In awful folitude, and nought is feen
But the wild herds that own no master's stall,
Prodigious rivers roll their fatning seas :
On whose luxuriant herbage, half-conceal'd,
Like a fall'n cedar, far-diffus'd his train,
Cas'd in green fcales, the crocodile extends.
The flood difparts: behold! in plaited mail,
* Behemoth rears his head. Glanc'd from his fide, 710 The darted fteel in idle fhivers flies:
He fearless walks the plain, or feeks the hills;
Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless ftranger wondering gaze.
PEACEFUL, beneath primeval trees, that caft
Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow ftream,
And where the Ganges rolls his facred waye;
Or mid the central depth of blackening woods,
High-rais'd in folemn theatre around,
Leans the huge elephant: wifeft of brutes!
O truly wife! with gentle might endow'd,
Tho' powerful, not deftructive! Here he fees
The Hippopotamus, or river-horse.
Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth,
And empires rife and fall; regardless he
Of what the never-refting race of Men
Project thrice happy! could he 'fcape their guile,
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;
Or with his towery grandeur fwell their state,
The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert, 730
And bid him rage amid the mortal fray,
Aftonish'd at the madness of mankind.
WIDE o'er the winding umbrage of the floods,
Like vivid bloffoms glowing from afar,
Thick-fwarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand,
That with a sportive vanity has deck'd
The plumy nations, there her gayeft hues -
Profufely pours. * But, if she bids them shine,
Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day,
Yet frugal ftill, the humbles them in song.
Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent
Proud Montezuma's realm, whofe legions caft
A boundless radiance waving on the fun,
*In all the regions of the torrid zone, the birds, tho' more beautiful in their plumage, are obferved to be less melodious than ours.
While Philomel is ours; while in our fhades,
Thro' the foft filence of the liftening night,
The fober-fuited songstress trills her lay.
BUT come, my Mufe, the defart-barrier burst,
A wild expanse of lifeless fand and sky:
And, fwifter than the toiling caravan,
Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb
The Nubian mountains, and the secret bounds
Of jealous Abyffinia boldly pierce.
Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mafk
No holy Fury thou, blafpheming HEAVEN,
With confecrated fteel to ftab their peace,
Of social commerce com'ft to rob their wealth
And thro' the land, yet red from civil wounds,
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome.
Thou, like the harmless bee, may'ft freely range,
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers, 760
From jasmine grove to grove, may'st wander gay,
Thro' palmy fhades and aromatic woods,
That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills,
And up the more than Alpine mountains wave.
There on the breezy fummit, spreading fair,
For many a league; or on ftupendous rocks,
That from the fun-redoubling valley lift,
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops;
Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rise;
And gardens fmile around, and cultur'd fields;
And fountains gufh; and careless herds and flocks
Securely ftray; a world within itself,
Difdaining all affault: there let me draw
Ethereal foul, there drink reviving gales,
Profufely breathing from the spicy groves,
And vales of fragrance; there at diftance hear
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep
From difembowel'd earth the virgin gold;
And o'er the varied landfkip, reftlefs, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind :
A land of wonders! which the fun still eyes
With ray direct, as of the lovely realm
Inamour'd, and delighting there to dwell.
How chang❜d the scene! In blazing height of noon, The fun, opprefs'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom. 785 Still Horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,
Of struggling night and day malignant mix'd.
For to the hot equator crouding fast,
Where, highly rarefy'd, the yielding air
Admits their stream, inceffant vapours roll,
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd;
Or whirl'd tempeftuous by the gusty wind,
Or filent borne along, heavy, and flow,
With the big stores of steaming oceans charg❜d.
Meantime, amid these upper feas, condens'd
Around the cold aërial mountain's brow,
And by conflicting winds together dash'd,
The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne:
From cloud to cloud the rending Lightnings rage;
Till, in the furious elemental war
Diffolv'd, the whole precipitated mafs
Unbroken floods and folid torrents pours.
THE treasures thefe, hid from the bounded fearch
Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual pomp,
Rich king of floods! o'erflows the fwelling Nile. 805
From his two fprings, in Gojam's funny realm,
Pure-welling out, he thro' the lucid lake
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant-ftream.
There, by the Naiads nurs'd, he sports away
His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles,
That with unfading verdure smile around.
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks;
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