Tho' for long intervals obscure'd, again Oft-times the seeds of lineal worth appear. For neither can the furrow'd plain Full harvest yield with each returning year; Nor in each period will the pregnant bloom Invest the smiling tree with rich perfume. So, barren often, and inglorious, pass The generations of a noble race; While nature's vigour, working at the root, In after-ages swells, and blossoms into fruit.

Nor hath Jove given us to foreknow When the rich years of virtue shall succeed: Yet bold and daring on we go, Contriving schemes of many a mighty deed; While hope, fond innate of the human mind, And self-opinion, active, rash, and blind,

p a false illusive ray, That leads our dazzled feet astray Far from the springs, where, calm and flow, The secret streams of wisdom flow. Hence should we learn our ardour to restrain, And limit to due bounds the thirst of gain. To rage and madness oft that passion turns, Which with forbidden flames despairing burns.

From the above specimen, and from what we have already said on this subject, the reader will perceive, in general character, that odes of this sort are distinguished by the happy transitions and digressions which they admit, and the surprising yet natural returns to the subject. This requires great judgment and genius; and the poet who would excel in this kind of writing, should draw the plan of his poem, in manner of the argument we have above inferred, and mark out the places where those elegant and beautiful fallacies and wanderings may be made, and where the returns will be easy and proper.