Bid Atlas, propping heaven, as poets feign,
His fubterranean wonders fpread! unveil
The miny caverns, blazing on the day,
Of Abyffinia's cloud-compelling cliffs,
And of the bending Mountains of the Moon * ! 800
O'ertopping all these giant-sons of earth,
Let the dire Andes, from the radiant line
Stretch'd to the ftormy feas that thunder round
The fouthern pole, their hideous deeps unfold!
Amazing scene! Behold! the glooms disclose; 805
I fee the rivers in their infant beds!
Deep, deep I hear them, lab'ring to get free!
I fee the leaning ftrata, artful rang'd
The gaping fiffures to receive the rains,
The melting fnows, and ever-dripping fogs.
Strow'd bibulous above, I fee the fands,
The pebbly gravel next, the layers then
Of mingled moulds, of more retentive earths,
The guttered rocks and mazy-running clefts,
That, while the ftealing moisture they tranfmit, 815
Retard its motion, and forbid its wafte.
Beneath th' inceffant weeping of these drains,
I fee the rocky fiphons ftretch'd immense,
The mighty refervoirs, of hardened chalk,
Or ftiff-compacted clay, capacious form'd.
O'erflowing thence, the congregated stores,
A range of mountains in Africa, that furround almoft all Monomotapa.
The cryftal treasures of the liquid world,
Thro' the stirr'd fands a bubbling paffage burst,
And, welling out, around the middle steep,
Or from the bottoms of the bofom'd hills,
effufion flow, United, thus,
In pure
Th' exhaling fun, the vapour-burden'd air,
The gelid mountains, that to rain condens'd
These vapours in continual current draw,
And fend them o'er the fair-divided earth
In bounteous rivers to the deep again,
A focial commerce hold, and firm support
The full-adjusted harmony of things,
When Autumn fcatters his departing gleams, Warn'd of approaching Winter, gathered, play 835 The fwallow people, and, toss'd wide around, O'er the calm sky, in convolution swift, The feathered eddy floats, rejoicing once, Ere to their wintry flumbers they retire.
In clusters clung, beneath the mouldering bank, 840 And where, unpierc'd by froft, the cavern sweats, Or rather into warmer climes convey'd,
With other kindred birds of season, there
They twitter cheerful, till the vernal months
Invite them welcome back; for, thronging, now845
Innumerous wings are in commotion all.
Where the Rhine lofes his majestic force
In Belgian plains, won from the raging deep,
By diligence amazing, and the strong
Unconquerable hand of Liberty,
The ftork-assembly meets, for many a day
Confulting deep and various ere they take
Their arduous voyage thro' the liquid sky :
And now their rout defign'd, their leaders chofe,
Their tribes ad jufted, clean'd theirvigorous wings,855
And many a circle, many a fhort effay,
Wheel'd round and round, in congregation full
The figured flight afcends, and, riding high-
The aërial billows, mixes with the clouds.
Or where the Northern ocean, in vaft whirls, 860 Boils round the naked melancholy ifles
Of fartheft Thulè, and the Atlantic furge
Pours in among the ftormy Hebrides;
Who can recount what transmigrations there
Are annual made? what nations come and go? 865
And how the living clouds on clouds arise ?
Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,
And rude refounding fhore, are one wild cry.
Here the plain harmless native his small flock
And herd diminutive, of many hues,
Tends on the little iflands' verdant fwell,
The shepherd's fea-girt reign, or to the rocks
Dire-clinging, gathers his ovarious food,
Or fweeps the fishy shore, or treasures up
The plumage, rifing full, to form the bed
Of Luxury: and here a while the Mufe,
High hovering o'er the broad cerulean fcene,
Sees Caledonia in romantic view:
Her airy mountains, from the waving main
Invested with a keen diffusive sky,
Breathing the foul acute; her forests huge,
Incult, robuft, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old; her azure lakes between,
Pour'd out extenfive, and of wat'ry wealth
Full; winding deep, and green, her fertile vales;885
With many a cool tranflucent brimming flood
Wash'd lovely, from the Tweed (pure parent-ftream,
Whofe paftoral banks first heard my Doric reed,
With, fylvan Jed! thy tributary brook)
To where the north-inflated tempest foams
O'er Orca's or Betubium's highest peak;
Nurse of a people in Misfortune's school
Train'd up to hardy deeds, foon visited
By Learning, when before the Gothic rage
She took her western flight. A manly race,
Of unfubmitting fpirit, wife and brave,
Who ftill thro' bleeding ages ftruggled hard,
(As well unhappy Wallace can attest,
Great patriot-hero! ill-requited chief!)
To hold a generous undiminish'd state;
Too much, in vain! hence of unequal bounds
Impatient, and by tempting glory borne
O'er every land, for every land their life
Has flow'd profufe, their piercing genius plann'd,
And fwell'd the pomp of peace their faithful toil;905
As from their own clear North, in radiant ftreams, Bright over Europe burfts the Boreal Morn.
Oh! is there not fome patriot, in whose power That beft, that godlike luxury is plac'd,
Of bleffing thousands, thoufands yet unborn, 910
Thro' late pofterity? fome, large of foul,
To cheer dejected Industry? to give
A double harveft to the pining fwain,
And teach the labouring hand the fweets of toil?
How by the finest art the native robe
To weave; how, white as hyperborean snow,
To form the lucid lawn; with venturous oar
How to dafh wide the billow; nor look on,
Shamefully paffive, while Batavian fleets
Defraud us of the glittering finny fwarms
That heave our friths, and crowd upon our shores;
How all-enlivening Trade to rouse, and wing
The profperous fail from every growing port,
Uninjur'd, round the fea-incircled globe;
And thus, in foul united as in name,
Bid Britain reign the miftrefs of the deep!
Yes, there are fuch. And full on thee, Argyle! Her hope, her ftay, her darling, and her boast, From her first patriots and her heroes fprung, Thy fond imploring Country turns her eye; In thee, with all a mother's triumph, fees Her every virtue, every grace combin'd, Her genius, wifdom, her engaging turn, Her pride of honour, and her courage try'd,
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