Beneath the galling load of power, or walk Upon the slippery pavements of the great, Who thus could reign, unenvied and secure? _510 Ye guardian powers who make mankind your care, Give me to know wise Nature's hidden depths, Trace each mysterious cause, with judgment read The expanded volume, and submiss adore That great creative Will, who at a word Spoke forth the wondrous scene. But if my soul To this gross clay confined, flutters on earth With less ambitious wing; unskilled to range From orb to orb, where Newton leads the way; And view with piercing eyes, the grand machine, _520 Worlds above worlds; subservient to his voice, Who veiled in clouded majesty, alone Gives light to all; bids the great system move, And changeful seasons in their turns advance, Unmoved, unchanged himself; yet this at least Grant me propitious, an inglorious life, Calm and serene, nor lost in false pursuits Of wealth or honours; but enough to raise My drooping friends, preventing modest want That dares not ask. And if to crown my joys, _530 Ye grant me health, that, ruddy in my cheeks, Blooms in my life's decline; fields, woods, and streams, Each towering hill, each humble vale below, Shall hear my cheering voice, my hounds shall wake The lazy morn, and glad the horizon round. END OF SOMERVILLE'S CHASE. [Footnote 1: In republishing only the "Chase" of Somerville and "the Fables" of Gay, we have acted on the principle of selecting the best, and the most characteristic, in our age, perhaps the only readable specimen of either poet.] [Footnote 2: 'Great Prince:' Prince Frederick. Our readers will remember the humorous epitaph on him, in edifying contrast to Somerville's praise:-- 'Here lies Fred, Who was alive, and is dead: If it had been his father, I'd much rather; Had it been his mother, Better than another; Were it his sister, Nobody would have miss'd her; Were it the whole generation, The better for the nation. But since it's only Fred, There's no more to be said, But that he was alive, and is dead.' We quote this from recollection of Thackeray's recitation, but think it pretty accurate.] [Footnote 3: 'Neustria:' Normandy.] [Footnote 4: 'Fountain of light,' &c. Scott as well as Somerville loved to write in brilliant sunshine.] [Footnote 6: 'Talbot kind:' Derived, we think, from the famous John Talbot, the first Earl of Shrewsbury, who employed this species of hound against the Irish rebels.] [Footnote 7: 'Aurengzebe:' in 1659, seized the throne of India, after murdering his relatives, but became a good, wise, and brave emperor.] [Footnote 8: 'Ammon's son:' Alexander the Great.] [Footnote 9: 'Blooming youth:' Fred again.] [Footnote 10: 'Apulia:' now Puglia, the south-eastern part of Italy.] End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase, by Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville