THE CHOICE OF A RURAL LIFE:

A POEM.

By Wm. Fairfield, Esq.

THE ARGUMENT.

The subject proposed. Situation of the author's house. His frugality in its furniture. The beauties of the country. His love of retirement, his choice of his friends. A description of the morning. Hymn to the sun. Contemplation of the heavens. The existence of God inferred from a view of the beauty and harmony of the creation. Morning and evening devotion. The vanity of riches and grandeur. The choice of his books. Praise of the marriage state. A knot of modern ladies described. The author's exit.

PHILOSOPHIC SOLITUDE, &c.

LET ardent heroes seek renown in arms,
Pant after fame, and rush to war's alarms;
To shining palaces let fools resort,
And dunces cringe to be esteem'd at court;
Mine be the pleasure of a rural life,

From noise remote, and ignorant of strife;

Far from the painted belle, and white-glov'd

beau,

The lawless masquerade, and midnight show;

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From ladies, lap-dogs, courtiers, garters, stars, Fops, fiddlers, tyrants, emperors, and czars.

Full in the centre of some shady grove, By nature form'd for solitude and love; On banks array'd with ever-blooming flow'rs, Near beaut'ous landscape, nor by rosiate bow'rs, My.neat, but simple mansion I would raise, Unlike the sumptuous domes of modern days; Devoid of pomp, with rural plainness form❜d, With savage game, and glossy shells adorn'd.

No costly furniture should grace my hall; But curling vines ascend against the wall, Whose pliant branches should luxuriant twine, While purple clusters swell'd with future wine: To slake my thirst a liquid lapse distil From craggy rocks, and spread a limpid rill. Along my mansion spiry firs should grow, And gloomy yews extend the shady row; The cedars flourish, and the poplars rise Sublimely tall, and shoot into the skies; Among the leaves refreshing zephyrs play, And crowding trees exclude the noon-tide ray; Whereon the birds their downy nests should form, Securely shelter'd from the batt❜ring storm; And to melodious notes their choir apply, Soon as Aurora blush'd along the sky: While all around th' enchanting music rings, And ev'ry vocal grove responsive sings.

Me to sequester'd scenes, ye muses guide, Where nature wantons in her virgin pride; To mossy banks edg'd round with op'ning flow'rs, Elysian fields and amarantian bow'rs ; Tambrosial founts, and sleep-inspiring rills, To herbag'd vales, gay lawns, and sunny hills.

Welcome, ye shades! all hail, ye vernal blooms! Ye bow'ry thickets, and prophetic glooms! Ye forests hail! ye solitary woods!

Love whispering groves, and silver-streaming floods!

Ye meads, that aromatic sweets exhale!
Ye birds, and all ye sylvan beauties hail!
O how I long with you to spend my days'
Invoke the muse, and try the rural lay!

No trumpets there with martial clangor sound, No prostrate heroes strew the crimson'd ground; No groves of lances glitter in the air,

Nor thund'ring drums provoke the sanguine war ;
But white-rob'd peace, and universal love
Smile in the field, and brighten ev'ry grove.
There all the beauties of the circling year,
In native ornamental pride appear.

Gay rosy-bosom'd Spring, and April show'rs,
Wake from the womb of earth the rising flow'rs:
In deeper verdure Summer clothes the plain,
And Autumn bends beneath the golden grain ;

The trees weep amber, and the whispering gales Breeze o'er the lawn, or murmur through the vales;

The flow'ry tribes in gay confusion bloom,
Profuse of sweets, and fragrant with perfume;
On blossoms blossoms, fruits on fruits arise,
And varied prospects glad the wand'ring eyes.
In these fair Seats I'd pass the joyous day,
Where meadows flourish and where fields look

gay;

From bliss to bliss with endless pleasure rove, Seek crystal streams, or haunt the vernal grove, Woods, fountains, lakes, the fertile fields, or shades,

Aeriel mountains, or subjacent glades.

There from the polish'd fetters of the great
Triumphal piles, and gilded rooms of state;
Prime ministers, and sycophantic knaves,
Illustrious villains, and illustrious slaves!
From all the vain formality of fools,
And odious task of arbitrary rules;

The ruffling cares which the vex'd soul annoy,
The wealth the rich possess, but not enjoy,
The visionary bliss the world can lend,
The insidious foe, and false designing friend,
The seven-fold fury of Xantippe's soul,
And S's rage that burns without controul;
I'd live retir'd, contented, and serene,

Forgot, unknown, unenvi'd and unseen.

Yet not a real hermitage I'd choose,
Nor wish to live from all the world recluse ;
But with a friend sometimes unbend the soul
In social converse, o'er the sprightly bowl.
With cheerful W-, serene and wisely gay,
I'd often pass the dancing hours away :
He skill'd alike to profit and to please,
Politely talks with unaffected ease;
Sage in debate, and faithful to his trust,
Mature in science, and severely just;
Of soul diffusive, vast and unconfin'd,
Breathing benevolence to all mankind;
Cautious to censure, ready to commend,
A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted friend:
In early youth fair wisdom's paths he trod,
In early youth a minister of God:

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Each pupil lov'd him when at Yale he shone,
And ev'ry bleeding bosom weeps him gone.
Dear A too, should grace my rural seat,
Forever welcome to the green retreat :
Heav'n for the cause of righteousness design'd,
His florid genius, and capacious mind.

Oft have I heard, amidst th' adoring throng,
Celestial truths devolving from his tongue;
High o'er the list'ning audience seen him stand,
Divinely speak, and graceful stretch his hand :
With such becoming grace and pompous sound,,
With long-rob'd senators encircled round,

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