138 best's art of ANGLIiNG. 



Nor shall the muse disdam 



To let the little lively summer-race 

 Live in her lay, and flutter thro' her song: 

 Not mean, tho' simple ; to the sun ally'd, 

 From him they draw their animating fire. 



V/ak'd by his warmer ray, the reptile young 

 Come wing'd abroad, by the light air upborne, 

 Lighter and full of soul. From ev'ry chink 

 And secret corner, where they slept away 

 Their wintry storms, or rising from their tombs 

 To higher life, by myriads forth at once, 

 Swarming they pour, of all the varied hues 

 Their beauty-beaming parent can disclose. 

 I'en thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes^ 

 People the blaze. To sunny waters some 

 By fatal instinct fly, where on the pool 

 They sportive wheel; or falling down the stream, 

 Are snatch'd immediate by theqiiick-ey'd trout 

 Or darting salmon. Thro' the green- wood glade 

 Some love to stray, there lodg'd, amus'd, and fed,. 

 In the fresh leaf: luxurious, others make 

 The meads their choice, and visit ev'ry flow'r 

 And ev'ry latent herb, for the sweet task 

 To propagate their kinds, and where to warp, 

 In what soft beds, their young, yetundisclos'd. 

 Employs their tender care; some to the house, 

 The fold, and dairy, hungry bend their flight, 

 Sip round the pail, or taste the curdling cheese :. 

 Oft, inadvertant from the milky si ream 

 They meet their fate, or weli'nng in the bow]. 

 With powVless wings around them warp'd, e>;pire«, 



E,esounds the living surface of the ground ; 

 Norundclifjlufiil is the ceaseless hum 

 To him who muses through the v/oods at noon, 

 Or drowsy sheplierd as he lies reclin'd. 

 With hall-shut eyes beneath the floating shade 

 Of willows grey, close crowding o'er the brook. 



Gradual from these what numerous kinds desccnd,^ 



Evading e'en die microscopic eye ! 



Full nuiure swarms with iife, one wondrous mass 



Of anm)ai3, or atoms organiz'd. 



Waiting '^he vital breath, when parent heav'n 



Shall bid his spirit i)Io\v, 



