INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. IS 



Playing at liberty ; 

 And, with my angle upon them, 

 The all of treachery 

 I ever learned industriously to try. 



VII. 



Such streams, Rome's yellow Tiber cannot show, 



The Iberian Tagus, or Ligurian Po ; 



The Maese, the Danube, and the Rhine, 



Are puddle-water all, compared with thine ; 



And Loire's pure streams yet too polluted are 



With thine much purer to compare ; 



The rapid Garonne, and the winding Seine, 



Are both too mean, 



Beloved Dove, with thee 



To vie priority ; 



Nay, Thame and Isis when conjoined submit, 



And lay their trophies at thy silver feet. 



VIII. 



O my beloved rocks, that rise 

 To awe the earth and brave the skies ! 

 From some aspiring mountain's crown, 



How dearly do I love, 

 Giddy with pleasure, to look down, 



And from the vales to view the noble heights aboTC ! 

 O my beloved caves ! from Dog-star's heat, 

 And all anxieties, my safe retreat ; 

 What safety, privacy, what true delight, 

 In th' artificial night 

 Your gloomy entrails make, 

 Have I taken, do I take ! 

 How oft, when grief has made me fly 

 To hide me from society, 

 Ev'n of my dearest friends, have I 



In your recesses' friendly shade 



All my sorrows open laid, 

 And my most secret woes intrusted to your privacy I 



IX. 



Lord ! would men let me alone, 

 What an over-happy one 



