By HENRY JAMES PYE, Efq. Poet Laureat.
WHEN from the bofom of the mine
The magnet firft to light was thrown, Fair Commerce hail d the gift divine, And, smiling, claim'd it for her own. My bark (the faid) this gem fhall guide Thro' paths of ocean yet untried, "While, as my daring fons explore "Each, rude, inhofpitable fhore, "'Mid defart fands, and ruthless fkies,
"New feats of industry shall rife,
And culture wide extend its genial reign,
Free as the ambient gale, and boundless as the main. Į
But Tyranny foon learn'd to feize
The art improving Science taught;
The white fail courts the diftant breeze,
With Horror and Destruction fraught;
From the tall maft fell War unfurl'd
His banners to a new-found world;
Oppreflion, arm'd with giant pride,
And bigot Fury by her fide;
Dire Defolation, bath'd in blood,
Pale Av'rice, and her harpy brood,
To each affrighted fhore in thunder spoke,
And bow'd the wretched race to Slavery's iron yoke.
Not fuch the gentler views that urge
Britannia's fons to dare the furge;
Not fuch the gifts her Drake, her Raleigh bore,
To the wild inmates of th' Atlantic shore,
Teaching each drear wood's pathless scene
The glories of their Virgin Queen.—
Nor fuch her later Chiefs who try,
Impell'd by foft Humanity,
The boift'rous wave, the rugged coaft,
The burning zone, the polar froft,
That climes remote, and regions yet unknown,
May share a George's fway, and bless his patriot throne.
Warm Fancy, kindling with delight,
Anticipates the lapfe of age,
And, as the throws her eagle's fight
O'er Time's yet undiscover'd page,
Vaft continents, now dark with fhade,
She fees in verdure's robe array'd,
Sees o'er each island's fertile steep,
That frequent ftuds the Southern deep,
His fleecy charge the fhepherd lead,
The harveft wave, the vintage bleed :
Sees Commerce fprings of guitless wealth explore,
Where frowns the Western world on Afia's neighbouring shore.
But, lo! across the blackening skies,
What fwarthy Dæmon wings his flight
At once the tranfient landscape flies,
The fplendid vifion fets in night.-
And fee Britannia's aweful form,
With breast undaunted, brave the storm!
Aweful, as when her angry tide
Overwhelm'd the wreck'd Armada's pride!
Aweful, as when th' avenging blow,
Sufpending o'er a proftrate foe,
She fnatch'd, in vict'roy's moment prompt to fave,
Iberia's finking fons from Calpé's glowing wave.
Ere yet the tempeft's mingled found
Burft dreadful o'er the nations round,
What Angel-shape, in beaming radiance dight
Pours thro' the fevering clouds celestial light?
'Tis Peace!-before her feraph eye
The fiends of Devastation fly;
Aufpicious round our Monarch's brow
She twines her olive's facred bough:
This victory (fhe cries) is mine,
"Not torn from War's terrific fhrine;
"Mine, the pure trophies of the wife and good,
Unbought by fcenes of woe, and undefil'd with blood."
VERSES written in the ISLAND of STAFFA, August 6, 1787. Addre1fed to Sir JOSEPH BANKS, by WILLIAM PARSONS, Esq. F. R. S.
[Communicated by a Friend.]
THAT founds harmonious mingle with the ftorm!
The stars dim gleaming through his mifty form
Does Cona's * voice renew the thrilling rhimes,
The streamy Morven's tales of other times?
Or to revifit yon deserted fane †,
Does bleft Columba leave the fainted train,
Tuning in golden clouds the folemn lyre,
Whofe loud notes join the full celestial choir ?
Vain fictions thefe, which youthful Bards delight,
When some new wonder ftrikes th' aftonish'd fight!
No founds are heard, except th' Atlantic wave,
That deeply murmurs in the twilight cave!
Awe-ftruck I enter!-This ftupendous roof,
These adamantine walls of maffy proof,
These groups of columns that in Ocean stand,
What hands have rais'd? what architect hath plann'd?
Did the bold Giant race, the Northern boast,
With vaft Typhoean strength, each man a host,
Rear mid the raging deep a pillar'd floor,
And link the Hebrides to dread Bengore?
Or, am I borne to that tremendous hall
Where Odin fat, and at his mighty call
The Runic Demi-gods in ftern repofe
Quaff'd their sweet beverage from the fculls of foes.
Illufions all!-Of art no traces near,
Nor Giant race nor Runic Chiefs were here:
His nobler work, proud || Nevis' towering head
Who rais'd, and funk the Sea's capacious bed;
Who taught the enormous whale, while Ocean boils,
To ftem the wave, and thrid the numerous ifles ;
Who bade the Arctic eagle in his flight
Drink the flant beam, and fcorn the languid light!
O facred Truth! O Energy divine!
Too long at fpecious Fancy's, gaudy fhrine
Deluded loitering, mid Italian fhades
In day-dreams wild I woo'd th' Aonian maids,
Offian calls himself " the voice of Cona," "The ghost of Crugal came from his cave, the ftars dim twinkled through his form." Macpherfon's Oflian.
The ruins of the church of Iona or Ikolmkill, founded by St. Columba in the fifth century, are visible from Staffa.
It has long been a popular fuperftition, that the columns of Staffa and those of the Giants Caufeway in Ireland, were the work of Giants, and once united the two coats, The Headland of Bengore is one of the most striking features of the Bafaltic coaft, of which the Giants Caufe way is a part. See Hamilton's Letters on the Coaft of Antrim.
Ben Nevis is, the higheft mountain in Scotland; it is about 100 miles from Staffa, and it; height more than 4000 feet above the fea.
Who bade full oft their air-built vifions rife
In glittering hues before my dazzled eyes,
Prone to forfake thy philofophic ftore
For fabled regions, and romantic lore;
Such thoughts the local feelings, there infpire,
Rous'd by the Mantuan trump, or Sabine lyre;
Such mad Orlando's ftrange adventures move,
And Godfrey's pious arms and Petrarch's hapless love
At length, fo reafon wills, thefe raptures fail,
And riper judgment muft with tears bewail
Thofe hours devoted to the "thankless Muse."
More wife, more blejt §, whofe curious fearch purfues
Of real wonders each efficient cause,
Nature's prolific reign, and hidden laws.
Tracing each change of earth's all-paffive frame,
Subdued by air, by water, and by flame,
While oft the faireft fymmetry of things
From jarning powers and dire convulfion springs.
Were I thus gifted, I might now unfold
To yon poor feamen, ignorant as bold,
While from the dancing wave their lifted eyes
Gaze on this ifland with uncouth surprise,
And, widely erring, they afcribe each part
To manual labour or to magic art,
By what nice procefs powerful nature gave
Thefe rocks their pillars, and their fhadowy cave,
Which awe with grandeur, or with beauty please-
*By fire ejected, or deposed by feas!
Such objects, Banks, provok'd thy gen'rous toils,
Scorning alike Ambition's gorgeous fpoils,
The fports of pleasure, and the couch of reft,
To fail adventurous with undaunted breast
Through feas unknown, where fiercer billows roll,
And "curl their monftrous heads" round either pole;
From fouthern Ifles, whence favage forms advance,
Raife the wild yell, and shake the hoftile lance.
Then, fierce and recking from the horrid meal,
Their mangled foes to fhuddering eyes reveal;
To northern Hecla, who his ice-crown'd head
Proudly uprears, while round his fides are spread
5 Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas. Virg. Geo. lib. 2.
The volcanic theory of the Staffa Bafaltes has been generally adopted, thongh the character of the neighbouring iflands, where the columnar appearance is nearly as perfect, is widely different from the ufual one of a volcanic country, they being mostly formed of natural terraces, one above another, and all lying in exact horizontal direc tions, which confirms fome obfervers in the opinion, that they were originally formed by depofition of water.
+ See in Hawkefworth's Account of Cook's Voyage decifive proofs of the New Zea landers eating the fieth of their enemies.
Torrents of flame, and at his feet arife
The watry Geyfers, glittering in the skies!
Great is the merchant's praife, whofe active mind
In diftant climes can fome new commerce find,
And bring exulting to a grateful fhore
Sources of wealth, and arts, unknown before:
And great the hero's, who on foreign plains,
'Mid toil and peril, his high talk maintains
'O'er conquer'd nations, with fupreme command
To bear the fceptre of his native land;
But greater his, whom Science tempts to roam,
And bring the fpoils of rich difcovery home;
Whofe better aim, and labours more refin'd,
Add to the general knowledge of mankind.
For this Britannia's ftudious fons decree
That facred chair which Newton fill'd to thee;
For this, where'er her welcome flags unfurl'd,
Thy praife fhall spread, and charm the lift ning world;
E'en thefe lone fcenes thy keen refearch proclaim;
Fix'd on bafaltic columns ftands thy Fame!
To WILLIAM LOCKE, Efq. Junior, on his PICTURE of the DEATH of CARDINAL WOLSEY. By the fame Gentleman.
[Communicated by a Friend.]
Segnius irritant animos demiffa per aures,
Quam quæ funt oculis fubjecta fidelibus.
AINTING! fweet injur'd nymph, whose matchless skill
Futile and vain yon cloyfter'd pedant deems!
To move the paffions and correct the will,
Great is thy force, if Genius chufe thy themes.
What boaft fo high can Bards or Sages raife,.
Who win by flow degrees the lift'ning ear?
Thy moral lightning through the eye conveys
Both tale and precept, fudden, ftrong, and clear.
In deep Contrition's pangs proud Wolfey dies,
Ye proud, behold his portrait and be wife;
The fpeaking record Hiftory approves,
And eloquence, ftruck dumb, with fhame departs ;
While Virtue from her ftár y threshold moves,
To hail thee nobleft of the liberal Arts!
The Geyfers are the moft confiderable of the boiling-water fprings in Iceland, which have been faid to rife as high as 60 fathoms. See Von Troil's Letters on Iceland.
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