artificial pleasures hare become insipid an3 evea '(Sisg-usting, ru- 

 ral scenes and pursuits have still the power to make new chords 

 of happiness vibrate in the soul. We need not wonder then, 

 that so many, after faithfully serving their God and generation, 

 till exhausted nature demanded repose, have sought these scenes 

 as a resting place from their toils ; have landed on this peaceful 

 shore, from the tempestuous voyage of public life. Says Wash- 

 ington, " I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can nev- 

 er hear but with veneration and love, from -i retreat, which I 

 had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering 

 hopes, as the asylum of my declining years." 



It is not therefore, a mere poetic dream, that invests agricultur- 

 al scenes and pursuits with a peculiar charm. Imagination may 

 here resign her pencil into the hands of experience, nor fear that 

 the [licture will want in vividness and interest. Indeed, it was a 

 deep acquaintance both with rural and with courtly scenes, that 

 constituted the inspiration of the poet, when he sketched an eulo- 

 gium upon agriculture, which the lapse of two thousand years 

 has divested of none of its beauty and truth. 



" Ah I happy swain ! Ah! race belored of heaven ! 



"If known thy bliss, how great the blessings given I 



" For thee, just earth, from her prolific beds, 



" Far from wild war, spontaneous nurture sheds. 



" Though nor high domes, through all their portals wide, 



" Each morn disgorge the flatterers refluent tide ; 



•' Though nor thy gaze on gem wrought columns rest, 



" The brazen bust and gold embroider'd vest ; 



" Nor poi oning Tyre thy snowy fleeces soil, 



"Nor cassia taint thy uncorruptedoil ; 



** Yet peace is thine, and life that knows no chatige, 



"And various wealth through nature's boundless range, 



" The grot, the living fount, the umbrageous glade, 



" And sleep on banks of moss beneath the shade ; 



" Thine all of tame and wild, in lawn and field, 



" That pastured plains or savage woodlands yields : 



'' Content and patience youth's long toil assuage ; 



" Repose and reverence tend declining age : 



"There gods yet dwell, and as she fled mankind, 



" There Justice left her last lone trace behind.'' 



'}Q 





