142 
Nor happier they, where fandy waftes extend, 
Where fainting Arabs their parch’d cattle 
tend, 
The green blade fhrinks beneath the burning 
a 
And no refrefhing fountain yields fupply ; 
Such were the deferts where Palmyra rofe, 
By barren fands fecur’d from threat’ning foes. 
Where Carolina {preads her marfhy fwamps, 
And rears her indigo ’mid{t putrid damps. 
Her fallow fons prepare, with feeble hand, 
The thirty rice upon the moiften’d land. 
T Beir pale cadav’rous look difeafe betrays; 
While through each vein the burning fever 
preys. 
On Syria’s plains, though plenty fills her 
horn, pitcdne 
And Smyrna’s fruitful fields abound in corn; 
Deem not thofe happy in thy peaceful thade, 
Where earthquake, fire, and peftilence in- 
vade, 
Whofe free-born fouls to haughty defpots 
bow, ; 
And for tyrannic Pachas hold the plough. 
Hail, Liberty ! aufpicious goddefs, hail ! 
Breathe through our ifle thy foul-reviving 
gale; 
May Britifh yeomen own no other fway, 
And Britith fields fecure, their wealth @ifplay ; 
Lords of the foil, they count not labour 
pain, 
But till, with cheerful fongs, their own do- 
main. 
On Miffiffipi’s bank fhould fleep furprife 
The wearied peafant; clofe in ambuhh lies 
The crafty alligator, gorg’d with blood, 
Ke lurkseconceal’d, beneath the troubled 
fiood; . 
Or ranges fierce the reedy fhore around, 
Climbs the fteep bank, or couches to the 
ground. 
Where Etna labours with convulfives throes, 
And itreams of fire her burning womb dif- 
= clefe; 
Through lucid clouds the vivid lightnings 
play, 
And fmoke and afhes hide the face of day: 
Tn one vaft fheet the liquid fire defcends, 
And to the foaming deep its courfe extends: 
The burning lava fills the fea-girt- fhore, 
Where the returning tides invade no more. 
The harden’d mafs with fertile pow’rs ens. . 
dued, 
By fun and air and rain at length fubdu’d, 
Perpetual verdure the dark lava gains, 
Supports the olive, and the vine fuftains: 
The anxious peafant then renews his toil, 
And tills, with fearful hand, the treach*rous 
foil. 
Not half fo beauteous, in the painter’s 
fight, 
Is Kefwick’s Lake, er Ssowdon’s Alpine 
height ; 
When on his ftorm-clad brow the thepherds 
And midway feel the fun’s enlivning zays ; 
e 
Original Poetry. 
[Aug. 
Nor aught fublime, in nature’s wide domain, 
Charms like the fertile cultivated plain. 
Stiil may the favage tribes in wild amaze, 
On Niagara’s foaming torrent gaze : 
Oh! rather bear me to th’ enriching ftream, 
Where cultivation fpreads her cheering gleam, 
Nor for Alégany’s vaft mountain-range 
Bricannia’s downs and paftur'd fields exchan 
oe 
Soon fhall the wand’ring Tartars ceafe te 
roam, 
And quit Mongalian tents for fome fix’d 
home, 
No longer fhall difdain to till the ground, 
Nor fearch for {canty food the plains around; 
The rude barbarians feize the torch no more 
To fire the wither’d grafs for future ftore; 
Nor travellers behold, in wild difmay, 
The fpreading flames arreft their deftin’d way. 
The impetuous ftream at will no longer 
roams, 
Nor with deftruétive force the torrent foams; 
Confin’d by art, it glads the flowery meads, 
And richeft verdure the coarfe grafs fucceeds ; 
A double crop the'advancing mower braves, 
And crowns the toil that guides the enrich- 
ing waves. 
Thus o’er the vexdant plains the winding Po, 
And famed Orontes from their channel flow ; 
Or, on {till grander fcale, extending wide, 
Majeftic Nile pours forth her fwelling tide ; 
O’er burning fands, thus Ganges rolls his 
flood, 
Diffufing wide his own prolific mud; 
The fwarthy Indian hails the rifing ftreams, 
And of luxuriant harvefts fondly dreams; 
Grateful adores the wave that fills the graga, 
And ploughs and fows, nor ever fows in vain. - 
Let Caledonia, *midft her ftorms. proclaim, 
Clad in a humid veft, her Pultney’s name; _ 
Taught by-his ‘princely care, her fons fhall 
learn ‘ é 
How fertile crops fubue the barren fern, 
Shall range their hative mountains with des 
light, 
While the green-fward adorns their Alpine 
height. 
Whence fprings this wond’rous vegetative 
power, 
That fills the plant, thefeed-cup, andthe 
fiower, 
Gives to the foreft oak, his lordly height, 
And charms, in varied forms, the enraptur’d. 
fight. 
Does it in oil, or water, find fupply ? 
Or on putrefcent particles rely ? 
Thefe, through the earth, and air, and rain 
abound, _ Pate 
Suftain the fap and-fertilize the ground. 
Oft, in fome ill-tim’d hour, the hbeav’ns 
will frown, 
And with inceffant rains the harvett drown; 
Or vivid lightnings fhall the crop invade, 
Blaft the full-ear, or feize the fiowering 
blade. 
ryot 
ane 
