תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

that each state has a particular principle of happiness; and that this principle, in each state, and in our own in particular, may be carried to a mischievous excess. There are few can judge better than yourself, how far these pofitions are illustrated in this poem.

I am, SIR,

Your most affectionate Brother,

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

THE

THE

TRAVELLER;

OR, A

PROSPECT OF SOCIETY.

REMOTE, unfriended, melancholy, flow,

Or by the lazy Scheld, or wandering Po;
Or onward, where the rude Carinthian boor
Against the houseless stranger shuts the door;
Or where Campania's plain forsaken lies,
A weary wafte expanded to the fkies:
Where'er I roam, whatever realms to fee,
My heart untravell'd fondly turns to thee ;
Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain,
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
Eternal bleffings crown my earliest friend,
And round his dwelling guardian faints attend;

[blocks in formation]

Bleft be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Bleft that abode, where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair;

Bleft be those feasts, where mirth and peace abound,
Where all the ruddy family around

Laugh at the jefts or pranks that never fail,
Or figh with pity at some mournful tale,
Or prefs the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good!

But me, not deftin'd such delights to share,
My prime of life in wand'ring spent and care!
Impell'd, with steps unceasing, to pursue

Some fleeting good, that mocks me with the view;
That, like the circle bounding earth and skies,
Allures from far, yet as I follow flies:

My fortune leads to traverse realms alone,
And find no spot of all the world my own.
Ev'n now, where Alpine folitudes afcend,
I fit me down a penfive hour to spend;
And, plac'd on high above the storm's career,
Look downward where a hundred realms appear;
Lakes, forests, cities, plains extended wide,
The pomp of kings, the fhepherd's humbler pride.

When thus creation's charms around combine,
Amidft the ftore, fhould thanklefs pride repine?

Say,

Say, fhould the philofophic mind difdain

That good, which makes each humbler bosom vain ?
Let school-taught pride diffemble all it can,

These little things are great to little man;

And wiser he, whose sympathetic mind
Exults in all the good of all mankind.

Ye glittering towns, with wealth and splendor crown'd;
Ye fields, where summer spreads profusion round;
Ye lakes, whofe vessels catch the busy gale;

v'ry vale;

Ye bending fwains, that dress the flow's
For me your tributary stores combine:
Creation's tenant, all the world in mine.

As fome lone mifer vifiting his store,
Bends at his treafure, counts, recounts it o'er;
Hoards after hoards his rifing raptures fill,

Yet till he fighs, for hoards are wanting ftill:

[ocr errors]

Thus to my breaft alternate paffions rife,

Pleas'd with each good that Heaven to man fupplies.

Yet oft a figh prevails, and forrows fall,

To fee the fum of human blifs fo fmall;

And oft I wish, amidst the scene, to find
Some spot to real happiness confign'd;

Where my worn soul, each wand'ring hope at rest,
May gather blifs to fee my fellows blest.

Yet, where to find that happiest spot below,
Who can direct, when all pretend to know?

The

The fhudd'ring tenant of the frigid zone
Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own ;
Extols the treasures of his ftormy feas,
And his long night of revelry and ease.

The naked favage, panting at the line,
Boafts of his golden fands and palmy wine,
Basks in the glare, or ftems the tepid wave,
And thanks his gods for all the good they gave.
Nor lefs the patriot's boast, where'er we roam,
His first, beft country, ever is, at home.

And yet, perhaps, if countries we compare,
And eftimate the bleffings which they share;
Though patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find
An equal portion dealt to all mankind,

As different good, by Art or Nature given
To different nations, makes their bleffings even.
Nature, a mother kind alike to all,

Still
grants her blifs at Labour's earneft call:
With food as well the peasant is fupply'd,
On Idra's cliff, as Arno's fhelvy fide;
And though the rocky-crested summits frown,
Thefe rocks, by cuftom, turn to beds of down.

From art more various are the blessings fent;
Wealth, splendour, honour, liberty, content :
Yet these each other's power fo ftrong conteft,
That either feems deftructive of the reft.

Hence

« הקודםהמשך »