O'er hill and dale, heap'd into one expanfe
Of marbled fnow, as far as eye can sweep
With a blue cruft of ice unbounded glaz’d.
By dancing meteors then, that ceafelefs fhake
A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens,
And vivid moons, and stars that keener play
With double luftre from the gloffy waste,
Ev'n in the depth of Polar Night, they find
A wondrous day enough to light the chace,
Or guide, their daring steps to Finland-fairs.
Wish'd Spring returns; and from the hazy fouth,
While dim Aurora flowly moves before,
The welcome fun, juft verging up at firft,
By fmall degrees extends the fwelling curve!
Till feen at large for gay rejoicing months,
Still round and round, his spiral course he winds,
And as he nearly dips his flaming orb,
Wheels up again, and reafcends the sky.
In that glad feafon from the lakes and floods,
Where pure Niemi's fairy mountains rife,
And fring'd with roses + Tenglio rolls his stream,
* M. de Maupertuis, in his book on the Figure of the Earth, after having defcribed the beautiful lake and mountain of Niemi in Lapland, fays,-"From this height we had opportunity several "times to fee thofe vapours rife from the lake, which the people "of the country call Haltios, and which they deem to be the "guardian fpirits of the mountains. We had been frighted with "ftories of bears that haunted this place, but faw none. It feemcd "rather a place of refort for Fairies and Genii, than bears."
The fame author obferves-" I was furprized to fee upon the "banks of this river (the Tenglio) rofes of as lively a red as any that are in our gardens."
They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve,
They chearful loaded to their tents repair;
Where, all day long in useful care employ'd,
Their kind unblemish'd wives the fire prepare.
Thrice happy race! by poverty fecur'd
From legal plunder and rapacious power:
In whom fell interest never yet has fown
Of faithlefs love, their blooming daughters woe.
Still preffing on, beyond Tornea's lake,
And Hecla flaming through a waste of fnow,
And fartheft Greenland, to the pole itself,
Where, failing gradual, life at length goes out,
The Muse expands her folitary flight;
The feeds of vice: whose spotless swains ne'er knew
Injurious deed, nor, blafted by the breath
And, hovering o'er the wild ftupendous scene,
Beholds new feas beneath * another sky.
Thron'd in his palace of cerulean ice,
Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court;
And through his airy hall the loud mifrule
Of driving tempeft is for ever heard:
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath;
Here arms his winds with all-fubduing frost;
Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his fnows, 900
With which he now oppreffes half the globe.
Thence winding eastward to the Tartar's coast,
She fweeps the howling margin of the main;
Where undiffolving, from the firft of time,
Snows fwell on fnows amazing to the sky;
And icy mountains high on mountains pil'd,
Seem to the fhivering failor from afar,
Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds.
Projected hue, and horrid, o'er the surge,
Alps frown on Alps; or rushing hideous down,
As if old Chaos was again return'd,
Wide-rend the deep, and shake the folid pole.
Ocean itself no longer can refift
The binding fury; but, in all its rage
Of tempeft taken by the boundless froft,
Is many a fathom to the bottom chain'd,
And bid to roar no more: a bleak expanse,
Shagg'd o'er with wavy rocks, chearless, and void
Of every life, that from the dreary months
Flies confcious fouthward. Miferable they!
Who, here entangled in the gathering ice,
Take their laft look of the defcending fun;
While, full of death, and fierce with tenfold froft,
The long long night, incumbent o'er their heads,
Falls horrible. Such was the Briton's fate,
As with first prow, (what have not Britons dar'd!)
He for the paffage fought, attempted fince
So much in vain, and feeming to be shut
By jealous Nature with eternal bars.
In these fell regions, in Arzina caught,
And to the ftony deep his idle fhip
Immediate feal'd, he with his hapless crew,
.Each full-exerted at his feveral task,
* Sir Hugh Willoughby, sent by Queen Elizabeth to discover the
Froze into ftatues; to the cordage glued
The failor, and the pilot to the helm.
Hard by these shores, where scarce his freezing stream Rolls the wild Oby, live the last of men;
And half-enliven'd by the distant fun,
That rears and ripens man, as well as plants,
Here human nature wears its rudest form.
Deep from the piercing season funk in caves,
Here by dull fires, and with unjoyous cheer,
They waste the tedious gloom. Immers'd in furs,
Doze the grofs race. Nor fprightly jeft, nor fong,
Nor tenderness they know; nor aught of life,
Beyond the kindred bears that ftalk without.
Till morn at length, her rofes drooping all,
Sheds a long twilight brightening o'er their fields,
And calls the quiver'd favage to the chace.
What cannot active government perform,
New-moulding man? Wide-ftretching from these shores,
A people favage from remotest time,
A huge neglected empire, one vast Mind,
By Heaven infpir'd, from Gothic darkness call'd.
Immortal Peter! firft of monarchs! He
His stubborn country tam'd, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her feas, her ill-fubmitting fons ;
And while the fierce Barbarian he fubdued,
To more exalted foul he rais'd the man.
Ye fhades of ancient heroes, ye who toil'd
Through long fucceffive ages to build-up
A labouring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! behold the matchlefs prince!
VOL. LIV.
Who left his native throne, where reign'd till then
A mighty fhadow of unreal power;
Who greatly fpurn'd the flothful pomp of courts;
And, roaming every land, in every port
His fceptre laid afide, with glorious hand,
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool,
Gather'd the feeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.
Charg'd with the ftores of Europe, home he goes ;.
Then cities rife amid th' illumin'd waste;
O'er joyless deferts fmiles the rural reign;
Far-diftant flood to flood is focial join'd;
Th' aftonifh'd Euxine hears the Baltick roar;
Proud navies ride on feas that never foam'd
With daring keel before; and armies stretch
Each way their dazzling files, repreffing here
The frantic Alexander of the north,
And awing there ftern Othman's fhrinking fons.
Sloth flies the land, and Ignorance, and Vice,
Of old difhonour proud: it glows around,
Taught by the Royal Hand that rouz'd the whole,
One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade:
For what his wifdom plann'd, and power enforc'd,
More potent ftill, his great example fhew'd.
Muttering, the winds at eve, with blunted point,
Blow hollow-bluftering from the fouth.
The froft refolves into a trickling thaw.
Spotted the mountains fhine; loofe fleet defcends,
And floods the country round. The rivers fwell,
Of bonds impatient. Sudden from the hills,
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