At once his dome, his robe, his food, and arms. Swell'd by a thousand streams, impetuous hurl'd From all the roaring Andes, huge descends The mighty Orellana. Scarce the Muse Dares stretch her wing o'er this enormous mass Of rushing water; scarce she dares attempt The sea-like Plata; to whose dread expanse, Continuous depth, and wondrous length of course, Our floods are rills. With unabated force, In silent dignity they sweep along,
And traverse realms unknown, and blooming wilds, And fruitful desarts, worlds of solitude, Where the sun smiles and seasons teem in vain, Unseen, and unenjoy'd. Forsaking these, O'er peopled plains they fair-diffusive flow, And many a nation feed, and circle safe, In their soft bosom, many a happy isle; The seat of blameless Pan: yet undisturb'd By christian crimes and Europe's cruel sons. Thus pouring on, they proudly seek the deep, Whose vanquish'd tide, recoiling from the shock, Yields to this liquid weight of half the globe; And Ocean trembles for his green domain. But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth?
This gay profusion of luxurious bliss?
This pomp of Nature? what their balmy meads, Their powerful herbs, and Ceres void of pain? By vagrant birds dispers'd, and wafting winds, What their unplanted fruits? what the cool draughts, Th' ambrosial food, rich gums, and spicy health, Their forests yield? Their toiling insects what, Their silky pride, and vegetable robes ? Ah! what avail their fatal treasures, hid Deep in the bowels of the pitying earth, Golconda's gems, and sad Potosi's mines; Where dwelt the gentlest children of the sun? What all that Afric's golden rivers roll, Her odorous woods, and shining ivory stores ? Ill-fated race! the softening arts of Peace, Whate'er the humanizing Muses teach; The godlike wisdom of the temper'd breast; Progressive truth, the patient force of thought; Investigation calm, whose silent powers Command the world; the Light that leads to Heaven Kind equal rule, the government of laws, And all-protecting Freedom, which alone Sustains the name and dignity of Man: These are not theirs. The parent-sun himself
Seems o'er this world of slaves to tyrannize; And, with oppressive ray, the roseate bloom Of beauty blasting, gives the gloomy hue, And feature gross: or worse, to ruthless deeds, Mad jealousy, blind rage, and fell revenge, Their fervid spirit fires. Love dwells not there, The soft regards, the tenderness of life, The heart-shed tear, th' ineffable delight Of sweet humanity: these court the beam Of milder climes; in selfish fierce desire, And the wild fury of voluptuous sense, There lost. The very brute-creation there This rage partakes, and burns with horrid fire. Lo! the green serpent, from his dark abode, Which even Imagination fears to tread, At noon forth-issuing, gathers up his train In orbs immense, then, darting out anew, Seeks the refreshing fount; by which diffus'd, He throws his folds: and while, with threatning tongue, And deathful jaws erect, the monster curls His flaming crest, all other thirst appall'd, Or shivering flies, or check'd at distance stands, Nor dares approach. But still more direful he, The small close-lurking' minister of fate,
Whose high-concocted venom thro' the veins A rapid lightning darts, arresting swift The vital current. Form'd to humble Man, This child of vengeful Nature! There, sublim'd To fearless lust of blood, the savage race Roam, licens'd by the shading hour of guilt, And foul misdeed, when the pure day has shut His sacred eye. The tyger darting fierce Impetuous on the prey his glance has doom'd : The lively-shining leopard, speckled o'er With many a spot, the beauty of the waste; And, scorning all the taming arts of Man, The keen hyena, fellest of the fell. These, rushing from th' inhospitable woods Of Mauritania, or the tufted isles, That verdant rise amid the Lybian wild, Innumerous glare around their shaggy king, Majestic, stalking o'er the printed sand; And, with imperious and repeated roars, Demand their fated food. The fearful flocks Croud near the guardian swain; the nobler herds, Where round their lordly bull, in rural ease, They ruminating lie, with horror hear The coming rage. Th' awakened village starts;
And to her fluttering breast the mother strains Her thoughtless infant. From the Pyrate's den, Or stern Morocco's tyrant fang escap'd, The wretch half-wishes for his bonds again: While, uproar all, the wilderness resounds, From Atlas eastward to the frighted Nile. Unhappy he! who from the first of joys, Society, cut off, is left alone Amid this world of death. Day after day, Sad on the jutting eminence he sits, And views the main that ever toils below: Still fondly forming in the farthest verge, Where the round ether mixes with the wave, Ships, dim-discover'd, dropping from the clouds; At evening, to the setting sun he turns A mournful eye, and down his dying heart Sinks helpless, while the wonted roar is up, And hiss continual thro' the tedious night. Yet here, even here, into these black abodes Of monsters, unappall'd from stooping Rome, And guilty Cæsar, liberty retir'd, Her Cato following thro' Numidian wilds : Disdainful of Campania's gentle plains, And all the green delights Ausonia pours;
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