A huge neglected empire ONE VAST MIND,
By HEAVEN infpir'd, from Gothic darkness call'd.
Immortal PETER! first of monarchs! He
955
His ftubborn 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 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;
1965 Who greatly fpurn'd the slothful 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 Baltick 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: 985
For what his wifdom plann'd, and power enforc'd,
More potent ftill, his great example 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 shine; loose fleet 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 fnow-fed torrents fhoot at once; And, where they rufh, the wide-refounding plain Is left one flimy wafte. Thofe fullen feas, That wash'd th' ungenial pole, will reft no more Beneath the shackles of the mighty north; But, roufing all their waves, refiftlefs heave. rood 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 1005
Beneath the shelter of an icy isle,
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 inhospitable shore,
Loading the winds, is heard the hungry how!
Of famish'd monfters, 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 fafe,
'Thro' all this dreary labyrinth of fate.
'Tis done! dread WINTER fpreads his lateft glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. 1025 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, Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent ftrength, The fober Autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding Winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled,,
Thofe dreams of greatness? thofe unfolid hopes
Of happiness? thofe longings after fame?
Those restless cares? thofe bufy bustling days?
Those gay-fpent,feftive nights? thofe veeringthoughts
Loft between good and ill, that shar'd thy life?
All now are vanish'd! VIRTUE fole-furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of Man,
His guide to happiness on high. And fee!
'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 heightened form, from pain and death 1045.
For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the profpect wider fpreads,
To reason's eye refin'd clears up apace.
Ye vainly wife! ye blind presumptuous! now, 1050
Confounded in the duft, adore that POWER,
And WISDOM oft arraign'd: fee now the cause,
Why unaffuming worth in secret liv'd,.
And dy'd, neglected: why the good Man's share
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 spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
Imbittered all our blifs. Ye good distrest!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's preffure, yet bear up a while, 1065
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.
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