92 JSXTMMEK lilEDS OF PASSAGE. 



Till blended objects fail tlie swimming sight, 



And all the fading landscape sinks in night ; 



To hear the di^owsy dorr come brushing by 



With buzzing wing, or the shrill cricket* cry ; 



To see the feeding bat glance through the wood ; 



To catch the distant falling of the flood ; 



"Wliile o'er the cliff th' awaken' d churn-owl hung, 



Through the still gloom protracts his chattering song 



"While, high in air, and poised upon his wings. 



Unseen, the soft enamour' d woodlarkf sings : 



These, Nature's works, the curious miud emp.oy, 



Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 



Ae fancy warms, a pleasing kind of pain 



Steals o'er the cheek, and thrills the creeping vein ! 



Each rural sight, each sound, each smell combine ; 

 The tiukling sheep-bell, or the breath of kine ; 

 The new-mown hay that scents the swelling breeze, 

 Or cottage chimney smoking through the trees. 



The chilling night-dews fall : — away, retire ; 

 For see, the glow-worm lights her amorous fire ]% 

 Thus, ere night's veil had half obscured the sky, 

 Th' impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : 

 True to the signal, by love's meteor led, 

 Leander hasten' d to his Hero's bed.§ 



LETTEE XXV. 



TO THE HOTvT. DAIIS^ES BAEEINGTON. 



Selborne, June 30, 1769, 

 Deae Sir, — When I was in town last month, I partly 

 engaged that I would some time do myself the honour to 

 write to you on the subject of natural history ; and I am the 



* Gryllus campestris. 

 •f* In hot summer nights, woodlarks soar to a prodigious height, and hang 

 tinging in the air. 



X The light of the female glow-worm (a« she often crawls up the stalk of 

 a grass to make herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a 

 Blender dusky scarabceus. 



§ See the story cf Hero and Leander. 



