An Epistle To Dr. Moore, Author Of A View Of Society And Manners In France, Switzerland, And Germany.

I mean no giddy heights to climb,     And vainly toil to be sublime;     While every line with labour wrought,     Is swell'd with tropes for want of thought:     Nor shall I call the Muse to shed     Castalian drops upon my head;     Or send me from Parnassian bowers     A chaplet wove of fancy's flowers.     At present all such aid I slight -     My heart instructs me how to write.         That softer glide my hours along,     That still my griefs are sooth'd by song,     That still my careless numbers flow     To your successful skill I owe;     You, who when sickness o'er me hung,     And languor had my lyre unstrung,     With treasures of the healing art,     With friendship's ardor at your heart,     From sickness snatch'd her early prey     And bade fair health - the goddess gay,     With sprightly air, and winning grace,     With laughing eye, and rosy face,     Accustom'd when you call to hear,     On her light pinion hasten near,     And swift restore with influence kind,     My weaken'd frame, my drooping mind.         With like benignity, and zeal,     The mental malady to heal,     To stop the fruitless, hopeless tear,     The life you lengthen'd, render dear,     To charm by fancy's powerful vein,     "The written troubles of the brain,"     From gayer scenes, compassion led     Your frequent footsteps to my shed:     And knowing that the Muses' art     Has power to ease an aching heart,     You sooth'd that heart with partial praise,     And I before too fond of lays,     While others pant for solid gain,     Grasp at a laurel sprig - in vain -     You could not chill with frown severe     The madness to my soul so dear;     For when Apollo came to store     Your mind with salutary lore,     The god I ween, was pleas'd to dart     A ray from Pindus on your heart;     Your willing bosom caught the fire,     And still is partial to the lyre.         But now from you at distance plac'd     Where Epping spreads a woody waste;     Tho' unrestrain'd my fancy flies,     And views in air her fabrics rise,     And paints with brighter bloom the flowers,     Bids Dryads people all the bowers,     And Echoes speak from every hill,     And Naiads pour each little rill,     And bands of Sylphs with pride unfold     Their azure plumage mix'd with gold,     My heart remembers with a sigh     That you are now no longer nigh.     The magic scenes no more engage,     I quit them for your various page;     Where, with delight I traverse o'er     The foreign paths you trod before:     Ah not in vain those paths you trac'd,     With heart to feel, with powers to taste!         Amid the ever-jocund train     Who sport upon the banks of Seine,     In your light Frenchman pleas'd I see     His nation's gay epitome;     Whose careless hours glide smooth along,     Who charms MISFORTUNE with a song.     She comes not as on Albion's plain,     With death, and madness in her train;     For here, her keenest sharpest dart     May raze, but cannot pierce the heart.     Yet he whose spirit light as air     Calls life a jest, and laughs at care,     Feels the strong force of pity's voice,     And bids afflicted love rejoice;     Love, such as fills the poet's page     Love, such as form'd the golden age -     FANCHON, thy grateful look I see -     I share thy joys - I weep with thee -     What eye has read without a tear     A tale to nature's heart so dear!     There, dress'd in each sublimer grace     Geneva's happy scene I trace;     Her lake, from whose broad bosom thrown     Rushes the loud impetuous Rhone,     And bears his waves with mazy sweep     In rapid torrents to the deep -     Oh for a Muse less weak of wing,     High on yon Alpine steeps to spring,     And tell in verse what they disclose     As well as you have told in prose;     How wrapt in snows and icy showers,     Eternal winter, horrid lowers     Upon the mountain's awful brow,     While purple summer blooms below;     How icy structures rear their forms     Pale products of ten thousand storms;     Where the full sun-beam powerless falls     On crystal arches, columns, walls,     Yet paints the proud fantastic height     With all the various hues of light.     Why is no poet call'd to birth     In such a favour'd spot of earth?     How high his vent'rous Muse might rise,     And proudly scorn to ask supplies     From the Parnassian hill, the fire     Of verse, Mont Blanc might well inspire.     O SWITZERLAND! how oft these eyes     Desire to view thy mountains rise;     How fancy loves thy steeps to climb,     So wild, so solemn, so sublime;     And o'er thy happy vales to roam,     Where freedom rears her humble home.     Ah, how unlike each social grace     Which binds in love thy manly race,     The HOLLANDERS phlegmatic ease     Too cold to love, too dull to please;     Who feel no sympathetic woe,     Nor sympathetic joy bestow,     But fancy words are only made     To serve the purposes of trade,     And when they neither buy, nor sell,     Think silence answers quite as well.         Now in his happiest light is seen     VOLTAIRE, when evening chas'd his spleen,     And plac'd at supper with his friends,     The playful flash of wit descends -     Of names renown'd you clearly shew     The finer traits we wish to know -     To Prussia's martial clime I stray     And see how FREDERIC spends the day;     Behold him rise at dawning light     To form his troops for future fight;     Thro' the firm ranks his glances pierce,     Where discipline, with aspect fierce,     And unrelenting breast, is seen     Degrading man to a machine;     My female heart delights to turn     Where GREATNESS seems not quite so stern:     Mild on th' IMPERIAL BROW she glows,     And lives to soften human woes.     But lo! on ocean's stormy breast     I see majestic VENICE rest;     While round her spires the billows rave,     Inverted splendours gild the wave.     Fair liberty has rear'd with toil,     Her fabric on this marshy soil.     She fled those banks with scornful pride,     Where classic Po devolves her tide:     Yet here her unrelenting laws     Are deaf to nature's, freedom's cause.     Unjust! they seal'd FOSCARI'S doom,     An exile in his early bloom.     And he, who bore the rack unmov'd,     Divided far from those he lov'd,     From all the social hour can give,     From all that make it bliss to live,     These worst of ills refus'd to bear,     And died, the victim of despair.         An eye of wonder let me raise,     While on imperial ROME I gaze.     But oh! no more in glory bright     She fills with awe th' astonish'd sight:     Her mould'ring fanes in ruin trac'd,     Lie scatter'd on Campania's waste.     Nor only these - alas! we find     The wreck involves the human mind:     The lords of earth now drag a chain     Beneath a pontiff's feeble reign;     The soil that gave a Cato birth     No longer yields heroic worth,     Whose image lives but on the bust,     Or consecrates the medal's rust:     Yet if no heart of modern frame     Glows with the antient hero's flame,     The dire Arena's horrid stage     Is banish'd from this milder age;     Those savage virtues too are fled     At which the human feelings bled.         While now at Virgil's tomb you bend,     O let me on your steps attend!     Kneel on the turf that blossoms round,     And kiss, with lips devout, the ground.     I feel how oft his magic powers     Shed pleasure on my lonely hours.     Tho' hid from me the classic tongue,     In which his heav'nly strain was sung,     In Dryden's tuneful lines, I pierce     The shaded beauties of his verse.         Bright be the rip'ning beam, that shines     Fair FLORENCE, on thy purple vines!     And ever pure the fanning gale     That pants in Arno's myrtle vale!     Here, when the barb'rous northern race,     Dire foes to every muse, and grace,     Had doom'd the banish'd arts to roam     The lovely wand'rers found a home;     And shed round Leo's triple crown     Unfading rays of bright renown.     Who e'er has felt his bosom glow     With knowledge, or the wish to know;     Has e'er from books with transport caught     The rich accession of a thought;     Perceiv'd with conscious pride, he feels     The sentiment which taste reveals;     Let all who joys like these possess,     Thy vale, enchanting FLORENCE bless -     O had the arts benignant light     No more reviv'd from Gothic night,     Earth had been one vast scene of strife,     Or one drear void had sadden'd life;     Lost had been all the sage has taught,     The painter's sketch, the poet's thought,     The force of sense, the charm of wit,     Nor ever had your page been writ;     That soothing page, which care beguiles,     And dresses truth in fancy's smiles:     For not with hostile step you prest     Each foreign soil, a thankless guest!     While travellers who want the skill     To mark the shapes of good and ill,     With vacant stare thro' Europe range,     And deem all bad, because 'tis strange;     Thro' varying modes of life, you trace     The finer trait, the latent grace,     And where thro' every vain disguise     You view the human follies rise,     The stroke of irony you dart     With force to mend, not wound the heart.     While intellectual objects share     Your mind's extensive view, you bear,     Quite free from spleen's incumb'ring load,     The little evils on the road -     So, while the path of life I tread,     A path to me with briers spread;     Let me its tangled mazes spy     Like you, with gay, good-humour'd eye;     Nor at those thorny tracts repine,     The treasure of your friendship, mine.     Grange Hill, Essex.