One universal blot: such the fair power Of light, to kindle and create the whole. Drear is the state of the benighted wretch, Who then, bewilder'd, wanders through the dark, Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge; Nor visited by one directive ray, From cottage streaming, or from airy hall. Perhaps, impatient as he stumbles on, Struck from the root of slimy rushes, blue, The wild-fire scatters round, or gather'd trails A length of flame deceitful o'er the moss: Whither decoy'd by the fantastic blaze, Now lost, and now renew'd, he sinks absorpt, Rider and horse, amid the miry gulf: While still, from day to day, his pining wife And plaintive children his return await, In wild conjecture lost. At other times, Sent by the better genius of the night, Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane, The meteor sits; and shows the narrow path, That winding leads through pits of death, or else Instructs him how to take the dangerous ford.
The lengthen'd night elaps'd, the Morning shines Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright, Unfolding fair the last autumnal day. And now the mounting Sun dispels the fog; The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam; And hung on every spray, on every blade Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round.
Ah, see, where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd, Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, And fix'd o'er sulphur: while, not dreaming ill, The happy people, in their waxen cells, Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoic'd To mark, full-flowing round, their copious stores. Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends; And, us'd to milder scents, the tender race, By thousands, tumble from their honied domes, Convolv'd, and agonizing in the dust. And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring, Intent from flower to flower? for this you toil'd Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away? For this in Autumn search'd the blooming waste, Nor lost one sunny gleam? for this sad fate? O, man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long, Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage, Awaiting renovation? When oblig'd, Must you destroy? Of their ambrosial food Can you not borrow; and, in just return, Afford them shelter from the wintry winds? Or, as the sharp year pinches, with their own Again regale them on some smiling day? See where the stony bottom of their town Looks desolate, and wild; with here and there A helpless number, who the ruin'd state Survive, lamenting weak, cast out to death. Thus a proud city, populous and rich, Full of the works of peace, and high in joy, At theatre or feast, or sunk in sleep, (As late, Palermo, was thy fate!) is seiz'd By some dread earthquake, and convulsive hurl'd Sheer from the black foundation, stench-involv'd, Into a gulf of blue sulphureous flame.
Hence every harsher sight! for now the day, O'er Heaven and Earth diffus'd, grows warm, and high,
Infinite splendor! wide investing all.
Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain. How clear the cloudless sky! how deeply ting'd With a peculiar blue! th' ethereal arch
How swell'd immense! amid whose azure thron'd The radiant Sun how gay! how calm below The gilded Earth! the harvest-treasures all Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms, Sure to the swain; the circling fence shut up; And instant Winter's utmost rage defied. While, loose to festive joy, the country round Laughs with the loud sincerity of mirth,
Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-strung youth, By the quick sense of music taught alone, Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance. Her every charm abroad, the village toast, Young, buxom, warm, in native beauty rich, Darts not unmeaning looks; and, where her eye Points an approving smile, with double force The cudgel rattles, and the wrestler twines. Age, too, shines out; and, garrulous, recounts The feats of youth. Thus they rejoice; nor think That, with to-morrow's Sun, their annual toil Begins again the never-ceasing round.
Oh, knew he but his happiness, of men The happiest he! who, far from public rage, Deep in the vale, with a choice few retir'd, Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life. What though the dome be wanting, whose proud gate. Each morning, vomits out the sneaking crowd
Of flatterers false, and in their turn abus'd?
Vile intercourse! What though the glittering robe, Of every hue reflected light can give,
Or floating loose, or stiff with massy gold, The pride and gaze of fools! oppress him not? What though, from utmost land and sea purvey'd, For him each rarer tributary life
Bleeds not, and his insatiate table heaps
With luxury and death? What though his bowl Flames not with costly juice: nor sunk in beds, Oft of gay care, he tosses out the night, Or melts the thoughtless hours in idle state? What though he knows not those fantastic joys, That still amuse the wanton, still deceive; A face of pleasure, but a heart of pain; Their hollow moments undelighted all? Sure peace is his; a solid life, estrang'd To disappointment, and fallacious hope: Rich in content, in Nature's bounty rich,
In herbs and fruits; whatever greens the Spring. When Heaven descends in showers; or bends the
When Summer reddens, and when Autumn beams; Or in the wintry glebe whatever lies
Conceal'd, and fattens with the richest sap: These are not wanting; nor the milky drove, Luxuriant, spread o'er all the lowing vale; Nor bleating mountains; nor the chide of streams And hum of bees, inviting sleep sincere Into the guiltless breast, beneath the shade, Or thrown at large amid the fragrant hay; Nor aught besides of prospect, grove, or song, Dim grottoes, gleaming lakes, and fountains clear. Here, too, dwells simple truth; plain innocence; Unsullied beauty; sound unbroken youth, Patient of labor, with a little pleas'd; Health ever blooming; unambitious toil; Calm contemplation, and poetic ease.
Let others brave the flood in quest of gain, And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wave:
How still the breeze! save what the filmy threads Let such as deem it glory to destroy,
Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek; Unpierc'd, exulting in the widow's wail, The virgin's shriek, and infant's trembling cry. Let some, far distant from their native soil, Urg'd or by want or harden'd avarice, Find other lands beneath another Sun. Let this through cities work his eager way, By regal outrage and establish'd guile, The social sense extinct; and that ferment Mad into tumult the seditious herd,
Or melt them down to slavery. Let these Insnare the wretched in the toils of law, Fomenting discord, and perplexing right, An iron race! and those of fairer front, But equal inhumanity, in courts, Delusive pomp, and dark cabals delight; Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile, And tread the weary labyrinth of state. While he, from all the stormy passions free That restless men involve, hears, and but hears, At distance safe, the human tempest roar, Wrapt close in conscious peace. The fall of kings, The rage of nations, and the crush of states, Move not the man, who, from the world escap'd, In still retreats, and flowery solitudes,
To Nature's voice attends, from month to month, And day to day, through the revolving year; Admiring sees her in her every shape; Feels all her sweet emotions at his heart; Takes what she liberal gives, nor thinks of more. He, when young Spring protrudes the bursting
Marks the first bud, and sucks the healthful gale Into his freshen'd soul; her genial hours He full enjoys; and not a beauty blows, And not an opening blossom breathes in vain. In Summer he, beneath the living shade, Such as o'er frigid Tempé wont to wave, Or Hemus cool, reads what the Muse, of these, Perhaps, has in immortal numbers sung; Or what she dictates writes: and oft, an eye Shot round, rejoices in the vigorous year. When Autumn's yellow lustre gilds the world, And tempts the sickled swain into the field, Seiz'd by the general joy, his heart distends With gentle throes; and through the tepid gleams Deep musing, then he best exerts his song. E'en Winter, mild to him, is full of bliss. The mighty tempest, and the hoary waste, Abrupt, and deep, stretch'd o'er the buried earth, Awake to solemn thought. At night the skies, Disclos'd, and kindled, by refining frost,
Pour every lustre on th' exalted eye.
A friend, a book, the stealing hours secure,
Led by primeval ages, uncorrupt,
When angels dwelt, and God himself, with man! Oh, Nature! all-sufficient! over all! Enrich me with the knowledge of thy works! Snatch me to Heaven; thy rolling wonder there, World beyond world, in infinite extent, Profusely scatter'd o'er the blue immense, Show me; their motions, periods, and their laws, Give me to scan; through the disclosing deep Light my blind way; the mineral strata there; Thrust, blooming, thence the vegetable world; O'er that the rising system, more complex, Of animals; and higher still, the mind, The varied scene of quick-compounded thought, And where the mixing passions endless shift; These ever open to my ravish'd eye;
A search, the flight of time can ne'er exhaust! But if to that unequal; if the blood, In sluggish streams about my heart, forbid That best ambition; under closing shades, Inglorious, lay me by the lowly brook, And whisper to my dreams. From thee begin, Dwell all on thee, with thee conclude my song; And let me never, never stray from thee!
The subject proposed. Address to the Earl of Wilmington. First approach of Winter. According to the natural course of the Season, various storms described. Rain. Wind. Snow. The driving of the snows: a man perishing among them; whence reflections on the wants and miseries of human life. The wolves descending from the Alps and Apennines. A winter evening described: as spent by philosophers; by the country people; in the city. Frost. A view of Winter within the polar circle. A thaw. The whole concluding with moral reflections on a future state.
SEE, Winter comes, to rule the varied year, Sullen and sad, with all his rising train, Vapors, and clouds, and storms. Be these my theme! These! that exalt the soul to solemn thought, And heavenly musing. Welcome, kindred glooms! Congenial horrors, hail! with frequent foot, Pleas'd have I, in my cheerful morn of life When nurs'd by careless solitude I liv'd, And sung of Nature with unceasing joy, Pleas'd have I wander'd through your rough domain;
And mark them down for wisdom. With swift wing, Trod the pure virgin-snows, myself as pure;
O'er land and sea imagination roams; Or truth, divinely breaking on his mind, Elates his being, and unfolds his powers; Or in his breast heroic virtue burns. The touch of kindred too and love he feels; The modest eye, whose beams on his alone Ecstatic shine; the little strong embrace Of prattling children, twin'd around his neck, And emulous to please him, calling forth The fond paternal soul. Nor purpose gay, Amusement, dance, or song, he sternly scorns; For happiness and true philosophy Are of the social still, and smiling kind. This is the life which those who fret in guilt, And guilty cities, never knew; the life,
Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burst; Or seen the deep fermenting tempest brew'd In the grim evening sky. Thus pass'd the time, Till through the lucid chambers of the south Look'd out the joyous Spring, look'd out, and smil'd. To thee, the patron of her first essay, The Muse, O Wilmington! renews her song. Since has she rounded the revolving year: Skimm'd the gay Spring; on eagle-pinions borne, Attempted through the Summer-blaze to rise; Then swept o'er Autumn with the shadowy gale, And now among the Wintry clouds again, Roll'd in the doubling storm, she tries to soar; To swell her note with all the rushing winds, To suit her sounding cadence to the floods;
As is her theme, her numbers wildly great: Thrice-happy! could she fill thy judging ear With bold description, and with manly thought. Nor art thou skill'd in awful schemes alone, And how to make a mighty people thrive: But equal goodness, sound integrity, A firm, unshaken, uncorrupted soul Amid a sliding age, and burning strong, Not vainly blazing for thy country's weal, A steady spirit regularly free;
These, each exalting each, the statesman light Into the patriot; these, the public hope And eye to thee converting, bid the Muse Record what envy dares not flattery call.
Now when the cheerless empire of the sky To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields, And fierce Aquarius stains th' inverted year; Hung o'er the farthest verge of Heaven, the Sun Scarce spreads through ether the dejected day. Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot His struggling rays, in horizontal lines,
Through the thick air; as, cloth'd in cloudy storm, Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky; And, soon descending, to the long dark night, Wide-shading all, the prostrate world resigns. Nor is the night unwish'd; while vital heat, Light, life, and joy, the dubious day forsake. Meantime, in sable cincture, shadows vast, Deep-ting'd and damp, and congregated clouds, And all the vapory turbulence of Heaven, Involve the face of things. Thus Winter falls A heavy gloom oppressive o'er the world, Through Nature shedding influence malign, And rouses up the seeds of dark disease. The soul of man dies in him, lothing life, And black with more than melancholy views. The cattle droop; and o'er the furrow'd land, Fresh from the plow, the dun discolor'd flocks, Untended spreading, crop the wholesome root. Along the woods, along the moorish fens, Sighs the sad Genius of the coming storm; And up among the loose disjointed cliffs, And fractur'd mountains wild, the brawling brook And cave, presageful, send a hollow moan, Resounding long in listening Fancy's ear.
Then comes the father of the tempest forth, Wrapt in black glooms. First joyless rains obscure Drive through the mingling skies with vapor foul; Dash on the mountain's brow, and shake the woods, That grumbling wave below. Th' unsightly plain Lies a brown deluge, as the low-bent clouds Pour flood on flood, yet unexhausted still Combine, and deepening into night, shut up The day's fair face. The wanderers of Heaven, Each to his home, retire; save those that love To take their pastime in the troubled air, Or skimming flutter round the dimply pool. The cattle from th' untasted fields return, And ask, with meaning low, their wonted stalls, Or ruminate in the contiguous shade. Thither the household feathery people crowd, The crested cock, with all his female train, Pensive, and dripping; while the cottage hind Hangs o'er th' enlivening blaze, and taleful there Recounts his simple frolic: much he talks, And much he laughs, nor recks the storm that blows Without, and rattles on his humble roof.
Wide o'er the brim, with many a torrent swell'd, And the mix'd ruin of its banks o'erspread, At last the rous'd-up river pours along :
Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes, From the rude mountain, and the mossy wild, Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far; Then o'er the sanded valley floating spreads, Calm, sluggish, silent; till again, constrain'd Between two meeting hills, it bursts away, Where rocks and woods o'erhang the turbid stream There, gathering triple force, rapid and deep, It boils, and wheels, and foams, and thunders through.
Nature! great parent! whose unceasing hand Rolls round the seasons of the changeful year, How mighty, how majestic, are thy works! With what a pleasing dread they swell the soul! That sees astonish'd! and astonish'd sings! Ye too, ye winds! that now begin to blow, With boisterous sweep, I raise my voice to you Where are your stores, ye powerful beings! say, Where your aerial magazines reserv'd, To swell the brooding terrors of the storm? In what far-distant region of the sky, Hush'd in deep silence, sleep ye when 'tis calm?
When from the pallid sky the Sun descenda, With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb Uncertain wanders, stain'd; red fiery streaks Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet Which master to obey: while rising slow, Blank, in the leaden-color'd east, the Moon Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. Seen through the turbid fluctuating air, The stars obtuse emit a shiver'd ray; Or frequent seen to shoot athwart the gloom, And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. Snatch'd in short eddies, plays the wither'd leaf; And on the flood the dancing feather floats. With broaden'd nostrils to the sky up-turn'd, The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale. Ev'n as the matron, at her nightly task, With pensive labor draws the flaxen thread, The wasted taper and the crackling flame Foretell the blast. But chief the plumy race, The tenants of the sky, its changes speak. Retiring from the downs, where all day long They pick'd their scanty fare, a blackening train Of clamorous rooks thick urge their weary flight, And seek the closing shelter of the grove; Assiduous, in his bower, the wailing owl Plies his sad song. The cormorant on high Wheels from the deep, and screams along the land Loud shrieks the soaring hern; and with wild wing The circling sea-fowl cleave the flaky clouds. Ocean, unequal press'd, with broken tide And blind commotion heaves; while from the shore, Eat into caverns by the restless wave, And forest-rustling mountains, comes a voice, That solemn sounding bids the world prepare. Then issues forth the storm with sudden burst, And hurls the whole precipitated air, Down, in a torrent. On the passive main Descends th' ethereal force, and with strong gust Turns from its bottom the discolor'd deep.
Through the black night that sits immense around, Lash'd into foam, the fierce conflicting brine Seems o'er a thousand raging waves to burn. Meantime the mountain-billows to the clouds In dreadful tumult swell'd, surge above surge, Burst into chaos with tremendous roar, And anchor'd navies from their stations drive, Wild as the winds across the howling waste
Of mighty waters: now th' inflated wave Straining they scale, and now impetuous shoot Into the secret chambers of the deep, The wintry Baltic thundering o'er their head. Emerging thence again, before the breath Of full-exerted Heaven they wing their course, And dart on distant coasts; if some sharp rock, Or shoal insidious, break not their career, And in loose fragments fling them floating round. Nor less at land the loosen'd tempest reigns. The mountain thunders; and its sturdy sons Stoop to the bottom of the rocks they shade. Lone on the midnight steep, and all aghast, The dark wayfaring stranger breathless toils, And, often falling, climbs against the blast. Low waves the rooted forest, vex'd, and sheds What of its tarnish'd honors yet remain ; Dash'd down, and scatter'd, by the tearing wind's Assiduous fury, its gigantic limbs. Thus struggling through the dissipated grove, The whirling tempest raves along the plain; And on the cottage thatch'd, or lordly roof, Keen-fastening, shakes them to the solid base. Sleep frighted flies; and round the rocking dome, For entrance eager, howls the savage blast. Then too, they say, through all the burden'd air, Long groans are heard, shrill sounds, and distant sighs,
That, utter'd by the demon of the night, Warn the devoted wretch of woe and death.
Huge uproar lords it wide. The clouds, commixt With stars swift gliding, sweep along the sky. All Nature reels: till Nature's King, who oft Amid tempestuous darkness dwells alone, And on the wings of the careering wind Walks dreadfully serene, commands a calm; Then straight, air, sea, and earth, are hush'd at once. As yet 'tis midnight deep. The weary clouds Slow-meeting, mingle into solid gloom. Now, while the drowsy world lies lost in sleep, Let me associate with the serious Night, And Contemplation, her sedate compeer; Let me shake off th' intrusive cares of day, And lay the meddling senses all aside.
Where now, ye lying vanities of life! Ye ever-tempting, ever-cheating train! Where are you now? and what is your amount ? Vexation, disappointment, and remorse. Sad, sickening thought! and yet deluded man, A scene of crude disjointed visions past, And broken slumbers, rises still resolv'd, With new-flush'd hopes, to run the giddy round. Father of light and life! thou good Supreme! O, teach me what is good! teach me Thyself! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit! and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!
The keener tempests rise: and, fuming dun From all the livid east, or piercing north, Thick clouds ascend; in whose capacious womb A vapory deluge lies, to snow congeal'd. Heavy they roll their fleecy world along; And the sky saddens with the gather'd storm.
"Tis brightness all; save where the new snow melts Along the mazy current. Low the woods Bow their hoar head; and, ere the languid Sun Faint from the west emits his evening ray, Earth's universal face, deep hid, and chill, Is one wide dazzling waste, that buries wide The works of man. Drooping, the laborer-ox Stands cover'd o'er with snow, and then demands The fruit of all his toil. The fowls of Heaven, Tam'd by the cruel season, crowd around The winnowing store, and claim the little boon Which Providence assigns them. One alone, The red-breast, sacred to the household gods, Wisely regardful of th' embroiling sky, In joyless fields, and thorny thickets, leaves His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first
Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor, Eyes all the smiling family askance,
And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is: Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs Attract his slender feet. The foodless wilds Pour forth their brown inhabitants. The hare, Though timorous of heart, and hard beset By death in various forms, dark snares, and dogs, And more unpitying men, the garden seeks, Urg'd on by fearless want. The bleating kind Eye the bleak Heaven, and next the glistening Earth.
With looks of dumb despair; then, sad-dispers'd, Dig for the wither'd herb through heaps of snow.
Now, shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind Baffle the raging year, and fill their pens With food at will; lodge them below the storm, And watch them strict: for from the bellowing East In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing Sweeps up the burthen of whole wintry plains At one wide waft, and o'er the hapless flocks, Hid in the hollow of two neighboring hills, The billowy tempest whelms; till, upward urg'd, The valley to a shining mountain swells, Tipt with a wreath high-curling in the sky.
As thus the snows arise; and foul, and fierce, All Winter drives along the darken'd air; In his own loose-revolving fields, the swain Disaster'd stands; sees other hills ascend, Of unknown joyless brow; and other scenes, Of horrid prospect, shag the trackless plain : Nor finds the river, nor the forest, hid Beneath the formless wild; but wanders on From hill to dale, still more and more astray; Impatient flouncing through the drifted heaps, Stung with the thoughts of home; the thoughts of home
Rush on his nerves, and call their vigor forth In many a vain attempt. How sinks his soul! What black despair, what horror, fills his heart! When for the dusky spot, which fancy feign'd His tufted cottage rising through the snow, He meets the roughness of the middle waste, Far from the track, and blest abode of man; While round him night resistless closes fast, And every tempest, howling o'er his head,
Through the hush'd air the whitening shower de- Renders the savage wilderness more wild.
At first thin wavering; till at last the flakes
Fall broad, and wide, and fast, dimming the day With a continual flow. The cherish'd fields Put on their winter-robe of purest white.
Then throng the busy shapes into his mind, Of cover'd pits, unfathomably deep,
A dire descent! beyond the power of frost ; Of faithless bogs; of precipices huge, Smooth'd up with snow; and, what is land, unknown
What water of the still unfrozen spring, In the loose marsh or solitary lake, Where the fresh fountain from the bottom boils. These check his fearful steps; and down he sinks Beneath the shelter of the shapeless drift, Thinking o'er all the bitterness of death, Mix'd with the tender anguish Nature shoots Through the wrung bosom of the dying man, His wife, his children, and his friends unseen. in vain for him th' officious wife prepares The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm; In vain his little children, peeping out Into the mingling storm, demand their sire, With tears of artless innocence. Alas! Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold, Nor friends, nor sacred home. On every nerve The deadly Winter seizes; shuts up sense; And, o'er his inmost vitals creeping cold, Lays him along the snows, a stiffen'd corse, Stretch'd out, and bleaching in the northern blast. Ah! little think the gay licentious proud, Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround; They, who their thoughtless hours in giddy mirth, And wanton, often cruel, riot waste;
Ah! little think they, while they dance along, How many feel, this very moment, death And all the sad variety of pain. How many sink in the devouring flood, Or more devouring flame. How many bleed, By shameful variance betwixt man and man. How many pine in want, and dungeon glooms; Shut from the common air, and common use Of their own limbs. How many drink the cup Of baleful grief, or eat the bitter bread Of misery. Sore pierc'd by wintry winds, How many shrink into the sordid hut Of cheerless poverty. How many shake With all the fiercer tortures of the mind. Unbounded passion, madness, guilt, remorse; Whence tumbled headlong from the height of life, They furnish matter for the tragic Muse. Ev'n in the vale, where Wisdom loves to dwell With Friendship, Peace, and Contemplation join'd, How many, rack'd with honest passions, droop In deep retir'd distress. How many stand Around the death-bed of their dearest friends. And point the parting anguish. Thought fond man Of these, and all the thousand nameless ills, That one incessant struggle render life, One scene of toil, of suffering, and of fate, Vice in his high career would stand appall'd, And heedless rambling Impulse learn to think; The conscious heart of Charity would warm, And her wide wish Benevolence dilate; The social tear would rise, the social sigh; And into clear perfection, gradual bliss, Refining still, the social passions work.
And here can I forget the generous band,* Who, touch'd with human woe, redressive search'd Into the horrors of the gloomy jail? Unpitied, and unheard, where misery moans; Where sickness pines; where thirst and hunger burn, And poor misfortune feels the lash of vice. While in the land of liberty, the land Whose every street and public meeting glow With open freedom, little tyrants rag'd; Snatch'd the lean morsel from the starving mouth; Tore from cold wintry limbs the tatter'd weed;
The Jail Committee, in the year 1729.
Ev'n robb'd them of the last of comforts, sleep; The free-born Briton to the dungeon chain'd, Or, as the lust of cruelty prevail'd,
At pleasure mark'd him with inglorious stripes: And crush'd out lives, by secret barbarous ways. That for their country would have toil'd, or bied O, great design! if executed well,
With patient care, and wisdom-temper'd zeal. Ye sons of mercy! yet resume the search; Drag forth the legal monsters into light, Wrench from their hands Oppression's iron rod, And bid the cruel feel the pains they give. Much still untouch'd remains; in this rank age, Much is the patriot's weeding hand requir'd. The toils of law, (what dark insidious men Have cumbrous added to perplex the truth, And lengthen simple justice into trade.) How glorious were the day that saw these broke, And every man within the reach of right!
By wintry famine rous'd, from all the tract Of horrid mountains, which the shining Alps, And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees, Branch out stupendous into distant lands; Cruel as Death, and hungry as the Grave! Burning for blood! bony, and gaunt, and grim! Assembling wolves in raging troops descend; And, pouring o'er the country, bear along, Keen as the north wind sweeps the glossy snow. All is their prize. They fasten on the steed, Press him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart. Nor can the bull his awful front defend, Or shake the murdering savages away. Rapacious, at the mother's throat they fly, And tear the screaming infant from her breast. The godlike face of man avails him nought. Ev'n Beauty, force divine! at whose bright glance The generous lion stands in soften'd gaze, Here bleeds, a hapless undistinguish'd prey. But if, appriz'd of the severe attack, The country be shut up, lur'd by the scent, On church-yards drear (inhuman to relate!) The disappointed prowlers fall, and dig The shrouded body from the grave; o'er which, Mix'd with foul shades, and frighted ghosts, they howl.
Among those hilly regions, where embrac'd In peaceful vales the happy Grisons dwell, Oft, rushing sudden from the loaded cliffs, Mountains of snow their gathering terrors roll. From steep to steep, loud-thundering down they
A wintry waste in dire commotion all; And herds, and flocks, and travellers, and swains. And sometimes whole brigades of marching troope, Or hamlets sleeping in the dead of night, Are deep beneath the smothering ruin whelm'd.
Now all amid the rigors of the year. In the wild depth of Winter, while without The ceaseless winds blow ice, be my retreat, Between the groaning forest and the shore, Beat by the boundless multitude of waves, A rural, shelter'd, solitary scene; Where ruddy fire and beaming tapers join, To cheer the gloom. There studious let me sit, And hold high converse with the mighty dead; Sages of ancient time, as gods rever'd, As gods beneficent, who blest mankind With arts, with arms, and humaniz'd a world. Rous'd at th' inspiring thought, I throw aside The long-liv'd volume; and, deep musing, hail
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