Through long successive 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 shadow of unreal power;
Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp of Courts;
And roaming every land, in every port
His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the seeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.
Charged with the stores of Europe home he goes!
Then Cities rise amid the illumined waste;
O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign ;
Far distant flood to flood is social join'd;
The astonish'd Euxine hears the Baltic roar;
Proud Navies ride on Seas that never foam'd
With daring keel before; and Armies stretch
Each way their dazzling files, repressing here
The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there stern Othman's shrinking sons.
Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice,
Of old dishonour proud: it glows around,
Taught by the Royal hand that roused the whole,
One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade:
For what his Wisdom plann'd, and Power enforced,
More potent still, his great Example show'd.
Muttering, the Winds at eve, with blunted point, Blow hollow blustering from the south. Subdued, The Frost resolves into a trickling thaw. 990
Spotted the Mountains shine; loose Sleet descends,
And floods the country round. The Rivers swell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the Hills,
O'er rocks and woods, in broad brown cataracts,
A thousand snow-fed torrents shoot at once;
And, where they rush, the wide resounding plain
Is left one slimy waste. Those sullen Seas,
That wash'd the ungenial pole, will rest no more
Beneath the shackles of the mighty north;
But, rousing all their waves, resistless heave. 1000
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 charged,
That, toss'd 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
The assembled mischiefs that besiege them round?
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness,
The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice,
Now ceasing, 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 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 lost to Hope, and lights them safe,
Through 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 desolate domain. Behold, fond Man!
See here thy pictured Life; pass some few years,
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent
strength,
Thy sober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
Ah! whither now are fled
Those Dreams of greatness? those unsolid Hopes
Of happiness? those longings after Fame?
Those restless Cares? those busy bustling Days? Those gay-spent, festive Nights? those veering
Lost between good and ill, that shared thy Life?
All now are vanish'd! Virtue sole survives,
Immortal never failing friend of man,
His guide to Happiness on high. And see!
"Tis come, the glorious Morn! the second 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
For ever free. The great Eternal Scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads,
To reason's eye refined clears up apace.
Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that Power
And Wisdom oft arraign'd: see now the cause,
Why unassuming Worth in secret lived,
And died, neglected: why the good man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pined
In starving solitude; while Luxury,
In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
To form unreal wants: why heaven-born Truth,
And Moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of Superstition's scourge: why licensed Pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
Embitter'd all our bliss. Ye Good distress'd!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile,
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deem'd evil, is no more :
The storms of Wintry Time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded Spring encircle all.
THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, these
Are but the varied God. The rolling Year
Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring
Thy Beauty walks, thy Tenderness and Love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles-;
And every sense, and every heart is joy.
Then comes thy Glory in the Summer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then thy Sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling 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 shines in Autumn unconfined,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives. 15
In Winter awful Thou! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest roll'd.
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, Thou bidst the World adore,
And humblest Nature with thy northern blast. 20
Mysterious round! what skill, what force Divine,
Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train,
|