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Come, Contemplation, whofe unbounded gaze, Swift in a glance, the courfe of things furveys; Who in thyself the various view canst find Of fea, land, air, and heaven, and human-kind; What tides of paffion in the bofom roll; What thoughts debafe, and what exalt the foul, Whose pencil paints, obfèquious to thy will, All thou furvey'ft, with a creative skill! Oh, leave awhile thy lov'd, fequefter'd shade! Awhile in wintery wilds vouchsafe thy aid! Then waf. me to fome olive, bowery green, Where, cloath'd in white, thou fhew'fta mind ferene; 30 Where kind Content from noife and court retires, And fmiling fits, while Mufes tune their lyres : Where Zephyrs gently breathe, while Sleep profound To their foft fanning nods, with poppies crown'd; Sleep, on a treasure of bright dreams reclines, By thee beftow'd; whence Fancy colour'd fhines, And flutters round his brow a hovering flight, Varying her plumes in visionary light.

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The folar fires now faint and watery burn, Juft where with ice Aquarius frets his urn! If thaw'd, forth iffue, from its mouth fevere, Raw clouds, that fadden all th' inverted year. When Froft and Fire with martial powers engag'd, Froft, northward, fled the war, unequal wag'd! Beneath the Pole his legions urg'd their flight, And gain'd a cave profound and wide as night. O'er cheerlefs fcenes by Defolation own'd,

High on an Alp of ice he fits enthron'd!

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One

One clay-cold hand, his cryftal beard fuftains,
And fcepter'd one, o'er wind and tempeft reigns; 50
O'er ftony mágazines of hail, that storm

The bloffom'd fruit, and flowery Spring deform.
His languid eyes like frozen lakes appear,
Dim gleaming all the light that wanders here.

His robe fnow-wrought, and hoar'd with age; his breath

A nitrous damp, that strikes petrific death.

Far hence lies, ever-freez'd, the northern main,
That checks, and renders navigation vain,
That, shut against the sun's diffolving ray,
Scatters the trembling tides of vanquish'd day,
And stretching eastward half the world secures,
Defies discovery, and like time endures!

Now Froft fent boreal blasts to scourge the air,
To bind the streams, and leave the landscape bare;
Yet when, far weft, his violence declines,

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Though here the brook, or lake, his power confines;
To rocky pools, to cataracts are unknown
His chains-to rivers, rapid like the Rhone!

The falling moon caft, cold, a quivering light,
Juft filver'd o'er the fnow, and funk !-pale night 70
Retir'd. The dawn in light-grey mists arose!
Shrill chants the cock!-the hungry heifer lows!
Slow blush yon breaking clouds;-the fun 's uproll'd?
Th' expanfive grey turns azure, chas'd with gold;
White-glittering ice, chang'd like the topaz, gleams, 75
Reflecting faffron luftre from his beams.

O Con

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O Contemplation, teach me to explore, From Britain far remote, fome distant shore! From Sleep a dream diftinct and lively claim; Clear let the vifion ftrike the moral's aim ! It comes! I feel it o'er my foul ferene! Still Morn begins, and Froft retains the scene! Hark! the loud horn's enlivening note's begun! From rock to vale fweet-wandering echoes run! Still floats the found thrill-winding from afar ! Wild beafts aftonish'd dread the fylvan war! Spears to the fun in files embattled play, March on, charge briskly, and enjoy the fray! Swans, ducks, and geese, and the wing'd winter-brood, Chatter difcordant on yon echoing flood! At Babel thus, when heaven the tongue confounds, Sudden a thousand different jargon-founds, Like jangling bells, harsh mingling, grate the ear! All ftare! all talk! all mean; but none cohere! Mark! wiley fowlers meditate their doom, And fmoaky Fate speeds thundering through the gloom! Stop'd fhort, they ceafe in airy rings to fly, Whirl o'er and o'er, and, fluttering, fall and die.

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Still Fancy wafts me on! deceiv'd I stand, Etrang'd, adventurous on a foreign land! Wide and more wide extends the scene unknown! Where fhall I turn, a WANDERER, and alone? From hilly wilds, and depths where fnows remain, My winding steps up a steep mountain strain ! Emers'd a-top, I mark, the hills fubfide,

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And towers aspire, but with inferior pride!

On

On this bleak height tall firs, with ice-work crown'd,
Bend, while their flaky winter fhades the ground!
Hoarfe, and direct, a blustering north-wind blows!
On boughs, thick-ruftling, crack the crifped fnows! 110
Tangles of froft half-fright the wilder'd eye,
By heat oft-blacken'd like a lowering sky!
Hence down the fide two turbid rivulets pour,
And devious two, in one huge cataract roar!
While pleas'd the watery progress I pursue,
Yon rocks in rough assemblage rush in view!
In form an amphitheatre they rife;

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And a dark gulf in their broad centre lies.
There the dim'd fight with dizzy weakness fails,
And horror o'er the firmeft brain prevails!
Thither thefe mountain-ftreams their paffage take,
Headlong foam down, and form a dreadful lake!
The lake, high-fwelling, fo redundant grows,
From the heap'd store deriv'd, a river flows;
Which, deepening, travels through a distant wood, 125
And thence emerging, meets a fifter-flood;
Mingled they flash on a wide-opening plain,
And pafs yon city to the far-feen main.

So blend two fouls by heaven for union made,
And strengthening forward, lend a mutual aid, 130
And prove in every tranfient turn their aim,
Through finite life to infinite the fame.

Nor ends the landscape-Ocean, to my fight, Points a blue arm, where failing ships delight, In profpe&t leffen'd!-Now new rocks, rear'd high, 135 Stretch a cross-ridge, and bar the curious eye;

There

There lies obfcur'd the ripening diamond's ray,
And thence red-branching coral's rent away.
In conic form there gelid crystal grows ;

Through fuch the palace lamp, gay luftre throws! 140
Luftre, which, through dim night, as various plays
As play from yonder fnows the changeful rays!
For nobler ufe the cryftal's worth may rife,
If tubes perspective hem the spotlefs prize;
Through these the beams of the far-lengthen'd eye 145
Measure known ftars, and new remoter fpy.
Hence Commerce many a fhorten'd voyage steers,
Shorten'd to months, the hazard once of years;
Hence Halley's foul etherial flight effays;
Inftructive there from orb to orb the strays;
Sees, round new countless funs, new fyftems roll!
Sees God in all! and magnifies the whole!
Yon rocky fide enrich'd the summer scene,
And peasants fearch for herbs of healthful green;
Now naked, pale, and comfortless it lies,
Like youth extended cold in death's disguise.
There, while without the founding tempeft fwells,
Incav'd fecure th' exulting eagle dwells;
And there, when Nature owns prolific fpring,

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Spreads o'er her young a fondling mother's wing. 160
Swains on the coaft the far-fam'd fish descry,
That gives the fleecy robe the Tyrian dye;
While fhells, a fcatter'd ornament bestow,
The tinctur'd rivals of the fhowery bow.
Yon limeless fands, loofe-driving with the wind, 165
In future cauldrons useful texture find,

Till,