A labouring plan of ftate, 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; Who greatly spurn'd the flothful pomp of courts; And roaming every land, in every port, His fcepter laid afide, with glorious hand Unweary'd plying the mechanic tool, Gather'd the feeds of trade, of useful arts, Of civil wifdom, 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' aftonifh'd Euxine hears the Baltick roar; Froud 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 difhonour proud: it glows around, Taught by the ROYAL HAND that rous'd the whole, One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade: 995 For what his wifdom plann'd, and power enforc'd, More potent still, his great Examplc fhew'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 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 shoot at once; 1005 And, where they rufh, the wide-refounding plain Is left one flimy wafte. Those fullen feas, That wash th' ungenial pole, will rest no more Beneath the fhackles of the mighty north; But, roufing all their waves, refiftlefs heave- 1010 And hark! the lengthening 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 ifle,
While night o'erwhelms the fea, and horror looks More horrible. Can human force endure Th' affembled mischiefs that besiege 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, 1025 Tempeft the loosen'd brine, while thro' the gloom, Far, from the bleak inhospitable 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 fpreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. 1035 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, pafs fome few years, Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent ftrength, Thy fober Autumn fading into age, -
And pale concluding Winter comes at last, And fhuts the fcene. Ah! whither now are fled, Thofe dreams of greatness? those unfolid hopes Of happiness? thofe longings after fame? Thofe reftlefs cares? thofe bufy bustling days? Those gay-fpent, feftive nights? thofe veering thoughts Loft between good and ill, that shar'd thy life? All now are vanifh'd! VIRTUE fole furvives, Immortal never-failing friend of Man, 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 heighten'd form, from pain and death 1055% For ever free. The great eternal Scheme
Involving all, and in a perfect whole Uniting, as the profpect wider spreads, To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace.
Ye vainly wife! ye blind prefumptuous! now, 1060 Confounded in the duft, 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 ftarving 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 fuperftition's fcourge: why licens'd pain, That cruel fpoiler, that embofom'd foe, I'mbittered all our bliss. Ye good distrest! 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 ftorms of WINTRY TIME will quickly pafs, And one unbounded SPRING encircle all.
HESE, as they change, ALMIGHTY FATHER, thefe,
Are but the varied GOD. The rolling year Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleafing Spring. THY beauty walks, THY tenderness and love. Wide flush the fields; the foftening air is balm; Echo the mountains, round; the forest smiles; And every fenfe, and every heart is joy. Then comes THY glory in the Summer-months, With light and heat refulgent. Then THY fun Shoots full perfection thro' the fwelling year: And oft THY voice in dreadful thunder speaks; And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales. THY bounty fhines in Autumn unconfin'd, And fpreads a common feast for all that lives. In Winter awful THOU! with clouds and storms Around THEE thrown, tempeft o'er tempeft roll'd,
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