And bid to roar no more: a bleak expanfe,
Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, cheerless, and void
Of ev'ry life, that from the dreary months
Flies confcious fouthward. Miferable they!
Who, here entangled in the gath'ring ice,
Take their last look of the defcending fun;,
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold frost,
The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads,
Falls horrible. Such was the BRITON's fate,
As with firft prow, (what have not BRITONS dar'd!)
He for the paffage fought, attempted fince
So much in vain, and feeming to be fhut
By jealous Nature with eternal bars.
In these fell regions, in Arzina caught,
And to the ftony deep his idle fhip
Immediate feal'd, he with his hapless crew,,
Each full exerted at his feveral task,
Froze into ftatues; to the cordage glue'd
The failor, and the pilot to the helm.
HARD by these fhores, where foarce his freezing stream Rolls the wild Oby, live the laft of Men ;
And half enliven'd by the distant fun,
That rears and ripens Man, as well as plants,
Here human Nature wears its rudeft form.
Deep from the piercing feafon funk in caves,.
Sir HUGH WILLOUGHBY, fent by Queen ELISABETH to. difcover the North-Eaft Paffage.
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer,
They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs,.
Doze the grofs race. Nor fprightly jeft, nor fong,
Nor tenderness they know; nor aught of life,
Beyond the kindred bears that stalk without..
Till morn at length, her roses drooping all,
Sheds a long twilight bright'ning o'er their fields,
And calls the quiver'd favage to the chace..
WHAT cannot active government perform,
New-moulding Man? Wide-stretching from these shores, A people favage from remotest time,
A huge neglected empire ONE VAST MIND,
By HEAV'N infpir'd, from Gothic darkness call'd.-
Immortal PETER! first of monarchs! He
His ftubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her feas, her ill-fubmitting fons;
And while the fierce Barbarian he fubdu'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 lab'ring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! behold the matchless prince!
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty fhadow of unreal pow'r;
Who greatly spurn'd the flothful pomp of courts
And roaming ev'ry land, in ev'ry port
His fceptre laid afide, with glorious hand
Unweary'd plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the feeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.
Charg'd with the stores of Europe home he goes!
Then cities rife amid th' illumin'd waste;
O'er joyless deferts smiles the rural reign ;
Far-diftant flood to flood is focial join'd;
The aftonifh'd Euxine hears the Baltick roar;
Proud navies ride on feas that never foam'd
With daring keel before; and armies stretch
Each way their dazzling files, repreffing here
The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there stern Othman's shrinking 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 rising trade :
For what his wifdom plann'd, and pow'r enforc’d,
More potent ftill, his great example shew'd.
MUTT'RING, the winds at eve, with blunted point,
Blow hollow-bluft'ring from the fouth. Subdu'd,
The froft refolves into a trickling thaw.
Spotted the mountains fhine; loofe fleet defcends,
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 rufh, the wide-refounding plain
Is left one flinry wafte. 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 length'ning roar continuous runs
Athwart the rifted deep: at once it burfts,
And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds.
Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd,
That, toft amid the floating fragments, moors
Beneath the shelter of an icy isle,
While night o'erwhelms the sea, and horror looks
More horrible.. Can human force endure
Th' affembled mischiefs that befiege them round?
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting, wearinefs,
'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 sport,
Tempeft the loosen'd brine, while thro' the gloom,
Far, from the bleak inhofpitable fhore,
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl.
Of famish'd monsters, 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.
'Tis done! dread WINTER fpreads his latest glooms; And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. 1025
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies?
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His defolate domain. Behold, fond Man!
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years,
Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent ftrength,
The fober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
And fhuts the fcene. Ah whither now are fled,
Thofe dreams of greatnefs? those unfolid hopes
Of happiness? thofe longings after fame?
Those reftlefs cares? thofe bufy bustling days?
Thofe gay-fpent, feftive nights? thofe 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 heav'n, and earth! awak'ning Nature hears
The new-creating word, and ftarts to life,
In ev'ry heighten'd form, from pain and death 1045
For ever free. The great eternal fcheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the profpect wider fpreads,
To reafon's eye refin'd clears up apace.
Ye vainly wife! ye blind prefumptuous! now, 1050
Confounded in the duft, adore that Pow's,
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
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