*, *

Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's fate,
As with first prow, (what have not Britons dar'd!)
He for the passage sought, attempted since
So much in vain, and seeming to be shut
By jealous nature with eternal bars.

In these fell regions, in Arzina caught,
And to the stony deep his idle ship"
Immediate seal'd, he with his hapless crew,in
Each full exerted at his sev'ral task,

Froze into statues; to the cordage glued

The sailor, and the pilot to the helm.

Hard by these shores, where scarce his freez

ing stream

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Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of men;

And half enliven'd by the distant sun,

That rears and ripens man, as well as plants,
Here human nature wears its rudest form.
Deep from the piercing season sunk in caves,
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer,
They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs,
Doze the gross race. Nor sprightly jest, nor song,

• Sir Hugh Willoughby, sent by Queen Elizabeth to discover the north-east passage.

Nor tenderness they know; nor aught of life: A Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without,{} Till morn at length, her roses drooping all, I Sheds a long twilight bright'ning o'er their fields, And calls the quiver'd savage to the chace 10 What cannot active government perform, 1') New-moulding man? Wide-stretching from these zamanah mal zoj 19'0

shores,

A people savage from remotest time, seib-ut
A huge neglected empire one vast mind, T
By heav'n inspir'd, from gothic darkness call'da
Immortal Peter! first of monarchs! Heh di 7/
His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons; T
And while the fierce barbarian he subdued,
To more exalted soul he rais'd the man.lt dolë
Ye shades of ancient heroes, ye who toil'd 10
Through long successive ages to build up doorT
A lab'ring plan of state, behold at once on
The wonder done! behold the matchless prince!
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty shadow of unreal pow'r;garı tusif.
Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp of courts;

And roaming ev'ry land, in ev'ry port
His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool, ma
Gathered the seeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.

).

Charg'd with the stores of Europe home he goes!
Then cities rise amid th' illumin'd waste; w9%
O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reigh;
Far-distant flood to flood is social join'diqesq A
Th' astonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar; A
Proud navies ride on seas that never foam'd v
With daring keel before; and armies stretchl
Each way their dazzling files, repressing here!
The frantic Alexander of the north,vail
And awing there stern Othman's shrinking sons.
Sloth flies the land, and ignorance, and vice, }`
Of old dishonour proud; it glows around,
Taught by the royal hand that rous'd the whole,
One scene of arts of arms, of rising tradedal A
For what his wisdom plann'd, and pow'r enforc❜d,
More potent still, his great example shew'd.

Mutt'ring, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow-blust'ring from the south. Subdued,

The frost resolves into a trickling thawit ni but
Spotted the mountains shine; loose sleet descendė,
And floods the country round. The rivers swell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hillsl
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts,
A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at oncebo
And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain
Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen seas!! 19 f
That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will rest no more
Beneath the shackles of the mighty hoith; 10
But, rousing all their waves, resistless heaven!'l
And hark! the length'ning roar continuous runs
Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts,
And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds./
Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd,
That, tost amid the floating fragments, moors⠀⠀
Beneath the shelter of an icy islephoto-bil
While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks
More horrible. Can human force endured?
Th' assembled mischiefs that besiege thêm round?
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness, buf
The roar of winds and waves, the crush' of ice,
Now ceasing, now renew'd with louder rage'

And in dire echoes bellowing round the main.i
More to embroil the deep, leviathan

And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport,

Tempest the loosen'd brine, while thro' the gloom,
Far from the bleak inhospitable shore,

Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl
Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks..
Yet Providence, that ever-waking eye, d..
Looks down with pity on the feeble toill
Of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe,
Through all this dreary labyrinth of fate.

'Tis done!odread Winter spreads his latest
.-t-glooms,

And reigns, tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!,
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man!..
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years,
Thy flow ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
Thy sober Autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at last,

And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled

Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes

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