Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/101

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Book III.
of IMAGINATION.
87

The prospect from that sweet accession gains
Redoubled influence o'er the list'ning mind.

By these mysterious ties[1] the busy pow'r
Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves
Intire; or when they would elude her watch,350
Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste
Of dark oblivion; thus collecting all
The various forms of being to present,
Before the curious aim of mimic art,
Their largest choice: like spring's unfolded blooms355
Exhaling sweetness, that the skilful bee
May taste at will, from their selected spoils
To work her dulcet food. For not th' expanse
Of living lakes in summer's noontide calm,
Reflects the bord'ring shade and sun-bright heav'ns360
With fairer semblance; not the sculptur'd gold
More faithful keeps the graver's lively trace,
Than he whose birth the sister-pow'rs of art
Propitious view'd, and from his genial star
Shed influence to the seeds of fancy kind;365
Than his attemper'd bosom must preserve
The seal of nature. There alone unchang'd,
Her form remains. The balmy walks of May
There breathe perennial sweets: the trembling chord

  1. By these mysterious ties, &c.] The act of remembring seems almost wholly to depend on the association of ideas.
Re-