Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/49

Book II. Imbrace the smiling family of arts, The Muses and the Graces. Then no more Shall vice, distracting their delicious gifts To aims abhorr'd, with high distaste and scorn Turn from their charms the philosophic eye, The patriot-bosom: then no more the paths Of public care or intellectual toil, Alone by footsteps haughty and severe In gloomy state be trod: th' harmonious Muse And her persuasive sisters then shall plant Their sheltering laurels o'er the bleak ascent, And scatter flow'rs along the rugged way. Arm'd with the lyre, already have we dar'd To pierce divine philosophy's retreats, And teach the Muse her lore; already strove Their long-divided honours to unite, While temp'ring this deep argument we sang Of truth and beauty. Now the same fair task Impends; now urging our ambitious toil, We hasten to recount the various springs Of adventitious pleasure, which adjoin Their grateful influence to the prime effect Of objects grand or beauteous, and inlarge The complicated joy. The sweets of sense, Do they not oft with kind accession flow, To raise harmonious fancy's native charm? So while we taste the fragrance of the rose, Glows not her blush the fairer? While we view Rh