THE HARMONY OF THE CREATION. "Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds The tone of languid Nature."-COWPER. WHO hath not heard with raptur'd ear While grove and meadow, far and near, How sweet, how full, the blackbird's note Seems on the morning gale to float, While many a warbler strains his throat To aid the cheerful harmony! When, at fierce noon, the sun rides high, How sweet on river's brink to lie, Safe shelter'd from a cloudless sky, There listen to the murmuring stream, Like one entranc'd in moody dream; Then mark on distant sail the beam Of sun-shine glist'ning cheerfully. And oh! what tuneful notes resound, What heavenly music all around, When, reach'd his daily journey's bound, Bright Phoebus sets resplendently! Oft have I loiter'd on my way, While choristers on every spray Sang vespers to the closing day, And vied in sweetest symphony! Is there, whose sensual, grovelling mind, By taste, by virtue unrefin'd; Can hear this melody combin'd, And not enjoy such minstrelsy? In vain to him returning spring Bids flowrets blow, or songsters sing; Their charms no heartfelt raptures bring, Nor wake to mental ecstasy. Not so the man divinely taught; |