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Shapelefs and white, an atmosphere of clouds.
Projected huge, and horrid, o'er the furge,
Alps frown on Alps; or rufhing hideous down,
As if old Chaos was again return'd,
Wide-rend the deep, and shake the folid pole.
Ocean itself no longer can refift

The binding fury; but, in all its rage
Of tempeft taken by the boundless froft,
Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd,
And bid to roar no more: a bleak expanse,
Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, cheerless, and void
Of every life, that from the dreary months
Flies confcious fouthward. Miferable they!
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice,
Take their laft look of the defcending fun;
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold froft,
The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads,
Falls horrible. Such was the BRITON'S * fate,
As with first prow, (what have not BRITONS dar'd!)
He for the paffage fought, attempted fince

So much in vain, and feeming to be shut

By jealous Nature with eternal bars.

*Sir HUGH WILLOUGHBY, fent by QUEEN ELIZABETH to discover the North-Eaft Paffage.

U

In thefe fell regions, in Arzina caught,
And to the ftony deep his idle ship
Immediate feal'd, he with his hapless crew,

Each full exerted at his several task,
Froze into ftatues; to the cordage glued

The failor, and the pilot to the helm.

Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezing ftream

Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of Men;
And half enlivened by the distant fun,

That rears and ripens Man, as well as plants,
Here human Nature wears its rudeft form.
Deep from the piercing season funk in caves,
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer,
They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs,
Doze the gross 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 rofes drooping all,
Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er their fields,
And calls the quivered savage to the chace.
What cannot active government perform,
New-moulding Man? Wide-ftretching from thefe fhores,
A people favage from remotest time,

A huge neglected empire ONE VAST Mind,
By HEAVEN infpir'd, from Gothic darknefs call'd.

Immortal PETER! firft of monarchs! He
His stubborn 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 shades 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 matchless prince!

Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty fhadow of unreal power;

Who greatly spurn'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, repreffing 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 dishonour 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 shew'd.

Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow-bluftering from the fouth. Subdu'd, The froft refolves into a trickling thaw.

Spotted the mountains shine; loose 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 flimy wafte. Those fullen feas,
That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will rest no more
Beneath the fhackles of the mighty north;
But, roufing all their waves, refistless 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, toft amid the floating fragments, moors
Beneath the shelter of an icy ifle,

While night o'erwhelms the fea, and horror looks
More horrible. Can human force endure

Th' affembled mischiefs 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 unwieldy train, in dreadful sport,
Tempest the loosened brine, while thro' the gloom,
Far from the bleak inhofpitable shore,

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 safe,
Thro' all this dreary labyrinth of fate.

'Tis done! dread WINTER spreads his latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.

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,

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