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Wide-roams the Ruffian exile. Nought around
Strikes his fad eye, but deserts loft in fnow;
And heavy-loaded groves; and folid floods,
That ftretch, athwart the folitary vaft,
Their icy horrors to the frozen main;
And cheerlefs towns far-diftant, never bless'd,
Save when its annual course the caravan
Bends to the golden coaft of rich Cathay *,
With news of human-kind. Yet there life glows;
Yet cherish'd there, beneath the shining waste,
The furry nations harbour: tipt with jet,
Fair crmines, fpotlefs as the fnows they prefs;
Sables, of gloffy black; and dark-embrown'd,
Or beauteous freakt with many a mingled hue,
Thousands befides, the coftly pride of courts.
There, warm together prefs'd, the trooping deer
Sleep on the new-fallen fnows; and, fcarce his head
Rais'd o'er the happy wreath, the branching elk
Lies flumbering fullen in the white abyss.
The ruthless hunter wants nor dogs nor toils,
Nor with the dread of founding bows he drives
The fearful flying race; with ponderous clubs,
As weak against the mountain heaps they pufh

*The old name for China.

Their beating breast in vain, and piteous bray,
He lays them quivering on th' enfanguin'd fnows,
And with loud fhouts rejoicing bears them home.
There thro' the piny forest half-absorpt,

Rough tenant of these shades, the shapeless bear,
With dangling ice all horrid, ftalks forlorn ;
Slow pac'd, and fourer as the ftorms increase,
He makes his bed beneath th' inclement drift,
And, with ftern patience, fcorning weak complaint,
Hardens his heart against affailing want.

Wide o'er the spacious regions of the north,
That fee Boötes urge his tardy wain,

A boisterous race, by frofty Caurus * pierc'd,
Who little pleasure know and fear no pain,
Prolific fwarm. They once relum'd the flame
Of loft mankind in polish'd flavery funk,
Drove martial horde on horde †, with dreadful sweep
Refiftlefs rufhing o'er th' enfeebled fouth,
And gave the vanquifh'd world another form.
Not fuch the fons of Lapland: wifely they
Despise th' infensate barbarous trade of war;
They ask no more than fimple Nature gives,

*The North-west Wind.

The wandering Scythian Clans.

They love their mountains and enjoy their ftorms.
No false defires, no pride-created wants,
Disturb the peaceful current of their time ;
And thro' the reftlefs ever-tortur'd maze
Of pleasure or ambition, bid it rage.

Their rein-deer form their riches. These their tents,
Their robes, their beds, and all their homely wealth
Supply, their wholefome fare, and cheerful cups.
Obfequious at their call, the docile tribe

Yield to the fled their necks, and whirl them swift
O'er hill and dale, heap'd into one expanfe
Of marbled fnow, as far as eye can sweep
With a blue cruft of icé unbounded glaz❜d.
By dancing meteors then, that ceaseless shake
A waving blaze refracted o'er the heavens,
And vivid moons, and stars that keener play
With double luftre from the gloffy waste,
Even in the depth of Polar Night, they find
A wondrous day: enough to light the chase,
Or guide their daring steps to Finland-fairs.
Wish'd Spring returns; and from the hazy fouth,
While dim Aurora flowly moves before,
The welcome fun, just verging up at first,
By fmall degrees extends the fwelling curve;
Till feen at last for gay rejoicing months,

Still round and round, his fpiral courfe he winds,
And as he nearly dips his flaming orb,

Wheels up again, and re-ascends the sky.

In that glad season, from the lakes and floods,

*

Where pure Niemi's fairy mountains rife,

And fring'd with roses Tenglio † rolls his stream,
They draw the copious fry. With these, at eve,
They cheerful-loaded to their tents repair;
Where, all day long in useful cares employ'd,
Their kind unblemish'd wives the fire
Thrice happy race! by poverty fecur'd
From legal plunder and rapacious power:
In whom fell intereft never yet has fown

prepare.

The feeds of vice: whofe fpotlefs fwains ne'er knew

* M. de Maupertuis, in his book on the Figure of the Earth, after having defcribed the beautiful Lake and Mountain of Niemi in Lapland, fays, "From this height we had opportu"nity several times to see thofe vapours rife from the Lake "which the people of the country call Haltios, and which "they deem to be the guardian Spirits of the Mountains. We "had been frighted with flories of Bears that haunted this "place, but faw none. It seemed rather a place of refort for "Fairies and Genii, than Bears.”

+ The fame Author obferves: "I was surprized to see upon "the banks of this river (the Tenglio) rofes of as lively a red 66 as any that are in our gardens."

Injurious deed, nor, blafted by the breath
Of faithlefs love, their blooming daughters woe.
Still preffing on, beyond Tornéa's lake,
And Hecla flaming thro' a waste of fnow,
And fartheft Greenland, to the pole itself,
Where, failing gradual, life at length goes out,
The Mufe expands her folitary flight;

And, hovering o'er the wild ftupendous fcene,
Beholds new feas beneath another sky *.
Thron'd in his palace of cerulean ice,
Here WINTER holds his unrejoicing court;
And thro' his airy hall the loud mifrule
Of driving tempeft is for ever heard:
Here the grim tyrant meditates his wrath;
Here arms his winds with all-fubduing froft;
Moulds his fierce hail, and treasures up his fnows,
With which he now oppreffes half the globe.
Thence winding eaftward to the Tartar's coaft
She sweeps the howling margin of the main;
Where undiffolving, from the first of time,
Snows fwell on fnows amazing to the sky;
And icy mountains high on mountains pil'd,
Seem to the fhivering failor from afar,

*The other Hemifphere.

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