Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/99

Rh Now their grey cincture skirts the doubtful sun; Now streams of splendor, thro' their opening veil Effulgent, sweep from off the gilded lawn Th' aerial shadows; on the curling brook, And on the shady margin's quiv'ring leaves With quickest lustre glancing; while you view The prospect, say, within your chearful breast Plays not the lively sense of winning mirth With clouds and sunshine chequer'd, while the round Of social converse, to th' inspiring tongue Of some gay nymph amid her subject-train, Moves all obsequious? Whence is this effect, This kindred pow'r of such discordant things? Or flows their semblance from that mystic tone To which the new-born mind's harmonious pow'rs At first were strung? Or rather from the links Which artful custom twines around her frame?


 * For when the diff'rent images of things

By chance combin'd, have struck the attentive soul With deeper impulse, or connected long, Have drawn her frequent eye; howe'er distinct Th' external scenes, yet oft th' ideas gain From that conjunction an eternal tie, And sympathy unbroken. Let the mind Recal [sic] one partner of the various league, Immediate, lo! the firm confed'rates rise, And each his former station strait resumes: One