Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/102

78 Resounds for ever in th' abstracted ear, Melodious; and the virgin's radiant eye, Superior to disease, to grief, and time, Shines with unbating lustre. Thus at length Indow'd with all that nature can bestow, The child of fancy oft in silence bends O'er these mix'd treasures of his pregnant breast, With conscious pride. From them he oft resolves To frame he knows not what excelling things; And win he knows not what sublime reward Of praise and wonder. By degrees the mind Feels her young nerves dilate: the plastic pow'rs Labour for action: blind emotions heave His bosom; and with loveliest frenzy caught, From earth to heav'n he rolls his daring eye, From heav'n to earth. Anon ten thousand shapes, Like spectres trooping to the wizard's call, Fleet swift before him. From the womb of earth, From ocean's bed they come: th' eternal heav'ns Disclose their splendors, and the dark abyss Pours out her births unknown. With fixed gaze He marks the rising phantoms. Now compares Their diff'rent forms; now blends them, now divides; Inlarges and extenuates by turns; Opposes, ranges in fantastic bands, And infinitely varies. Hither now, Now thither fluctuates his inconstant aim, With