst the desert waste, As the first blush of arctic daylight fair:-- To mingle with its kindred, to descry The path of power--in public life to shine; To gain the voice of popularity; The idol of to-day, the man divine:-- To govern others by an influence strong As that high law, which moves the murm'ring main; Raising and carrying all its waves along, Beneath the full-orb'd moon's meridian reign:-- To scan how transient is the breath of praise; A winter's zephyr trembling on the snow, Chill'd as it moves; or as the northern rays, First fading in the centre, whence they flow:-- To live in forests mingled with the whole Of natural forms, whose generations rise In lovely change, in happy order roll On land, in ocean, in the glittering skies:-- Their harmony to trace--The Eternal Cause To know in love, in reverence to adore-- To bend beneath the inevitable law, Sinking in death; its human strength no more:-- Then, as awakening from a dream of pain, With joy its mortal feelings to resign; Yet all its living essence to retain, The undying energy of strength divine: To quit the burdens of its earthly days, To give to Nature all her borrow'd powers; Ethereal fire to feed the solar rays, Ethereal dew to glad the earth in showers. The following letter was written from London, after his return from his Cornish excursion. TO DAVIES GIDDY, ESQ. Royal Institution, Nov. 14, 1801. MY DEAR SIR, After leaving Cornwall in August, I spent about three weeks in Bristol, and at Stowey, so that I did not arrive in London until the 20th of September.