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By Me proud Genoa's marble turrets rofe.
And while My genuine Spirit warm'd her fons,
Beneath her Dorias, not unworthy, she
Vy'd for the trident of the narrow feas,
Ere BRITAIN yet had open'd all the main.

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• Nor be the then triumphant state * forgot; Where, pufh'd from plunder'd earth †, a remnant still, Inspir'd by Me, thro' the dark ages kept Of My old Roman flame some sparks alive : The feeming god-built city! which My hand Deep in the bosom fix'd of wond'ring feas. Aftonish'd mortals fail'd, with pleasing awe, Around the fea-girt walls, by Neptune fenc'd, And down the briny street; where on each hand,

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Amazing feen amid unstable waves,
The fplendid palace shines; and rifing tides,
The green steps marking, murmur at the door.
To this fair Queen of Adria's stormy gulf,

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The Mart of nations! long, obedient feas

Roll'd all the treafure of the radiant East.
But now no more. Than one great tyrant worfe
(Whose shar'd oppression lightens, as diffus'd)

Each fubject tearing, many tyrants rose.
The least the proudest. Join'd in dark cabal,
They jealous, watchful, filent, and severe,

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+ Venice was the most flourishing city in Europe, with regard to trade, before the paffage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, and America, vere discovered.

+ Those who fled to some marshes in the Adriatic gulf, from the defolation spread over Italy by an irruption of the Huns, first founded there this famous city, about the beginning of the fifth century.

Cast o'er the whole indifsoluble chains:
The fofter shackles of luxurious ease

They likewife added, to fecure their sway.
Thus Venice fainter shines; and Commerce thus,

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Of toil impatient, flags the drooping fail.
Bursting, befides, his ancient bounds, he took

A larger circle §; found another feat †,

Op'ning a thousand ports, and, charm'd with toil, 320
Whom nothing can disinay, far other fons.

The Mountains then, clad with eternal snow,
Confefs'd My power: Deep as the rampant rocks,
By Nature thrown infuperable round,

I planted there a League of friendly states ‡,

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And bade plain Freedom their ambition be.
There in the Vale, where rural Plenty fills,
From lakes, and meads, and furrow'd fields, her horn,
Chief ||, where the Leman pure emits the Rhone,

Rare to be seen! unguilty cities rife,

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Cities of brothers form'd: while equal Life,

Accorded gracious with revolving Pow'r,

Maintains them free; and in their happy streets,

Nor cruel deed, nor mifery, is known.

For valour, faith, and innocence of Life,
Renown'd, a rough laborious people, there,

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Not only give the dreadful Alps to fmile,

§ The main occan.

† Great Britain.

‡ The Swiss Cantons.

|| Geneva, fituated on the Lacus Lemanus, a small state, but no

ble example of the blessings of civil and religious liberty,

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And press their culture on retiring snows;
But, to firm order train'd and patient war,
They likewise know, beyond the nerve remiss
Of mercenary force, how to defend
The tasteful little their hard toil has earn'd,

And the proud arm of Baurbon to defy.

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Ev'n cheer'd by ME, their shaggy mountains charm,

More than or Gallic or Italian plains ;

And fick'ning Fancy oft, when absent long,
* Pines to behold their Alpine views again:
The hollow-winding stream: the vale, fair-fpread
Amid an amphitheatre of hills;

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Whence, vapour-wing'd, the sudden tempest springs :
From steep to steep ascending, the gay train
Of fogs, thick-roll'd into romantic shapes :
The flitting cloud, against the summit dash'd;
And by the fun illumin'd, pouring bright
A geminy show'r; hung o'er amazing rocks,
The mountain ash, and folemn-founding pine:
The snow-fed torrent, in white mazes tost,
Down to the clear etherial lake below:
And, high o'er-topping all the broken scene,
The mountain fading into sky; where shines
On winter winter shiv'ring, and whose top
Licks from their cloudy magazine the snows.

From these defcending, as I wav'd My course
Q'er vaft Germania, the ferocious nurse

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• The Swiss, after having been long absent from their native country, are feized with such a violent defire of seeing it again, as affects them with a kind of languishing indifpofition, called the Swiss sickness.

Of hardy men and hearts affronting death,
I gave fome favour'd cities ‡ there to lift
A nobler brow, and thro' their swarming streets,

More busy, wealthy, cheerful, and alive,
In each contented face to look my foul.

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Thence the loud Baltic passing, black with storm,

To wintry Scandinavia's utmost bound;

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There, I the manly race †, the parent-hive
Of the mixt kingdoms, form'd into a state
More regularly free. By keener air,

Their genius purg'd, and temper'd hard by frost, 375 Tempeft and toil their nerves, the fons of those

Whose only terror was a bloodless death §,
They wife, and dauntless, still fustain my cause.-
Yet there I fix'd not. Turning to the fouth,
The whisp'ring zephyrs figh'd at my delay.
Here, with the shifted Vision, burst my joy.
"O the dear profpect! O majestic view!
" See BRITAIN's empire! Lo! the watry vak
" Wide-waves, diffufing the cerulean plain.
"And now, methinks, like clouds at distance seen,

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Emerging white from deeps of ether; dawn " My kindred cliffs; whence, wafted in the gale, " Ineffable, a secret sweetness breathes... "GODDESS, forgive! - My heart, furpriz'd, o'erflows "With filial fondness for the land you bless."

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As parents to a child complacent deign

The Hans Towns. § See note on verse 678.

+ The Swedes

Approvance, the CELESTIAL BRIGHTNESS smil'd;
Then thus-As o'er the wave-resounding deep,
To my near reign, the happy ifle, I steer'd

With easy wing; behold! from furge to furge,
Stalk'd the tremendous GENIUS OF THE DEEP.
Around him clouds, in mingled tempeft, hung;
Thick flashing meteors crown'd his starry head;
And ready thunder redden'd in his hand,
Or from it stream'd comprest the gloomy cloud.
Where-e'er he look'd, the trembling waves recoil'd.
He needs but strike the confcious flood, and thook.
From fhore to fhore, in agitation dire,

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It works his dreadful will. TO ME his voice
(Like that hoarse blast that round the cavern howls,
Mixt with the murmurs of the falling main)
Address'd, began" By Fate commission'd, go,

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MY SISTER-GODDESS now, to yon blest. Ifle,. " Henceforth the Partner of my rough domain. "All my dread walks to BRITONS open lie. "Those that refulgent, or with rofy morn, "Or yellow ev'ning, flame; those that, profufe " Drunk by equator-funs, feverely shine; "Or those that, to the poles approaching, rife "In billows rolling into Alps of ice. "Ev'n, yet untouch'd by daring keel, be theirs "The vast Pacific; that on other worlds, "Their future conqueft, rolls resounding tides.

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Long I maintain'd inviolate my reign; "Nor Alexanders me, nor Cafars brav'd. "Still, in the crook of shore, the coward fail "Till now low-crept; and peddling Commerce ply'd

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