Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/50

36 Amid the noontide walk a limpid rill Gush thro' the trickling herbage, to the thirst Of summer yielding the delicious draught Of cool refreshment; o'er the mossy brink Shines not the surface clearer, and the waves With sweeter music murmur as they flow?

Nor this alone; the various lot of life Oft from external circumstance assumes A moment's disposition to rejoice In those delights which at a different hour Would pass unheeded. Fair the face of spring, When rural songs and odours wake the morn, To every eye; but how much more to his, Round whom the bed of sickness long diffus'd Its melancholy gloom! how doubly fair, When first with fresh-born vigour he inhales The balmy breeze, and feels the blessed sun Warm at his bosom, from the springs of life Chasing oppressive damps and languid pain!

Or shall I mention, where cœlestial truth Her awful light discloses, to effulge A more majestic pomp on beauty's frame? For man loves knowledge, and the beams of truth More welcome touch his understanding's eye, Than all the blandishments of sound, his ear, Than all of taste his tongue. Nor ever yet The