Mean time the grandeur of the lofty dome, Far-fplendid, feizes on the ravish'd eye.
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
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
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,
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
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.
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,
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,
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
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,
* The Mufcovites call the Riphean mountains Weliki Cameny poys, that is, The great flony girdle, becaufe they fuppofe them to encompass the whole earth.
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