960

His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her seas, her ill-fubmitting fons;
And while the fierce Barbarian he subdu'd,
To more exalted foul he rais'd the Man.
Ye shades of ancient heroes, ye who toild
Thro' long successive ages to build up
A labouring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! bebold the matchless prince!
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty shadow of unreal power ;

965
Who greatly fpurn’d the flothful pomp of courts;
And roaming every land, in every port!
His fceptre laid aside, with glorious hand
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the seeds of trade, of useful arts, 970
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;
O’er joyless defarts fmiles the rural reign;
Far-distant food to flood is social join'd; 975
Th' astonishid Euxine hears the Baltic roar;
Proud navies ride on seas that never foam’d
With daring keel before; and armies stretch
Each way their dazzling files, represling bere
The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there ftern Othman's shrinking fons.
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 trade: 985
For what his wisdom plann'd, and power enforcid,
More potent still, his great example shew'd.

Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point,
Blow, hollow-blustering from the fouth. Subdu'd,

The

980

The frost resolves into a trickling thaw. Spotted the mountains shine; loose fleet descends, And floods the country round.' The rivers swell, Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills, O’er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts, A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once ; 995 And, where they rush, the wide-resounding plain Is left one slimy waste. ( Thofe fullen seas, That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will rest no more Beneath the shackles of the mighty north; But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. 1000 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, toss’d amid the floating fraginents, moors 1005 Beneath the shelter of an icy ille, While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure Th? assembled mischiefs that besiege them round? Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting wcáriness,

1:1010 The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice, Now ceafing, now renewid with louder rage, And in dire echoes-bellowing round the main. More to embroil the deep, Leviathan And his unweildy train, in dreadful fport, 1015 Tempelt the loosen'd brine, while thro' thè gloom, Far, from the bleak inhospitable shore, a! 3. jorn} } Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howlit. Of familh'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks. Yet PROVIDENCE, that ever-waking Eye, 1020 Looks down with pity on the feeble toil

1 Of mortals lost to hope, and lights them safe, ? Thro' all this dreary labyrinth of fate..

'Tis

R 3

'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 desolate domain. Behold, fond Man!. See bere thy pictur'd life; pass some few years, Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength, Thy sober Autumn fading into age,

1931 And pale concluding Winter comes at last; . And shuts the scene. Ab! whither now are fled : Those dreams of greatness! those unfolid hopes Of happiness? thofe longings after fame?

1033 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 vanilh'd ! VIRTUE sole survives, Immortal never-failing friend of Man,

1040 His guide to happiness on high. And see! '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 prospect wider spreads, To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace. Ye vainly wife! ye blind presumptuous !"now, IQSQ Confounded in the dust, adore that Power, And WISDOM oft arraign'd: see now the cause, Why unassuming worth in secret liva, And dy'd, neglected: why the good man's share In life was gall and bitterness of soul:

1055 Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd In starving folitude; while Luxury,

In palaces, lay Atraining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born Truth,
And Moderation fair, wore the red marks. 106
Of Superstition's scourge: why licens'd Pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom’d föe,
Imbittered all our bliss. Ye good distress’d!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while, 1065
And what your bounded view, which only faw.
A little part, deem'd Evil, is no more::
The storms of WINTRY Time will quickly pals,
And one unboupded SPRING incircle all.