Worse than the season, desolate the fields;
And, adding to the ruins of the year,
Diftrefs the footed or the feather'd game.
BUT what is this? Our infant Winter finks,
Divefted of his grandeur, fhould our eye
Astonish'd shoot into the Frigid Zone ;
Where, for relentless months, continual night
Holds o'er the glittering wafte her starry reign.
THERE, thro' the prison of unbounded wilds,
Barr'd by the hand of Nature from escape,
Wide-roams the Ruffian exile. Nought around
Strikes his fad eye, but defarts loft in fnow;
And heavy-loaded groves; and folid floods,
That stretch, athwart the folitary vast,
Their icy horrors to the frozen main ;
And chearlefs towns far-diftant, never blefs'd,
Save when its annual courfe the caravan
Bends to the golden coast of rich * Cathay,
With news of human-kind. Yet there life glows;
Yet cherish'd there, beneath the fhining wafte, 819
The furry nations harbour: tipt with jet,
Fair ermines, fpotlefs as the fnows they prefs;
Sables of gloffy black; and dark-embrown'd,
Or beauteous freakt with many a mingled hue,
Thousands befides, the coftly pride of courts.
There, warm together prefs'd, the trooping deer
Sleep on the new fallen fnows; and, scarce his head
Rais'd o'er the heapy wreath, the branching elk
Lies flumbering fullen in the white abyfs.
The ruthlefs hunter wants nor dogs nor toils,
Nor with the dread of founding bows he drives
The fearful flying race; with ponderous clubs,
As weak against the mountain-heaps they push
Their beating breaft in vain, and piteous bray,
He lays them quivering on th' enfanguin'd fnows, 825
And with loud fhouts rejoicing bears them home.
There thro' the piny forest half-absorpt,
Rough tenant of these fhades, the shapeless bear,
With dangling ice all horrid, ftalks forlorn ;
Slow-pac'd, and fourer as the ftorms increafe,
He makes his bed beneath th' inclement drift,
And, with stern patience, fcorning weak complaint,
Hardens his heart against affailing want.
WIDE o'er the fpacious regions of the north,
That fee Bootes urge his tardy wain,
A boisterous race, by frofty * Caurus pierc'd,
Who little pleasure know and fear no pain,
Prolific fwarm. They once relum'd the flame
Of loft mankind in polish'd flavery funk,
Drove martial + horde on horde, with dreadful sweep
†The wandering Scythian Clans.
Refiftless rushing o'er th' enfeebled fouth,
And gave the vanquish'd world another form.
Not fuch the fons of Lapland: wifely they
Despise th' infenfate barbarous trade of war;
They ask no more than fimple Nature gives,
They love their mountains and enjoy their storms.
No false defires, no pride-created wants,
Disturb the peaceful current of their time;
And thro' the restless ever-tortur'd maze
Of pleasure, or ambition, bid it rage.
Their rain-deer form their riches. Thefe their tents,
Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth.
Supply, their wholefome fare, and chearful cups.
Obfequious at their call, the docile tribe
Yield to the fled their necks, and whirl them swift
O'er hill and dale, heap'd in to one expanse
Of marbled fnow, as far as eye can sweep
With a blue crust of ice unbounded glaz'd,
By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless fhake
A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens,
And vivid moons, and stars that keener play
With doubled luftre from the radiant wafte,
Even in the depth of Polar Night, they find
A wondrous day: enough to light the chase,
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 first,
K 6
By small degrees extends the fwelling curve;
Till feen at last for gay rejoicing months,
Still round and round, his fpiral courfe he winds,
And as he nearly dips his flaming orb,
Wheels up again, and reascends the sky.
In that glad season, from the lakes and floods,
Where pure
Niemi's fairy mountains rife,
875
And fring'd with rofes + Tenglio rolls his stream,
They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve,
They chearful-loaded to their tents repair;
Where, all day long in useful cares 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
The feeds of vice: whofe fpotless swains ne'er knew
* M. de Maupertuis, in his book on the Figure of the Earth, after having defcribed the beautiful Lake and Mountain of Niemi in Lapland, lays--" From this height we had occafion 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 "Spirits of the Mountains. We had been frighted with flories of "Bears that haunted this place, but faw none. It feem'd rather a place of refort for Fairies and Genii than Bears."
+ The fame Author observes--“ I was furpriz'd to see upon the ́" banks of this river, (the Tenglio) Rofes of as lively a red as any that are in our gardens,”
Injurious deed, nor, blafted by the breath
Of faithless love, their blooming daughters woe.
STILL preffing on, beyond Tornéa's lake,
And Hecla flaming thro' 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;
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 thro' his airy hall the loud mifrule
Of driving tempest 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 oppresses half the globe.
THENCE Winding eastward to the Tartar's coaft, She sweeps the howling margin of the main; Where undiffolving, from the first of time, Snows fwell on fnows amazing to the sky; And icy mountains high on mountains pil'd, Seem to the shivering failor from afar, Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of clouds. Projected huge, and horrid, o'er the surge,
|