BOOK.] Chace, 231 



Then o'er the lawn he bounds, o'er the high hills 

 Stretches fecure, and leaves the fcatter'd crowd 

 To puzzle in the diftant vale below. 



'Tis inftindt that direfls the jealous hare 

 To chufe her foft abode : with ftep revers'd 

 She forms the doubling maze ; then, ere the morn 

 Peeps thro' the clouds, leaps to her clofe recefs. 



As wand'ring fhepherds on th* Arabian plains 

 No fettled refidence obferve, but Ihift jq 



Their moving camp ; now, on feme cooler hill 

 With cedars crown 'd, court the refrefliing breeze ; 

 And then, below where trickling ftreams dillill 

 From feme penurious fource, their thirft allay. 

 And feed their fainting flocks ; fo the wife hares 

 Oft quit their feats, left fome more curious eye 

 Shou'd mark their haunts, and by dark treach'rous 



wiles 

 Plot their deftruftion ; or perchance in hopes 

 Of plenteous forage, near the ranker mead. 

 Or matted blade, wary, and clofe they fit. 

 When fpring fhines forth, feafon of love and joy. 

 In the moift marfh, 'mong beds of rulhes hid, 

 They cool their boiling blood : when fummer funs 

 Bake the cleft earth, to thick wide-waving fields 

 Of corn full-grown they lead their helplefs young : 

 But when autumnal torrents and fierce rains 

 Deluge the vale, in the dry crumbling bank 

 Their forms they delve, and cautioufly avoid 

 The dripping covert : yet when winter's cold 



0^4 Their 



