FROM these the profpect varies. Plains inmenfe Lie ftretch'd below, interminable meads,
And vast favannahs, where the wandering eye,
Unfixt, is in a verdant ocean lost.
Another Flora there, of bolder hues,
And richer fweets, beyond our garden's pride, 695
Plays o'er the fields, and fhowers with fudden hand
Exuberant fpring for oft thefe valleys shift
Their green-embroider'd robe to fiery brown,
And swift to green again, as fcorching funs,
Or ftreaming dews and torrent rains, prevail.
Along thefe lonely regions, where retir'd,
From little scenes of art, great Nature dwells
In awful folitude, and nought is feen
But the wild herds that own no mafter's ftall,
Prodigious rivers roll their fatning feas:
On whofe luxuriant herbage, half-conceal'd,
Like a fallen cedar, far diffus'd his train,
Cas'd in
green fcales, the crocodile extends. The flood difparts: behold! in plaited mail,
* Behemoth rears his head. Glanc'd from his fide, The darted steel in idle fhivers flies:
He fearless walks the plain, or fecks the hills;
Where, as he crops his vary'd fare, the herdis,
In widening circle round, forget their food,
And at the harmlefs ftranger wondering gaze.
The Hippopotamus, or river-horse.
E 2
PEACEFUL, beneath primeval trees, that caft
Their ample shade o'er Niger's yellow ftream,
And where the Ganges rolls his facred wave ;
Or mid the central depth of blackning woods,
High-rais'd in folemn theater around,
Leans the huge elephant: wifeft of brutes!
O truly wife! with gentle might endow'd,
Tho' powerful, not deftructive! Here he fees
Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth,
And empires rife and fall; regardless he
Of what the never-refting race of men
Project: thrice happy! could he scape their guile,
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;
Or with his towery grandeur fwell their state,
The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert,
And bid him rage amid the mortal fray,
Aftonish'd at the madness of mankind.
WIDE o'er the winding umbrage of the floods, Like vivid bloffoms glowing from afar,
Thick-fwarm the brighter birds. For Nature's hand,
That with a sportive vanity has deck'd
The plumy nations, there her gayeft hues
Profufely pours. *But, if the bids them shine,
Array'd in all the beauteous beams of day,
In all the regions of the torrid zone, the birds, tho' more beautiful in their plumage, are observed to be less melodious than ours,
Yet frugal ftill, fhe humbles them in fong.
Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent
Proud Montezuma's realm, whose legions caft
A boundless radiance waving on the fun,
While Philomel is ours; while in our fhades,
Thro' the foft filence of the liftening night,
The fober-fuited fongftrefs trills her lay.
BUT come, my Mufe, the defart-barrier burst,
A wild expanfe of lifelefs fand and fky ::
And, fwifter than the toiling caravan,
Shoot o'er the vale of Sennar; ardent climb
The Nubian mountains, and the fecret bounds
Of jealous Abyffinia boldly pierce..
Thou art no ruffian, who beneath the mask
Of focial commerce com'ft to rob their wealth;
No boly Fury thou, blafpheming HEAVEN,
With confecrated steel to ftab their peace,
And thro' the land, yet red from civi! wounds,
To spread the purple tyranny of Rome.
Thou, like the harmless bee, may'ft freely range,
From mead to mead bright with exalted flowers,
From jafmine grove to grove, may'ft wander gay, 76r
Thro' palmy fhades and aromatic woods,
That grace the plains, invest the peopled hills,
And up the more than Alpine mountains wave.
There on the breezy fummit, fpreading fair,
For many a league; or on ftupendous rocks,
That from the fun-redoubling valley lift,
Cool to the middle air, their lawny tops;
Where palaces, and fanes, and villas rife;
And gardens fmile around, and cultur'd fields; 770
And ¡ountains gush; and carciefs herds and flocks
Securely ftray; a world within itself,
Dildaining all affault: there let me draw
Ethereal foul, there drink reviving gales,
Profufely breathing from the fpicy groves,
And vales of fragrance; there at distance hear
The roaring floods, and cataracts, that sweep
From difembowel'd earth the virgin gold;
And o'er the varied landskip, restless, rove,
Fervent with life of every fairer kind:
A land of wonders! which the fun ftill eyes
With ray direct, as of the lovely realm
Inamour'd, and delighting th.re to dwell.
How chang'd the scene! In blazing height of noon,
The fun, opprefs'd, is plung'd in thickest gloom.
Still Horror reigns, a dreary twilight round,
Of ftruggling night and day malignant mix'd.
For to the hot equator crouding fast,
Where, highly rarefy'd, the yielding air
Admits their ftream, inceffant vapours roll,
Amazing clouds on clouds continual heap'd;
Or whirl'd tempestuous by the gufty wind,
Or filent borne along, heavy, and flow,
With the big flores of steaming oceans charg'd.
Meantime, ainid thefe upper feas, condens'd
Around the cold aërial mountain's brow,
And by conflicting winds together dafh'd,
The Thunder holds his black tremendous throne: From cloud to cloud the rending Lightnings rage; Till, in the furious elemental war
Diffolv'd, the whole precipitated mafs
Unbroken floods and folid torrents pours.
THE treasures thefe, hid from the bounded fearch
Of ancient knowledge; whence, with annual pomp,
Rich king of floods! o'erflows the fwelling Nile.
From his two fprings, in Gojam's funny realm,
Pure-welling out, he thro' the lucid lake
Of fair Dambea rolls his infant-stream.
There, by the Naiads nurs'd, he fports away
His playful youth, amid the fragrant ifles,
That with unfading verdure finile around.
Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks;
And gathering many a flood, and copious fed
With all the mellowed treafures of the sky,
Winds in progreffive majefty along :
Thro' fplendid kingdoms now devolves his maze,
Now wanders wild o'er folitary tracts
Of life-deferted fand; till, glad to quit
The joylefs defart, down the Nubian rocks
From thundering steep to fleep he pours his urn, 820 And Egypt joys beneath the fpreading wave.
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