PLEASURE FROM THE STUDY OF NATURE.
Of mortal offspring can attain the heights
Of envied life; though only few possess
Patrician treasures or imperial state;
Yet Nature's care, to all her children just,
With richer treasures and an ampler state,
Endows at large whatever happy man
Will deign to use them.
Distils her dews, and from the silken gem
Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him the hand
Of Autumn tinges every fertile branch,
With blooming gold and blushes like the morn.
Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings;
And still new beauties meet his lonely walk,
And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze
Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes
The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain
From all the tenants of the warbling shade
Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake
Fresh pleasure unreproved.
Prof. Stewart beautifully observes, in his Philosophical Essays, p. 509:"When a man has succeeded, at length, in cultivating his imagination, things the most familiar and unnoticed disclose charms invisible to him before. The same objects and events which were lately beheld with indifference, occupy now all the powers and capacities of the soul; the contrast between the present and past serving only to enhance and to endear so unlooked-for an acquisition. What Gray has finely said of the pleasures of vicissitude, conveys but a faint image of what is experienced by the man, who, after having lost, in vulgar occupation and vulgar amusement, his earliest and most precious years, is thus introduced, at last, to a new heaven and a new earth.
"The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are opening Paradise.'"
THE GLORY OF GOD IN CREATION.
THE GOD of nature and of grace,
In all His works appears;
His goodness through the earth we trace,
His grandeur in the spheres.
Behold this fair and fertile globe,
By Him in wisdom plann'd;
'Twas He who girded, like a robe,
The ocean round the land.
Lift to the arch of heaven your eye,
Thither His path pursue;
His glory, boundless as the sky,
O'erwhelms the wondering view.
He bows the heavens,-the mountains stand
A highway for their God;
He walks amidst the desert land,-
'Tis Eden where He trod.
The forests in His strength rejoice;
Hark! on the evening breeze,
As once of old, the LORD GOD's voice
Is heard among the trees.
Here, on the hills, He feeds His herds,
His flocks on yonder plains;
His praise is warbled by the birds;
-Oh! could we catch their strains!
Mount with the lark, and bear our song
Up to the gates of light;
Or, with the nightingale, prolong
Our numbers through the night!
In every stream His bounty flows,
Diffusing joy and wealth!
In every breeze His Spirit blows,
--The breath of life and health.
His blessings fall in plenteous showers
Upon the lap of earth,
That teems with foliage, fruits, and flowers,
And rings with infant mirth.
If God has made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound;
How beautiful, beyond compare,
Will Paradise be found!
WHERE sacred Ganges pours along the plain,
And Indus rolls to swell the eastern main,
What awful scenes the curious mind delight!
What wonders burst upon the dazzled sight!
There giant-palms lift high their tufted heads;
The plantain wide his graceful foliage spreads;
Wild in the woods the active monkey springs;
The chattering parrot claps her painted wings;
'Mid tall bamboos lies hid the deadly snake;
The tiger couches in the tangled brake:
The spotted axis * bounds in fear away.
The leopard darts on his defenceless prey:
'Mid reedy pools and ancient forests rude,
Cool, peaceful haunts of awful solitude!
The huge rhinoceros rends the crashing boughs;
And stately elephants untroubled browse :
A species of deer, known in India by the name of the Ganges stag.
Two tyrant-seasons rule the wide domain
Scorch, with dry heat,-or drench, with floods of rain;
Now feverish herds rush maddening o'er the plains;
And cool in shady streams their throbbing veins :
The birds drop lifeless from the silent spray,
And Nature faints beneath the fiery day.
Then bursts the deluge on the sinking shore,
And teeming Plenty empties all her store.
FULL white the Bourbon lily blows,
And fairer haughty England's rose ;
Nor shall unsung the symbol smile,
Green Ireland, of thy lovely isle.
In Scotland grows a warlike flower,
Too rough to bloom in lady's bower;
His crest, when high the soldier bears,
And spurs his courser on the spears,
Oh! there it blossoms-there it blows,--
The thistle's grown aboon the rose.
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.
ALMIGHTY GOD, Thy power we sing!
And to Thy goodness tribute bring
For all Thy works of love;
Thy wisdom crowns Thy boundless might,
And kindness brings Thy truth to light,
As clear as orbs above.
THE NATURALIST'S POETICAL COMPANION,
The universe Thy greatness shows,
And endless space Thy presence knows,
O wondrous, glorious GOD!
Thy finger marks the comet's sphere,
And countless orbs in full career
Pursue their various road.
Nor less the wonders of Thine hand,
Which, nearer view'd, our souls command
F.. grandeur shines in all;
The lightning's glare, the foaming deep,
The whirlwind's blast, the craggy steep,
Our trembling frames appal.
And wandering through this globe of earth,
On which unnumber'd tribes have birth,
In quick succession round,
We stop to gaze, but soon are lost
On seas of power creative toss'd;
The power without a bound.
How full the earth, and sea, and air!
How great Thy love! what constant care
Of all the host is shewn!
On great and small Thy bounty flows,
And all creation richly glows
With goodness all Thine own.
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