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A hoary mist, and forms a ceafeless shower.
Nor can the tortur'd wave here find repose:
But, raging still amid the fhaggy rocks,
Now flashes o'er the scatter'd fragments, now
Aflant the hollow channel rapid darts;
And falling fast from gradual flope to flope,
With wild infracted course, and leffened roar,
It gains a fafer bed, and fteals, at last,
Along the mazes of the quiet vale.

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INVITED from the cliff, to whofe dark brow
He clings, the steep-ascending eagle foars,
With upward pinions thro' the flood of day;
And, giving full his bofom to the blaze,
Gains on the fun; while all the tuneful race,
Smit by afflictive noon, diforder'd droop,
Deep in the thicket; or, from bower to bower
Refponfive, force an interrupted ftrain.
The ftock-dove only thro' the foreft coces,
Mournfully hoarfe; oft ceafing from his plaint,
Short interval of weary woe! again
The fad idea of his murder'd mate,

Struck from his fide by favage fowler's guile,
Across his fancy comes; and then refounds
A louder fong of forrow thro' the grove,

BESIDE the dewy border let me fit,

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All in the freshness of the humid air;

There in that hollowed rock, grotesque and wild,

An ample chair moss-lin'd, and over head

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By

By flowering umbrage fhaded; where the bee
Strays diligent, and with th' extracted balm
Of fragrant wood-bine loads his little thigh.

Now, while I taste the sweetness of the shade,
While Nature lies around deep-lull'd in Noon, 630
Now come, bold Fancy, fpread a daring flight,
And view the wonders of the torrid Zone:
Climes unrelenting! with whofe rage compar'd,
Yon blaze is feeble, and yon skies are cool.

SEE, how at once the bright-effulgent fun, 635 Rifing direct, fwift chases from the sky

The short-liv'd twilight; and with ardent blaze
Looks gaily fierce thro' all the dazzling air:

He mounts his throne; but kind before him sends,
Iffuing from out the portals of the morn,

*

The general Breeze, to mitigate his fire,

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And breathe refreshment on a fainting world. Great are the scenes, with dreadful beauty crown'd And barbarous wealth, that fee, each circling year, Returning funs and † double feafons pass:

645 Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,. That on the high equator ridgy rife,

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*Which blows conftantly between the tropics from the east, or the collateral points, the north-east and fouth-east: caused by the preffure of the rarefied air on that before it, according to the diurnal motion of the fun from eaft to west.

In all climates between the tropics, the fun, as he paffes and repaffes in his annual motion, is twice a-year vertical, which produces this effect.

Whence

Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays :
Majestic woods, of every vigorous green,

Stage above stage, high waving o'er the hills; 650 Or to the far horizon wide diffus'd,

A boundless deep immensity of shade.

Here lofty trees, to ancient fong unknown,

The noble fons of potent heat and floods

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Prone-rushing from the clouds, rear high to Heaven Their thorny stems, and broad around them throw Meridian gloom. Here, in eternal prime, Unnumber'd fruits of keen delicious tafte

And vital fpirit, drink amid the cliffs,

And burning fands that bank the shrubby vales, 660 Redoubled day, yet in their rugged coats.

A friendly juice to cool its rage contain.

BEAR me, Pomona! to thy citron groves;

To where the lemon and the piercing lime,
With the deep orange, glowing thro' the green, 665
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclin'd
Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes,
Fann'd by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit.
Deep in the night the maffy locuft sheds,
Quench my hot limbs; or lead me thro' the maze, 670
Embowering endless, of the Indian fig;

Or thrown at gayer ease, on some fair brow,
Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cool'd,
Broad o'er my head the verdant cedar wave,
And high palmetos lift their graceful fhade.

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Oftretch'd

O ftretch'd amid these orchards of the fun,
Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl,
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine!
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice
Which Bacchus pours. Ner, on its flender twigs 680
Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorn'd;
Nor, creeping thro' the woods, the gelid race
Of berries. Oft in humble ftation dwells
Unboaftful worth, above fastidious pomp.
Witness, thou best Anâna, thou the pride
Of vegetable life, beyond whate'er

The poets imag'd in the golden age:
Quick let me ftrip thee of thy tufty coat,

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Spread thy ambrofial ftores, and feast with Jove!

FROM these the profpect varies. Plains immense Lie ftretch'd below, interminable meads,

And vaft favannahs, where the wandering eye,
Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost.

Another Flora there, of bolder hues,

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And richer sweets, beyond our garden's pride, 695
Plays o'er the fields, and showers with fudden hand
Exuberant spring: for oft these valleys shift
Their green-embroider'd robe to fiery brown,
And swift to green again, as fcorching funs,
Or ftreaming dews and torrent rains, prevail. 700

ALONG these lonely regions, where retir'd, From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells

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In awful folitude, and nought is feen
But the wild herds that own no master's ftall,
Prodigious rivers roll their fatning feas:
On whofe luxuriant herbage, half-conceal'd,
Like a fallen cedar, far diffus'd his train,
Cas'd in green fcales, the crocodile extends.
The flood difparts: behold! in plaited mail,
* Behemoth rears his head. Glanc'd from his side, 710
The darted steel in idle fhivers flies:

He fearless walks the plain, or seeks the hills;
Where, as he crops his varied fare, the herds,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmless stranger wondering gaze.

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PEACEFUL, beneath primeval trees, that caft Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow stream, And where the Ganges rolls his facred wave; Or mid the central depth of blackening woods, High-rais'd in folemn theatre around, Leans the huge elephant: wifest of brutes! O truly wife! with gentle might endow'd, Tho' powerful, not destructive! Here he sees Revolving ages fweep the changeful earth, And empires rife and fall; regardless he Of what the never-resting race of Men Project thrice happy! could he 'fcape their guile, Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;

Or with his towery grandeur fwell their state,

* The Hippopotamus, or river-horse.
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VOL. I.

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The

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