# The Poems of John Dyer/The Fleece

THE FLEECE
IN FOUR BOOKS
"Post majores quadrupedes ovilli pecoris secunda ratio est, quae prima sit, si ad utilitatis magnitudinem referas: nam id praecipue nos contra frigoris violentiam protegit, corporibusque nostris liberaliora praebet velamina."
—Columella.
["After the larger animals, our concern is with sheep, which would come first, if extent of usefulness were considered; for they furnish us with excellent clothes, and before all others protect us from the cold."]
BOOK I
The care of sheep, the labours of the loom, And arts of trade, I sing. Ye rural Nymphs! Ye Swains, and princely Merchants! aid the verse. And ye, high-trusted Guardians of our Isle Whom public voice approves, or lot of birth,5 To the great charge assigns! ye Good of all Degrees, all sects! be present to my song. So may distress, and wretchedness, and want, The wide felicities of labour learn: So may the proud attempts of restless Gaul10 From our strong borders, like a broken wave, In empty foam retire. But chiefly Thou, The people's Shepherd, eminently plac'd
Over the numerous swains of every vale, With well-permitted power and watchful eye15 On each gay field to shed beneficence, Celestial office! Thou protect the song. On spacious airy downs and gentle hills, With grass and thyme o'erspread, and clover wild, Where smiling Phœbus tempers ev'ry breeze,20 The fairest flocks rejoice: they nor of halt, Hydropic tumours, nor of rot, complain, Evils deform'd and foul: nor with hoarse cough Disturb the music of the past'ral pipe; But, crowding to the note, with silence soft25 The close-woven carpet graze, where Nature blends Flow'rets and herbage of minutest size, Innoxious luxury. Wide airy downs Are Health's gay walks to shepherd and to sheep. All arid soils, with sand or chalky flint,30 Or shells deluvian mingled, and the turf That mantles over rocks of brittle stone, Be thy regard; and where low-tufted broom, Or box, or berry'd juniper, arise; Or the tall growth of glossy-rinded beech;35 And where the burrowing rabbit turns the dust; And where the dappled deer delights to bound. Such are the downs of Banstead, edg'd with woods And towery villas; such Dorcestrian fields, Whose flocks innumerous whiten all the land:40 Such those slow-climbing wilds that lead the step Insensibly to Dover's windy cliff, Tremendous height! and such the clover'd lawns And sunny mounts of beauteous Normanton, Health's cheerful haunt, and the selected walk45 Of Heathcote's leisure: such the spacious plain Of Sarum, spread like Ocean's boundless round, Where solitary Stonehenge, gray with moss,
Ruin of ages! nods: such, too, the leas And ruddy tilth which spiry Ross beholds,50 From a green hillock, o'er her lofty elms; And Lemster's brooky tract and airy Croft; And such Harleian Eywood's swelling turf, Wav'd as the billows of a rolling sea; And Shobden, for its lofty terrace fam'd, 55 Which from a mountain's ridge, elate o'er woods, And girt with all Siluria, seas around Regions on regions blended in the clouds. Pleasant Siluria! land of various views, Hills, rivers, woods, and lawns, and purple groves 60 Pomaceous, mingled with the curling growth Of tendril hops, that flaunt upon their poles, More airy wild than vines along the sides Of treacherous Falernum, or that hill Vesuvius, where the bowers of Bacchus rose, 65 And Herculanean and Pompeian domes. But if thy prudent care would cultivate Leicestrian Fleeces, what the sinewy arm Combs thro' the spiky steel in lengthen'd flakes; Rich saponaceous loam, that slowly drinks 70 The blackening shower, and fattens with the draught, Or heavy marl's deep clay, be then thy choice, Of one consistence, one complexion, spread Thro' all thy glebe; where no deceitful veins Of envious gravel lurk beneath the turf, 75 To loose the creeping waters from their springs, Tainting the pasturage: and let thy fields In slopes descend and mount, that chilling rains May trickle off, and hasten to the brooks. Yet some defect in all on earth appears: 80 All seek for help, all press for social aid. Too cold the grassy mantle of the marle, In stormy winter's long and dreary nights,
For cumbent sheep; from broken slumber oft They rise benumb'd, and vainly shift the couch;85 Their wasted sides their evil plight declare: Hence, tender in his care, the shepherd swain Seeks each contrivance. Here it would avail At a meet distance from the sheltr'ing mound To sink a trench, and on the hedge-long bank 90 Sow frequent sand, with lime, and dark manure, Which to the liquid element will yield A porous way, a passage to the foe. Plough not such pastures; deep in spongy grass The oldest carpet is the warmest lair, 95 And soundest: in new herbage coughs are heard. Nor love too frequent shelter, such as decks The vale of Severn, Nature's garden wide, By the blue steeps, of distant Malvern wall'd, Solemnly vast. The trees of various shade,100 Scene behind scene, with fair delusive pomp Enrich the prospect, but they rob the lawns. Nor prickly brambles, white with woolly theft, Should tuft thy fields. Applaud not the remiss Dimetians, who along their mossy dales 105 Consume, like grasshoppers, the summer hour, While round them stubborn thorns and furze increase, And creeping briars. I knew a careful swain Who gave them to the crackling flames, and spread Their dust saline upon the deepening grass;110 And oft with labour-strengthen'd arm he delv'd The draining trench across his verdant slopes, To intercept the small meandring rills Of upper hamlets. Haughty trees, that sour The shaded grass, that weaken thorn-set mounds,115 And harbour villain crows, he rare allow'd; Only a slender tuft of useful ash, And mingled beech and elm, securely tall,
The little smiling cottage warm embower'd; The little smiling cottage! where at eve 120 He meets his rosy children at the door, Prattling their welcomes, and his honest wife, With good brown cake and bacon slice, intent To cheer his hunger after labour hard. Nor only soil, there also must be found 125 Felicity of clime, and aspect bland, Where gentle sheep may nourish locks of price. In vain the silken Fleece on windy brows, And northern slopes of cloud-dividing hills, Is sought, tho' soft Iberia spreads her lap 130 Beneath their rugged feet and names their heights Biscaian or Segovian. Bothnic realms, And dark Norwegian, with their choicest fields, Dingles, and dells, by lofty fir embower'd, In vain the bleaters court. Alike they shun 135 Libya's hot plains. What taste have they for groves Of palm, or yellow dust of gold? no more Food to the flock than to the miser wealth, Who kneels upon the glittering heap and starves. Ev'n Gallic Abbeville the shining Fleece,140 That richly decorates her loom, acquires Basely from Albion, by th' ensnaring bribe, The bate of avarice, which with felon fraud For its own wanton mouth from thousands steals. How erring oft the judgment in its hate 145 Or fond desire! Those slow-descending showers, Those hovering fogs, that bathe our growing vales In deep November (loath'd by trifling Gaul, Effeminate), are gifts the Pleiads shed, Britannia's handmaids: as the beverage falls 150 Her hills rejoice, her valleys laugh and sing. Hail, noble Albion! where no golden mines, No soft perfumes, nor oils, nor myrtle bowers,
The vigorous frame and lofty heart of man. Enervate: round whose stern cerulean brows155 White-winged snow, and cloud, and pearly rain, Frequent attend, with solemn majesty: Rich queen of Mists and Vapours! these thy sons With their cool arms compress, and twist their nerves For deeds of excellence and high renown.160 Thus form'd, our Edwards, Henries, Churchills, Blakes, Our Lockes, our Newtons, and our Miltons, rose. See the sun gleams; the living pastures rise, After the nurture of the fallen shower, How beautiful! how blue th' ethereal vault!165 How verdurous the lawns! how clear the brooks! Such noble warlike steeds, such herds of kine, So sleek, so vast! such spacious flocks of sheep, Like flakes of gold illumining the green, What other paradise adorn but thine,170 Britannia! happy if thy sons would know Their happiness. To these thy naval streams, Thy frequent towns superb of busy trade, And ports magnific, add, and stately ships Innumerous. But whither strays my Muse?175 Pleas'd, like a traveller upon the strand Arriv'd of bright Augusta, wild he roves, From deck to deck, thro' groves immense of masts; 'Mong crowds, bales, cars, the wealth of either Ind; Thro; wharfs, squares, and palaces, and domes,180 In sweet surprise, unable yet to fix His raptur'd mind, or scan in order'd course Each object singly, with discoveries new His native country studious to enrich. Ye Shepherds! if your labours hope success,185 Be first your purpose to procure a breed To soil and clime adapted. Every soil
And clime, ev'n every tree and herb, receives Its habitant peculiar: each to each The Great Invisible, and each to all,190 Thro' earth, and sea, and air, harmonious suits. Tempestuous regions, Darwent's naked Peaks, Snowden and blue Plynlymmon, and the wide Aerial sides of Cader-ydris huge; These are bestow'd on goat-horned sheep, of Fleece195 Hairy and coarse, of long and nimble shank, Who rove o'er bog or heath, and graze or brouze Alternate, to collect, with due dispatch, O'er the bleak wild, the thinly-scatter'd meal: But hills of milder air, that gently rise 200 O'er dewy dales, a fairer species boast, Of shorter limb, and frontlet more ornate: Such the Silurian. If thy farm extends Near Cotswold Downs, or the delicious groves Of Symmonds, honour'd thro' the sandy soil 205 Of elmy Ross, or Devon's myrtle vales, That drink clear rivers near the glassy sea, Regard this sort, and hence thy sire of lambs Select: his tawny Fleece in ringlets curl; Long swings his slender tail; his front is fenc'd 210 With horns Ammonian, circulating twice Around each open ear, like those fair scrolls That grace the columns of th' Iönic dome. Yet should thy fertile glebe be marly clay, Like Melton pastures, or Tripontian fields, 215 Where ever-gliding Avon's limpid wave Thwarts the long course of dusty Watling-street; That larger sort, of head defenceless, seek, Whose Fleece is deep and clammy, close and plain: The ram short-limbed, whose form compact describes 220 One level line along his spacious back;
Of full and ruddy eye, large ears, stretch'd head, Nostrils dilated, breast and shoulders broad, And spacious haunches, and a lofty dock. Thus to their kindred soil and air induc'd, 225 Thy thriving herd will bless thy skilful care, That copies Nature, who, in every change, In each variety, with wisdom works, And powers diversifi'd of air and soil, Her rich materials. Hence Sabæa's rocks, 230 Chaldæa's marle, Egyptus' water'd loam, And dry Cyrene's sand, in climes alike, With different stores supply the marts of trade: Hence Zembla's icy tracks no bleaters hear: Small are the Russian herds, and harsh their Fleece; 235 Of light esteem Germanic, far remote From soft sea-breezes, open winters mild, And summers bath'd in dew: on Syrian sheep The costly burden only loads their tails: No locks Gormandel's, none Malacca's, tribe 240 Adorn; but sleek of flix, and brown like deer, Fearful and shepherdless, they bound along The sands. No Fleeces wave in torrid climes, Which verdure boast of trees and shrubs alone, Shrubs aromatic, caufee wild, or thea, 245 Nutmeg, or cinnamon, or fiery clove, Unapt to feed the Fleece. The food of wool Is grass or herbage soft, that ever blooms In temp'rate air, in the delicious downs Of Albion, on the banks of all her streams. 250 Of grasses are unnumber'd kinds, and all (Save where foul waters linger on the turf) Salubrious. Early mark when tepid gleams Oft mingle with the pearls of summer showers, And swell too hastily the tender plains; 255 Then snatch away thy sheep: beware the rot;
And with detersive bay-salt rub their mouths, Or urge them on a barren bank to feed, In hunger's kind distress, on tedded hay; Or to the marish guide their easy steps, 260 If near thy tufted crofts the broad sea spreads. Sagacious care foreacts. When strong disease Breaks in, and stains the purple streams of health, Hard is the strife of art. The coughing pest From their green pasture sweeps whole flocks away. 265 That dire distemper, sometimes may the swain, Tho' late, discern; when on the lifted lid, Or visual orb, the turgid veins are pale, The swelling liver then her putrid store Begins to drink: ev'n yet thy skill exert,270 Nor suffer weak despair to fold thy arms; Again detersive salt apply, or shed The hoary med'cine o'er their arid food. In cold stiff soils the bleaters oft complain Of gouty ails, by shepherds term'd the Halt: 275 Those let the neighb'ring fold or ready crook Detain, and pour into their cloven feet Corrosive drugs, deep-searching arsenic, Dry allum, verdigrise, or vitriole keen: But if the doubtful mischief scarce appears, 280 'Twill serve to shift them to a dryer turf, And salt again. Th' utility of salt Teach thy slow swains; redundant humours cold Are the diseases of the bleating kind. Th' infectious scab, arising from extremes 285 Of want or surfeit, is by water cured Of lime, or sodden staves-acre, or oil Dispersive of Norwegian tar, renown'd By virtuous Berkeley, whose benevolence Explored its pow'rs, and easy med'cine thence 290 Sought for the poor. Ye Poor! with grateful voice
Invoke eternal blessings on his head. Sheep also pleurisies and dropsies know, Driven oft from Nature's path by artful man, Who blindly turns aside, with haughty hand,295 Whom sacred Instinct would securely lead. But thou, more humble Swain! thy rural gates Frequent unbar, and let thy flocks abroad From lea to croft, from mead to arid field, Noting the fickle seasons of the sky. 300 Rain-sated pastures let them shun, and seek Changes of herbage and salubrious flowers. By their All-perfect Master inly taught, They best their food and physic can discern; For He, Supreme Existence! ever near, 305 Informs them. O'er the vivid green observe With what a regular consent they crop, At every fourth collection to the mouth, Unsav'ry crow-flow'r; whether to awake Languor of appetite with lively change,310 Or timely to repel approaching ills, Hard to determine. Thou, whom Nature loves, And with her salutary rules intrusts, Benevolent Mackenzie! say the cause. This truth howe'er shines bright to human sense;315 Each strong affection of th' unconscious brute, Each bent, each passion of the smallest mite, Is wisely giv'n: harmonious they perform The work of perfect reason (blush, vain Man!), And turn the wheels of Nature's vast machine. 320 See that thy scrip have store of healing tar, And marking pitch and raddle; nor forget Thy shears true pointed, nor th' officious dog, Faithful to teach thy stragglers to return; So may'sf thou aid who lag along, or steal 325 Aside into the furrows or the shades,
Silent to droop; or who at ev'ry gate Or hillock rub their sores and loosen'd wool. But rather these, the feeble of thy flock, Banish before th' autumnal months. Ev'n age330 Forbear too much to favour: oft renew And thro' thy fold let joyous youth appear. Beware the season of imperial Love, Who thro' the world his ardent spirit pours; Ev'n sheep are then intrepid! the proud ram 335 With jealous eye surveys the spacious field: All rivals keep aloof, or desp'rate war Suddenly rages; with impetuous force, And fury irresistible, they dash Their hardy frontlets: the wide vale resounds: 340 The flock, amaz'd, stands safe afar; and oft Each to the other's might a victim falls; As fell of old, before that engine's sway, Which hence ambition imitative wrought, The beauteous tow'rs of Salem to the dust. 345 Wise custom at the fifth or six return, Or ere they 'ave past the twelfth, of orient morn, Castrates the lambkins; necessary rite, Ere they be number'd of the peaceful herd. But kindly watch whom thy sharp hand has grieved, 350 In those rough months that lift the turning year: Not tedious is the office; to thy aid Favonius hastens; soon their wounds he heals, And leads them skipping to the flow'rs of May; May! who allows to fold, if poor the tilth, 355 Like that of dreary houseless common fields, Worn by the plough; but fold on fallows dry. Enfeeble not thy flock to feed thy land, Nor in too narrow bounds the pris'ners crowd; Nor ope the wattled fence while balmy Morn 360 Lies on the reeking pasture: wait till all
The crystal dews, impearl'd upon the grass, Are touch'd by Phœbus' beams, and mount aloft, With various clouds to paint the azure sky. In teasing fly-time, dank or frosty days, 365 With unctuous liquids, or the lees of oil, Rub their soft skins between the parted locks: Thus the Brigantes: 't is not idle pains: Nor is that skill despis'd which trims their tails, Ere summer-heats, of filth and tagged wool. 370 Coolness and cleanliness to health conduce. To mend thy mounds, to trench, to clear, to soil, Thy grateful fields, to medicate thy sheep, Hurdles to weave, and cheerly shelters raise, Thy vacant hours require; and ever learn 375 Quick ether's motions: oft the scene is turn'd; Now the blue vault, and now the murky cloud, Hail, rain, or radiance: these the moon will tell, Each bird and beast, and these thy fleecy tribe. When high the sapphire cope, supine they couch, 380 And chew the cud delighted; but ere rain Eager, and at unwonted hour, they feed. Slight not the warning; soon the tempest rolls, Scatt'ring them wide, close rushing at the heels Of th' hurrying o'ertaken swains: forbear 385 Such nights to fold; such nights be theirs to shift On ridge or hillock; or in homesteads soft, Or softer cots, detain them. Is thy lot A chill penurious turf, to all thy toils Untractable? Before harsh winter drowns 390 The noisy dykes, and starves the rushy glebe, Shift the frail breed to sandy hamlets warm; There let them sojourn, till gay Procne skims The thick'ning verdure and the rising flow'rs. And while departing autumn all embrowns 395 The frequent-bitten fields, while thy free hand
Divides the tedded hay, then be their feet Accustom'd to the barriers of the rick, Or some warm umbrage; left, in erring flight, When the broad dazzling snows descend, they run 400 Dispers'd to ditches, where the swelling drift Wide overwhelms: anxious, the shepherd swains Issue with axe and spade, and, all abroad, In doubtful aim explore the glaring waste, And some, perchance, in the deep delve upraise, 405 Drooping, ev'n at the twelfth cold dreary day, With still continu'd feeble pulse of life, The glebe, their Fleece, their flesh, by hunger gnaw'd. Ah, gentle Shepherd! thine the lot to tend, Of all that feel distress, the most assail'd, 410 Feeble, defenceless: lenient be thy care; But spread around thy tend'rest diligence In flow'ry spring-time, when the new-dropp'd lamb, Tott'ring with weakness by his mother's side, Feels the fresh world about him, and each thorn, 415 Hillock, or furrow, trips his feeble feet: O! guard his meek sweet innocence from all Th' innumerous ills that rush around his life; Mark the quick kite, with beak and talons prone, Circling the skies to snatch him from the plain; 420 Observe the lurking crows; beware the brake, There the sly fox the careless minute waits; Nor trust thy neighbour's dog, nor earth, nor sky: Thy bosom to a thousand cares divide. Eurus oft slings his hail; the tardy fields 425 Pay not their promis'd food; and oft the dam O'er her weak twins with empty udder mourns, Or fails to guard when the bold bird of prey Alights, and hops in many turns around, And tires her, also turning: to her aid 430 Be nimble, and the weakest in thine arms
Gently convey to the warm cot and oft, Between the lark's note and the nightingale's, His hungry bleating still with tepid milk: In this soft office may thy children join, 435 And charitable habits learn in sport: Nor yield him to himself ere vernal airs Sprinkle thy little croft with daisy flowers: Nor yet forget him; life has rising ills: Various as ether is the past'ral care: 440 Thro' slow experience, by a patient breast, The whole long lesson gradual is attain'd, By precept after precept, oft receiv'd With deep attention; such as Nuceus sings To the full vale near Soar's enamour'd brook, 445 While all is silence: sweet Hinclean swain! Whom rude Obscurity severely clasps: The Muse, howe'er, will deck thy simple cell With purple violets and primrose flowers, Well-pleas'd thy faithful lessons to repay. 450 Sheep no extremes can bear: both heat and cold Spread sores cutaneous; but more frequent heat. The fly-blown vermin from their woolly nest Press to the tortur'd skin, and flesh, and bone, In littleness and number dreadful foes! 455 Long rains in miry winter cause the halt; Rainy luxuriant summers rot your flock; And all excess, ev'n of salubrious food, As sure destroys as famine or the wolf. Inferior theirs to man's world-roving frame, 460 Which all extremes in every zone endures. With grateful heart, ye British Swains! enjoy Your gentle seasons and indulgent clime. Lo! in the sprinkling clouds your bleating hills Rejoice with herbage, while the horrid rage 465 Of winter irresistible o'erwhelms
Th' Hyperborean tracks: his arrowy frosts, That pierce thro' flinty rocks, the Lappian flies, And burrows deep beneath the snowy world; A drear abode! from rose diffusing hours,470 That dance before the wheels of radiant day, Far, far remote; where, by the squalid light Of fetid oil inflam'd, sea-monsters' spume, Or fir-wood, glaring in the weeping vault, Twice three slow gloomy months with various ills475 Sullen he struggles; such the love of life! His lank and scanty herds around him press, As, hunger-stung, to gritty meal he grinds The bones of fish, or inward bark of trees, Their common sustenance; while ye, O Swains!480 Ye, happy at your ease, behold your sheep Feed on the open turf, or crowd the tilth, Where, thick among the greens, with busy mouths They scoop white turnips: little care is yours; Only at morning hour to interpose 485 Dry food of oats, or hay, or brittle straw, The wat'ry juices of the bossy root Absorbing; or from noxious air to screen Your heavy teeming ewes with wattled fence Of furze or copse-wood in the lofty field, 490 Which bleak ascends among the whistling winds: Or, if your sheep are of Silurian breed, Nightly to house them dry on fern or straw, Silk'ning their Fleeces. Ye nor rolling hut Nor watchful dog require, where never roar 495 Of savage tears the air, where careless Night In balmy sleep lies lull'd, and only wakes To plenteous peace. Alas! o'er warmer zones Wild terror strides, their stubborn rocks are rent, Their mountains sink, their yawning caverns flame, 500 And fiery torrents roll impetuous down,
Proud cities deluging; Pompeian tow'rs, And Herculanean, and what riotous stood In Syrian valley, where now the Dead Sea 'Mong solitary hills infectious lies. 505 See the swift Furies, famine, plague, and war, In frequent thunders rage o'er neighb'ring realms, And spread their plains with desolation wide! Yet your mild homesteads ever-blooming smile Among embracing woods, and waft on high 510 The breath of plenty, from the ruddy tops Of chimneys curling o'er the gloomy trees In airy azure ringlets to the sky. Nor ye by need are urg'd, as Attic swains, And Tarentine, with skins to clothe your sheep, 515 Expensive toil, howe'er expedient found In fervid climates, while from Phœbus' beams They fled to rugged woods and tangling brakes. But those expensive toils are now no more, Proud Tyranny devours their flocks and herds:520 Nor bleat of sheep may now, nor sound of pipe, Sooth the sad plains of once sweet Arcady, The shepherds' kingdom: dreary solitude Spreads o'er Hymettus, and the shaggy vale Of Athens, which in solemn silence sheds 525 Her venerable ruins to the dust. The weary Arabs roam from plain to plain, Guiding the languid herd in quest of food, And shift their little home's uncertain scene With frequent farewell; strangers, pilgrims all, 530 As were their fathers. No sweet fall of rain May there be heard; nor sweeter liquid lapse Of river, o'er the pebbles gliding by In murmurs: goaded by the rage of thirst, Daily they journey to the distant clefts 535 Of craggy rocks, where gloomy palms o'erhang
The ancient wells, deep sunk by toil immense, Toil of the patriarchs, with sublime intent Themselves and long posterity to serve. There, at the public hour of sultry noon,540 They share the bev'rage, when to wat'ring come, And grateful umbrage, all the tribes around, And their lean flocks, whose various bleatings fill The echoing caverns: then is absent none, Fair nymph or shepherd, each inspiring each 545 To wit, and song, and dance, and active feats; In the same rustic scene, where Jacob won Fair Rachel's bosom, when a rock's vast weight From the deep dark-mouth'd well his strength remov'd, And to her circling sheep refreshment gave.550 Such are the perils, such the toils, of life, In foreign climes. But speed thy flight, my Muse! Swift turns the year, and our unnumber'd flocks On Fleeces overgrown uneasy lie. Now, jolly Swains! the harvest of your cares555 Prepare to reap, and seek the sounding caves Of high Brigantium, where, by ruddy flames, Vulcan's strong sons, with nervous arm, around The steady anvil and the glaring mass Clatter their heavy hammers down by turns,560 Flatt'ning the steel: from their rough hands receive The sharpen'd instrument that from the flock Severs the Fleece. If verdant elder spreads Her silver flow'rs; if humble daisies yield To yellow crow-foot, and luxuriant grass,565 Gay shearing-time approaches. First, howe'er, Drive to the double fold, upon the brim Of a clear river, gently drive the flock, And plunge them one by one into the flood: Plung'd in the flood, not long the struggler sinks,570 With his white flakes that glisten thro' the tide;
The sturdy rustic, in the middle wave, Awaits to seize him rising; one arm bears His lifted head above the limpid stream While the full clammy Fleece the other laves 575 Around, laborious, with repeated toil; And then resigns him to the sunny bank, Where, bleating loud, he shakes his dripping locks. Shear them the fourth or fifth return of morn, Lest touch of busy fly-blows wound their skin. 580 Thy peaceful subjects without murmur yield
Their yearly tribute: 'tis the prudent part To cherish and be gentle, while ye strip The downy vesture from their tender sides. Press not too close; with caution turn the points,585 And from the head in regular rounds proceed: But speedy, when ye chance to wound, with tar Prevent the wingy swarm and scorching heat; And careful house them, if the low'ring clouds Mingle their stores tumultuous: thro' the gloom 590 Then thunder oft with pond'rous wheels rolls loud, And breaks the crystal urns of heav'n; adown Falls streaming rain. Sometimes among the steeps Of Cambrian glades (pity the Cambrian glades!) Fast tumbling brooks on brooks enormous swell,595 And sudden overwhelm their vanish'd fields: Down with the flood away the naked sheep, Bleating in vain, are borne, and straw-built huts, And rifted trees, and heavy enormous rocks, Down with the rapid torrent to the deep.600 At shearing-time along the lively vales Rural festivities are often heard; Beneath each blooming arbour all is joy And lusty merriment. While on the grass The mingled youth in gaudy circles sport,605 We think the Golden Age again return'd,
And all the fabled Dryades in dance: Leering they bound along, with laughing air, To the shrill pipe, and deep remurm'ring-cords Of th' ancient harp, or tabor's hollow sound. 610 While th' old apart, upon a bank reclin'd, Attend the tuneful carol, softly mix'd With every murmur of the sliding wave, And every warble of the feather'd choir, Music of Paradise! which still is heard 615 When the heart listens, still the views appear Of the first happy garden, when Content To Nature's flowery scenes directs the sight. Yet we abandon those Elysian walks, Then idly for the lost delight repine; 620 As greedy mariners, whose desp'rate sails Skim o'er the billows of the foamy flood, Fancy they see the lessening shores retire, And sigh a farewell to the sinking hills. Could I recall those notes which once the Muse 625 Heard at a shearing, near the woody sides Of blue-topp'd Wreakin! Yet the carols sweet Thro' the deep maze of the memorial cell Faintly remurmur. First arose in song Hoar-headed Damon, venerable Swain! 630 The soothest shepherd of the flow'ry vale, "This is no vulgar scene; no palace roof Was e'er so lofty, nor so nobly rise Their polish'd pillars as these aged oaks, Which o'er our Fleecy wealth and harmless sports 635 Thus have expanded wide their shelt'ring arms Thrice told an hundred summers. Sweet Content, Ye gentle shepherds! pillow us at night." "Yes, tuneful Damon, for our cares are short, Rising and falling with the cheerful day,"640 Colin reply'd; "and pleasing weariness
Soon our unaching heads to sleep inclines. Is it in cities so? where, poets tell, The cries of Sorrow sadden all the streets, And the diseases of intemp'rate wealth. 645 Alas! that any ills from wealth should rise!" "May the sweet nightingale on yonder spray, May this clear stream, those lawns, these snow-white lambs, Which with a pretty innocence of look Skip on the green, and race in little troops; 650 May that great lamp which sinks behind the hills, And streams around variety of lights, Recall them erring! this is Damon's wish." "Huge Breaden's stony summit once I climb'd After a kidling: Damon, what a scene! 655 What various views unnumber'd spread beneath! Woods, tow'rs, vales, caves, dells, cliffs, and torrent floods, And here and there, between the spiry rocks, The broad flat sea. Far nobler prospects these Than gardens black with smoke in dusty towns, 660 Where stenchy vapours often blot the sun: Yet, flying from his quiet, thither crowds Each greedy wretch for tardy-rising wealth, Which comes too late, that courts the taste in vain, Or nauseates with distempers. Yes, ye Rich! 665 Still, still be rich, if thus ye fashion life; And piping, careless, silly shepherds we, We silly shepherds, all intent to feed Our snowy flocks, and wind the sleeky Fleece." "Deem not, however, our occupation mean," 670 Damon reply'd, "while the Supreme accounts Well of the faithful shepherd, rank'd alike With king and priest: they also shepherds are; For so th' All-seeing styles them, to remind
Elated man, forgetful of his charge." 675 "But haste, begin the rites: see purple Eve Stretches her shadows: all ye Nymphs and Swains! Hither assemble. Pleas'd with honours due, Sabrina, guardian of the crystal flood, Shall bless our cares, when she by moonlight clear 680 Skims o'er the dales, and eyes our sleeping folds; Or in hoar caves around Plynlymmon's brow, Where precious minerals dart their purple gleams, Among her sisters she reclines; the lov'd Vaga, profuse of graces, Ryddol rough, 685 Blithe Ystwith, and Clevedoc, swift of foot; And mingles various seeds of flow'rs and herbs, In the divided torrents, ere they burst Thro' the dark clouds, and down the mountain roll. Nor taint-worm shall infect the yeaning herds, 690 Nor penny-grass nor spearwort's pois'nous leaf." He said: with light fantastic toe the nymphs Thither assembled, thither every swain; And o'er the dimpled stream a thousand flow'rs, Pale lilies, roses, violets, and pinks, 695 Mix'd with the greens of burnet, mint, and thyme, And trefoil, sprinkled with their sportive arms. Such custom holds along th' irriguous vales From Wreakin's brow to rocky Dolvoryn, Sabrina's early haunt, ere yet she fled 700 The search of Guendolen, her stepdame proud, With envious hate enrag'd. The jolly cheer, Spread on a mossy bank, untouch'd abides Till cease the rites; and now the mossy bank Is gaily circled, and the jolly cheer 705 Dispers'd in copious measure; early fruits, And those of frugal store, in husk or rind; Steep'd grain, and curdled milk with dulcet cream Soft temper'd, in full merriment they quaff,
And cast about their gibes; and some apace 710 Whistle to roundelays: their little ones Look on delighted; while the mountain-woods And winding valleys with the various notes Of pipe, sheep, kine, and birds, and liquid brooks, Unite their echoes: near at hand the wide 715 Majestic wave of Severn slowly rolls Along the deep-divided glebe: the flood, And trading bark with low contracted sail, Linger among the reeds and copsy banks To listen, and to view the joyous scene. 720
BOOK II
Now of the sever'd lock begin the song With various numbers, thro' the simple theme To win attention: this, ye Shepherd Swains! This is a labour. Yet, O Wray! if thou Cease not with skilful hand to point her way, 5 The lark-wing'd Muse above the grassy vale, And hills, and woods, shall, singing soar aloft; And he whom learning, wisdom, candour, grace, Who glows with all the virtues of his sire, Royston! approve, and patronise the strain. 10 Thro' all the brute creation none as sheep To lordly man such ample tribute pay. For him their udders yield nectareous streams; For him their downy vestures they resign; For him they spread the feast: ah! ne'er may he 15 Glory in wants which doom to pain and death
His blameless fellow-creatures. Let disease, Let wasted hunger, by destroying live, And the permission use with trembling thanks, Meekly reluctant: 't is the brute beyond; 20 And gluttons ever murder when they kill. Ev'n to the reptile every cruel deed Is high impiety. Howe'er not all, Not of the sanguinary tribe are all; All are not savage. Come, ye gentle Swains! 25 Like Brama's healthy sons on Indus' banks, Whom the pure stream and garden fruits sustain; Ye are the sons of Nature; your mild hands Are innocent: ye when ye shear relieve. Come, gentle Swains! the bright unsully'd locks 30 Collect; alternate songs shall soothe your cares, And warbling music break from every spray. Be faithful, and the genuine locks alone Wrap round; nor alien flake nor pitch enfold; Stain not your stores with base desire to add 35 Fallacious weight; nor yet, to mimic those, Minute and light, of sandy Urchinfield, Lessen, with subtle artifice, the Fleece; Equal the fraud: nor interpose delay, Lest busy ether thro' the open wool 40 Debilitating pass, and every film Ruffle and sully with the valley's dust. Guard, too, from moisture, and the fretting moth Pernicious: she, in gloomy shade conceal'd, Her labyrinth cuts, and mocks the comber's care: 45 But in loose locks of fells she most delights, And feeble Fleeces of distemper'd sheep, Whither she hastens, by the morbid scent Allur'd, as the swift eagle to the fields Of slaught'ring war or carnage: such apart 50 Keep for their proper use: our ancestors
Selected such for hospitable beds To rest the stranger, or the gory chief From battle or the chase of wolves return'd. When many-colour'd ev'ning sinks behind 55 The purple woods and hills, and opposite Rises, full-orb'd, the silver harvest moon, To light th' unwearied farmer, late a-field His scatter'd sheaves collecting, then expect The artists, bent on speed, from populous Leeds, 60 Norwich, or Froome; they traverse every plain And every dale where farm or cottage smokes: Reject them not; and let the season's price Win thy soft treasures; let the bulky wain Thro' dusty roads roll nodding; or the bark, 65 That silently adown the cerule stream Glides with white sails, dispense the downy freight To copsy villages on either side, And spiry towns, where ready Diligence, The grateful burden to receive, awaits, 70 Like strong Briareus, with his hundred hands. In the same Fleece diversity of wool Grows intermingled, and excites the care Of curious skill to sort the several kinds. But in this subtle science none exceed 75 Th' industrious Belgians, to the work who guide Each feeble hand of want: their spacious domes, With boundless hospitality, receive Each nation's outcasts: there the tender eye May view the maim'd, the blind, the lame, employ'd, 80 And unreject'd age: ev'n childhood there Its little fingers turning to the toil Delighted: nimbly, with habitual speed, They sever lock from lock, and long, and short, And soft, and rigid, pile in sev'ral heaps. 85 This the dusk hatter asks: another shines
Tempting the clothier; that the hosier seeks; The long bright lock is apt for airy stuffs; But often it deceives the artist's care, Breaking unuseful in the steely comb: 90 For this long spungy wool no more increase Receives while winter petrifies the fields: The growth of Autumn stops; and what tho' Spring Succeeds with rosy finger, and spins on The texture? yet in vain she strives to link 95 The silver twine to that of Autumn's hand. Be then the swain advis'd to shield his flocks From winter's dead'ning frosts and whelming snows; Let the loud tempest rattle on the roof, While they, secure within, warm cribs enjoy, 100 And swell their Fleeces, equal to the worth Of cloath'd Apulian, by soft warmth improv'd; Or let them inward heat and vigour find By food of cole or turnip, hardy plants. Besides, the lock of one continued growth 105 Imbibes a clearer and more equal dye. But lightest wool is theirs who poorly toil Thro' a dull round in unimproving farms Of common fields. Inclose, inclose, ye Swains! Why will you joy in common field, where pitch, 110 Noxious to wood, must stain your motley flock, To mark your property? the mark dilates, Enters the flake depreciated, defil'd, Unfit for beauteous tint. Besides, in fields Promiscuous held all culture languishes; 115 The glebe, exhausted, thin supply receives; Dull waters rest upon the rushy flats And barren furrows: none the rising grove There plants for late posterity, nor hedge To shield the flock, nor copse for cheering fire; 120 And in the distant village every hearth
Devours the grassy sward, the verdant food Of injur'd herds and flocks, or what the plough Should turn and moulder for the bearded grain: Pernicious habit! drawing gradual on 125 Increasing beggary, and Nature's frowns. Add too, the idle pilf'rer easier there Eludes detection, when a lamb or ewe From intermingled flocks he steals; or when, With loosen'd tether of his horse or cow, 130 The milky stalk of the tall green-ear'd corn, The year's slow rip'ning fruit, the anxious hope Of his laborious neighbour, he destroys. There are who over-rate our spungy stores, Who deem that Nature grants no clime but ours 135 To spread upon its fields the dews of heav'n, And feed the silky Fleece; that card nor comb The hairy wool of Gaul can ne'er subdue, To form the thread, and mingle in the loom, Unless a third from Britain swell the heap: 140 Illusion all; tho' of our sun and air Not trivial is the virtue, nor their fruit Upon our snowy flocks of small esteem: The grain of brightest tincture none so well Imbibes: the wealthy Gobelins must to this 145 Bear witness, and the costhest of their looms. And though with hue of crocus or of rose No pow'r of subtle food, or air, or soil, Can dye the living Fleece; yet 't will avail To note their influence in the tinging vase: 150 Therefore from herbage of old pastur'd plains, Chief from the matted turf of azure marl Where grow the whitest locks, collect thy stores. Those fields regard not thro' whose recent turf The miry soil appears; nor ev'n the streams 155 Of Yare or silver Stroud can purify
Their frequent fully'd Fleece; nor what rough winds, Keen biting on tempestuous hills, imbrown. Yet much may be perform'd to check the force Of Nature's rigour: the high heath, by trees 160 Warm shelter'd, may despise the rage of storms: Moors, bogs, and weeping fens, may learn to smile, And leave in dikes their soon-forgotten tears. Labour and Art will every aim achieve Of noble bosoms. Bedford Level, erst 165 A dreary pathless waste, the coughing flock Was wont with hairy Fleeces to deform, And, smiling with her lure of summer flow'rs, 'I he heavy ox vain struggling to ingulf; Till one of that high honour'd patriot name, 170 Russel! arose, who drain'd the rushy fen, Confin'd the waves, bade groves and gardens bloom, And thro' his new creation led the Ouze And gentle Camus, silver-winding streams: God-like beneficence! from chaos drear 175 To raise the garden and the shady grove. But see Ierne's moors and hideous bogs, Immeasurable track! the traveller Slow tries his mazy step on th' yielding tuft, Shudd'ring with fear: ev'n such perfidious wilds, 180 By labour won, have yielded to the comb The fairest length of wool. See Deeping Fens, And the long lawns of Bourn. 'Tis art and toil Gives Nature value, multiplies her stores, Varies, improves, creates: 'tis art and toil 185 Teaches her woody hills with fruits to shine, The pear and tasteful apple; decks with flow'rs And foodful pulse the fields that often rise, Admiring to behold their furrows wave With yellow corn. What changes cannot Toil, 190 With patient Art, effect? There was a time
When other regions were the swain's delight, And shepherdless Britannia's rushy vales, Inglorious, neither trade nor labour knew, But of rude baskets, homely rustic gear, 195 Woven of the flexile willow; till at length, The plains of Sarum open'd to the hand Of patient Culture, and o'er sinking woods High Cotswold show'd her summits. Urchinfield, And Lemster's crofts, beneath the pheasant's brake 200 Long lay unnoted. Toil new pasture gives, And in the regions oft of active Gaul O'er less'ning vineyards spreads the growing turf. In eldest times, when kings and hardy chiefs In bleating sheepfolds met, for purest wool 205 Phœnicia's hilly tracks were most renown'd, And fertile Syria's and Judea's land, Hermon and Seir, and Hebron's brooky sides. Twice with these murex, crimson hue, they ting'd The shining Fleeces; hence their gorgeous wealth; 210 And hence arose the walls of ancient Tyre. Next busy Colchis, bless'd with frequent rains And lively verdure (who the lucid stream Of Phasis boasted, and a portly race Of fair inhabitants), improv'd the Fleece, 215 When, o'er the deep by flying Phryxus brought, The fam'd Thessalian ram enrich'd her plains. This rising Greece with indignation view'd, And youthful Jason an attempt conceiv'd Lofty and bold: along Peneus' banks, 220 Around Olympus' brows, the Muses' haunts, He rouz'd the brave to re-demand the Fleece. Attend, ye British Swains! the ancient song. From ev'ry region of Ægea's shore The brave assembled; those illustrious twins, 225 Castor and Pollux; Orpheus, tuneful bard;
Zetes and Calais, as the wind in speed; Strong Hercules, and many a chief renown'd. On deep Iolcos' sandy shore they throng'd, Gleaming in armour, ardent of exploits; 230 And soon the laurel cord and the huge stone Uplifting to the deck, unmoor'd the bark, Whose keel, of wondrous length, the skilful hand Of Argus fashion'd for the proud attempt; And in th' extended keel a lofty mast 235 Uprais'd, and sails full swelling, to the chiefs Unwonted objects: now first, now they learn'd Their bolder steerage over ocean wave, Led by the golden stars, as Chiron's art Had mark'd the sphere celestial. Wide abroad 240 Expands the purple deep; the cloudy isles, Scyros and Scopelos, and Icos, rise, And Halonesos: soon huge Lemnos heaves Her azure head above the level brine, Shakes off her mists, and brightens all her cliffs; 245 While they, her flattering creeks and opening bowers Cautious approaching, in Myrina's port Cast out the cabled stone upon the strand. Next to the Mysian shore they shape their course, But with too eager haste: in the white foam 250 His oar Alcides breaks; howe'er, not long The chance detains; he springs upon the shore, And rifting from the roots a tapering pine, Renews his stroke. Between the threat'ning tow'rs Of Hellespont they ply the rugged surge, 255 To Hero's and Leander's ardent love Fatal; then smooth Propontis' wid'ning wave, That like a glassy lake expands, with hills, Hills above hills, and gloomy woods, begirt: And now the Thracian Bosphorus they dare, 260 Till the Symplegades, tremendous rocks!
Threaten approach; but they, unterrify'd, Thro' the sharp-pointed cliffs and thund'ring floods Cleave their bold passage; nathless by the crags. And torrents sorely shatter'd: as the strong 265 Eagle or vulture, in th' entangling net Involv'd, breaks thro', yet leaves his plumes behind, Thus thro' the wide waves their slow way they force To Thynia's hospitable isle. The brave Pass many perils, and to fame by such 270 Experience rise. Refresh'd, again they speed From cape to cape, and view unnumber'd streams, Halys, with hoary Lycus, and the mouths Of Apsarus and Glaucus, rolling swift To the broad deep their tributary waves, 275 Till in the long-sought harbour they arrive Of golden Phasis. Foremost on the strand Jason advanc'd: the deep capacious bay, The crumbling terrace of the marble port, Wond'ring he view'd, and stately palace-domes, 280 Pavilions proud of Luxury: around, In every glitt'ring hall, within, without, O'er all the timbrel-sounding squares and streets Nothing appear'd but luxury, and crowds Sunk deep in riot. To the public weal 285 Attentive none he found; for he, their chief Of shepherds, proud Aeëtes, by the name Sometimes of King distinguished, 'gan to slight The shepherd's trade, and turn to song and dance: Ev'n Hydrus ceas'd to watch; Medea's songs 290 Of joy, and rosy youth, and beauty's charms, With magic sweetness lull'd his cares asleep, Till the bold heroes grasp'd the Golden Fleece. Nimbly they wing'd the bark, surrounded soon By Neptune's friendly waves: secure they speed 295 O'er the known seas, by ev'ry guiding cape,
With prosperous return. The myrtle shores, And glassy mirror of Iolcos' lake, With loud acclaim receiv'd them. Every vale, And every hillock, touch'd the tuneful stops 300 Of pipes unnumber'd, for the Ram regain'd. Thus Phasis lost his pride: his slighted nymphs Along the withering dales and pastures mourn'd; The trade-ship left his streams: the merchant shunn'd His desert borders; each ingenious art, 305 Trade, Liberty, and Affluence, all retir'd, And left to Want and Servitude their seats; Vile successors! and gloomy Ignorance, Following like dreary Night, whose sable hand Hangs on the purple skirts of flying day. 310 Sithence the Fleeces of Arcadian plains, And Attic and Thessalian, bore esteem; And those in Grecian colonies dispers'd, Caria and Doris, and Iönia's coast, And fam'd Tarentum, where Galesus' tide, 315 Rolling by ruins hoar of ancient towns, Thro' solitary vallies seeks the sea: Or green Altinum, by an hundred Alps High-crown'd, whose woods and snowy peaks aloft Shield her low plains from the rough northern blast. 320 Those too of Boetica's delicious fields, With golden fruitage bless'd of highest taste, What need I name? the Turdetanian track, Or rich Coraxus, whose wide looms unroll'd The finest webs? where scarce a talent weigh'd 325 A ram's equivalent. Then only tin To late-improv'd Britannia gave renown. Lo! the revolving course of mighty Time, Who loftiness abases, tumbles down Olympus' brow, and lifts the lowly vale. 330 Where is the majesty of ancient Rome,
The throng of heroes in her splendid streets, The snowy vest of peace, or purple robe, Slow trail'd triumphal? where the Attic Fleece, And Tarentine, in warmest litter'd cots, 335 Or sunny meadows, cloth'd with costly care? All in the solitude of ruin lost, War's horrid carnage, vain Ambition's dust. Long lay the mournful realms of elder Fame In gloomy desolation, till appear'd 340 Beauteous Venetia, first of all the nymphs Who from the melancholy waste emerg'd: In Adria's gulf her clotted locks she lav'd, And rose another Venus: each soft joy, Each aid of life, her busy wit restor'd; 345 Science reviv'd, with all the lovely Arts, And all the Graces. Restituted Trade To every virtue lent his helping stores, And cheer'd the vales around; again the pipe And bleating flocks awak'd the cheerful lawn. 350 The glossy Fleeces now, of prime esteem, Soft Asia boasts, where lovely Cassimere, Within a lofty mound of circling hills, Spreads her delicious stores; woods, rocks, caves, lakes, Hills, lawns, and winding streams; a region term'd 355 The Paradise of Indus. Next the plains Of Lahor, by that arbour stretch'd immense, Thro' many a realm, to Agra, the proud throne Of India's worshipp'd prince, whose lust is law: Remote dominions, nor to ancient fame 360 Nor modern known, till public-hearted Roe, Faithful, sagacious, active, patient, brave, Led to their distant climes advent'rous trade. Add, too, the silky wool of Libyan lands, Of Caza's bowery dales, and brooky Caus, 365 Where lofty Atlas spreads his verdant feet,
While in the clouds his hoary shoulders bend. Next proud Iberia glories in the growth Of high Castile, and mild Segovian glades. And beauteous Albion, since great Edgar chas'd 370
The prowling wolf, with many a lock appears Of silky lustre; chief, Silurian, thine; Thine, Vaga, favour'd stream; from sheep minute On Cambria bred: a pound o'erweighs a Fleece: Gay Epsom's too, and Banstead's, and what gleams 375 On Vecta's isle, that shelters Albion's fleet, With all its thunders; or Salopian stores, Those which are gather'd in the fields of Clun: High Cotswold also 'mong the shepherd swains Is oft remember'd, tho' the greedy plough 380 Preys on its carpet. He whose rustic Muse O'er heath and craggy holt her wing display'd, And sung the bosky bourns of Alfred's shires, Has favour'd Cotswold with luxuriant praise. Need we the levels green of Lincoln note, 385 Or rich Leicestria's marly plains, for length Of whitest locks and magnitude of Fleece Peculiar? envy of the neighbouring realms! But why recount our grassy lawns alone, While ev'n the tillage of our cultur'd plains, 390 With bossy turnip and luxuriant cole, Learns thro' the circling year their flocks to feed? Ingenious Trade, to clothe the naked world Her soft materials not from sheep alone, From various animals, reeds, trees, and stones, 395 Collects sagacious. In Euboa's isle A wondrous rock is found, of which are woven Vests incombustible; Batavia flax; Siam's warm marish yields the fissile cane; Soft Persia's silk; Balasor's shady hills 400 Tough bark of trees; Peruvian Pito grass;
And every sultry clime the snowy down Of cotton, bursting from its stubborn shell To gleam amid the verdure of the grove. With glossy hair of Tibet's shagged goat 405 Are light tiaras woven, that wreath the head, And airy float behind The beaver's flix Hives kindliest warmth to weak enervate limbs, When the pale blood slow rises through the veins. Still shall o'er all prevail the shepherd's stores 410 For num'rous uses known: none yield such warmth, Such beauteous hues receive, so long endure; So pliant to the loom, so various, none. Wild rove the flocks, no burd'ning Fleece they bear In fervid climes; Nature gives not in vain. 415 Carmenian wool on the broad tail alone Resplendent swells, enormous in its growth: As the sleek ram from green to green removes, On aiding wheels his heavy pride he draws, And glad resigns it for the hatters' use. 420 Ev'n in the new Columbian world appears The woolly covering: Apacheria's glades, And Canses', echo to the pipes and flocks Of foreign swains. While Time shakes down his sands, And works continual change, be none secure: 425 Quicken your labours, brace your slackening nerves, Ye Britons! nor sleep careless on the lap Of bounteous Nature; she is elsewhere kind. See Mississippi lengthen on her lawns, Propitious to the shepherds; see the sheep 430 Of fertile Arica, like camels form'd, Which bear huge burdens to the sea-beat shore, And shine with Fleeces soft as feathery down. Coarse Bothnic locks are not devoid of use; They clothe the mountain carl, or mariner 435 Labouring at the wet shrouds or stubborn helm,
While the loud billows dash the groaning deck. All may not Stroud's or Taunton's vestures wear, Nor what from Fleece Ratæan mimic flowers Of rich Damascus: many a texture bright 440 Of that material in Prætorium woven, Or in Norvicum, cheats the curious eye. If any wool peculiar to our Isle Is given by Nature, it is the comber's lock, The soft, the snow-white, and the long-grown flake. 445 Hither be turn'd the public's wakeful eye This Golden Fleece to guard, with strictest watch, From the dark hand of pilfering Avarice, Who, like a spectre, haunts the midnight hour, When Nature wide around him lies supine 450 And silent, in the tangles soft involv'd Of death-like sleep: he then the moment marks, While the pale moon illumes the trembling tide, Speedy to lift the canvass, bend the oar, And waft his thefts to the perfidious foe. 455 Happy the patriot who can teach the means To check his frauds, and yet untroubled leave Trade's open channels. Would a gen'rous aid To honest toil in Cambria's hilly tracks, Or where the Lune or Coker wind their streams, 460 Be found sufficient? Far their airy fields, Far from infectious luxury, arise. O might their mazy dales and mountain sides With copious Fleeces of Ierne shine, And gulfy Caledonia, wisely bent 465 On wealthy fisheries and flaxen webs, Then would the sister realms amid their seas, Like the three Graces in harmonious fold, By mutual aid enhance their various charms, And bless remotest climes!—To this lov'd end 470 Awake, Benevolence! to this lov'd end
Strain all thy nerves, and every thought explore. Far, far away whose passions would immure, In your own little hearts, the joys of life; (Ye worms of pride!) for your repast alone 475 Who claim all Nature's stores, woods, waters, meads, All her profusion; whose vile hands would grasp The peasant's scantling, the weak widow's mite, And in the sepulchre of Self entomb Whate'er ye can, whate'er ye cannot, use. 480 Know, for superior ends th' Almighty Pow'r (The Pow'r whose tender arms embrace the worm) Breathes o'er the foodful earth the breath of life, And forms us manifold; allots to each His hair peculiar, wisdom, wit, and strength; 485 Wisdom, and wit, and strength, in sweet accord, To aid, to cheer, to counsel, to protect, And twist the mighty bond. Thus feeble man, With man united, is a nation strong; Builds tow'ry cities, satiates every want, 490 And makes the seas profound, and forests wild; The gardens of his joys. Man, each man, 's born For the high bus'ness of the public good. For me, 'tis mine to pray that men regard Their occupations with an honest heart 495 And cheerful diligence: like the useful bee, To gather for the hive not sweets alone, But wax, and each material; pleas'd to find Whate'er may sooth distress, and raise the fall'n, In life's rough race. O be it as my wish! 500 'Tis mine to teach th' inactive hand to reap Kind Nature's bounties, o'er the globe diffus'd. For this I wake the weary hours of rest; With this desire the merchant I attend; By this impell'd the shepherd's hut I seek, 505 And, as he tends his flock, his lectures hear
Attentive, pleas'd with pure simplicity, And rules divulg'd beneficent to sheep: Or turn the compass o'er the painted chart, To mark the ways of traffic; Volga's stream, 510 Cold Hudson's cloudy streights, warm Afric's cape, Latium's firm roads, the Ptolemean fosse, And China's long canals: those noble works, Those high effects of civilizing trade, Employ me, sedulous of public weal: 515 Yet not unmindful of my sacred charge; Thus also mindful, thus devising good At vacant seasons oft, when ev'ning mild Purples the vallies, and the shepherd counts His flock, returning to the quiet fold 520 With dumb complacence; for religion this, To give our every comfort to distress, And follow virtue with an humble mind; This pure religion. Thus, in elder time, The reverend Blasius wore his leisure hours, 525 And slumbers broken oft; till, fill'd at length With inspiration, after various thought, And trials manifold, his well-known voice Gather'd the poor, and o'er Vulcanian stoves, With tepid lees of oil, and spiky comb, 530 Shew'd how the Fleece might stretch to greater length, And cast a glossier whiteness. Wheels went round; Matrons and maids with songs reliev'd their toils, And every loom receiv'd the softer yarn. What poor, what widow, Blasius! did not bless 535 Thy teaching hand? thy bosom, like the morn, Op'ning its wealth, what nation did not seek Of thy new-modell'd wool the curious webs? Hence the glad cities of the loom his name Honour with yearly festals: thro' their streets 540 The pomp, with tuneful sounds and order just,
Denoting Labour's happy progress, moves,
Procession slow and solemn: first the rout,
Then servient youth, and magisterial eld;
Each after each, according to his rank, 545
His sway, and office, in the commonweal;
And to the board of smiling Plenty's stores
Assemble, where delicious cates and fruits
Of every clime are pil'd; and with free hand
Toil only tastes the feast, by nerveless Ease 550
Unrelish'd. Various mirth and song resound;
And oft they interpose improving talk,
Divulging each to other knowledge rare,
Sparks from experience that sometimes arise,
Till night weighs down the sense, or morning's dawn 555
Rouzes to labour man, to labour born.
Then the sleek brightening lock from hand to hand
Renews its circling course; this feels the card;
That in the comb admires its growing length;
This blanch'd, emerges from the oily wave; 560
And that the amber tint, or ruby, drinks.
For it suffices not in flow'ry vales
Only to tend the flock, and shear soft wool;
Gums must be stor'd of Guinea's arid coast,
Mexican woods, and India's brightening salts; 565
Fruits, herbage, sulphurs, minerals, to stain
The Fleece prepar'd, which oil-imbibing earth
Of Wooburn blanches, and keen alum-waves
Intenerate. With curious eye observe
In what variety the tribe of salts, 570
Gums, ores, and liquors, eye-delighting hues
Produce, abstersive or restringent; how
Steel casts the sable; how pale pewter, fus'd
In fluid spirituous, the scarlet dye;
And how each tint is made, or mix'd, or chang'd, 575
By mediums colourless; why is the fume
Of sulphur kind to white and azure hues,
Pernicious else? why no materials yield
Singly their colours, those except that shine
With topaz, sapphire, and cornelian rays: 580
And why, tho' Nature's face is cloath'd in green,
No green is found to beautify the Fleece
But what repeated toil by mixture gives.
To find effects while causes lie conceal'd
Reason uncertain tries: howe'er, kind Chance 585
Oft, with equivalent discovery, pays
Its wandering efforts. Thus the German sage,
Diligent Drebet, o'er alchymic fire
Seeking the secret source of gold, receiv'd
Of alter'd cochineal the crimson store. 590
Tyrian Melcartus thus (the first who brought
Tin's useful ore from Albion's distant isle,
And for unwearied toils and arts the name
Of Hercules acquir'd), when o'er the mouth
Of his attendant sheep-dog he beheld 595
The wounded murex strike a purple stain,
The purple stain on Fleecy woofs he spread,
Which lur'd the eye, adorning many a nymph,
And drew the pomp of trade to rising Tyre.
Our vallies yield not, or but sparing yield, 600
The dyer's gay materials. Only weld,
Or root of madder, here, or purple woad,
By which our naked ancestors obscur'd
Their hardy limbs, inwrought with mystic forms,
Like Egypt's obelisks. The powerful sun 605
Hot India's zone with gaudy pencil paints,
And drops delicious tints o'er hill and dale,
Which trade to us conveys. Not tints alone;
Trade to the good physician gives his balms;
Gives cheering cordials to th' afflicted heart; 610
Gives to the wealthy delicacies high;
Gives to the curious works of Nature rare;
And when the priest displays, in just discourse,
Him, the all-wise Creator, and declares
His presence, pow'r, and goodness, unconfin'd, 615
'Tis Trade, attentive voyager, who fills
His lips with argument. To censure Trade,
Or hold her busy people in contempt,
Let none presume. The dignity, and grace,
And weal, of human life, their fountains owe 620
To seeming imperfections, to vain wants
Or real exigencies; passions swift
Forerunning reason; strong contrarious bents,
The steps of men dispersing wide abroad
O'er realms and seas. There, in the solemn scene, 625
Infinite wonders glare before their eyes,
Humiliating the mind enlarg'd; for they
The clearest sense of Deity receive
Who view the widest prospect of his works,
Ranging the globe with trade thro' various climes; 630
Who see the signatures of boundless love,
Nor less the judgments of Almighty Pow'r,
That warn the wicked, and the wretch who 'scapes
From human justice; who, astonish'd, view
Etna's loud thunders and tempestuous fires; 635
The dust of Carthage; desert shores of Nile;
Or Tyre's abandon'd summit, crown'd of old
With stately towers; whose merchants, from their isles
And radiant thrones, assembled in her marts;
Whither Arabia, whither Kedar, brought 640
Their shaggy goats, their flocks, and bleating lambs;
Where rich Damascus pil'd his Fleeces white,
Prepar'd, and thirsty for the double tint
And flow'ring shuttle. While th' admiring world
Crowded her streets, ah! then the hand of Pride 645
Sow'd imperceptible his pois'nous weed,
Which crept destructive up her lofty domes,
As ivy creeps around the graceful trunk
Of some tall oak. Her lofty domes no more,
Not ev'n the ruins of her pomp, remain; 650
Not ev'n the dust they sunk in; by the breath
Of the Omnipotent offended hurl'd
Down to the bottom of the stormy dee:
Only the solitary rock remains,
Her ancient site; a monument to those 655
Who toil and wealth exchange for sloth and pride.
BOOK III
Proceed, Arcadian Muse! resume the pipe
Of Hermes, long disus'd, tho' sweet the tone,
And to the songs of Nature's choristers
Harmonious. Audience pure by thy delight,
Tho' few; for every note which Virtue wounds, 5
However pleasing to the vulgar herd,
To the purg'd ear is discord. Yet too oft
Has false dissembling Vice to am'rous airs
The reed apply'd and heedless youth allur'd;
Too oft, with bolder sound, inflam'd the rage 10
Of horrid war. Let now the Fleecy looms
Direct our rural numbers, as of old,
When plains and sheepfolds were the Muses' haunts.
So thou, the friend of every virtuous deed
And aim, tho' feeble, shall these rural lays 15 Approve, O Heathcote! whose benevolence
Visits our vallies, where the pasture spreads,
And where the bramble, and would justly act
True charity, by teaching idle Want
And Vice the inclination to do good; 20
Good to themselves, and in themselves to all,
Thro' grateful toil. Ev'n Nature lives by toil:
Beast, bird, air, fire, the heav'ns, and rolling worlds,
All live by action: nothing lies at rest
But death and ruin: man is born to care; 25
Fashion'd, improv'd, by labour. This of old
Wise states observing, gave that happy law
Which doom'd the rich and needy, every rank,
To manual occupation; and oft call'd
Their chieftains from the spade, or furrowing plough, 30
Or bleating sheepfold. Hence utility
Thro' all conditions; hence the joys of health;
Hence strength of arm, and clear judicious thought;
Hence corn, and wine, and oil, and all in life
Delectable. What simple Nature yields 35
(And Nature does her part) are only rude
Materials, cumbers on the thorny ground;
'Tis toil that makes them wealth; that makes the Fleece (Yet useless, rising in unshapen heaps)
Anon, in curious woofs of beauteous hue, 40
A vesture usefully succinct and warm,
Or, trailing in the length of graceful folds,
A royal mantle. Come, ye village Nymphs!
The scattered mists reveal the dusky hills;
Gray dawn appears; the golden Morn ascends, 45
And paints the glitt'ring rocks, and purple woods,
And flaming spires: arise, begin your toils;
Behold the Fleece beneath the spiky comb
Drop its long locks, or from the mingling card
Spread in soft flakes, and swell the whiten'd floor. 50
Come, village Nymphs, ye Matrons, and ye Maids!
Receive the soft material; with light step
Whether ye turn around the spacious wheel,
Or, patient-sitting, that revolve which forms
A narrower circle. On the brittle work 55
Point your quick eye, and let the hand assist
To guide and stretch the gently-lessening thread;
Even, unknotted, twine will praise your skill.
A diff'rent spinning every different web
Asks from your glowing fingers; some require 60
The more compact and some the looser wreath;
The last for softness, to delight the touch
Of chamber'd delicacy: scarce the cirque
Need turn around, or twine the length'ning flake.
There are, to speed their labour, who prefer 65
Wheels double spol'd, which yield to either hand
A sev'ral line; and many yet adhere
To th' ancient distaff, at the bosom fix'd,
Casting the whirling spindle as they walk:
At home, or in the sheepfold, or the mart, 70 Alike the work proceeds. This method still
Norvicum favours, and th' Icenian towns:
It yields their airy stuffs an apter thread.
This was of old, in no inglorious days,
The mode of spinning when th' Egyptian prince 75
A golden distaff gave that beauteous nymph,
Too-beauteous Helen! no uncourtly gift
Then, when each gay diversion of the fair
Led to ingenious use. But patient art,
That on experience works, from hour to hour, 80
Sagacious, has a spiral engine form'd,
Which on an hundred spoles, an hundred threads,
With one huge wheel, by lapse of water, twines,
Few hands requiring, easy-tended work,
That copiously supplies the greedy loom. 85
Nor hence, ye Nymphs! let anger cloud your brows;
The more is wrought the more is still requir'd:
Blithe o'er your toils, with wonted song, proceed: Fear not surcharge; your hands will ever find Ample employment. In the strife of trade 90 These curious instruments of speed obtain Various advantage, and the diligent Supply with exercise, as fountains sure, Which ever-gliding feed the flow'ry lawn: Nor, should the careful State, severely kind, 95 In every province to the house of toil Compel the vagrant, and each implement Of ruder art, the comb, the card, the wheel, Teach their unwilling hands, nor yet complain: Yours with the public good shall ever rise, 100 Ever, while o'er the lawns and airy downs The bleating sheep and shepherd's pipe are heard; While in the brook ye blanch the glist'ning Fleece, And th' am'rous youth, delighted with your toils, Quavers the choicest of his sonnets, warm'd 105 By growing traffic, friend to wedded love. The am'rous youth, with various hopes inflam'd, Now on the busy stage see him step forth, With beating breast: high-honour'd he beholds Rich industry. First he bespeaks a loom; 110 From some thick wood the carpenter selects A slender oak, or beech of glossy trunk, Or sapling ash: he shapes the sturdy beam, The posts, and treadles, and the frame combines: The smith, with iron-screws and plated hoops, 115 Confirms the strong machine, and gives the bolt That strains the roll. To these the turner's lathe And graver's knife the hollow shuttle add. Various professions in the work unite, For each on each depends. Thus he acquires 120 The curious engine, work of subtle skill; Howe'er in vulgar use around the globe.
Frequent observ'd, of high antiquity No doubtful mark: th' advent'rous voyager, Toss'd over ocean to remotest shores, 125 Hears on remotest shores the murm'ring loom, Sees the deep-furrowing plough and harrow'd field, The wheel-mov'd wagon, and the discipline Of strong-yok'd steers. What needful art is new? Next the industrious youth employs his care 130 To store soft yarn; and now he strains the warp Along the garden-walk, or highway side, Smoothing each thread; now fits it to the loom, And sits before the work: from hand to hand The thready shuttle glides along the lines, 135 Which open to the woof and shut altern; And ever and anon, to firm the work, Against the web is driv'n the noisy frame, That o'er the level rushes, like a surge Which, often dashing on the sandy beach, 140 Compacts the traveller's road: from hand to hand Again, across the lines oft op'ning, glides The thready shuttle, while the web apace Increases, as the light of eastern skies, Spread by the rosy fingers of the morn, 145 And all the fair expanse with beauty glows. Or if the broader mantle be the task, He chuses some companion to his toil. From side to side, with amicable aim, Each to the other darts the nimble bolt, 150 While friendly converse, prompted by the work, Kindles improvement in the op'ning mind. What need we name the sev'ral kinds of looms? Those delicate, to whose fair-colour'd threads Hang figur'd weights, whose various numbers guide 155 The artist's hand: he, unseen, flow'rs, and trees,
And vales, and azure hills, unerring works: Or that whose num'rous needles, glitt'ring bright, Weave the warm hose to cover tender limbs: Modern invention; modern is the want. 160 Next from the slacken'd beam the woof, unroll'd, Near some clear-sliding river, Aire or Stroud, Is by the noisy fulling-mill receiv'd, Where tumbling waters turn enormous wheels, And hammers, rising and descending, learn 165 To imitate the industry of man. Oft the wet web is steep'd, and often rais'd, Fast dripping, to the river's grassy bank, And sinewy arms of men, with full-strain'd strength Wring out the latent water: then up-hung 170 On rugged tenters, to the fervid sun Its level surface, reeking, it expands, Still brightening in each rigid discipline, And gathering worth, as human life in pains, Conflicts, and troubles. Soon the clothier's shears 175 And burler's thistle skim the surface sheen. The round of work goes on from day to day, Season to season. So the husbandman Pursues his cares; his plough divides the glebe; The seed is sown; rough rattle o'er the clods 180 The harrow's teeth; quick weeds his hoe subdues; The fickle labours, and the slow team strains, Till grateful harvest-home rewards his toils. The ingenious artist, learn'd in drugs, bestows The last improvement; for th' unlabour'd Fleece 185 Rare is permitted to imbibe the dye. In penetrating waves of boiling vats The snowy web is steep'd, with grain of weld, Fustic, or logwood, mix'd, or cochineal, Or the dark purple pulp of Pictish woad, 190 Of stain tenacious, deep as summer skies,
Like those that canopy the bow'rs of Stowe After soft rains, when birds their notes attune, Ere the melodious nightingale begins. From yon broad vase behold the saffron woofs 195 Beauteous emerge; from these the azure rise; This glows with crimson; that the auburn holds; These shall the prince with purple robes adorn, And those the warrior mark, and those the priest. Few are the primal colours of the art; 200 Five only; black, and yellow, blue, brown, red; Yet hence innumerable hues arise. That stain alone is good which bears unchang'd Dissolving waters, and calcining suns, And thieving air's attacks. How great the need 205 With utmost caution to prepare the woof, To seek the best-adapted dyes, and salts, And purest gums! since your whole skill consists In opening well the fibres of the woof For the reception of the beauteous dye, 210 And wedging every grain in every pore, Firm as a diamond in rich gold enchas'd. But what the pow'rs which lock them in the web; Whether incrusting salts, or weight of air, Or fountain-water's cold contracting wave, 215 Or all combin'd, it well befits to know. Ah! wherefore have we lost our old repute? And who inquires the cause why Gallia's sons In depth and brilliancy of hues excel? Yet yield not, Britons! grasp in every art 220 The foremost name. Let others tamely view, On crowded Smyrna's and Byzantium's strand, The haughty Turk despise their proffer'd bales. Now see, o'er vales and peopled mountain-tops The welcome traders gathering every web, 225 Industrious, every web too few. Alas!
Successless oft their industry, -when cease The loom and shuttle in the troubled streets; Their motion stopp'd by wild Intemperance, Toil's scoffing foe, who lures the giddy rout 230 To scorn their task-work, and to vagrant life Turns their rude steps, while Misery, among The cries of infants, haunts their mould'ring huts. O when, thro' every province, shall be rais'd Houses of labour, seats of kind constraint, 235 For those who now delight in fruitless sports More than in cheerful works of virtuous trade, Which honest wealth would yield, and portion due Of public welfare? Ho, ye Poor! who seek, Among the dwellings of the diligent, 240 For sustenance unearn'd; who stroll abroad From house to house, with mischievous intent, Feigning misfortune: Ho, ye Lame! ye Blind! Ye languid limbs, with real want oppress'd, Who tread the rough highways, and mountains wild, 245 Thro' storms, and rains, and bitterness of heart; Ye children of Affliction! be compell'd To happiness: the long-wish'd daylight dawns, When charitable Rigour shall detain Your step-bruis'd feet. Ev'n now the sons of Trade, 250 Where'er their cultivated hamlets smile, Erect the mansion; here soft Fleeces shine; The card awaits you, and the comb and wheel: Here shroud you from the thunder of the storm; No rain shall wet your pillow: here abounds 255 Pure beverage: here your viands are prepar'd: To heal each sickness the physician waits, And priest entreats to give your Maker praise.
Behold in Calder's vale, where wide around Unnumber'd villas creep the shrubby hills, 260 A spacious dome for this fair purpose rise: High o'er the open gates, with gracious air, Eliza's image stands. By gentle steps Up-rais'd, from room to room we slowly walk, And view with wonder, and with silent joy, 265 The sprightly scene; where many a busy hand, Where spoles, cards, wheels, and looms, with motion quick, And ever-murm'ring sound, th' unwonted sense Wrap in surprise. To see them all employ'd, All blithe, it gives the spreading heart delight, 270 As neither meats, nor drinks, nor aught of joy Corporeal can bestow. Nor less they gain Virtue than wealth, while, on their useful works From day to day intent, in their full minds Evil no place can find. With equal scale 275 Some deal abroad the well-assorted Fleece; These card the short, those comb the longer flake; Others the harsh and clotted lock receive, Yet sever and refine with patient toil, And bring to proper use. Flax too, and hemp, 280 Excite their diligence. The younger hands Ply at the easy work of winding yarn On swiftly-circling engines, and their notes Warble together as a choir of larks; Such joy arises in the mind employ'd. 285 Another scene displays the more robust Rasping or grinding tough Brasilian woods, And what Campeachy's disputable shore Copious affords to tinge the thrifty web, And the Caribbee isles, whose dulcet canes 290
Equal the honeycomb. We next are shown A circular machine, of new design, In conic shape: it draws and spins a thread Without the tedious toil of needless hands. A wheel, invisible, beneath the floor, 295 To every member of th' harmonious frame Gives necessary motion. One, intent, O'erlooks the work: the carded wool, he says, Is smoothly lapp'd around those cylinders, Which, gently turning, yield it to yon' cirque 300 Of upright spindles, which with rapid whirl Spin out, in long extent, an even twine. From this delightful mansion (if we seek Still more to view the gifts which honest toil Distributes) take we now our eastward course 305 To the rich fields of Burstal. Wide around Hillock and valley, farm and village, smile; And ruddy roofs and chimney-tops appear Of busy Leeds, up-wafting to the clouds The incense of thanksgiving: all is joy; 310 And trade and bus'ness guide the living scene, Roll the full cars, adown the winding Aire Load the slow-sailing barges, pile the pack On the long tinkling train of slow-pac'd steeds. As when a sunny day invites abroad 315 The sedulous ants, they issue from their cells In bands unnumber'd, eager for their work, O'er high o'er low they lift, they draw, they haste With warm affection to each other's aid, Repeat their virtuous efforts, and succeed. 320 Thus all is here in motion, all is life: The creaking wain brings copious store of corn; The grazier's sleeky kine obstruct the roads; The neat-dress'd housewives, for the festal board
Crown'd with full baskets, in the field-way paths 325 Come tripping on; the echoing hills repeat The stroke of axe and hammer; scaffolds rise, And growing edifices; heaps of stone, Beneath the chisel, beauteous shapes assume Of frieze and column. Some, with even line, 330 New streets are marking in the neighb'ring fields, And sacred domes of worship. Industry, Which dignifies the artist, lifts the swain, And the straw cottage to a palace turns, Over the work presides. Such was the scene 335 Of hurrying Carthage, when the Trojan chief First view'd her growing turrets: so appear Th' increasing walls of busy Manchester, Sheffield, and Birmingham, whose reddening fields Rise and enlarge their suburbs. Lo! in throngs, 340 For every realm, the careful factors meet, Whispering each other. In long ranks the bales, Like War's bright files, beyond the sight extend. Straight, ere the sounding bell the signal strikes, Which ends the hour of traffic, they conclude 345 The speedy compact; and, well-pleas'd transfer, With mutual benefit, superior wealth To many a kingdom's rent, or tyrant's hoard. Whate'er is excellent in art proceeds From labour and endurance. Deep the oak 350 Must sink in stubborn earth its roots obscure, That hopes to lift its branches to the skies. Gold cannot gold appear until man's toil Discloses wide the mountain's hidden ribs, And digs the dusky ore, and breaks and grinds 355 Its gritty parts, and laves in limpid streams With oft-repeated toil, and oft in fire The metal purifies: with the fatigue And tedious process of its painful works
The lusty sicken, and the feeble die. 360
But cheerful are the labours of the loom,
By health and ease accompany'd : they bring
Superior treasures speedier to the state
Than those of deep Peruvian mines, where slaves
(Wretched requital !) drink, with trembling hand, 365
Pale Palsy's baneful cup. Our happy swains
Behold arising in their fattening flocks
A double wealth, more rich than Belgium's boast,
Who tends the culture of the flaxen reed ;
Or the Cathayans, whose ignobler care 370 Nurses the silk-worm ; or of India's sons,
Who plant the cotton grove by Ganges' stream.
Nor do their toils and products furnish more
Than gauds and dresses, of fantastic web,
To the luxurious : but our kinder toils 375
Give clothing to necessity ; keep warm
Th' unhappy wanderer, on the mountain wild
Benighted, while the tempest beats around.
No, ye soft sons of Ganges, and of Ind,
Ye feebly delicate ! life little needs 380
Your feminine toys, nor asks your nerveless arm
To cast the strong-slung shuttle or the spear.
Can ye defend your country from the storm
Of strong invasion ? Can ye want endure,
In the besieged fort, with courage firm ? 385
Can ye the weather-beaten vessel steer,
Climb the tall mast, direct the stubborn helm
Mid wild discordant waves with steady course ?
Can ye lead out, to distant colonies,
Th' o'erflowings of a people, or your wrong'd 390 Brethren, by impious persecution driven,
And arm their breasts with fortitude to try
New regions, climes, tho' barren, yet beyond
The baneful pow'r of tyrants ? These are deeds
To which their hardy labours well prepare 395
The sinewy arm of Albion's sons. Pursue,
Ye sons of Albion! with unyielding heart,
Your hardy labours: let the sounding loom
Mix with the melody of every vale;
The loom, that long renown'd wide envy'd gift 400
Of wealthy Flandria, who the boon receiv'd
From fair Venetia; she from Grecian nymphs;
They from Phenice, who obtain'd the dole
From old Ægyptus. Thus around the globe
The golden-footed Sciences their path 410 Mark, like the sun, enkindling life and joy,
And follow'd close by Ignorance and Pride,
Lead Day and Night o'er realms. Our day arose
When Alva's tyranny the weaving arts
Drove from the fertile vallies of the Scheld. 410
With speedy wing and scatter'd course they fled,
Like a community of bees, disturb'd
By some relentless swain's rapacious hand;
While good Eliza to the fugitives
Gave gracious welcome; as wise Egypt erst 415
To troubled Nilus, whose nutricious flood
With annual gratitude enrich'd her meads.
Then from fair Antwerp an industrious train
Cross'd the smooth channel of our smiling seas,
And in the vales of Cantium, on the banks 420
Of Stour alighted, and the naval wave
Of spacious Medway: some on gentle Yare
And fertile Waveney pitch'd, and made their seats
Pleasant Norvicum and Colcestria's tow'rs:
Some to the Darent sped their happy way: 425
Berghem, and Sluys, and elder Bruges, chose
Antona's chalky plains, and stretched their tents
Down to Clausentum, and that bay supine
Beneath the shade of Vecta's cliffy isle.
Soon o'er the hospitable realm they spread, 430 With cheer reviv'd, and in Sabrina's flood,
And the Silurian Tame, their textures blanch'd
Not undelighted with Vigornia's spires,
Nor those by Vaga's stream, from ruins rais'd
Of ancient Ariconium; nor less pleas'd 435 With Salop's various scenes, and that soft track
Of Cambria deep embay'd, Dimetian land,
By green hills fenc'd, by ocean's murmur lull'd,
Nurse of the rustic bard who now resounds
The fortunes of the Fleece; whose ancestors 440 Were fugitives from Superstition's rage,
And erst from Devon thither brought the loom,
Where ivy'd walls of old Kidwelly's tow'rs,
Nodding, still on their gloomy brows project
Lancastria's arms, emboss'd in mould'ring stone. 445 Thus, then, on Albion's coast the exil'd band,
From rich Menapian towns, and the green banks
Of Scheld, alighted, and, alighting, sang
Grateful thanksgiving. Yet at times they shift
Their habitations, when the hand of Pride, 450 Restraint, or southern Luxury, disturbs
Their industry, and urges them to vales
Of the Brigantes; where, with happier care
Inspirited, their art improves the Fleece,
Which occupation erst, and wealth immense, 455 Gave Brabant's swarming habitants, what time
We were their shepherds only; from which state
With friendly arm they rais'd us: nathless some
Among our old and stubborn swains misdeem'd
And envy'd who enrich'd them; envy'd those 460 Whose virtues taught the varletry of towns
To useful toil to turn the pilfering hand.
And still when bigotry's black clouds arise,
(For oft they sudden rise in Papal realms)
They from their isle, as from some ark secure, 465
Careless, unpitying, view the fiery bolts
Of Superstition and tyrannic rage,
And all the fury of the rolling storm,
Which fierce pursues the suff'rers in their flight.
Shall not our gates, shall not Britannia's arms, 470
Spread ever open to receive their flight?
A virtuous people, by distresses oft
(Distresses for the sake of truth endur'd)
Corrected, dignify'd; creating good
Wherever they inhabit: this our isle 475
Has oft experienc'd; witness all ye realms
Of either hemisphere where commerce flows:
Th' important truth is stamp'd on every bale;
Each glossy cloth, and drape of mantle warm,
Receives th' impression; every airy woof, 480
Cheyney, and baize, and serge, and alepine,
Tammy, and crape, and the long countless list
Of woollen webs; and every work of steel;
And that crystalline metal, blown or fus'd,
Limpid as water dropping from the clefts 485
Of mossy marble: not to name the aids
Their wit has giv'n the Fleece, now taught to link
With flax, or cotton, or the silk-worm's thread,
And gain the graces of variety;
Whether to form the matron's decent robe, 490
Or the thin-shading trail for Agra's nymphs;
Or solemn curtains, whose long gloomy folds
Surround the soft pavilions of the rich.
They, too, the many-colour'd Arras taught
To mimic nature, and the airy shapes 495
Of sportive fancy; such as oft appear
In old Mosaic pavements, when the plough
Upturns the crumbling glebe of Weldon field,
Or that o'ershaded erst by Woodstock's bower,
Now grac'd by Blenheim, in whose stately rooms 500 Rise glowing tapestries that lure the eye
With Marlb'rough's wars: here Schellenbergh exults
Behind surrounding hills of ramparts steep,
And vales of trenches dark; each hideous pass
Armies defend; yet on the hero leads 550 His Britons, like a torrent, o'er the mounds.
Another scene is Blenheim's glorious field,
And the red Danube. Here the rescued states
Crowding beneath his shield; there Ramillies'
Important battle: next the tenfold chain 510
Of Arleux burst, and th' adamantine gates
Of Gaul flung open to the tyrant's throne.
A shade obscures the rest Ah! then, what pow'r
Invidious from the lifted sickle snatch'd
The harvest of the plain? So lively glows 515
The fair delusion, that our passions rise
In the beholding, and the glories share
Of visionary battle. This bright art
Did zealous Europe learn of Pagan hands,
While she assay'd with rage of holy war, 520
To desolate their fields: but old the skill ;
Long were the Phrygians' picturing looms renown'd;
Tyre also, wealthy seat of arts, excell'd,
And elder Sidon, in th' historic web.
Far-distant Tibet in her gloomy woods 525
Rears the gay tent, of blended wool unwoven.
And glutinous materials: the Chinese
Their porcelain, Japan its varnish, boasts.
Some fair peculiar graces every realm,
And each from each a share of wealth acquires. 530
But chief by numbers of industrious hands
A nation's wealth is counted: numbers raise
Warm emulation: where that virtue dwells
There will be Traffic's seat; there will she build
Her rich emporium. Hence, ye happy Swains! 535
With hospitality inflame your breast,
And emulation: the whole world receive,
And with their arts, their virtues, deck your isle.
Each clime, each sea, the spacious orb of each,
Shall join their various stores, and amply feed 540
The mighty brotherhood, while ye proceed,
Active and enterprising, or to teach
The stream a naval course, or till the wild,
Or drain the fen, or stretch the long canal,
Or plough the fertile billows of the deep: 545
Why to the narrow circle of our coast
Should we submit our limits, while each wind
Assists the stream and sail, and the wide main
Woos us in every port? See Belgium build
Upon the foodful brine her envy'd power, 550
And half her people floating on the wave,
Expand her fishy regions: thus our Isle,
Thus only may Britannia be enlarg'd.
But whither, by the visions of the theme
Smit with sublime delight, but whither strays 555
The raptur'd Muse, forgetful of her talk?
No common pleasure warms the gen'erous mind
When it beholds the labours of the loom;
How widely round the globe they are dispers'd,
From little tenements by wood or croft, 560
Thro' many a slender path, how sedulous,
As rills to rivers broad, they speed their way
To public roads, to Fosse, or Watling-street,
Or Armine, ancient works; and thence explore,
Thro' ev'ry navigable wave, the sea 565
That laps the green earth round: thro' Tyne and Tees,
Thro' Weare and Lune, and merchandising Hull,
And Swale and Aire, whose crystal waves reflect
The various colours of the tinctur'd web;
Thro' Ken, swift rolling down his rocky dale, 570
Like giddy youth impetuous, then at Wick
Curbing his train, and with the sober pace
Of cautious eld meand'ring to the deep;
Thro' Dart and sullen Exe, whose murm'ring wave
Envies the Dune and Rother, who have won 575
The serge and kersie to their blanching streams;
Thro' Towy, winding under Merlin's tow'rs,
And Usk that, frequent among hoary rocks,
On her deep waters paints th' impending scene,
Wild torrents, crags, and woods, and mountain snows. 580
The northern Cambrians, an industrious tribe,
Carry their labours on pigmean steeds,
Of size exceeding not Leicestrian sheep,
Yet strong and sprightly: over hill and dale
They travel unfatigu'd, and lay their bales 585
In Salop's streets, beneath whose lofty walls
Pearly Sabrina waits them with her barks,
And spreads the swelling sheet. For nowhere far
From some transparent river's naval course
Arise and fall our various hills and vales, 590
No where far distant from the masted wharf.
We need not vex the strong laborious hand
With toil enormous, as th' Egyptian king,
Who joined the sable waters of the Nile
From Memphis' towers to th' Erythraean gulf; 595
Or as the monarch of enfeebled Gaul,
Whose will imperious forc'd an hundred streams
Thro' many a forest, many a spacious wild,
To stretch their scanty trains from sea to sea,
That some unprofitable skiff might float 600
Across irriguous dales and hollow'd rocks.
Far easier pains may swell our gentler floods,
And thro' the centre of the isle conduct
To naval union. Trent and Severn's wave,
By plains alone disparted, woo to join 605
Majestic Thamis. With their silver urns
The nimble-footed Naiads of the springs
Await, upon the dewy lawn, to speed
And celebrate the union; and the light
Wood-nymphs, and those who o'er the grots preside, 610
Whose stores bituminous, with sparkling fires,
In summer's tedious absence, cheer the swains,
Long sitting at the loom; and those besides
Who crown with yellow sheaves the farmer's hopes,
And all the genii of commercial toil: 615
These on the dewy lawns await to speed
And celebrate the union, that the Fleece
And glossy web to every port around
May lightly glide along. Ev'n now behold,
Adown a thousand floods the burden'd barks, 620
With white sails glist'ning, thro' the gloomy woods
Haste to their harbours. See the silver maze
Of stately Thamis, ever checker'd o'er
With deeply-laden barges, gliding smooth
And constant as his stream: in growing pomp, 625
By Neptune still attended, slow he rolls
To great Augusta's mart, where lofty Trade,
Amid a thousand golden spires enthron'd,
Gives audience to the world; the strand around
Close swarms with busy crowds of many a realm. 630
What bales, what wealth, what industry, what fleets!
Lo, from the simple Fleece how much proceeds!
BOOK IV
Now, with our woolly treasures amply stor'd,
Glide the tall fleets into the wid'ning main,
A floating forest: every sail unfurl'd
Swells to the wind, and gilds the azure sky.
Meantime, in pleasing care, the pilot steers 5
Steady; with eye intent upon the steel,
Steady before the breeze the pilot steers,
While gaily o'er the waves the mounting prows
Dance, like a shoal of dolphins, and begin
To streak with various paths the hoary deep. 10
Batavia's shallow sounds by some are sought,
Or sandy Elb or Weser, who receive
The swain's and peasant's toil with grateful hand,
Which copious gives return; while some explore
Deep Finnic gulfs, and a new shore and mart, 15
The bold creation of that Kesar's power,
Illustrious Peter! whose magnific toils
Repair the distant Caspian, and restore
To trade its ancient ports. Some Thanet's strand
And Dover's chalky cliff behind them turn. 20
Soon sinks away the green and level beach
Of Rumney Marish and Rye's silent port,
By angry Neptune clos'd, and Vecta's isle,
Like the pale moon in vapour, faintly bright.
An hundred op'ning marts are seen, are lost; 25
Devonia's hills retire, and Edgecumb Mount,
Waving its gloomy groves, delicious scene!
Yet steady o'er the waves they steer; and now
The fluctuating world of waters wide,
In boundless magnitude, around them swells, 30
O'er whose imaginary brim nor towns,
Nor woods, nor mountain-tops, nor aught appears,
But Phœbus' orb, refulgent lamp of light,
Millions of leagues aloft: heav'n's azure vault
Bends overhead, majestic, to its base, 35
Uninterrupted clear circumference;
Till, rising o'er the flickering waves, the Cape
Of Finisterre, a cloudy spot, appears.
Again, and oft, the advent'rous sails disperse:
These to Iberia, others to the coast 40 Of Lusitania, th' ancient Tarshish deem'd
Of Solomon; fair regions! with the webs
Of Norwich pleas'd, or those of Manchester;
Light airy clothing for their vacant swains
And visionary monks. We, in return, 45
Receive Cantabrian steel, and Fleeces soft,
Segovian or Castilian, far renowned;
And gold's attractive metal, pledge of wealth,
Spur of activity, to good or ill
Pow'rful incentive; or Hesperian fruits, 50 Fruits of spontaneous growth, the citron bright,
The fig, and orange, and heart-cheering wine.
Those ships, from ocean broad, which voyage thro'
The gates of Hercules, find many seas,
And bays unnumber'd, opening to their keels; 55
But shores inhospitable oft to fraud
And rapine turn'd or dreary tracks become
Of desolation. The proud Roman coasts,
Fall'n, like the Punic, to the dashing waves
Resign their ruins. Tiber's boasted flood, 60 Whose pompous moles o'erlook'd the subject deep,
Now creeps along thro' brakes and yellow dust,
While Neptune scarce perceives its murm'ring rill.
Such are th' effects when virtue slacks her hand;
Wild Nature back returns. Along these shores 65
Neglected Trade with difficulty toils,
Collecting slender stores, the sun-dry'd grape,
Or capers from the rock, that prompt the taste
Of Luxury. Ev'n Egypt's fertile strand,
Bereft of human discipline has lost 70 Its ancient lustre: Alexandria's port,
Once the metropolis of trade, as Tyre
And elder Sidon, as the Attic town,
Beautiful Athens, as rich Corinth, Rhodes,
Unhonour'd droops. Of all the num'rous marts 75
That in those glitt'ring seas with splendour rose,
Only Byzantium, of peculiar site,
Remains in prosperous state, and Tripolis,
And Smyrna, sacred ever to the Muse.
To these resort the delegates of Trade, 80
Social in life, a virtuous brotherhood,
And bales of softest wool from Bradford looms,
Or Stroud, dispense; yet see with vain regret
Their stores, once highly priz'd, no longer now
Or sought, or valued: copious webs arrive, 85
Smooth wov'n, of other than Britannia's Fleece.
On the throng'd strand alluring: the great skill
Of Gaul, and greater industry, prevails,
That proud imperious foe. Yet,—ah it is not— Wrong not the Gaul; it is the foe within 90 Impairs our ancient marts, it is the bribe;
'Tis he who pours into the shops of trade
That impious poison: it is he who gains
The sacred seat of parliament by means
That vitiate and emasculate the mind; 95
By sloth, by lewd intemperance, and a scene
Of riot worse than that which ruin'd Rome.
This, this the Tartar and remote Chinese,
And all the brotherhood of life, bewail.
Meantime (while those who dare be just oppose 100 The various powers of many-headed Vice),
Ye Delegates of Trade! by patience rise
O'er difficulties, in this sultry clime
Note what is found of use; the flix of goat,
Red wool, and balm, and Caufee's berry brown 105
Or drooping gum, or opium's lenient drug;
Unnumbered arts await them, trifles oft,
By skilful labour, rise to high esteem.
Nor what the peasant, near some lucid wave
Pactolus, Simois, or Mæander slow, 110 Renowned in story, with his plough upturns,
Neglect; the hoary medal, and the vase,
Statue, and bust, of old magnificence
Beautiful relics: oh! could modern time
Restore the mimic art, and the clear mien 115
Of patriot sages, Walsinghams and Yorkes,
And Cecils in long-lasting stone preserve!
But mimic art and nature are impair'd— Impair'd they seem—or in a varied dress
Delude our eyes: the world in change delights: 120
Change then your searches, with the varied modes
And wants of realms. Sabean frankincense
Rare is collected now: few altars smoke
Now in the idol fane; Panchaia views
Trade's busy fleets regardless pass her coast: 125
Nor frequent are the freights of snow-white woofs
Since Rome, no more the mistress of the world,
Varies her garb, and treads her darken'd streets
With gloomy cowl, majestical no more.
See the dark spirit of tyrannic pow'r! 130 The Thracian channel, long the road of trade
To the deep Euxine and its naval streams,
And the Mæotis, now is barr'd with chains,
And forts of hostile battlement. In aught
That joys mankind the arbitrary Turk 135
Delights not: insolent of rule, he spreads
Thraldom and desolation o'er his realms.
Another path to Scythia's wide domains
Commerce discovers: the Livonian gulf
Receives her sails, and leads them to the port 140 Of rising Petersburg, whose splendid streets
Swell with the webs of Leeds; the Cossac there,
The Calmuc, and Mungalian, round the bales
In crowds resort, and their warm'd limbs enfold,
Delighted; and the hardy Samoïd, 145
Rough with the stings of frost, from his dark caves
Ascends, and thither hastes, ere winter's rage
O'ertake his homeward step; and they that dwell
Along the banks of Don's and Volga's streams,
And borderers of the Caspian, who renew 150 That ancient path to India's climes which fill'd
With proudest affluence the Colchian state.
Many have been the ways to those renown'd
Luxuriant climes of Indus, early known
To Memphis, to the port of wealthy Tyre, 155
To Tadmor, beauty of the wilderness,
Who down along Euphrates sent her sails,
And sacred Salem, when her numerous fleets
From Ezion-geber pass'd th' Arabian gulf.
But later times, more fortunate, have found 160
O'er ocean's open wave a surer course,
Sailing the western coast of Afric's realms,
Of Mauritania, and Nigritian tracks,
And islands of the Orcades, the bounds,
On the Atlantic brine, of ancient trade, 165
But not of modern, by the virtue led
Of Gama and Columbus. The whole globe
Is now of commerce made the scene immense,
Which daring ships frequent, associated
Like doves or swallows in th' ethereal flood, 170
Or, like the eagle, solitary seen.
Some with more open course to Indus steer;
Some coast from port to port, with various men
And manners conversant, of th' angry surge,
That thunders loud, and spreads the cliffs with foam, 175
Regardless, or the monsters of the deep,
Porpoise or grampus, or the rav'nous shark
That chase their keels; or threat'ning rock, o'erhead
Of Atlas old; beneath the threatening rocks,
Reckless, they furl their sails, and bart'ring, take 180
Soft flakes of wool; for in soft flakes of wool,
Like the Silurian, Atlas' dales abound.
The shores of Sus inhospitable rise,
And higher Bojador; Zara, too, displays
Unfruitful deserts; Gambia's wave inisles 185
An ouzy coast, and pestilential ills
Diffuses wide; behind are burning sands,
Adverse to life, and Nilus' hidden fount.
On Guinea's sultry strand the drapery light
Of Manchester or Norwich is bestow'd 190
For clear transparent gums and ductile wax,
And snow-white ivory; yet the valued trade
Along this barbarous coast in telling wounds
The generous heart, the sale of wretched slaves:
Slaves by their tribes condemn'd, exchanging death 195
For lifelong servitude; severe exchange!
These till our fertile colonies, which yield
The sugar-cane and the Tobago leaf,
And various new productions, that invite
Increasing navies to their crowded wharfs. 200
But let the man whose rough tempestuous hours
In this advent'rous traffic are involv'd,
With just humanity of heart pursue
The gainful commerce: wickedness is blind:
Their sable chieftains may in future times 205
Burst their frail bonds, and vengeance execute
On cruel unrelenting pride of heart
And avarice. There are ills to come for crimes.
Hot Guinea, too, gives yellow dust of gold, Which, with her rivers, rolls adown the sides 210
Of unknown hills, where fiery-winged winds,
And sandy deserts, rous'd by sudden storms,
All search forbid. Howe'er, on either hand,
Vallies and pleasant plains, and many a track
Deem'd uninhabitable erst, are found 215
Fertile and populous; their sable tribes,
In shade of verdant groves, and mountains tall,
Frequent enjoy the cool descent of rain,
And soft refreshing breezes: nor are lakes
Here wanting; those a sea-wide surface spread, 220
Which to the distant Nile and Senegal
Send long meanders. Whate'er lies beyond,
Of rich or barren, Ignorance o'ercasts
With her dark mantle. Mon'motapa's coast
Is seldom visited; and the rough shore 225
Of Cafres, land of savage Hottentots,
Whose hands unnatural hasten to the grave
Their aged parents. What barbarity
And brutal ignorance where social trade
Is held contemptible! Ye gliding Sails! 230
From these inhospitable gloomy shores
Indignant turn, and to the friendly Cape,
Which gives the cheerful mariner good hope
Of prosperous voyage, steer. Rejoice to view
What trade, with Belgian industry, creates, 235
Prospects of civil life, fair towns, and lawns,
And yellow tilth, and groves of various fruits,
Delectable in husk or glossy rind:
There the capacious vase from crystal springs
Replenish, and convenient store provide, 240 Like ants, intelligent of future need. See! thro' the fragrance of delicious airs, That breathe the smell of balms, how Traffic shapes A winding voyage, by the lofty coast Of Sofala, thought Ophir, in whose hills 245 Ev'n yet some portion of its ancient wealth Remains, and sparkles in the yellow sand Of its clear streams, tho' unregarded now; Ophirs more rich are found. With easy course The vessels glide, unless their speed be stopp'd 250 By dead calms, that oft lie on those smooth seas While ev'ry zephyr sleeps: then the shrouds drop; The downy feather, on the cordage hung, Moves not; the flat sea shines like yellow gold, Fus'd in the fire; or like the marble floor 255 Of some old temple wide. But where so wide, In old or later time, its marble floor Did ever temple boast as this, which here Spreads its bright level many a league around? At solemn distances its pillars rise, 260 Sofal's blue rocks, Mozambic's palmy steeps, And lofty Madagascar's glittering shores, Where various woods of beauteous vein and hue, And glossy shells in elegance of form, For Pond's rich cabinet, or Sloan's, are found. 265 Such calm oft checks their course, till this bright scene Is brush'd away before the rising breeze, That joys the busy crew, and speeds again The sail full-swelling to Socotra's isle, For aloes fam'd; or to the wealthy marts 270 Of Ormus or Gombroon, whose streets are oft With caravans and tawny merchants throng'd, From neighbouring provinces and realms afar,
And fill'd with plenty, tho' dry sandy wastes
Spread naked round; so great the power of trade. 275
Persia few ports: more happy Indostan
Beholds Surat and Goa on her coasts,
And Bombay's wealthy isle, and harbour fam'd,
Supine beneath the shade of cocoa groves.
But what avails or many ports or few, 280
Where wild Ambition frequent from his lair
Starts up, while fell Revenge and Famine lead
To havoc, reckless of the tyrant's whip,
Which clanks along the vallies? Oft in vain
The merchant seeks upon the strand whom erst, 285
Associated by trade, he deck'd and cloath'd:
In vain whom rage or famine has devour'd
He seeks, and with increas'd affection thinks
On Britain. Still howe'er Bombaya's wharfs
Pile up blue indigo, and, of frequent use, 290
Pungent salt-petre, woods of purple grain,
And many-colour'd saps from leaf and flower,
And various gums; the cloathier knows their worth;
And wool resembling cotton, shorn from trees,
Nor to the Fleece unfriendly, whether mix'd 295
In warp or woof, or with the line of flax,
Or softer silk's material, tho' its aid
To vulgar eyes appears not. Let none deem
The Fleece in any traffic unconcern'd;
By every traffic aided, while each work 300
Of art yields wealth to exercise the loom,
And every loom employs each hand of art.
Nor is there wheel in the machine of trade
Which Leeds or Cairo, Lima or Bombay,
Helps not, with harmony, to turn around, 305
Tho' all unconscious of the union act.
Few the peculiars of Canara's realm,
Or sultry Malabar, where it behoves
The wary pilot, while he coasts their shores,
To mark o'er ocean the thick rising isles; 310
Woody Cahetta, Birter rough with rocks,
Green-rising Barmur, Mincoy's purple hills,
And the minute Maldivias, as a swarm
Of bees in summer on a poplar's trunk,
Clustering innumerable: these behind 315
His stern receding, o'er the clouds he views
Ceylon's gray peaks, from whose volcanoes rise
Dark smoke and ruddy flame, and glaring rocks
Darted in air aloft; around whose feet
Blue cliffs ascend, and aromatic groves, 320
In various prospect; Ceylon also deem'd
The ancient Ophir. Next Bengala's bay,
On the vast globe the deepest, while the prow
Turns northward to the rich disputed strand
Of Cor'mandel, where Traffic grieves to see 325
Discord and Avarice invade her realms,
Portending ruinous war, and cries aloud,
"Peace, peace, ye blinded Britons! and ye Gauls!
Nation to nation is a light, a fire,
Enkindling virtue, sciences, and arts"; 330
But cries aloud in vain. Yet, wise defence
Against Ambition's wide-destroying pride,
Madrass erected, and Saint David's fort,
And those which rise on Ganges' twenty streams,
Guarding the woven Fleece, Calcutta's tower, 335
And Maldo's and Patana's: from their holds
The shining bales our factors deal abroad,
And see the country's products, in exchange,
Before them heap'd; cotton's transparent webs,
Aloes, and cassia, salutiferous drugs, 340
Alom, and lacque, and clouded tortoiseshell,
And brilliant diamonds, to decorate
Britannia's blooming nymphs. For these, o'er all
The kingdoms round, our drap'ries are dispers'd,
O'er Bukor, Cabul, and the Bactrian vales, 345
And Cassimere, and Atoc, on the stream
Of old Hydaspes, Porus' hardy realm;
And late-discover'd Tibet, where the Fleece,
By art peculiar, is compress'd and wrought
To threadless drapery, which in conic forms 350
Of various hues their gaudy roofs adorns.
The keels which voyage thro' Molucca's Straits
Amid a cloud of spicy odours sail,
From Java and Sumatra breath'd, whose woods
Yield fiery pepper, that destroys the moth 355
In woolly vestures. Ternate and Tidore
Give to the festal board the fragrant clove
And nutmeg, to those narrow bounds confin'd,
While gracious Nature, with unsparing hand,
The needs of life o'er every region pours. 360
Near those delicious isles the beauteous coast
Of China rears its summits. Know ye not,
Ye sons of Trade! that ever-flow'ry shore,
Those azure hills, those woods and nodding rocks?
Compare them with the pictures of your chart; 365
Alike the woods and nodding rocks o'erhang.
Now the tall glossy tow'rs of porcelain
And pillar'd pagod shine; rejoic'd they see
The port of Canton opening to their prows,
And in the winding of the river moor, 370
Upon the strand they heap their glossy bales;
And works of Birmingham, in brass or steel,
And flint, and pond'rous lead, from deep cells rais'd,
Fit ballast in the fury of the storm,
That tears the shrouds, and bends the stubborn mast: 375
These for the artists of the Fleece procure
Various materials; and for affluent life
The flavour'd thea and glossy-painted vase;
Things elegant, ill-titled Luxuries,
In temperance us'd delectable and good. 380
They too from hence receive the strongest thread
Of the green silkworm. Various is the wealth
Of that renown'd and ancient land, secure
In constant peace and commerce; till'd to th' height
Of rich fertility, where, thick as stars, 385
Bright habitations glitter on each hill,
And rock, and shady dale; ev'n on the waves
Of copious rivers, lakes, and bord'ring seas,
Rise floating villages. No wonder, when
In every province firm and level roads, 390
And long canals, and navigable streams,
Ever with ease conduct the works of toil
To sure and speedy markets, thro' the length
Of many a crowded region, many a clime,
To the imperial tow'rs of Cambalu, 395
Now Pekin, where the Fleece is not unknown;
Since Calder's woofs, and those of Exe and Frome,
And Yare, and Avon flow, and rapid Trent,
Thither by Russic caravans are brought,
Thro' Scythia's num'rous regions, waste and wild, 400
Journey immense! which to th' attentive ear
The Muse, in faithful notes, shall brief describe.
From the proud mart of Petersburg, ere-while
The watery seat of Desolation wide,
Issue these trading caravans, and urge, 405
Thro' dazzling snows, their dreary trackless road;
By compass steering oft from week to week,
From month to month; whole seasons view their toils.
Neva they pass, and Kesma's gloomy flood,
Volga, and Don, and Oka's torrent prone, 410
Threatening in vain; and many a cataract
In its fall stopp'd, and bound with bars of ice.
Close on the left unnumber'd tracks they view
White with continual frost; and on the right
The Caspian Lake, and ever-flow'ry realms, 415
Tho' now abhorr'd, behind them turn, the haunt
Of arbitrary rule, where regions wide
Are destin'd to the sword; and on each hand
Roads hung with carcases, or under foot
Thick strown; while in their rough bewilder'd vales 420
The blooming rose its fragrance breathes in vain,
And silver fountains fall, and nightingales
Attune their notes, where none are left to hear.
Sometimes o'er level ways, on easy sleds,
The gen'rous horse conveys the sons of Trade, 425
And ever and anon the docile dog,
And now the light rein-deer, with rapid pace
Skims over icy lakes: now slow they climb
Aloft o'er clouds, and then adown descend
To hollow vallies, till the eye beholds 430
The roofs of Tobol, whose hill-crowning walls
Shine, like the rising moon, thro' watery mists;
Tobol! th' abode of those unfortunate
Exiles of angry state, and thralls of war;
Solemn fraternity! where earl and prince, 435
Soldier and statesman, and uncrested chief,
On the dark level of adversity
Converse familiar; while amid the cares
And toils for hunger, thirst, and nakedness,
Their little public smiles, and the bright sparks 440 Of trade are kindled. Trade arises oft,
And virtue, from adversity and want:
Be witness, Carthage! witness, ancient Tyre!
And thou, Batavia! daughter of distress.
This with his hands, which erst the truncheon held, 445
The hammer lifts; another bends and weaves
The flexile willow; that the mattoc drives:
All are employ'd, and by their works acquire
Our fleecy vestures. From their tenements,
Pleas'd and refresh'd, proceeds the caravan 450 Thro' lively-spreading cultures, pastures green,
And yellow tillages in opening woods;
Thence on, thro' Narim's wilds, a pathless road
They force, with rough entangling thorns perplex'd;
Land of the lazy Ostiacs, thin dispers'd, 455
Who, by avoiding, meet the toils they loathe,
Tenfold augmented; miserable tribe!
Void of commercial comforts; who nor corn,
Nor pulse, nor oil, nor heart-enlivening wine,
Know to procure; nor spade, nor scythe, nor share, 460
Nor social aid: beneath their thorny bed
The serpent hisses, while in thickets nigh
Loud howls the hungry wolf. So on they fare,
And pass by spacious lakes, begirt with rocks
And azure mountains, and the heights admire 465
Of white Imaus, whose snow-nodding crags
Frighten the realms beneath, and from their urns
Pour mighty rivers down, th' impetuous streams
Of Oby' and Irtis, and Jenisca swift,
Which rush upon the northern pole, upheave 47
Its frozen seas, and lift their hills of ice.
These rugged paths and savage landscapes pass'd,
A new scene strikes their eyes: among the clouds
Aloft they view, what seems a chain of cliffs,
Nature's proud work, that matchless work of art, 475
The wall of China, by Chihoham's power,
In earliest times, erected. Warlike troops
Frequent are seen in haughty march along
Its ridge, a vast extent! beyond the length
Of many a potent empire: towers and ports, 480
Three times a thousand, lift thereon their brows
At equal spaces, and in prospect round
Cities and plains, and kingdoms overlook.
At length the gloomy passage they attain
Of its deep-vaulted gates, whose opening folds 485
Conduct at length to Pekin's glittering spires,
The destin'd mart, where joyous they arrive.
Thus are the textures of the Fleece convey'd
To China's distant realm, the utmost bound
Of the flat floor of steadfast earth; for so 490 Fabled Antiquity, ere peaceful Trade
Inform'd the opening mind of curious man.
Now to the other hemisphere, my Muse!
A new world found, extend thy daring wing.
Be thou the first of the harmonious Nine, 495
From high Parnassus, the unweary'd toils
Of industry and valour, in that world
Triumphant, to reward with tuneful song.
Happy the voyage o'er th' Atlantic brine
By active Raleigh made, and great the joy 500 When he discern'd, above the foamy surge,
A rising coast, for future colonies
Opening her bays, and figuring her capes,
Ev'n from the northern tropic to the pole.
No land gives more employment to the loom, 505 Or kindlier feeds the indigent; no land
With more variety of wealth rewards
The hand of Labour: thither from the wrongs
Of lawless rule the free-born spirit flies;
Thither Affliction, thither Poverty, 510
And Arts and Sciences: thrice happy clime,
Which Britain makes th' asylum of mankind!
But joy superior far his bosom warms
Who views those shores in ev'ry culture dress'd;
With habitations gay, and numerous towns, 515
On hill and valley, and his countrymen
Form'd into various states, pow'rful and rich,
In regions far remote; who from our looms
Take largely for themselves, and for those tribes
Of Indians, ancient tenants of the land, 520
In amity conjoin'd, of civil life
The comforts taught, and various new desires,
Which kindle arts, and occupy the poor,
And spread Brittania's flocks o'er every dale.
Ye who the shuttle cast along the loom, 525
The silk-worms' thread inweaving with the Fleece,
Pray for the culture of the Georgian tract,
Nor slight the green savannahs and the plains
Of Carolina, where thick woods arise
Of mulberries, and in whose water'd fields 530
Upsprings the verdant blade of thirsty rice.
Where are the happy regions which afford
More implements of commerce and of wealth ?
Fertile Virginia, like a vigorous bough,
Which overshades some crystal river, spreads 535
Her wealthy cultivations wide around,
And, more than many a spacious realm, rewards
The Fleecy shuttle: to her growing marts,
The Iroquese, Cheroques, and Oubacks, come,
And quit their feathery ornaments uncouth 540 For woolly garments; and the cheers of life,
The cheers, but not the vices, learn to taste.
Blush, Europeans! whom the circling cup
Of Luxury intoxicates. Ye routs,
Who for your crimes have fled your native land ; 545
And ye voluptuous idle, who in vain
Seek easy habitations, void of care;
The sons of Nature with astonishment
And detestation mark your evil deeds,
And view, no longer aw'd, your nerveless arms, 550
Unfit to cultivate Ohio's banks.
See the bold emigrants of Accadie,
And Massachuset, happy in those arts
That join the polities of trade and war,
Bearing the palm in either; they appear 555
Better exemplars; and that hardy crew
Who on the frozen beach of Newfoundland
Hang their white fish amid the parching winds ;
The kindly Fleece, in webs of Duffield woof,
Their limbs, benumb'd, enfolds with cheerly warmth, 560
And frize of Cambria, worn by those who seek,
Thro' gulfs and dales of Hudson's winding bay,
The beaver's fur, tho' oft they seek in vain,
While winter's frosty rigour checks approach
Ev'n in the fiftieth latitude. Say why, 565
(If ye the travell'd sons of Commerce know)
Wherefore lie bound their rivers, lakes, and dales,
Half the sun's annual course, in chains of ice?
While the Rhine's fertile shore, and Gallic realms,
By the same zone encircled, long enjoy 570
Warm beams of Phrebus, and, supine, behold
Their plains and hillocks blush with clust'ring vines?
Must it be ever thus? or may the hand
Of mighty Labour drain their gusty lakes,
Enlarge the bright'ning sky, and, peopling, warm 575
The op'ning valleys and the yellowing plains?
Or rather shall we burst strong Darien's chain,
Steer our bold fleets between the cloven rocks,
And thro' the great Pacific every joy
Of civil life diffuse? Are not her isles 580
Numerous and large? have they not harbours calm,
Inhabitants, and manners? haply, too,
Peculiar sciences, and other forms
Of trade, and useful products, to exchange
For woolly vestures? 'Tis a tedious course 585
By the Antarctic circle; nor beyond
Those sea-wrapt gardens of the dulcet reed,
Bahama and Caribbee, may be found
Safe mole or harbour, till on Falkland's Isle
The standard of Britannia shall arise. 590
Proud Buenos Aires, low-couched Paraguay,
And rough Corrientes, mark, with hostile eye,
The labouring vessel: neither may we trust
The dreary naked Patagonian land,
Which darkens in the wind: no traffic there, 595
No barter, for the Fleece: there angry storms,
Bend their black brows, and, raging, hurl around
Their thunders. Ye adventurous Mariners!
Be firm; take courage from the brave: 't was there
Perils and conflicts inexpressible 600
Anson, with steady undespairing breast,
Endur'd, when o'er the various globe he chas'd
His country's foes. Fast-gathering tempests rouz'd
Huge ocean, and involv'd him: all around
Whirlwind, and snow, and hail, and horror: now, 605
Rapidly, with the world of waters, down
Descending to the channels of the deep,
He viewvv'd th' uncover'd bottom of th' abyss,
And now the stars, upon the loftiest point
Toss'd of the sky-mix'd surges. Oft the burst 610
Of loudest thunder, with the dash of seas,
Tore the wild-flying sails and tumbling masts,
While flames, thick-flashing in the gloom, reveal'd
Ruins of decks, and shrouds, and sights of death.
Yet on he far'd, with fortitude his cheer, 615
Gaining, at intervals, slow way beneath
Del Fuego's rugged cliffs, and the white ridge
Above all height, by opening clouds reveal'd,
Of Montegorda, and inaccessible
Wreck-threatening Staten Land's o'erhanging shore, 620
Enormous rocks on rocks, in ever wild
Posture of falling; as when Pelion rear'd
On Ossa, and on Ossa's tottering head
Woody Olympus, by the angry gods
Precipitate on earth were doomed to fall. 625
At length, thro' every tempest, as some branch
Which from a poplar falls into a loud
Impetuous cataract, tho' deep immers'd,
Yet re-ascends, and glides, on lake or stream,
Smooth thro' the valleys; so his way be won 630
To the serene Pacific, flood immense!
And rear'd his lofty masts, and spread his sails.
Then Paita's walls, in wasting flames involv'd,
His vengeance felt, and fair occasion gave
To show humanity and continence, 635
To Scipio's not inferior. Then was left
No corner of the globe secure to Pride
And Violence, altho' the far-stretch'd coast
Of Chili, and Peru, and Mexico,
Arm'd in their evil cause; tho' fell Disease, 640
Un'bating Labour, tedious Time, conspir'd,
And Heat inclement, to unnerve his force;
Tho' that wide sea, which spreads o'er half the world,
Deny'd all hospitable land or port;
Where, seasons voyaging, no road he found 645
To moor, no bottom in th' abyss whereon
To drop the fastening anchor; tho' his brave
Companions ceas'd, subdu'd by toil extreme;
Tho' solitary left in Tinian's seas,
Where never was before the dreaded sound 650
Of Britain's thunder heard; his wave-worn bark
Met, fought the proud Iberian, and o'ercame.
So fare it ever with our country's foes!
Rejoice, ye Nations! vindicate the sway
Ordain'd for common happiness. Wide, o'er 655
The globe terraqueous, let Britannia pour
The fruits of plenty from her copious horn.
What can avail to her, whose fertile earth
By Ocean's briny waves are circumscrib'd,
The armed host, and murdering sword of war, 660
And conquest o'er her neighbours? She ne'er breaks
Her solemn compacts in the lust of rule:
Studious of arts and trade, she ne'er disturbs
The holy peace of states. 'Tis her delight
To fold the world with harmony, and spread, 665
Among the habitations of mankind,
The various wealth of toil, and what her Fleece,
To clothe the naked, and her skilful looms
Peculiar give. Ye, too, rejoice, ye Swains!
Increasing commerce shall reward your cares. 670
A day will come, if not too deep we drink
The cup which luxury on careless wealth,
Pernicious gift! bestows; a day will come
When, thro' new channels sailing, we shall clothe
The Californian coast, and all the realms 675
That stretch from Hainan Straits to proud Japan,
And the green isles, which on the left arise
Upon the glassy brine, whose various capes
Not yet are figur'd on the sailors' chart:
Then every variation shall be told 680
Of the magnetic steel, and currents mark'd
Which drive the heedless vessel from her course.
That portion, too, of land, a track immense,
Beneath th' Antarctic spread, shall then be known,
And new plantations on its coast arise. 685
Then rigid winter's ice no more shall wound
The only naked animal; but man
With the soft Fleece shall every where be cloath'd.
Th' exulting Muse shall then, in vigour fresh,
Her flight renew: meanwhile, with weary wing690 O'er ocean's wave returning, she explores Siluria's flow'ry vales, her old delight, The shepherd's haunts, where the first springs arise Of Britain's happy trade, now spreading wide, Wide as th' Atlantic and Pacific seas,695 Or as air's vital fluid o'er the globe.
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