I will therefore turn my view from your lordship's virtues to the kind influence of them, which has been so lately shed upon me; and then, if my future morals and writings shall gain any approbation from men of parts and probity, I must acknowledge all to be the product of your lordship's goodness to me. I must, in fine, say with Horace,

POEMS

OF

RICHARD SAVAGE.

That various worth! could that inspire my lays,
Envy should smile, and Censure learn to praise :
Yet, though unequal to a soul like thine,
A generous soul, approaching to divine,
When bless'd beneath such patronage I write,
Great my attempt, though hazardous my flight.
O'er ample Nature I extend my views;
Nature to rural scenes invites the Muse:
She flies all public care, all venal strife,
To try the still, compar'd with active life;
To prove, by these the sons of men may owe
The fruits of bliss to bursting clouds of woe;
That ev'n calamity, by thought refin'd,
Inspirits and adorns the thinking mind.

Come, Contemplation, whose unbounded gaze,
Swift in a glance, the course of things surveys;
Who in thyself the various view canst find
Of sea, land, air, and heaven, and human-kind;
What tides of passion in the bosom roll;
What thoughts debase, and what exalt the soul,
Whose pencil paints, obsequious to thy will,
All thou survey'st, with a creative skill!
Oh! leave awhile thy lov'd, sequester'd shade!
Awhile in wintery wilds vouchsafe thy aid!
Then waft me to some olive, bowery green,
Where, cloath'd in white, thou show'st a mind serene;
Where kind Content from noise and court retires,
And smiling sits, while Muses tune their lyres:

Where Zephyrs gently breathe, while Sleep profound
To their soft fanning nods, with poppies crown'd;
Sleep, on a treasure of bright dreams reclines,
By thee bestow'd; whence Fancy colour'd shines,
And flutters round his brow a hovering flight,
Varying her plumes in visionary light.

Tho' solar fires now faint and watery burn,
Just where with ice Aquarius frets his urn!
If thaw'd, forth issue, from its mouth severe,
Raw clouds, that sadden all th' inverted year.

When Frost and Fire with martial powers engag'd,
Frost, northward, fled the war, unequal wag'd!
Beneath the pole his legions urg'd their flight,
And gain'd a cave profound and wide as night.
O'er cheerless scenes by Desolation own'd,
High on an Alp of ice he sits enthron'd!
One clay-cold hand, his crystal beard sustains,
And scepter'd one, o'er wind and tempest reigns;
O'er stony magazines of hail, that storm
The blossom'd fruit, and flowery Spring deform.
His languid eyes like frozen lakes appear,
Dim gleaming all the light that wanders here.
His obe snow-wrought, and hoar'd with age; his
breath

A nitrous damp, that strikes petrific death,

Far hence lies, ever-freez'd, the northern main,
That checks, and renders navigation vain,
That, shut against the Sun's dissolving ray,
Scatters the trembling tides of vanquish'd day,
And stretching eastward half the world secures,
Defies discovery, and like time endures!

Now Frost sent boreal blasts to scourge the air,
To bind the streams, and leave the landscape bare;
Yet when, far west, his violence declines,
Though here the brook, or lake, his power confines;
To rocky pools, to cataracts are unknown
His chains!-to rivers, rapid like the Rhone!

The falling Moon cast, cold, a quivering light,
Just silver'd o'er the snow, and sunk!--pale Night
Retir'd. The dawn m light-grey mists arose!
Shrill chants the cock!-the hungry heifer lows!
Slow blush yon breaking clouds;-the Sun's upro!l'd!
Th' expansive grey turns azure, chas'd with gold;

White-glittering ice,chang'd Like the topaz, gleams, Thro' these the beams of the far-lengthen'd eye
Reflecting saffron lustre from his beams.

O Contemplation, teach me to explore,
From Britain far remote, some distant shore!
From sleep a dream distinct and lively claim;
Clear let the vision strike the moral's aim!
It comes! I feel it o'er my soul serene!
Still Morn begins, and Frost retains the scene!
Hark! the loud horn's enlivening note's begun!
From rock to vale sweet-wandering echoes run!
Still floats the sound shrill-winding from afar!
Wild beasts astonish'd dread the sylvan war!
Spears to the Sun in files embattled play,
March on, charge briskly, and enjoy the fray!
Swans, ducks, and geese, and the wing'd winter-
Chatter discordant on yon echoing Blood! [brood,
At Babel thus, when Heaven the tongue confounds,
Sudden a thousand different jargon sounds,
Like jangling bells, harsh mingling, grate the ear!
All stare! all talk! all mean; but none cohere!
Mark! wiley fowlers meditate their doom, [gloom!
And smoky Fate speeds thundering through the
Stopp'd short, they cease in airy rings to fly
Whirl o'er and o'er, and, fluttering, fall and d ́e.
Still Fancy wafts me on! deceiv'd. I stund,
Estrang'd, adventurous on a foreign land
Wide and more wide extends the seene unknown!
Where shall! turn, a Wanderer, and alone?

From hilly wilds, and depths where snows remain,
My winding steps up a steep mountain strain!
Emers'd a top, I mark, the hills subside,
And towers aspire, but with inferior pride!
On this bleak height tall firs, with ice york crown'd,
Bend, while their flaky winter shades the ground!
Hoarse, and direct, a blustering north-wind blows '
On boughs, thick rustling, crack the crisped shows!
Tangles of frost half fright the wilder'd eve,
By heat oft blacken'd like a lowering sky!
Hence down the side two turbid r'valets pour,
Aud devious two, in one huge cat tract roar !
While pleas'd the watery progr ss I pursue,
Yon rocks in rough assemblage rush in view!
In form an amphitheatre they rise;
And a dark gulf in their broad contre lies.
There the dim'd sight with dizzy weakness fails,
And horror o'er the firmest bra'n prevails!
Thither these mountain-streams their passage take,
Headlong foam down, and form a dreadful lake!
The lake, high-swelling, so redundant grows,
From the heap'd store deriv'd, river flows;
Which, deepening, travels thro' a distant wood,
And, thence emerging, meets a sister-flood;
Mingled they flash on a wide-openmg plain,
And pass yon city to the far seen main.

1

So blend two souls by Heaven for union made,
And strengthening forward, lend a mutual aid,
And prove in every transient turn their aim,
Through finite life to infinite the same.

Nor ends the landscape--Decan, to my sight,
Points a blue arm, where sailing ships delight,
In prospect lessen'd !---Now new rocks, tear'd high,
Stretch a cross-ridge, and bar the curious eye;
There Les obseur'd the ripening diamond's ray,
And thence red-branching coral 's rent away.
In conic form there gold crystal grows ;
Thro' such the palace-lamp, gay lustre throws !
Lustre, which, through dim night, as various plays,
As play from yonder snows the chan ful rays!
For nobler use the crystal's worth my rise
Itubes perspective hem the spotless prize;

Measure known stars, and new remoter spy.
Hence Commerce many a shorten'd voyage steers,
Shorten'd to months, the hazard once of years;
Hence Halley's soul etherial flight essays;
Instructive there from orb to orb she strays;
Sces, round new countless suns, new systems roll!
Sees God in all! and magnifies the whole!
Yon rocky side enrich'd the summer scene,
And peasants search for herbs of healthful green;
Now naked, pale, and comfortless it lies,
Like youth extended cold in death's disguise.
There, wile without the sounding tempest swells,
Incay'd secure th' exulting eagle dwells;
And there, when Nature owns prolific spring,
Spreads o'er her young a fondling mother's wing.
Swains on the coast the far fam'd fish descry,
That gives the fleecy robe the Tyrian dye;
While shells, a scatter'd ornament bestow,
The tinetur'd rivals of the showery bow.
Yon limeless sands, loose-driving with the wind,
In future cauldrons useful texture find,
Till, on the furnace thrown, the glowing mass
Brightens, and brightening hardens into glass.
When winter halcyons, flickering on the wave,
Tune their complaints, yon sea forgets to rave;
Though Lash'd by storms, which naval pride o'erturn
The foaming deep in sparkles seems to burn,
Loud winds turn Zephyr to enlarge their notes,
And each safe nest on a calm surface floats,

Nov veers the wind full cast; and keen, and sor,
Its cutting influence aches in every pore!
How weak thy fabric, man-A puff, thus blown,
Staggers thy strength, and echoes to thy groan.
A tooth's minutest nerve let anguish seize,
Swift kindred fibres catch! (so frail our ease!)
Pinch'd, pierc'd, and torn, inflam'd, and unassuag'd,
They smart, and swell, and throb, and shoot enrag'd'
From nerve to nerve fierce flies th' exulting pain'

And are we of this mighty fabric vain? [glides '
Now my blood chills! scarce through my veins it
Sure on each blast a shivering ague rides;
Warn'd let me this bleak eminence forsake,
And to the vale a different winding take!
Half descend: my spirits fast decay;
A terrace now relieves any weary way.
Close with this stage a precipice combines;
Whence still the spacious country far declines!
The herds seem insects in the distant glades,
And men diminish'd, as, at noon, their shades!
Thick on this top o'ergrown for walks are seen
Grey leafless wood, and winter-greens between!
The reddening berry, deep-ting'd holly shows,
And matted mistletoe, the white, bestows!
Though lost the banquet of autumnal fruits,
Tho' on broad oaks no vernal umbrage shoots!
These boughs, the silene'd shivering songsters seek!
These foodful berries fill the hungry beak.

Beneath appears a place, all outward bare,
Inward the dreary mansion of Despair!
The water of the mountain-road, half-stray'd,
Breaks o'er it wild, and falls a brown cascade.
Has Natme this rough, naked piece design'd,
To hold inhabitants of mortal kind?
She bus.

Approach'd, appears a deep descent,
Which opens in a rock a large extent !
And bark its hollow entrance reach'd, I hear
A trampling sound of footsteps hastening near!
A death-like chillness thwarts my pant ng breast:
Sof! the wish'd object stands at length confest!

Of youth his form!-But why with anguish bent?
Why pin'd with sallow marks of discontent>
Yet Patience, labouring to beguile his care,
Seems to raise hope, and smiles away despair.
Compassion, in his eye, surveys my grief,
And in his voice invites me to relief.
"Preventive of thy call, behold my haste,"
(He says,)
nor let warm thanks thy spirits waste
All fear forget-Fach portal 1 possess,
Duty wide-opens to receive distress."
Oblig'd, I follow, by his guidance led;
The vaulted roof re-echoing to our tread !
And now in quar'd divisions, I survey
Chambers sequester'd from the glare of day;
Yet needful lights are taught to intervene,
Through rifts; each forming a perspective scene.
In front a parlour meets my entering view;
Oppos'd, a room to sweet refection due.

1

Here my chill'd veins are warm'd by chippy fires,
Through the bor'd rock above, the smoke expires;
Neat, o'er a homely board, a napkin 's spread,
Crown'd with a heapy canister of bread.
A maple cup is next dispatch'd to bring
The comfort of the salutary spring:
Nor mourn we absent blessings of the vine,
Here laughs a frugal bowl of rosy wine;
And savoury cates, upon clear embers cast,
Lie hissing, till snatch'd off; a rich repast!
Son leap my spirits with enliven'd power,
And in gay converse glides the feastful hour.

Slop'd up white rocks, small, yellow harvests grow,
And, green on terrac'd stages, vineyards blow!
By him fall mountains to a level space,

An isthmus sinks, and sunder'd seas embrace!
He founds a city on the naked shore,
And desolation starves the tract no more.

From the wild waves he won the Belgic land;
Where wide they foam'd, her towns and traffics stand;
He clear'd, manur'd, enlarg'd the furtive ground,
And firms the conquest with his fenceful mound.
Ev'n mid the watery world his Venice rose,
Each fabric there, as Pleasure's seat he shows!
There marts, sports, councils, are for action sought,
Landscapes for health, and solitude for thought.
What wouder then, I, by his potent aid,

The Hermit, thus: "Thou wonder'st at thy fare :
On me, yon city, kind, bestows her care:
Meat for keen famine, and the generous juice,
That warms chill'd life, her charities produce :
Accept without reward; unask'd 'twas mine;
Here what thy health requires, as free be thine.
Hen e learn that Gop, (who in the time of need,
In frozen deserts can the raven feed)
Well-sought, will delegate some pitying breast,
His second means, to succour man distrest."
He paus'd. Deep thought upon his aspect gloom'd;
Then he with smile humane, his voice resum'd.
"I'm just inform'd, (and laugh me not to scorn)
By one unseen by thee, thou'rt English-born.
Of England I-To me the British state
Rises, in dear memorial, ever great !
Here stand we conscious :-diffidence suspend!
Free flow our words !— Did ne'er thy Muse extend
To grots, where Contemplation smiles serene,
Where angels visit, and where joys convene
To groves, where more than mortal voices rise,
Catch the rapt soul, and waft it to the skies?
This eave! --Yon walks!-But, e're I more unfold,
What artful scenes thy eyes shall here behold,
Think subjects of my toil: nor wondering gaze !
What cannot Industry completely raise?
Be the whole Earth in one great landscape found,
By Industry is all with beauty crown'd '
He, he alone, explores the mine for gain,
Hues the hard rock, or harrows up the plain;
He forms the sword to smite; he sheaths the steel,
Draws health from herbs, and shows the balm to heal;
Or with loom'd wool the native robe supplies;
Or bids young plants in future forests rise;
Or fells the monarch oak, which, borne away,
Shall, with new grace, the distant ocean sway;
Hence golden Commerce views her wealth increase,¦
The blissful child of Liberty and Peace.
He scoops the stubborn Alps, and, still employ'd,
Fills, with soft fertile mould, the steril void;

A mansion in a barren mountain made?
Part thou hast view'd !-If further we explore,
Let Industry deserve applause the more.

No frowning care yon blest apartment sees,
There Sleep retires, and finds a couch of ease.
Kind dreams, that fly remorse, and pamper'd wealth,
There shed the smiles of innocence and health.

"Mark!-Here descends a grot, delightful seat!
Which warms e'en winter, tempers summer heat!
See!-Gurgling from a top, a spring distils!
In mournful measures wind the dripping rills;
Soft coos of distant doves, receiv'd around,
In soothing mixture, swell the watery sound;
And hence the streamlets seek the terrace' shade,
Within, without, alike to all convey'd.
Pass on-New scenes, by my creative power,
Invite Reflection's sweet and solemn hour."

[kind,

We enter'd, where, in well-rang'd order, stood
Th' instructive volumes of the wise and good.
"These friends" (said he)" though I desert man-
Good angels never would permit behind.
Each genius, youth conceals, or time displays,
I know; each work some seraph here conveys,
Retirement thus presents my searchful thought, "
What Heaven inspir'd, and what the Muse has taught;
What Young satiric and sublime has writ,
Whose life is virtue, and whose Muse is wit.
Rapt I foresee thy Mallet's early aim
Shine in full worth, and shoot at length to fame.
Sweet fancy's bloom in Fenton's lay appears,
And the ripe judgment of instructive years.
In Hill is all that generous souls revere,
To Virtue and the Muse for ever dear:
And Thomson, in this praise, thy merit see,
The tongue, that praises merit, praises thee." [age,
"These scorn" (said I)" the verse-wright of their
Vain of a labour'd, languid, useless page;
To whose dim faculty the meaning song
Is glaring, or obscure, when clear, and strong;
Who, in cant phrases, gives a work disgrace;
His wit, and oddness of his tone and face;
Let the weak malice, murs'd to an essay,
In some low libel a mean heart display;
Those, who once prais'd, now undeceiv'd, despise,
It lives contemn'd a day, then harmless dies,
Or should some nobler bard, their worth, unpraise,
Deserting morals, that adorn his lays,
Alas! too oft each science shows the same,
The great grow jealous of a greater name:
Ye bards, the frailty moun, yet brave the shock;
Has not a Stillingfleet oppos'd a Locke?
Oh, still proceed, with sacred rapture fir'd!
Unenvy'd had he liv'd, if unadmir'd."

He had then just written The Excursion.