And, o'er our labours, Liberty and Law,
Impartial, watch, the wonder of a world!845
What is this mighty Breath, ye sages, say,
That, in a powerful language, felt not heard,
Instructs the fowls of heaven; and thro' their breast
These arts of love diffuses? What, but God?
Inspiring God! who boundless Spirit all,850
And unremitting energy, pervades,
Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole.
He ceaseless works alone; and yet alone
Seems not to work; with such perfection fram'd
Is this complex stupendous scheme of things.855
But, tho' conceal'd, to every purer eye
Th' informing Author in his works appears:
Chief, lovely Spring, in thee, and thy soft scenes
The Smiling God is seen, while water, earth,
And air attest his bounty; which exalts860
The brute-creation to this finer thought,
And annual melts their undesigning hearts
Profusely thus in tenderness and joy.
Still let my song a nobler note assume,
And sing th' infusive force of Spring on Man;865
When heaven and earth, as if contending, vye
To raise his being, and serene his soul.
Can he forbear to join the general smile
Of Nature? Can fierce passions vex his breast,
While every gale is peace, and every grove870
Is melody? Hence! From the bounteous walks
Of flowing Spring, ye sordid sons of earth,
Hard, and unfeeling of another's woe;
Or only lavish to yourselves; away!
But come, ye generous minds, in whose wide thought875
Of all his works, Creative Bounty burns
With
