Important battle: next, the tenfold chain
Of Arleux burft, and th' adamantine gates
Of Gaul flung open to the tyrant's throne.
A thade obfcures the reft-Ah, then, what
Invidious from the lifted fickle fnatch'd
The harvest of the plain? So lively glows
The fair delufion, that our paffions rise
In the beholding, and the glories fhare
Of vifionary battle. This bright art
Did zealous Europe learn of pagan hands,
While fhe affay'd, with rage of holy war,
To defolate their fields: but old the fkill:
Long were the Phrygians' picturing looms renown'd;
Tyre alfo, wealthy feat of arts, excell'd,
And elder Sidon, in th' historic web.
Far-diftant Tibet in her gloomy woods
Rears the gay tent, of blended wool unwoven,
And glutinous materials: the Chinese
Their porcelain, Japan its varnifh boasts.
Some fair peculiar graces every realm,
And each from each a share of wealth acquires.
But chief by numbers of industrious hands
A nation's wealth is counted: numbers raise
Warm emulation: where that virtue dwells,
There will be Traffick's feat; there will fhe build
Her rich emporium. Hence, ye happy fwains,
With hospitality inflame your breast,
And emulation: the whole world receive,
And with their arts, their virtues, deck your ifle.
Each clime, each fea, the fpacious orb of each,
Shall join their various ftores, and amply feed
The mighty brotherhood; while ye proceed,
Active and enterprizing, or to teach
The ftream a naval course, or till the wild,
Or drain the fen, or ftretch the long canal,
Or plough the fertile billows of the deep.
Why to the narrow circle of our coaft
Should we submit our limits, while each wind
Affifts the stream and fail, and the wide main
Wooes us in every port? See Belgium build,
Upon the foodful brine, her envy'd power;
And, half her people floating on the wave,
Expand her fishy regions. Thus our isle,
Thus only may Britannia be enlarg'd.-
But whither, by the visions of the theme
Smit with fublime delight, but whither strays
The raptur'd Mufe, forgetful of her task?
No common pleasure warms the generous mind,
When it beholds the labors of the loom;
How widely round the globe they are difpers'd,
From little tenements by wood or croft,
Through many a flender path, how fedulous,
As rills to rivers broad, they speed their way
To public roads, to Foffe, or Watling-street,
Or Armine, ancient works: and thence explore,
Through every navigable wave, the fea,
That laps the green earth round: through Tyne, and
Tees,
Through Weare, and Lune, and merchandizing Hull,
And Swale, and Aire, whose crystal waves reflect
The various colours of the tinctur'd web;
Through Ken, fwift rolling down his rocky dale,
Like giddy youth impetuous, then at Wick
Curbing his train, and, with the fober pace
Of cautious Eld, meandering to the deep;
Through Dart, and fullen Exe, whose murmuring
Envies the Dune and Rother, who have won
The ferge and kerfie to their blanching ftreams;
Through Towy, winding under Merlin's towers,
And Ufk, that frequent, among hoary rocks,
On her deep waters paints th' impending scene,
Wild torrents, craggs, and woods, and mountain fnows.
The northern Cambrians, an industrious tribe,
Carry their labors on pigmean fteeds,
Of fize exceeding not Leiceftrian sheep,
Yet ftrong and sprightly: over hill and dale
They travel unfatigued, and lay their bales
In Salop's streets, beneath whofe lofty walls
Pearly Sabrina waits them with her barks,
And spreads the fwelling fheet. For no-where far
From fome transparent river's naval course
Arife, and fall, our various hills and vales,
No-where far diftant from the masted wharf,
We need not vex the strong laborious hand
With toil enormous, as th' Egyptian king,
Who join'd the fable waters of the Nile,
From Memphis' towers, to th' Erythræan gulph:
VOL. LVII.
Or as the monarch of enfeebled Gaul,
Whose will imperious forc'd an hundred ftreams,
Through many a forest, many a spacious wild,
To ftretch their fcanty trains from fea to fea,
That fome unprofitable fkiff might float
Across irriguous dales, and hollow'd rocks.
Far eafier pains may fwell our gentler floods,
And through the centre of the ifle conduct
To naval union. Trent and Severn's wave,
By plains alone difparted, woo to join
Majestic Thamis. With their filver urns
The nimble-footed Naiads of the springs
Await, upon the dewy lawn, to speed
And celebrate the union; and the light
Wood-nymphs; and thofe, who o'er the grots prefide,
Whofe ftores bituminous, with sparkling fires,
In fummer's tedious abfence, chear the swains,
Long fitting at the loom; and thofe befides,
Who crown, with yellow fheaves, the farmer's hopes,
And all the genii of commercial toil:
Thefe on the dewy lawns await, to speed
And celebrate the union, that the fleece,
And gloffy web, to every port around
May lightly glide along. Ev'n now behold,
Adown a thousand floods, the burden'd barks,
With white fails glistening, through the gloomy woods
Hafte to their harbours. See the filver maze
Of stately Thamis, ever chequer'd o'er
With deeply-laden barges, gliding smooth
And conftant as his ftream: in growing pomp,
By Neptune ftill attended, flow he rolls
To great Augufta's mart, where lofty Trade,
Amid a thousand golden fpires enthron'd,
Gives audience to the world: the ftrand around
Clofe fwarms with busy crowds of many a realm.
What bales, what wealth, what industry, what fleets!
Lo, from the fimple fleece how much proceeds.
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