Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/294

210 With filmy net, most like the autumnal webs Of floating gossamer, arrest the foot Of generous enterprise ; and palsy hope And fair ambition with the chilling touch Of sickly hesitation and blank fear. Nor seldom Indolence these lawns among Fixes her turf-built seat ; and wears the garb Of deep philosophy, and museful sits, In dreamy twilight of the vacant mind, Soothed by the whispering shade; for soothing soft The shades; and vistas lengthening into air, With moonbeam rainbows tinted.—Here each mind Of finer mould, acute and delicate, In its high progress to eternal truth Rests for a space, in fairy bowers entranced; And loves the softened light and tender gloom; And, pampered with most unsubstantial food, Looks down indignant on the grosser world, And matter's cumbrous shapings. Youth beloved Of Science—of the Muse beloved,—not here,