Her universal face with pleasant green;

Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower,

Opening their various colours, and make gay

Her bosom, swelling sweet; and, these scarce blown,

[pg 7]

Forth flourishes the clustering vine, forth creeps

The swelling gourd, up stands the corny reed

Embattled in her fields, and the humble shrub,

And bush with frizzled hair implicit; last

Rise, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread

Their branches hung with copious fruit, or gem

Their blossoms; with high woods the hills are crowned

With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side

With borders long the rivers; that earth now

Seems like to heaven, a seat where gods might dwell,

Or wander with delight, and love to haunt

Her sacred shades.”

Her sacred shades.

”

 A snatch from some old Greek chant, with something of plaintiveness in the tone, issues from the thicket just across the mule-path, cut deep in the earth, which reaches from the city gate to the streamlet; and a youth, who had the appearance of the assistant bailiff or procurator of the farm, leaped from it, and went over to the labourers, who were busy with the vines. His eyes and hair and the cast of his features spoke 

 Prev. P 10/356 next