As oft return, a pert voracious kind. Clean riddance quickly made, one only care Remains to each, the fearch of funny nook, Or fhed impervious to the blast. Refign'd To fad neceffity, the cock foregoes
His wonted strut, and wading at their head With well-confider'd fteps, feems to refent His alter'd gait and stateliness retrench'd. How find the myriads, that in fummer cheer The hills and vallies with their ceafelefs fongs, Due fuftenance, or where fubfift they now? Earth yields them nought: the imprison'd worm is fafe
Beneath the frozen clod; all feeds of herbs Lie cover'd close, and berry-bearing thorns That feed the thrush (whatever fome suppose) Afford the fmaller minstrels no fupply.
The long protracted rigour of the year
Thins all their num'rous flocks. In chinks and holes
Ten thousand feek an unmolested end,
As inftinct prompts; felf buried ere they die. The very rooks and daws forfake the fields, Where neither grub nor root nor earth-nut now Repays their labour more; and perch'd aloft By the way fide, or stalking in the path, Lean penfioners upon the trav'llers track, Pick up their naufeous dole, though fweet to the.
Of voided pulfe or half-digested grain. The streams are loft amid the fplendid blank, O'erwhelming all distinction. On the flood, Indurated and fixt, the fnowy weight Lies undiffolv'd; while filently beneath, And unperceiv'd, the current fteals away. Not fo, where scornful of a check it leaps The mill-dam, dashes on the restless wheel, And wantons in the pebbly gulph below No froft can bind it there; its utmost force Can but arreft the light and fmokey mist That in its fall the liquid fheet throws wide. And fee where it has hung th' embroid❜red banks With forms fo various, that no pow'rs of art, The pencil or the pen, may trace the scene! Here glitt❜ring turrets rife, upbearing high (Fantastic mifarrangement !) on the roof Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees And fhrubs of fairy land. The crystal drops That trickle down the branches, faft congeal'd, Shoot into pillars of pellucid length, And prop the pile they but adorn'd before.
Here grotto within grotto fafe defies
The fun-beam; there imbofs'd and fretted wild, The growing wonder takes a thousand shapes Capricious, in which fancy feeks in vain
The likeness of fome object feen before.
Thus nature works as if to mock at art, And in defiance of her rival pow'rs; By these fortuitous and random ftrokes Performing fuch inimitable feats,
As fhe with all her rules can never reach. Lefs worthy of applause, though more admir'd, Because a novelty, the work of man, Imperial mistress of the fur-clad Rufs! Thy most magnificent and mighty freak, The wonder of the North. No foreft fell When thou wouldst build; no quarry fent its ftores
T'enrich thy walls: but thou didst hew the floods, And make thy marble of the glaffy wave. In fuch a palace Arifteus found
Cyrene, when he bore the plaintive tale Of his loft bees to her maternal care. In fuch a palace poetry might place The armoury of winter; where his troops, The gloomy clouds, find weapons, arrowy fleet, Skin-piercing volly, bloffom-bruifing hail,
And fnow that often blinds the trav❜ller's course, And wraps him in an unexpected tomb.
Silently as a dream the fabric rofe;
No found of hammer or of faw was there. Ice upon ice, the well adjusted parts
Were foon conjoin'd, nor other cement afk'd Than water interfus'd to make them one.
Lamps gracefully difpos'd, and of all hues, Illumin'd ev'ry fide: a wat'ry light
Gleam'd through the clear transparency, that feem'd
Another moon new rifen, or meteor fall'n From heav'n to earth, of lambent flame ferene. So ftood the brittle prodigy; though smooth And flipp'ry the materials, yet froft-bound Firm as a rock. Nor wanted aught within, That royal refidence might well befit, For grandeur or for ufe.
Long wavy wreaths
enemy but warmth,
Of flow'rs, that fear'd no
Where all was vitreous; but in order due
Convivial table and commodious feat
(What feem'd at least commodious feat) were there, Sopha and couch, and high-built throne auguft. The fame lubricity was found in all,
And all was moift to the warm touch; a scene Of evanefcent glory once a stream, And foon to flide into a ftream again. Alas! 'twas but a mortifying stroke Of undefign'd severity, that glanc'd, (Made by a monarch) on her own estate, On human grandeur and the courts of kings. 'Twas tranfient in its nature, as in fhow 'Twas durable; as worthless, as it seem'd Intrinfically precious; to the foot
Treach'rous and false; it smil'd, and it was cold.
Great princes have great playthings. Some
At hewing mountains into men, and fome. At building human wonders mountain high. Some have amus'd the dull, fad years of life, Life spent in indolence, and therefore fad, With schemes of monumental fame; and fought By pyramids and maufolean pomp,
Short-liv'd themselves, t'immortalize their bones. Some feek diverfion in the tented field,
And make the forrows of mankind their sport. But war's a game, which, were their fubjects wife, Kings would not play at. Nations would do well T'extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whofe infirm and baby minds
Are gratified with mischief; and who spoil, Because men fuffer it, their toy the world. When Babel was confounded, and the great Confed'racy of projectors wild and vain Was split into diverfity of tongues, Then as a fhepherd separates his flock, Thefe to the upland, to the valley thofe, God drave asunder, and affign'd their lot To all the nations. Ample was the boon He gave them, in its diftribution fair
And equal, and he bade them dwell in peace.
Peace was awhile their care: they plough'd and
And reap'd their plenty without grudge or strife.
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