Page:The Poetical Works of Elijah Fenton (1779).djvu/70

In what far distant age would Belgia raise
One happy wit to net the British seas!
Nature permits her various gifts to fall
On various climes, nor smiles alike on all:
The Latian vales eternal verdure wear, 180
And flow'rs spontaneous crown the smiling year;
But who manures a wild Norwegian hill
To raise the jasmine or the coy jonquil?
Who finds the peach among the savage floes,
Or in bleak Scythia seeks the blushing rose? 185
Here golden grain waves o'er the teeming fields,
And there the vine her racy purple yields.
High on the cliffs the British oak ascends,
Proud to survey the seas her pow'r defends;
Her sov'reign title to the flag she proves, 190
Scornful of softer India's spicy groves.
These instances, which true in fact we find,
Apply we to the culture of the mind.
This soil, in early youth improv'd with care,
The seeds of gentle science best will bear; 195
That with more particles of flame inspir'd,
With glitt'ring arms and thirst of fame is fir'd;
Nothing of greatness in a third will grow,
But barren as it is 't will bear a beau.
If these from Nature's genial bent depart, 200
In life's dull farce to play a borrow'd part;
Should the sage dress, and flutter in the Mall,
Or leave his problems for a birth-night ball;