,, Avert thine eye!" (the heavenly spirit faid)
,,Nor view these abject tribes of envious dead!
"Who pin'd to hear the voice of Truth proclaim
„A Sifter'sbeauty, or a Brother's fame!

"

Tho' crown'd with all, Profperity imparts, High in their various ranks, and feveral arts; Yet, meanly funk by Envy's base controul, „They died in that confumption of the foul; „And here, thro' bars that twisted Adders mak And the long volumes of th' envenom'd Snake, "O'er this dark road they dart an anxious eye, "Still envying every Fiend, that flutters by. Pafs! and regard them not!" Th' attentive

Maid

In filent tremor the beheft obey'd.

This dungeon croft, her weary feet she drags
Thro' winding caverns, and o'er icy crags:
Soul-chilling damps in the dark passage reign,
Which iffues on a vaft and dreary plain;
Fann'd by no breezes, with no verdure crown'd;
The black horizon is its only bound.
And now advancing, in a drizzly mist,
Thro' fullen Phantoms, hating to exift,
SERENA fpies, high o'er his fubjects plac'd,
The ghaftly Tyrant of the gloomy waste.
Murmuring he fits upon a rocking stone,
Th' unftable bafe of his ill-founded throne:
Hideous his face, and horrible his frame,
Mifanthropy the grisly Monfter's name!
Him to fierce Pride, with raging paffion fore,
The frowning Gorgon, Difappointment, bore;
On earth detefted, and by heaven abhorr'd,
Of this drear wild he reigns the moody lord.
Few are the fubjects of his wafte domain,
And scarce a Female in his frightful train,
Except one changing corps of ancient Prudes:
Reluctant here the prying band intrudes.
Each, who in earth, behind her artful fan,
Feign'd coarse averfion to the creature Man,

hayley.

hayley. Is doom'd, in this dark region, to abide
Some tranfient pains for hypocritic pride.
Here ever during chains thofe Scoffers bind,
Whole writings deaden and debase the mind;
Who mock creation with injurious fcorn,
And feel a fancied void in Plenty's horn.

In his right hand, an emblem of his cares,
A branch of Aconite the Monarch bears;
And thofe four Phantoms, who this region haunt,
He feeds with berries from this deadly plant.
For, ftrange to tell! tho' fever'd from its root,
The bough ftill blackens with fucceffive fruit.
The tribes, who tafte it, burst into a fit
Of raving mockery and rancorous wit;
And, pleas'd their Tyrant's ghaftly fmile to court,
By vile distortions make him various iport.
The frantic rabble, who his fway confefs,
Before his throne a hideous Puppet drefs;
When in unfeemly rags they have array'd
The image, from their own dark femblance made,
In horrid gambols round their work they throng,
With antic dance and rude discordant fong;
Satire's rank offals on the block they fling,
And call it Nature, to delight their King:
While in their features he exults to fee
The frowns of Torture, mixt with grins of Gleet
For, as these abject toils engage the crew,
Their own grim idol darkens to their view;
Wide and more wide its horrid ftature spreads,
And o'er the tribe new confternation fheds:
For each forgets, in his bewilder'd gaze,
'Tis but a Monster, which he help'd to raise.
As o'er its form their dizzy glances roll,
It strikes a chearless damp thro' all the foul.
Vainly to fhun the baleful fight they try,
It draws for ever the reluctant eye:
At each review with deeper dread they start;
A colder chaos numbs each freezing heart.
No mutual confidence, no friendly care,
Relieves the panic, they are doom'd to bear.

For,

For, as they fhrink abforb'd in wild affright,
When each to each inclines his wounded fight,
They feel, for focial comfort, four disgust,
And all the fullen anguish of distrust.

„Now mark, SERENA, (the mild Guide began) The proudest Phantom of the gloomy clan, ,,Appointed by this furly Monarch's grace, High-prieft of all this mifanthropic race!

See o'er the crouds a throne of vapours lift,

"That ftrange and motley form, the fhade of swIFT! Now fhalt thou view" (the guardian Sprite purfues)

"

"

„His horrid pennance, that each day renews:
Perchance its terrors may o'erwhelm thy fenfe,
But truft my care, to bear thee fafely hence!"
As thus fhe fpoke, above the gazing throng,
High in a failing cloud the Spectre swept along.
Vain of his power, of elocution proud,
In myftic language he harangu'd the crowd;
The bounds he mark'd, with measure fo precife,
Of Equine virtue, and of Human vice,

That, curfing Nature's gifts, without remorfe
Each fullen hearer wifh'd himself a Horfe.
Pleas'd with the pure effect, his fermon wrought,
Th' ambitious Prieft a rich Tiara caught,
Which, hovering o'er his high-aspiring head,
Sarcastic Humour dangled by a thread.
The rich Tiara, for his temples fit,

Blaz'd with each polif h'd gem of brilliant wit;
And fharp-fac'd Irony, his darling fprite,
Who rais'd her patron to this giddy height,
Fast on his brow the dangerous honour bound,
But, in the moment that her Prieft was crown'd,
His airy throne diffolv'd, and thunder rent the
ground.

Forth from the yawning earth, with lightning's speed,
Sprung the fierce phantom of a fiery fteed,
Spurring his fides, whence bloody poifon flow'd,
The ghaftly-grinning Fiend, Derifion, rode.

hayley.

hayley. In her right hand a horrid whip she shakes,
Whofe founding lafh was form'd of knotted fnakes:
An uncough bugle her left hand display'd,
From a grey monkey's fkull by Malice made;
As her diftorted lips this whiftle blew;
Forth rush'd the spectre of a wild yahoo.
See the poor wit in hafty terror spring,
And fly for fuccour to his grisly King!
In vain his piercing cries that fuccour court:
The grisly King enjoys the cruel sport.
Behold the fierce yahoo, her victim caught,
Drive her fharp talons thro' the feat of thought!
That copious fountain, which too well fupplied
Perverted Ridicule's malignant tide.

Quick from her steed the grinning Fiend defcends,
From the pierc'd fkull the spleenful brain fhe rends,
To black Mifanthropy, her ghaftly King,
See the keen Hag this horrid present bring!
Her daily gift! for, as each day arrives,
Her deftin'd victim for new death revives.
The Huntress now, this direft pageant past,
On her wild bugle blew fo dread a blast,
The fharp found pierc'd thro' all the depths of Hell
The Fiends all answer'd in one hideous yell,
And in a fearful trance the foft SERENA fell.
Hence from the lovely Nymph her fenfes fled,
Till, thro' the parted curtains of her bed,
The amorous fun, who new began to rife,
Kift, with a sportive beam, her opening eyes.*)

Pyl.

*) Herr Hayley entschuldigt sich, in einer angehängten langen Note, über den, doch wohl zu harten, Ausfall auf Swift, den der Schluß dieses Gesanges enthält. Er glaubt nämlich, daß keine Talente oder andre Vers dienste den Schriftsteller rechtfertigen können, wenn er offenbar darauf ausgeht, die menschliche Natur zu erniedrigen und herabzuwürdigen.

(Henry James Pyl ift gleichfalls ein noch lebender Dichs
ter der Engländer, dessen vorher einzeln, und neulich (1787)
in zwei Großoktavbänden zusammen gedruckte Gedichte meis
ftens beschreibenden und lehrenden Inhalts sind, und vielen
verdienten Beifall erhalten haben. Mit Hayley's Verdiens
fte der Eleganz in Gedanken und Schreibart scheint er noch
mehr Stärke und Nachdruck in beiden zu verbinden; ob gleich
feine Gedichte übrigens, gleich jenen, mehr schildernd als
lehrend sind. Das befte darunter, The Progress of Refine-
ment, besteht aus drei Theilen, deren erßter den ursprünglis
chen Zustand der menschlichen Gesellschaft, und den Forts
gang der Kultur bei den Völkern des Alterthums, bis auf
den Verfall der römischen Monarchie, und die Zeiten der
Völkerwanderung, beschreibt. Die hier ausgehobene Stelle
daraus schildert die Fortschritte und den Verfall der Aufklde
rung bei den Römern. -
Ich sehe nur noch die herrliche,
und schön ausgedrückte, Wahrheit her, womit sich das ganze
Gedicht schließt:

No polish'd Manners rival Virtue's price;
No favage Ignorance disgufts like Vice.)

THE PROGRESS OF REFINEMENT.. (P. I.)

Lo! in the regions, whence FAVONIUS blows,
A hardy race HESPERIA'S vales difclofe:
With finews firm the rugged offfpring rife
And brave the force of lefs aufpicious fkies;
For freezing winds had erft CAMPANIA known,
And yellow TIBER worn an icy zone,
The fons of ROME ne'er felt the foft control
Of milky kindness ftealing o'er their foul,
Nor did their nerves to pleasure's touch awake
Of gentler thoughts the mild impreffion take;