The Natural History of Se I borne 103 



' Till blended objects fail the swimming sight. 



And all the fading landscape sinks in night; 



To hear the drowsy dor 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; 



While 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 3 d\ wood lark sings : 



These, NATURE'S works, the curious mind employ, 



Inspire a soothing melancholy joy : 



As 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 tinkling sheep-bell, or the breath ofkine; 

 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 ! j 

 Thus, ere nighfs veil had half obscured the sky, 

 TK impatient damsel hung her lamp on high : 

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

 Leander haslen'd to his Hero's bed. 



I am, &c. 



* Gryllus campestris. t In hot summer nights woodlarks soar to a 

 prodigious height, and hang singing in the air. + The light of the 

 female glow-worm (as she often crawls up the stalk of a grass to make 

 herself more conspicuous) is a signal to the male, which is a slender dusky 

 scarabtius. See the story of Hero and Leander., 



