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Can sons of Neptune, generous, brave, and bold, In pain and hazard toil for sordid gold?

They can! for gold, too oft, with magic art,
Subdues each nobler impulse of the heart:
This crowns the prosperous villain with applause,
To whom, in vain, sad Merit pleads her cause:
This strews with roses life's perplexing road,
And leads the way to pleasure's blest abode;
With slaughter'd victims fills the weeping plain,
And smooths the furrows of the treacherous main.
O'er the gay vessel, and her daring band,
Experienced Albert held the chief command;
Though train'd in boisterous elements, his mind
Was yet by soft humanity refined,

Each joy of wedded love at home he knew;
Abroad confest the father of his crew!
Brave, liberal, just-the calm domestic scene
Had o'er his temper breathed a gay serene :
Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace
The planets wheeling in eternal race;
To mark the ship in floating balance held,
By earth attracted and by seas repell'd ; [known,
Or point her devious track through climes un-
That leads to every shore and every zone.
He saw the moon through heaven's blue concave
glide,

And into motion charm th' expanding tide;
While earth impetuous round her axle rolls,
Exalts her watery zone, and sinks the poles,
Light and attraction, from their genial source,'
He saw still wandering with diminish'd force:
While on the margin of declining day,
Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away.-
Inured to peril, with unconquer'd soul,
The chief beheld tempestuous oceans roll;
His genius ever for th' event prepared,
Rose with the storm, and all its dangers shared.
The second powers and office Rodmond bore:
A hardy son of England's furthest shore!
Where bleak Northumbria pours her savage train
In sable squadrons o'er the northern main :
That with her pitchy entrails stored, resort,
A sooty tribe! to fair Augusta's port.
Where'er in ambush lurk'd the fatal sands,
They claim the danger; proud of skilful bands;
For while, with darkling course, their vessels sweep
The winding shore, or plough the faithless deep,
O'er bar and shelf the watery path they sound
With dextrous arm; sagacious of the ground!
Fearless they combat every hostile wind,
Wheeling in mazy tracks with course inclined.
Expert to moor, where terrors line the road,
Or win the anchor from its dark abode :
But drooping and relax'd in climes afar
Tumultuous and undisciplined in war.
Such Rodmond was; by learning unrefined,
That oft enlightens to corrupt the mind.
Boisterous of manners; train'd in early youth
To scenes that shame the conscious cheek of truth,
To scenes that Nature's struggling voice control,
And freeze compassion rising in the soul!
Where the grim hell-hounds prowling round the

shore,

With foul intent the stranded bark explore

A bar is known, in hydrography, to be a mass of earth or land collected by the surge of the sea, at the entrance of a river or haven, so as to render the navigation difficult, and often dangerous.

Deaf to the voice of wo, her decks they board,
While tardy Justice slumbers o'er her sword-
Th' indignant Muse, severely taught to feel,
Shrinks from a theme she blushes to reveal!
Too oft example, arm'd with poisons fell,
Pollutes the shrine where Mercy loves to dwell:
Thus Rodmond, train'd by this unhallow'd crew,
The sacred social passions never knew:
Unskill'd to argue, in dispute yet loud;
Bold without caution; without honours proud:
In art unschool'd; each veteran rule he prized,
And all improvement haughtily despised.
Yet, though full oft to future perils blind,
With skill superior glow'd his daring mind,
Through snares of death the reeling bark to guide,
When midnight shades involve the raging tide.
To Rodmond next, in order of command,
Succeeds the youngest of our naval band.
But what avails it to record a name

That courts no rank among the sons of Fame ?
While yet a stripling, oft with fond alarms
His bosom danced to Nature's boundless charms.
On him fair Science dawn'd in happier hour,
Awakening into bloom young Fancy's flower;
But frowning Fortune, with untimely blast,

The blossom wither'd and the dawn o'ercast.
Forlorn of heart, and by severe decree,
Condemn'd reluctant to the faithless sea,
With long farewell he left the laurel grove,
Where science and the tuneful sisters rove.
Hither he wander'd, anxious to explore,
Antiquities of nations now no more;
To penetrate each distant realm unknown,
And range excursive o'er th' untravell'd zone.
In vain-for rude Adversity's command,
Still on the margin of each famous land,
With unrelenting ire his steps opposed,
And every gate of Hope against him closed.
Permit my verse, ye blest Pierian train,
To call Arion this ill-fated swain!
For, like that bard unhappy, on his head,
Malignant stars their hostile influence shed.
Both in lamenting numbers o'er the deep,
With conscious anguish taught the harp to weep:
Amid destruction panting to the shore.
And both the raging surge in safety bore
This last, our tragic story from the wave
Of dark Oblivion haply yet may save:
With genuine sympathy may yet complain,
While sad Remembrance bleeds at every vein.
Such were the pilots-tutor'd to divine
Th' untravell'd course by geometric line;
Train'd to command and range the various sail,
Whose various force conforms to every gale.
Charged with the commerce, hither also came
A gallant youth: Palemon was his name;
A father's stern resentment doom'd to prove,
He came the victim of unhappy love!

His heart for Albert's beauteous daughter bled;
For her a secret flame his bosom fed.
Nor let the wretched slaves of Folly scorn
This genuine passion, Nature's eldest born!
"Twas his with lasting anguish to complain,
While blooming Anna mourn'd the cause in vain.
Graceful of form, by Nature taught to please,
Of power to melt the female breast with ease,
To her Palemon told his tender tale,
Soft as the voice of Summer's evening gale:

O'erjoy'd, he saw her lovely eyes relent:
The blushing maiden smiled with sweet consent.
Oft in the mazes of a neighbouring grove,
Unheard, they breathed alternate vows of love:
By fond society their passion grew,
Like the young blossom fed with vernal dew.
In evil hour th' officious tongue of Fame
Betray'd the secret of their mutual flame.
With grief and anger struggling in his breast,
Palemon's father heard the tale confest.
Long had he listen'd with Suspicion's ear,
And learnt, sagacious, this event to fear.
Too well, fair youth! thy liberal heart he knew;
A heart to Nature's warm impressions true!
Full oft his wisdom strove, with fruitless toil,
With avarice to pollute that generous soil:
That soil impregnated with nobler seed,
Refused the culture of so rank a weed.
Elate with wealth, in active commerce won,
And basking in the smile of Fortune's sun,
With scorn the parent eyed the lowly shade
That veil'd the beauties of this charming maid :
Indignant he rebuked th' enamoured boy,
The flattering promise of his future joy!
He soothed and menaced, anxious to reclaim
This hopeless passion, or divert its aim:
Oft led the youth where circling joys delight
The ravish'd sense, or beauty charms the sight.
With all her powers, enchanting Music fail'd,
And Pleasure's syren voice no more prevail'd.
The merchant, kindling then with proud disdain,
In look and voice assumed a harsher strain;
In absence now his only hope remain'd,
And such the stern decree his will ordain'd.
Deep anguish, while Palemon heard his doom,
Drew o'er his lovely face a saddening gloom.
In vain with bitter sorrow he repined,
No tender pity touch'd that sordid mind:
To thee, brave Albert, was the charge consign'd.
The stately ship, forsaking England's shore,
To regions far remote Palemon bore.
Incapable of change, th' unhappy youth
Still loved fair Anna with eternal truth:
From clime to clime an exile doom'd to roam,
His heart still panted for its secret home.

The moon had circled twice her wayward zone
To him since young Arion first was known;
Who, wandering here through many a scene re-
In Alexandria's port the vessel found; [nown'd,
Where, anxious to review his native shore,
He on the roaring wave embark'd once more.
Oft, by pale Cynthia's melancholy light,
With him Palemon kept the watch of night!
In whose sad bosom many a sigh suppress'd,
Some painful secret of the soul confess'd.
Perhaps Arion soon the cause divined,
Though shunning still to probe a wounded mind:
He felt the chastity of silent wo,

Though glad the balm of comfort to bestow;
He, with Palemon, oft recounted o'er
The tales of hapless love, in ancient lore,
Recall'd to memory by th' adjacent shore.
The scene thus present, and its story known,
The lover sigh'd for sorrows not his own.
Thus, though a recent date their friendship bore,
Soon the ripe metal own'd the quickening ore;
For in one tide their passions seem'd to roll,
By kindred age and sympathy of soul.

These o'er th' inferior naval train preside, The course determine, or the commerce guide: O'er all the rest, an undistinguish'd crew, Her wing of deepest shade Oblivion drew.

A sullen languor still the skies opprest, And held th' unwilling ship in strong arrest. High in his chariot glow'd the lamp of day, O'er Ida, flaming with meridian ray:

Relax'd from toil, the sailors range the shore,
Where famine, war, and storm are felt no more:
The hour to social pleasure they resign,
And black remembrance drown in generous wine.
On deck, beneath the shading canvass spread,
Rodmond a rueful tale of wonders read,
Of dragons roaring on th' enchanted coast,
The hideous goblin, and the yelling ghost-
But with Arion from the sultry heat

Of noon, Palemon sought a cool retreat.
And lo! the shore with mournful prospects crown'd;*
The rampart torn with many a fatal wound;
The ruin'd bulwark tottering o'er the strand ;
Bewail the stroke of War's tremendous hand.
What scenes of wo this hapless isle o'erspread!
Where late thrice fifty thousand warriors bled.
Full twice twelve summers were yon tow'rs assail'd,
Till barbarous Ottoman at last prevail'd;
While thundering mines the lovely plains o'erturn'd,
While heroes fell, and domes and temples burn'd.
But now before them happier scenes arise!
Elysian vales salute their ravish'd eyes:
Olive and cedar form'd a grateful shade,
Where light with gay romantic error stray'd.
The myrtles here with fond caresses twine;
There, rich with nectar, melts the pregnant vine.
And lo! the stream renown'd in classic song,
Sad Lethe, glides the silent vale along.
On mossy banks, beneath the citron grove,
The youthful wand'rers found a wild alcove :
Soft o'er the fairy region Languor stole,
And with sweet Melancholy charm'd the soul.
Here first Palemon, while his pensive mind
For consolation on his friend reclined,
In Pity's bleeding bosom pour'd the stream
Of love's soft anguish, and of grief supreme-
Too true thy words! by sweet remembrance taught,
My heart in secret bleeds with tender thought:
In vain it courts the solitary shade,
By every action, every look betray'd!—
The pride of generous wo disdains appeal
To hearts that unrelenting frosts congeal:
Yet sure, if right Palemon can divine,
The sense of gentle pity dwells in thine.
Yes! all his cares thy sympathy shall know,
And prove the kind companion of his wo.

Albert thou know'st with skill and science graced,
In humble station though by Fortune placed,
Yet never seaman more serenely brave
Led Britain's conquering squadrons o'er the wave,
Where full in view Augusta's spires are seen,
With flowery lawns and waving woods between,
A peaceful dwelling stands in modest pride,
Where Thames, slow-winding, rolls his ample tide.

The intelligent reader will readily discover, that these remarks allude to the ever memorable siege of Candia, which was taken from the Venetians by the Turks, in 1669; being then considered as impregnable, and esteem. ed the most formidable fortress in the universe.

B

There live the hope and pleasure of his life,
A pious daughter, with a faithful wife.
For his return, with fond officious care,
Still every grateful object these prepare;
Whatever can allure the smell or sight,
Or wake the drooping spirits to delight.
This blooming maid in virtue's path to guide,
Her anxious parents all their cares applied:
Her spotless soul, where soft Compassion reign'd,
No vice untuned, no sick'ning folly stained.
Not fairer grows the lily of the vale,
Whose bosom opens to the vernal gale:
Her eyes, unconscious of their fatal charms,
Thrill'd every heart with exquisite alarms;
Her face, in Beauty's sweet attraction dress'd,
The smile of maiden-innocence express'd;
While Health, that rises with the new-born day,
Breathed o'er her cheek the softest blush of May.
Still in her look complacence smiled serene;
She moved the charmer of the rural scene.
"Twas at that season when the fields resume
Their loveliest hues, array'd in vernal bloom;
Yon ship, rich freighted from th' Italian shore,
To Thames' fair banks her costly tribute bore:
While thus my father saw his ample hoard,
From this return, with recent treasures stored,
Me, with affairs of commerce charged, he sent
To Albert's humble mansion; soon I went-
Too soon, alas! unconscious of th' event-
There, struck with sweet surprise and silent awe,
The gentle mistress of my hopes I saw :
There wounded first by Love's resistless arms,
My glowing bosom throbb'd with strange alarms.
My ever charming Anna! who alone

Can all the frowns of cruel fate atone;

O! while all-conscious Memory holds her power,
Can I forget that sweetly-painful hour,

Elysian scenes, too happy long to last!
Too soon a storm the smiling dawn o'ercast!
Too soon some demon to my father bore
The tidings that his heart with anguish tore.-
My pride to kindle, with dissuasive voice,
Awhile he labour'd to degrade my choice;
Then, in the whirling wave of Pleasure, sought
From its loved object to divert my thought.
With equal hope he might attempt to bind,
In chains of adamant, the lawless wind:
For Love had aim'd the fatal shaft too sure;
Hope fed the wound, and absence knew no cure.
With alienated look, each art he saw
Still baffled by superior Nature's law.
His anxious mind on various schemes revolved;
At last on cruel exile he resolved.
The rigorous doom was fixed! alas! how vain
To him of tender anguish to complain!
His soul, that never Love's sweet influence felt,
By social sympathy could never melt;
With stern command to Albert's charge he gave,
To waft Palemon o'er the distant wave.

The ship was laden and prepared to sail,
And only waited now the leading gale.
"Twas ours, in that sad period first to prove
The heartfelt torments of despairing love :
Th' impatient wish that never feels repose,
Desire that with perpetual current flows;
The fluctuating pangs of hope and fear;
Joy distant still, and sorrow ever near!
Thus, while the pangs of thought severer grew,
The western breezes inauspicious blew,
Hastening the moment of our last adieu.
The vessel parted on the falling tide;
Yet Time one sacred hour to Love supplied.
The night was silent, and, advancing fast,
The moon o'er Thames her silver mantle cast;

When from those eyes, with lovely lightning Impatient hope the midnight path explored,

fraught,

My fluttering spirits first th' infection caught:
When as I gazed, my fault'ring tongue betray'd
The heart's quick tumults, or refused its aid;
While the dim light my ravish'd eyes forsook,
And every limb, unstrung with terror, shook!
With all her powers dissenting Reason strove
To tame at first the kindling flame of Love;
She strove in vain! subdued by charms divine,
My soul a victim fell at Beauty's shrine.-
Oft from the din of bustling life I stray'd,
In happier scenes to see my lovely maid.
Full oft, where Thames his wand'ring current leads,
We roved at evening hour through flowery meads.
There, while my heart's soft anguish I reveal'd,
To her with tender sighs my hope appeal'd,
While the sweet nymph my faithful tale believed,
Her snowy breast with secret tumult heaved;
For, train'd in rural scenes from earliest youth
Nature was hers, and innocence, and truth.
She never knew the city damsel's art,
Whose frothy pertness charms the vacant heart!
My suit prevail'd; for Love inform'd my tongue,
And on his votary's lips persuasion hung.
Her eyes with conscious sympathy withdrew,
And o'er her cheek the rosy current flew.-
Thrice happy hours! where, with no dark allay,
Life's fairest sunshine gilds the vernal day!
For here, the sigh that soft Affection heaves,
From stings of sharper wo the soul relieves,

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What raptures then the throbbing bosom swell;
O'er all the nerves what tender tumults roll,
While love with sweet enchantment melts the
soul!

In transport lost, by trembling hope imprest,
The blushing virgin sunk upon my breast;
While hers congenial beat with fond alarms;
Dissolving softness! paradise of charms!
Flash'd from our eyes, in warm transfusion flew
Our blending spirits, that each other drew!
O bliss supreme! where Virtue's self can melt
With joys that guilty Pleasure never felt!
Form'd to refine the thought with chaste desire,
And kindle sweet Affection's purest fire!
Ah! wherefore should my hopeless love, she cries
While sorrow burst with interrupting sighs,
For ever destined to lament in vain,
Such flattering fond ideas entertain?

My heart through scenes of fair illusion stray'd
To joys decreed for some superior maid.

Tis mine to feel the sharpest stings of Grief,
Where never gentle hopes afford relief.
Go then, dear youth! thy father's rage atone!
And let this tortured bosom beat alone!
The hovering anger yet thou may'st appease;
Go then, dear youth! nor tempt the faithless seas!
Find out some happier daughter of the town,
With Fortune's fairer joys thy love to crown;
Where smiling o'er thee with indulgent ray,
Prosperity shall hail each new-born day.
Too well thou know'st good Albert's niggard fate,
Ill fitted to sustain thy father's hate!

Go then, I charge thee, by thy gen'rous love,
That fatal to my father thus may prove :
On me alone let dark Affliction fall,
Whose heart for thee will gladly suffer all.
Then, haste thee hence, Palemon, ere too late,
Nor rashly hope to brave opposing Fate!

She ceased; while anguish in her angel face
O'er all her beauties shower'd celestial grace:
Not Helen, in her bridal charms array'd,
Was half so lovely as this gentle maid.
O soul of all my wishes! I replied,
Can that soft fabric stem Affliction's tide!
Canst thou, fair emblem of exalted Truth!
To Sorrow doom the summer of thy youth;
And I, perfidious! all that sweetness see
Consign'd to lasting misery for me?
Sooner this moment may th' eternal doom
Palemon in the silent earth entomb!
Attest, thou Moon, fair regent of the night!
Whose lustre sickens at this mournful sight;
By all the pangs divided lovers feel,
That sweet possession only knows to heal!
By all the horrors brooding o'er the deep!
Where Fate and Ruin sad dominion keep;
Though tyrant duty o'er me threat'ning stands,
And claims obedience to her stern commands;
Should Fortune cruel or auspicious prove,
Her smile or frown shall never change my love!
My heart, that now must every joy resign,
Incapable of change, is only thine!-

O cease to weep! this storm will yet decay,
And these sad clouds of Sorrow melt away.
While through the rugged path of life we go,
All mortals taste the bitter draught of wo:
The famed and great, decreed to equal pain,
Full oft in splendid wretchedness complain.
For this Prosperity, with brighter ray,
In smiling contrast gilds our vital day.

Thou too, sweet maid! ere twice ten months are o'er
Shalt hail Palemon to his native shore,
Where never Interest shall divide us more.
Her struggling soul, o'erwhelm'd with tender
grief

Now found an interval of short relief;

So melts the surface of the frozen stream,
Beneath the wintry sun's departing beam.
With warning haste the shades of night withdrew,
And gave the signal of a sad adieu!
As on my neck th' afflicted maiden hung,
A thousand racking doubts her spirit wrung:
She wept the terrors of the fearful wave,
Too oft, alas! the wandering lover's grave!
With soft persuasion I dispell'd her fear,
And from her cheek beguiled the falling tear,
While dying fondness languish'd in her eyes,
She pour'd her soul to heaven in suppliant sighs—|

Look down with pity, O ye Powers above!
Who hear the sad complaints of bleeding Love!
Ye, who the secret laws of Fate explore,
Alone can tell if he returns no more:
Or if the hour of future joy remain,
Long-wish'd atonement of long-suffer'd pain!
Bid every guardian minister attend,

And from all ill the much-loved youth defend!
-With grief o'erwhelm'd, we parted twice in
vain,

And, urged by strong attraction, met again.
At last, by cruel Fortune torn apart,
While tender passion stream'd in either heart;
Our eyes transfix'd with agonizing look,
One sad farewell, one last embrace we took.
Forlorn of hope the lovely maid I left,
Pensive and pale, of every joy bereft:
She to her silent couch retired to weep,
While her sad swain embark'd upon the deep.

His tale thus closed, from sympathy of grief,
Palemon's bosom felt a sweet relief.
The hapless bird, thus ravished from the skies,
Where all forlorn his loved companion flies,
In secret long bewails his cruel fate,
With fond remembrance of his winged mate:
Till grown familiar with a foreign train,
Composed at length, his sadly warbling strain,
In sweet oblivion charms the sense of pain.

Ye tender maids, in whose pathetic souls
Compassion's sacred stream impetuous rolls;
Whose warm affections exquisitely feel
The secret wound you tremble to reveal!
Ah! may no wand'rer of the faithless main
Pour through your breast the soft delicious bane!
May never fatal tenderness approve

The fond effusions of their ardent love.
O! warn'd by friendship's counsel, learn to shun
The fatal path where thousands are undone!

Now as the youths, returning o'er the plain,
Approach'd the lonely margin of the main,
First, with attention roused, Arion eyed
The graceful lover, form'd in Nature's pride.
His frame the happiest symmetry display'd;
And locks of waving gold his neck array'd;
In every look the Paphian graces shine,
Soft-breathing o'er his cheek their bloom divine.
With lighten'd heart he smiled serenely gay,
Like young Adonis or the son of May;
Not Cytherea from a fairer swain
Received her apple on the Trojan plain!

The sun's bright orb, declining all serene,
Now glanced obliquely o'er the woodland scene.
Creation smiles around; on every spray
The warbling birds exalt their evening lay.
Blithe skipping o'er yon hill, the fleecy train
Join the deep chorus of the lowing plain :
The golden lime and orange there were seen,
On fragrant branches of perpetual green.
The crystal streams, that velvet meadows lave,
To the green ocean roll with chiding wave.
The glassy ocean, hush'd, forgets to roar,
But trembling murmurs on the sandy shore:
And lo! his surface, lovely to behold,
Glows in the west, a sea of living gold!
While all above, a thousand liveries gay,
The skies with pomp ineffable array,
Arabian sweets perfume the happy plains:
Above, beneath, around, enchantment reigns!

While yet the shades, on Time's eternal scale,
With long vibration deepen o'er the vale;
While yet the songsters of the vocal grove,
With dying numbers tune the soul to love;
With joyful eyes th' attentive master sees
Th' auspicious omens of an eastern breeze-
Now radiant Vesper leads the starry train,
And Night slow draws her veil o'er land and main.
Round the charged bowl the sailors form a ring,
By turns recount the wondrous tale, or sing;
As love or battle, hardships of the main,
Or genial wine, awake the homely strain:
Then some the watch of night alternate keep,
The rest lie buried in oblivious sleep.

Deep midnight now involves the livid skies,
While infant breezes from the shore arise.
The waning moon, behind a watery shroud,
Pale glimmer'd o'er the long-protracted cloud;
A mighty ring around her silver throne,
With parting meteors cross'd portentous shone.
This in the troubled sky full oft prevails;
Oft deem'd a signal of tempestuous gales.-
While young Arion sleeps, before his sight
Tumultuous swim the visions of the night.
Now blooming Anna, with her happy swain,
Approach'd the sacred Hymeneal fane,
Anon, tremendous lightnings flash between,
And funeral pomp and weeping loves are seen!
Now with Palemon up a rocky steep
Whose summit trembles o'er the roaring deep,
With painful step he climb'd; while far above
Sweet Anna charm'd them with the voice of love,
Then sudden from the slippery height they fell,
While dreadful yawn'd beneath the jaws of hell.
Amid this fearful trance, a thundering sound
He hears and thrice the hollow decks rebound.
Upstarting from his couch on deck he sprung;
Thrice with shrill note the boatswain's whistle rung.
All hands unmoor! proclaims a boisterous cry;
All hands unmoor! the cavern'd rocks reply!
Roused from repose aloft the sailors swarm,
And with their levers soon the windlass arm.*
The order given, upspringing with a bound,
They lodge the bars, and wheel their engine round;
At every turn the clanging pauls resound.
Uptorn reluctant from its oozy cave,
The ponderous anchor rises o'er the wave:
Along their slippery masts the yards ascend,
And high in air the canvass wings extend:
Redoubling cords the lofty canvass guide,
And through inextricable mazes glide.
The lunar rays with long reflection gleam,
To light the vessel o'er the silver stream:
Along the glassy plain serene she glides,
While azure radiance trembles on her sides
From east to north the transient breezes play,
And in th' Egyptian quarter soon decay.
A calm ensues; they dread th' adjacent shore;
The boats with rowers arm'd are sent before:
With cordage fasten'd to the lofty prow,
Aloof to sea the stately ship they tow.t

The windlass is a sort of large roller, used to wind in the cable, or heave up the anchor. It is turned about vertically by a number of long bars or levers; in which operation, it is prevented from recoiling, by the pauls.

+ Towing is the operation of drawing a ship forward, by

The nervous crew their sweeping oars extend,
And pealing shouts the shore of Candia rend.
Success attends their skill; the danger's o'er :
The port is doubled and beheld no more.

Now Morn, her lamp pale glimmering on the sight,
Scatter'd before her van reluctant Night.
She comes not in refulgent pomp array'd,
But sternly frowning, wrapt in sullen shade.
Above incumbent vapours, Ida's height,
Tremendous rock! emerges on the sight.
North-east the guardian isle of Standia lies,
And westward Freschin's woody capes arise.
With winning postures, now the wanton sails
Spread all their snares to charm th' inconstant gales.
The swelling stud-sails* now their wings extend,
Then stay-sails sidelong to the breeze ascend:
While all to court the wandering breeze are placed;
With yards now thwarting, now obliquely braced.
The dim horizon lowering vapours shroud,
And blot the sun, yet struggling in the cloud:
Through the wide atmosphere, condensed with
haze,

His glaring orb emits a sanguine blaze.
The pilots now their rules of art apply,
The mystic needle's devious aim to try.
The compass, placed to catch the rising ray,t
The quadrant's shadows studious they survey!
Along the arch the gradual index slides,
While Phoebus down the vertic circle glides.
Now, seen on Ocean's utmost verge to swim,
He sweeps it vibrant with his nether limb.
Their sage experience thus explores the height
And polar distance of the source of light:
Then through the chiliads triple maze they trace
Th' analogy that proves the magnet's place.
The wayward steel, to truth thus reconciled,
No more th' attentive pilot's eye beguiled.

The natives, while the ship departs the land,
Ashore with admiration gazing stand.
Majestically slow, before the breeze,
In silent pomp she marches on the seas;
Her milk-white bottom cast a softer gleam,
While trembling through the green translucent

stream.

The wales. that close above in contrast shone,
Clasp the long fabric with a jetty zone.
Britannia, riding awful on the prow,
Gazed o'er the vassal wave that roll'd below:
Where'er she moved the vassal waves were seen
To yield obsequious and confess their queen.
Th' imperial trident graced her dexter hand,
Of power to rule the surge, like Moses' wand,

means of ropes, extending from her fore part to one or more of the boats rowing before her.

Studding-sails are long, narrow sails, which are only used in fine weather and fair winds, on the outside of the larger square sails. Stay-sails are three-cornered sails, which are hoisted up on the stays, when the I wind crosses the ship's course either directly or obliquely.

The operation of taking the sun's azimuth, in order to discover the eastern or western variation of the magnetic needle.

The wales, here alluded to, are an assemblage of strong planks which envelope the lower part of the ship's side, wherein they are broader and thicker than the rest, and appear somewhat like a range of hoops, which separates the bottom from the upper works.

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