H

Y M N

TO

ADVERSITY.

Ziva

Τὸν φρονεῖν βροτὰς ὁδώ
σαλα, τῷ πάθει μαθὼν

Θέλα κυρίως ἔχειν.

ÆSCHYLUS, in Agamemnone.

DAUGHTER of Jove, relentless Power,

Thou tamer of the human breast,

Whofe iron scourge, and torturing hour,

The bad affright, afflict the best!

Bound in thy adamantine chain

The proud are taught to tafte of pain,

And purple tyrants vainly groan

With pangs unfelt before, unpitied, and alone.

When first thy fire to fend on earth
Virtue, his darling child, defign'd,
To thee he gave the heavenly birth,
And bade to form her infant mind.
Stern rugged nurfe; thy rigid lore
With patience many a year fhe bore:

What forrow was, thou bad'ft her know,

And from her own fhe learn'd to melt at others woe.

Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly

Self-pleafing Folly's idle brood,

Wild Laughter, Noife, and thoughtless Joy,

And leave us leisure to be good.

Light

Light they disperse, and with them go

The fummer friend, the flattering foe;

By vain profperity receiv'd,

To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'd.

Wisdom, in fable garb array'd,

Immers'd in rapturous thought profound,

And Melancholy, filent maid,

With leaden eye, that loves the ground,

Still on thy folemn steps attend :

Warm Charity, the general Friend,
With Justice, to herself severe,

And Pity, dropping foft the fadly-pleafing tear.

Oh, gently on thy fuppliant's head,

Dread goddess, lay thy chastening hand!

Not in thy gorgon terrors clad,

Nor circled with the vengeful band

(As by the impious thou art seen)

With thundering voice, and threatening mien,

With fcreaming Horror's funeral cry,
Defpair, and fell Difeafe, and ghaftly Poverty.

Thy form benign, oh goddess wear,
Thy milder influence impart,

Thy philofophic train be there
To foften, not to wound my heart.
The generous spark extinct revive.
Teach me to love and to forgive,
Exact my own defects to scan,

What others are, to feel, and know myself a man.

ELEGY

EL L E

E G Y

WRITTEN IN A

COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD.

HE Curfew tolls* the knell of parting day,

TH

The lowing herd wind flowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darknefs and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landfcape on the fight,
And all the air a folemn ftillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower,
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her fecret bower,
Moleft her ancient folitary reign.

Beneath thofe rugged elms, that yew-tree's fhade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude Forefathers of the hamlet fleep.

The breezy call of incenfe-breathing Morn,
The swallow twittering from the ftraw-built fhed,
The cock's fhrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more fhall rouze them from their lowly bed..

*** fquilla di lontano

"Che paia 1 giorno pianger, che fi muore."

DANTE. PURGAT; 1. 8.

For

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or bufy housewife ply her evening care:

No children run to lifp their fire's return,
Or climb his, knees the envied kifs to share.

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
How jocund did they drive their team afield!
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and deftiny obfcure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a difdainful smile,
The fhort and fimple annals of the poor.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike th' inevitable hour.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Nor you, ye Proud, impute to these the fault,
If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raife,
Where through the long-drawn aifle and fretted vault,
The peeling anthem fwells the note of praise.

Can ftoried urn or animated buft

Back to its manfion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent duft,
Or Flattery foothe the dull cold.ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected fpot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to extafy the living lyre.

But

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll¡
Chill Penury reprefs'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the foul.

«Full many a gem of pureft ray ferene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the defert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltlefs of his country's blood,

Th' applause of liftening fenates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a fmiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbad: nor circumfcrib'd alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;
Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And fhut the gates of mercy on mankind,

The ftruggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
With incenfe kindled at the Mufe's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their fober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool fequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Z 2

Yet