His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her feas, her ill-fubmitting fons;
And while the fierce Barbarian he subdu’d,
To more exalted foul he rais'd the Man.
Ye fhades of ancient heroes, ye who toil'd
Thro' long fucceffive ages to build up
A labouring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! behold the matchlefs prince!.
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty fhadow of unreal power;
965
Who greatly fpurn'd the flothful pomp of courts;
And roaming every land, in every port
His fceptre laid.afide, with glorious hand
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the feeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.
Charg'd with the ftores of Europe home he goes!
Then cities rife amid th' illumin'd waste;
O'er joyless defarts fmiles the rural reign;
Far-diftant flood to flood is focial join'd;
Th' aftonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar;
Proud navies ride on feas that never foam'd
With daring keel before; and armies stretch
Each way their dazzling files, repressing here
The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there ftern Othman's fhrinking fons.
Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice,
Of old difhonour proud: it glows around,
Taught by the ROYAL HAND that rous'd the whole,
One scene of arts, of arms, of rifing trade:
For what his wifdom plann'd, and power enforc'd,
More potent ftill, his great example fhew'd.
Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow, hollow-blustering from the south. Subdu'd,
The froft refolves into a trickling thaw.
Spotted the mountains shine; loose fleet descends,
And floods the country round. The rivers fwell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills,
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts,
A thousand fnow-fed torrents fhoot at once;
And, where they rush, the wide-refounding plain
Is left one flimy waste. Thofe fullen feas,
That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will reft no more
Beneath the fhackles of the mighty north;
But, roufing all their waves, refiftless heave.
And hark! the lengthening 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, tofs'd amid the floating fraginents, moors 1055
Beneath the shelter of an icy ifle,
While night o'erwhelms the fea, and horror looks
More horrible. Can human force endure
Th' affembled mifchiefs that befiege them round?
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness,
The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice,
Now ceafing, now renew'd with louder rage,
And in dire echoes bellowing round the main.
More to embroil the deep, Leviathan
And his unweildy train, in dreadful fport,
Tempeft the loofen'd brine, while thro' the gloom, f
Far, from the bleak inhofpitable fhore, # ! Bono)
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry how #cat.
Of famish'd mouffers, there awaiting wrecks.
Yet PROVIDENCE, that ever-waking Eye,
Looks down with pity on the feeble toil
Of mortals loft to hope, and lights them fafe,
Thro' all this dreary labyrinth of fate,i!
'Tis done! dread WINTER spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. 1025 How dead the vegetable kingdom lyes!.
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His defolate domain. Behold, fond Man!
See here thy pictur'd life; pafs fome few years,
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
Thy fober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at laft;
And fhuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled :
Those dreams of greatness? thofe unfolid hopes
Of happiness? thofe longings after fame? -
Those restless cares? those busy bustling days?
Those gay spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts
Loft between good and ill, that fhar'd thy life?:
All now are vanish'd! VIRTUE fole furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of Man,
His guide to happiness on high. And fee!
'Tis come, the glorious morn! the fecond birth
Of heaven, and earth! awakening Nature hears
The new-creating word, and starts to life,
In every heightened form, from pain and death 1045 For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the profpect wider spreads,
To reafon's eye refin'd clears up apace.
Ye vainly wife! ye blind prefumptuous !now, 1050
Confounded in the dust, adore that POWER,
And WISDOM oft arraign'd: fee now the cause,
Why unaffuming worth in fecret liv'd,
And dy'd, neglected: why the good man's fhare
In life was gall and bitterness of foul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd
In starving folitude; while Luxury,
In palaces, lay ftraining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born Truth,
And Moderation fair, wore the red marks.
Of Superstition's fcourge: why licens'd Pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
Imbittered all our blifs. Ye good distress'd!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's preffure, yet bear up a while,
And what your bounded view, which only faw.
A little part, deem'd Evil, is no more::
The storms of WINTRY TIME will quickly pass,.
And one unbounded SPRING incircle all.
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