42 ' PLEASURES OF ORNITHOLOGY. 



Yet how delighted have I touch'd its strings 

 In solitude, a sweet companion ! YE, 

 Even YE, as through the wild and devious path 

 Or woodland glade I led you, when the sun 

 Rode high, or night her shadows threw around, 

 Have not, I trust, heard its wild tones in vain ! 



And though my moral lesson might not win 

 You from pursuits the muse must ever deem 

 Beneath your dignity — beneath your fame — 

 Pursuits that must detract from happiness 

 Even of yourselves, yet ever shall my thanks 

 For your kind audience flow ; and when apart, 

 From boisterous pleasure loos'd, YE lonely muse, 

 YE commune with your souls, perchance some 



thoughts. 

 Excited by my humble lays, shall rise. 

 Expand and blossom, and produce their fruit. 

 O tend their growth with care, and spread abroad 

 The seed afar, o'er land, o'er distant sea. 

 Till thou. Benevolence! throughout the world 

 Art dominant. 



One strain, one choral strain 

 To Thee, the Guide and Goddess of his song, 

 As Truth immortal, and as love benign ; 

 The solace of the lowly and the good— 



