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The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad for them, [the children of the Lord:] and the desart shall rejoice and blossom like the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel

and Sharon: They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Isaiah C. xxxv, V. 1, 2,

I

Why dwells my un-offended eye
On yon' blank desart's trackless waste;
All dreary earth, or chearless sky,
Like ocean wild, and bleak, and vast?
There Lysidor's enamour'd reed
Ne'er taught the plains Eudosia's praise:
There herds were rarely known to feed,
Or birds to sing, or flocks to graze.
Yet does my soul complacence find;
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind !

II

The high-arch'd church is lost in sky,
The base with thorns and bry'rs is bound;
The yawning fragments nod from high,
With close-encircling ivy crown'd:
Heart-thrilling echo multiplies
Voice after voice, creation new!
Beasts, birds obscene, unite their cries:
Graves ope, and spectres freeze the view.
Yet nought dismays; and thence we find
'Tis all from Thee,
Supremely gracious Deity,
Composer of the mind!

III

Earth's womb, half dead to Ceres' skill,
Can scarce the cake of off'ring give;

Five acres' corn can hardly fill
The peasant's wain, and bid him live.
The starving beldame gleans in vain,
In vain the hungry chough succeeds:
They curse the unprolific plain,
The scurf-grown moss, and tawdry weeds.
Yet still sufficiency we find;
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind!

IV

December's Boreas issues forth,
In sullen gloom and horror drest,
Charg'd with the nitre of the north,
Abhorr'd by man, by bird, and beast.
All nature's lovely tint embrown'd
Sickens beneath the putrid blast:

Destruction withers up the ground,
Like parchment into embers cast .
Yet health, and strength, and ease we find:
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Composer of the mind!

V

Tremble, and yonder Alp behold ,
Where half-dead nature gasps below,
Victim of ever-lasting cold,
Entomb'd alive in endless snow.

The northern side is horror all;
Against the southern Phoebus plays;
In vain th'innoxious glimm'rings fall,
The frost out-lives, out-shines the rays.
Yet consolation still I find;
And all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind!

VI

Bless me! how doubly sharp it blows,
From Zemblan and Tartarian coasts!
In sullen silence fall the snows,
The only lustre nature boasts;
The nitrous pow'r with ten-fold force
Half petrifies earth's barren womb,
High-arch'd cascades suspend their force,
Men freeze alive, and in the tomb.

Yet warmth and happiness we find;
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Composer of the mind!

VII

Then, in exchange, a month or more
The Sun with fierce solsticial gleams
Darting o'er vales his raging pow'r,
Like ray-collecting mirrours, beams.
Torrents and cataracts are dry,
Men seek the scanty shades in vain:
The solar darts like lightning fly,
Transpierce the skull, and scorch the brain .
Yet still no restless heats we find;
And all from Thee,

Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind!

VIII

For nature rarely form'd a soil
Where diligence subsistence wants:
Exert but care, nor spare the toil,
And all beyond, th'Almighty grants.
Each earth at length to culture yields,
Each earth its own manure contains:
Thus the Corycian nurst his fields ,
Heav'n gave th'encrease, and he the pains.
Th'Industrious peace and plenty find;
All due to Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Composer of the mind!

IX

Scipio sought virtue in his prime,
And, having early gain'd the prize,
Stole from th'ungrateful world in time,
Contented to be low and wise!
He serv'd the state with zeal and force,
And then with dignity retir'd;
Dismounting from th'unruly horse,
To rule himself, as sense requir'd.
Without a sigh, he pow'r resign'd.—
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind!

X

When Dioclesian sought repose,
Cloy'd and fatigu'd with nauseous pow'r,

He left his empire to his foes,
For fools t'admire, and rogues devour:
Rich in his poverty, he bought
Retirement's innocence and health,
With his own hands the monarch wrought,
And chang'd a throne for Ceres' wealth.
Toil sooth'd his cares, his blood refin'd.—
And all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Composer of the mind!

XI

He , who had rul'd the world, exchang'd
His sceptre for the peasant's spade,
Postponing [as thro' groves he rang'd]
Court-splendour to the rural shade.
Child of his hand, th'engrafted thorn
More than the victor-laurel pleas'd:

Heart's-ease , and meadow-sweet , adorn
The brow, from civic garlands eas'd.
Fortune, however poor, was kind.—
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind!

XII

Thus Charles, with justice styl'd the Great
For valour, piety, and laws;
Resign'd two empires to retreat,
And from a throne to shades withdraws;
In vain, [to soothe a monarch's pride]
His yoke the willing Persian bore:

In vain the Saracen comply'd,
And fierce Northumbrians stain'd with gore.
One Gallic farm his cares confin'd;
And all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Composer of the mind!

XIII

Observant of th'Almighty-will,
Prescient in faith, and pleas'd with toil,
Abram Chaldea left, to till
The moss-grown Haran's flinty soil :
Hydras of thorns absorb'd his gain,
The common-wealth of weeds rebell'd,
But labour tam'd th'ungrateful plain,
And famine was by art repell'd;

Patience made churlish nature kind.—
All, all from Thee,
Supremely Gracious Deity,
Corrector of the mind!

Formidine nulla;
Quippe in corde DEUS ------.
Stat. Theb. IV, v. 489.

“To be satisfied is the highest pitch of art man can arrive to.” St. Gregor. Hom.

Base for basis. See Zechar. C. v, V. 2.

------ inamabile frigus Adurit.
Virg.

Much to the same purpose is a passage in the Son of Sirach:— “When the cold north-wind bloweth, and the water is congealed into ice, He poureth the hoar-frost upon the earth. It abideth upon every gathering together of water, and cloatheth the water with a breastplate. It devoureth the mountain, and burneth the wilderness, and consumeth the grass as fire.” C. xliii, V. 19, 21.

A glaciére, or ice-mountain.

Cuncta gelu, canáque æternùm grandine tecta,
Atque ævi glaciem cohibent: riget ardua montis
Æthenii facies, surgentique obvia Phœbo
Duratas nescit flammis mollire pruinas.
Sil. Ital.

“The Sun parcheth the country, and who can abide the burning heat thereof? A man blowing a furnace is in works of heat, but the Sun burneth the mountains three times more; breathing out fiery vapours and sending forth bright beams it dimmeth the eyes.” Ecclus. Ch. xliii, v 3, 4.

Du Hamel; Elem. d'Agricult. Patullo; Meliorat. des Terres.

Virg. Georg. IV, v 127, &c.

Dioclesian.

Heart's-ease, viola tricolor; called also by our old Poets Love in idleness; Pansy [from the French pensée, or the Italian pensieri:] Three faces under a hood, Herb Trinity, Look up and kiss me, Kiss me at the gate, &c.

Spiræa, named also in ancient English poetry Mead-sweet, Queen of the meads, Bride-wort, &c.

Charlemagne.

Gen. Ch. xii, v 31. Nehem. Ch. ix, v 7. Judith Ch. v, 7. Acts Ch. vii, v 2–11.