Keep, guardian gales, the infectious guests away, To charm where priests direct, and slaves obey. 60 Madrid, or wanton Rome, be their delight; There they may warble as their poets write. The temper of our isle, though cold, is clear; And such our genius, noble though severe. Our Shakespeare scorn'd the trifling rules of art, 65 But knew to conquer and surprise the heart! In magic chains the captive thought to bind, And fathom all the depths of human kind! Too long, our shame, the prostituted herd Our sense have bubbled, and our wealth have shared. 70 Too long the favourites of our vulgar great Have bask'd in luxury, and lived in state! In Tuscan wilds now let them villas rear[68] Ennobled by the charity we spare. There let them warble in the tainted breeze, 75 Or sing like widow'd orphans to the trees: There let them chant their incoherent dreams, Where howls Charybdis, and where Scylla screams! Or where Avernus, from his darksome round, May echo to the winds the blasted sound! 80 As fair Alcyone,[69] with anguish press'd, Broods o'er the British main with tuneful breast, Beneath the white-brow'd cliff protected sings, Or skims the azure plain with painted wings! Grateful, like her, to nature, and as just, 85 In our domestic blessings let us trust; Keep for our sons fair learning's honour'd prize, Till the world own the worth they now despise! FOOTNOTES: [63] See Memoir, p. xxxviii. [64] Now Countess-dowager of Peterborough. [65] Vauxhall. [66] Vide the Spectator's Letters from Camilla, vol. vi. [67] Milton's Comus lately revived. [68] Senesino has built a palace near Sienna on an estate which carries the title of a Marquisate, but purchased with English gold. [69] The king-fisher. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIENTAL ECLOGUES AND ODES. BY DR. LANGHORNE. OBSERVATIONS ON THE ORIENTAL ECLOGUES. The genius of the pastoral, as well as of every other respectable species of poetry, had its origin in the east, and from thence was transplanted by the muses of Greece; but whether from the continent of the Lesser Asia, or from Egypt, which, about the era of the Grecian pastoral, was the hospitable nurse of letters, it is not easy to determine. From the subjects, and the manner of Theocritus, one would incline to the latter opinion, while the history of Bion is in favour of the former. However, though it should still remain a doubt through what channel the pastoral traveled westward, there is not the least shadow of uncertainty concerning its oriental origin.