right'ning hours allow, to seek again
Their tiny offspring, and their dulcet homes.
Yet deem I not, that heaven on them bestows
Foresight, or mind above their lowly fate;
But rather when the changeful climate veers,
Obsequious to the humor of the sky;
When the damp South condenses what was rare,
The dense relaxing--or the stringent North
Rolls back the genial showers, and rules in turn,
The varying impulse fluctuates in their breast:
Hence the full concert in the sprightly mead--
The bounding flock--the rook's exulting cry."

_4th. The Moon's Aspects, etc._

"Mark with attentive eye, the rapid sun--
The varying moon that rolls its monthly round;
So shalt thou count, not vainly, on the morn;
So the bland aspect of the tranquil night
Will ne'er beguile thee with insidious calm.
When Luna first her scatter'd fires recalls,
If with blunt horns she holds the dusky air,
Seamen and swains predict th' abundant shower.
If rosy blushes tinge her maiden cheek,
Wind will arise: the golden Phoebe still
Glows with the wind. If (mark the ominous hour!)
The clear fourth night her lucid disk define,
That day, and all that thence successive spring,
E'en to the finished month, are calm and dry;
And grateful mariners redeem their vows
To Glaucus, Inoeus, or the Nereid nymph."

_5th. The Sun's Aspects, etc._

"The sun, too, rising, and at that still hour,
When sinks his tranquil beauty in the main,
Will give thee tokens; certain tokens all,
Both those that morning brings, and balmy eve.
When cloudy storms deform the rising orb,
Or streaks of vapor in the midst bisect,
Beware of showers, for then the blasting South
(Foe to the groves, to harvests, and the flock),
Urges, with turbid pressure, from above.
But when, beneath the dawn, red-fingered rays
Through the dense band of clouds diverging, break,
When springs Aurora, pale, from saffron couch,
Ill does the leaf defend the mellowing grape;
Leaps on the noisy roof the plenteous hail,
Fearfully crackling. Nor forget to note,
When Sol departs, his mighty day-task done,
How varied hues oft wander on his brow;
Azure betokens rain: the fiery tint
Is Eurus's herald; if the ruddy blaze
Be dimm'd with spots, then all will wildly rage
With squalls and driving showers: on that fell night,
None shall persuade me on the deep to urge
My perilous course, or quit the sheltering