Date: 1728

"Then infant Reason grows apace, and calls / For the kind Hand of an assiduous Care: / Delightful Task! to rear the tender Thought, / To teach the young Idea how to shoot, / To pour the fresh Instruction o'er the Mind, / To breathe th' inspiring Spirit, and to plant / The generous Purpose in...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"Who in each other clasp whatever fair / High Fancy forms, and lavish Hearts can wish, / Something than Beauty dearer, should they look / Or on the Mind, or Mind-illumin'd Face, / Truth, Goodness, Honour, Harmony and Love, / The richest Bounty of indulgent Heaven."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"BUT now what-e'er these gaudy Fables meant, / And the white Minutes that they shadow'd out, / Are found no more amid these Iron Times, / These Dregs of Life! in which the Human Mind / Has lost that Harmony ineffable, / Which forms the Soul of Happiness; and all / Is off the Poise within; the Pas...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"BUT yonder breathing Prospect bids the Muse / Throw all her Beauty forth, that Daubing all / Will be to what I gaze; for who can paint / Like Nature? Can Imagination boast / Amid his gay Creation Hues like Her's? / And can He mix them with that matchless Skill, / And lay them on so delicately sw...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"HAIL, Mighty Being! Universal Soul / Of Heaven and Earth! Essential Presence, hail! / To Thee I bend the Knee, to Thee my Thoughts / Continual climb, who, with a Master-Hand, / Hast the great Whole into Perfection touch'd."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"Can / The stormy Passions in his Bosom rowl, / While every Gale is Peace, and every Grove / Is Melody?"

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"Thus the glad Skies, / The wide-rejoycing Earth, the Woods, the Streams, / With every Life they hold, down to the Flower / That paints the lowly Vale, or Insect-Wing / Wav'd o'er the Shepherd's Slumber, touch the Mind / To Nature tun'd, with a light-flying Hand, / Invisible, quick-urging, thro' ...

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"AND let th' aspiring Youth beware of Love, / And shun th' enchanting Glance, for 'tis too late / When on his Heart the Torrent Softness pours."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"All Nature fades extinct; and She alone / Heard, felt, and seen, possesses every Thought, / Fills every Sense, and pants in every Vein."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1728

"From the Tongue / Th' unfinish'd Period falls: while, born away / On swelling Thought, his wafted Spirit flies / To the dear Bosom of his absent Fair; / And leaves the Semblance of a Lover, fix'd / In melancholy Site, with Head declin'd, / And Love-dejected Eyes."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)