CANTO nr. PROGRESS OF THE MIND. 105 



The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare 

 Through the long tissue of his hoary hair; 

 As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall, 

 And crops the ivy, which prevents its fall; 

 With rural charms the tranquil mind delight, 

 And form a picture to the admiring sight. 

 While TASTE with pleasure bends his eye surprised 

 In modern days at Nature unchastised. 



" The GENIUS-FORM, on silver slippers born, 

 With fairer dew-drops gems the rising morn; 260 

 Sheds o'er meridian skies a softer light, 

 And decks with brighter pearls the brow of night; 



Nature unchastised, 1. 258, In cities or their vicinity, and even in 

 the cultivated parts of the country we rarely see undisguised nature; 

 the fields are ploughed, the meadows mown, the shruhs planted in 

 rows for hedges, the trees deprived of their lower branches, and the 

 animals, as horses, dogs, and sheep, are mutilated in respect to their 

 tails or eai's; such is the useful or ill-employed activity of mankind! 

 all which alterations add to the formality of the soil, plants, trees, or 

 animals; whence when natural objects are occasionally presented to 

 us, as an uncultivated forest and its wild inhabitants, we are not only 

 amused with greater variety of form, but are at the same time en- 

 chanted by the charm of novelty, which is a less degree of Surprise, 

 already spoken of in note on 1. 145 of this Canto. 



