The Seasons and the Castle of Indolence

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...yours. Silence, thou lonely power! the door be thine; See on the hallow'd hour that none intrude, Save a few chosen friends, who sometimes deign To bless my humble roof, with sense refined, Learning digested well, exalted faith, Unstudied wit, and humour ever gay. Or from the Muses' hill will Pope descend, To raise the sacred hour, to bid it smile, And with the social spirit warm the heart? For though not sweeter his own Homer sings, Tet is his life the more endearing song. Where art thou, Hammond? thou, the darling pride, The friend and lover of the tuneful throng! Ah why, dear youth, in all the blooming prime Of vernal genius, where disclosing fast Each active worth, each manly virtue lay, Why wert thou ravish'd from our hope so soon? What now avails that noble thirst of fame, Which stung thy fervent breast? that treasured store Of knowledge, early gain'd? that eager zeal To serve thy country, glowing in the band Of youthful patriots, who sustain her name; What now, alas! that life-diffusing charm Of sprightly wit? that rapture for the Muse, That heart of friendship, and that soul of joy, Which bade with softest light thy virtues smile? Ah! only show'd to check our fond pursuits, And teach our humbled hopes that life is vain! Thus in some deep retirement would I pass The winter-glooms, with friends of pliant soul, Or blithe, or solemn, as the theme inspired: With them would search if Nature's boundless frame Was call'd, late-rising, from the void of night, Or sprung eternal from the Eternal Mind; Its life, its laws, its progress, and its end. Hence larger prospects of the beauteous whole Would, gradual, open on our opening minds; And each diffusive harmony unite In full perfection to the astonish'd eye. Then would we try to scan the...