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Mean time the grandeur of the lofty dome,
Far-fplendid, feizes on the ravish'd eye.

660

New beauties rife with each revolving day,
New columns fwell; and still the fresh Spring finds
New plants to quicken and new groves to green.
Full of thy genius all, the Mufes' feat,

Where in the fecret bower and winding walk, 665
For virtuous Young and thee they twine the bay;
Here wandering oft', fir'd with the reftlefs thirt
Of thy applaufe, I folitary court

670

Th' infpiring breeze, and meditate the Book
Of Nature, ever open; aiming thence,
Warm from the heart, to learn the moral fong.
Here, as I fteal along the funny wall,
Where Autumn bafks, with fruit empurpled deep,
My pleafing theme continual prompts my thought,
Presents the downy peach, the shining plum, 675
The ruddy, fragrant nectarine, and dark,
Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig.

The vine, too, here her curling tendrils shoots,
Hangs out her clusters glowing to the south,
And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky.

Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight

680

To vigorous foils, and climes of fair extent,
Where, by the potent fun elated, high
The vineyard fwells refulgent on the day,
Spreads o'er the vale, or up the mountain climbs,
Profufe, and drinks amid the funny rocks,

686

From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heightened blaze.
Low bend the weighty boughs: the clusters clear,
Half thro' the foliage feen, or ardent flame,
Or fhine tranfparent; while Perfection breathes 690
White o'er the turgent film the living dew.
As thus they brighten with exalted juice,
Touch'd into flavour by the mingling ray,
The rural youth and virgins o'er the field,
Each fond for each to cull th' Autumnal prime, 695
Exulting rove, and speak the vintage nigh.
Then comes the crushing swain; the country floats
And foams unbounded with the mashy flood,
That by degrees fermented and refin'd,
Round the rais'd nations pours the cup of joy ; 700
The claret fmooth, red as the lip we prefs
In fparkling fancy, while we drain the bowl;
The mellow-tafted Burgundy, and, quick
As is the wit it gives, the gay Champaign.
Now, by the cool declining year condens'd, 705
Defcend the copious exhalations, check'd
As up the middle sky unfeen they ftole,
And roll the doubling fogs around the hill.
No more the mountain, horrid, vast, sublime,
Who pours a sweep of rivers from his fides,
And high between contending kingdoms rears
The rocky long divifion, fills the view
With great variety; but, in a night
Of gathering vapour, from the baffled sense

710

Sinks dark and dreary: thence expanding far, 715
The huge dufk, gradual, fwallows up the plain:
Vanish the woods; the dim-feen river feems
Sullen, and flow, to roll the misty wave.

Even in the height of noon opprefs'd, the fun
Sheds weak, and blunt, his wide-refracted ray; 720
Whence glaring oft', with many a broadened orb
He frights the nations. Indiftinct on earth,
Seen thro' the turbid air, beyond the life
Objects appear, and, wildered, o'er the wafte
The fhepherd ftalks gigantic: till at last,
Wreath'd dun around, in deeper circles ftill
Succeffive clofing, fits the general fog
Unbounded o'er the world, and, mingling thick,
A formless grey confufion covers all.

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735

As when of old (fo fung the Hebrew bard)
Light uncollected thro' the chaos urg'd
Its infant way, nor Order yet had drawn
His lovely train from out the dubious gloom.
These roving mifts, that conftant now begin
To smoke along the hilly country, these,
With weighty rains and melted Alpine fnows,
The mountain-cifterns fill, those ample stores
Of water, fcoop'd among the hollow rocks,
Whence gush the ftreams, the ceafelefs fountains play,
And their unfailing wealth the rivers draw.
Some fages fay, that where the numerous wave
For ever lafhes the refounding fhore,

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Drill'd thro' the fandy ftratum, every way
The waters with the fandy flratum rife,
Amid whofe angles infinitely ftrain'd,
They joyful leave their jaggy falts behind,
And clear and fweeten as they foak along:
Nor ftops the reftlefs fluid, mounting still,
Tho' oft' amidst th' irriguous vale it fprings,
But to the mountain courted by the fand,
That leads it darkling on in faithful maze,
Far from the parent-main it boils again
Frefh into day, and all the glittering hill
Is bright with spouting rills. But hence this vain
Amufive dream! why fhould the waters love

To take fo far a journey to the hills,

When the fweet vallies offer to their toil
Inviting quiet and a nearer bed?

Or if, by blind Ambition led aftray,

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They muft afpire, why should they fudden stop 760 Among the broken mountains' rufhy dells,

And, ere they gain its highest peak, defert

Th' attractive fand that charm'd their course fo long? Besides, the hard agglomerating falts,

The spoil of ages, would impervious choke 765
Their fecret channels, or, by flow degrees,

High as the hills protrude the fwelling vales:
Old Ocean, too, fuck'd thro' the porous globe,
Had long ere now forfook his horrid bed,

And brought Deucalion's watʼry times again. 770

775

780

Say, then, where lurk the vast eternal springs That, like Creating Nature, lie conceal'd From mortal eye, yet with their lavish ftores Refresh the globe and all its joyous tribes? O thou pervading Genius! given to Man To trace the fecrets of the dark abyss, O lay the mountains bare! and wide difplay Their hidden structure to th' aftonish'd view: Strip from the branching Alps their piny load, The huge incumbrance of horrific woods From Afian Taurus, from Imaus ftretch'd Athwart the roving Tartar's fullen bounds! Give opening Hemus to my fearching eye, And high Olympus, pouring many a ftream! O from the founding fummits of the North, The Dofrine hills, thro' Scandinavia roll'd' To fartheft Lapland and the frozen main; From lofty Caucafus, far-feen by thofe Who in the Cafpian and black Euxine toil From cold Riphean rocks, which the wild Rufs 790 Believes the ftony girdle* of the world; And all the dreadful mountains, wrapt in ftorm, Whence wide Siberia draws her lonely floods, O fweep th' eternal fnows! Hung o'er the deep, That ever works beneath his founding bafe,

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* The Mufcovites call the Riphean mountains Weliki Cameny poys, that is, The great flony girdle, becaufe they fuppofe them to encompass the whole earth.

Volume I.

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