The Kennet swift, for filver eels renown'd;
The Lodden flow, with verdant alders crown'd;
Cole, whose dark streams his flow'ry islands lave;
And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave:
The blue transparent Vandalis appears ;
The gulphy Lee his fedgy treffes rears;
And fullen Mole, that hides his diving flood;
And filent Darent, ftain'd with Danish blood.
High in the midft, upon his urn reclin❜d,
(His fea-green mantle waving with the wind)

345

350

NOTES.

The

VER. 341.] The word renown'd, fays a true poet, Dr. Darwin, does not present the idea of a vifible object to the mind, and is thence profaic.

VER. 350.] Whenever the river Thames is mentioned, I am afraid the difgraceful and impotent criticism of Dr. Johnson on a paffage in Gray's Odes, will recur to the mind of the reader. I heartily wish, for the fake of its. author, who had more strong fense than a juft relish for true poetry, that this strange and unwarrantable remark of his, could be funk into oblivion.

Our poet was not deterred, from the cenfure which Addison paffed in his Campaign, on raifing and perfonifying river-gods, from giving us this fine defcription, in which Thames appears and speaks with suitable dignity and importance. How much fuperior is this picture to that of Boileau's Rhine; who represents the Naids as alarming the God with an account of the march of the French Monarch; upon which the River God affumes the appearance of an old experienced commander, flies to a Dutch fort, and exhorts the garrifon to difpute the intended paffage. The Rhine, marching at their head, and obferving Mars and Bellona on the fide of the enemy, is fo terrified with the view of these fuperior divinities, that he moft gallantly runs away, and leaves the great hero Louis XIV. in quiet poffeffion of his banks. So much for a true court poet, who would not have dared to write the eight laft lines of this fpeech of Thames, from v. 415. The lines of Addison in the Campaign were;

Gods

The God appear'd: he turn'd his azure eyes
Where Windfor-domes and pompous turrets rise;
Then bow'd and spoke; the winds forget to roar,
And the hush'd waves glide softly to the shore.
"Hail, facred Peace! hail long-expected days, 355
That Thames's glory to the stars shall raife!
Tho' Tyber's ftreams immortal Rome behold,
Tho' foaming Hermus fwells with tides of gold,
From heav'n itself, tho' fev'nfold Nilus flows,
And harvests on a hundred realms bestows;
These now no more fhall be the Mufe's themes,
Loft in my fame, as in the fea their streams.
Let Volga's banks with iron fquadrons shine,
And groves of lances glitter on the Rhine,.
Let barb'rous Ganges arm a fervile train;
Be mine the bleffings of a peaceful reign.
No more my fons fhall dye with British blood
Red Iber's fands, or Ifter's foaming flood:

VARIATIONS.

VER. 363. Originally thus in the MS.

Let Venice boast her Tow'rs amidst the Main,
Where the rough Adrian fwells and roars in vain ;
Here not a Town, but spacious Realm shall have
A fure foundation on the rolling wave.

NOTES.

Gods may defcend in factions from the skies,
And rivers from their oozy beds arife.

360

365

I cannot forbear mentioning, that the very first compofition that made the young Racine known at Paris was his Ode from the Nymph of the Seine to the Queen, which ode, by the way, was corrected by Chapelain, at that time in high vogue as a critic, and by him recommended to the court.

Safe

Safe on my shore each unmolested swain

Shall tend the flocks, or reap the bearded grain;
The fhady empire fhall retain no trace

Of war or blood, but in the fylvan chace;

371

The trumpet sleep, while chearful horns are blown, And arms employ'd on birds and beafts alone. Behold! th' afcending Villas on my fide,

375

Project long fhadows o'er the crystal tide;
Behold! Augufta's glitt'ring fpires increase,
And Temples rife, the beauteous works of Peace.
I fee, I fee, where two fair cities bend
Their ample bow, a new Whitehall ascend!
There mighty Nations fhall enquire their doom,
The World's great Oracle in times to come;
There Kings fhall fue, and fuppliant States be seen
Once more to bend before a BRITISH QUEEN.

380

Thy trees, fair Windfor! now fhall leave their

woods,

And half thy forests rush into thy floods,

385

VARIATIONS.

VER. 385, &c. were originally thus,

Now fhall our fleets the bloody Crofs difplay

To the rich regions of the rifing day,

Or those green ifles, where headlong Titan fteeps

His hiffing axle in th' Atlantic deeps:

Bear

Tempt icy feas, &c.

NOTES.

VER. 378. And Temples rife,] The fifty new churches.

P.

P.

VER. 380. A new Whitehall] "Several plates (fays Mr. Walpole) of the intended palace of Whitehall have been given, but, I believe, from no finifhed defign of Inigo Jones. The four

great

Bear Britain's thunder, and her Cross display,
To the bright regions of the rifing day;
Tempt icy feas, where scarce the waters roll,
Where clearer flames glow round the frozen Pole;
Or under fouthern skies exalt their fails,
Led by new stars, and borne by spicy gales!
For me the balm shall bleed, and amber flow,
The coral redden, and the ruby glow,

391

The pearly shell its lucid globe infold,

395

And Phoebus warm the rip'ning ore to gold.

The time shall come, when free as feas or wind
Unbounded Thames fhall flow for all mankind,
Whole nations enter with each fwelling tide,
And feas but join the regions they divide;
Earth's diftant ends our glory fhall behold,
And the new world launch forth to seek the old.
Then ships of uncouth form shall stem the tide,
And feather'd people croud my wealthy fide,

400

NOTES.

great sheets are evidently made up from general hints, nor could such a source of invention and taste, as the mind of Inigo, ever produce fo much fameness. The ftrange kind of cherubims on the towers at the end are prepofterous ornaments, and whether of Inigo or not, bear no relation to the reft. The great towers in the front are too near, and evidently borrowed from what he had feen in Gothic, not in Roman buildings. The circular court is a picturefque thought, but without meaning or utility.

VER. 391.] Here is almoft a prophecy of those discoveries of new islands and continents which this country of late years has had the honour to make.

VER. 398. Unbounded Thames, Sc.] A wish that London may be made a FREE PORT.

P.

And

And naked youths and painted chiefs admire

Our speech, our colour, and our strange attire!

405

Oh ftretch thy reign, fair Peace! from fhore to fhore,
'Till Conqueft cease; and Slav'ry be no more;
'Till the freed Indians in their native groves

Reap their own fruits, and woo their fable loves,
Peru once more a race of Kings behold,

And other Mexico's be roof'd with gold.
Exil'd by thee from earth to deepest hell,
In brazen bonds, fhall barb'rous Difcord dwell:
Gigantic pride, pale Terror, gloomy Care,
And mad Ambition fhall attend her there:
There purple Vengeance bath'd in gore retires,
Her weapons blunted, and extinct her fires:
There hated Envy her own fnakes shall feel,
And Perfecution mourn her broken wheel:
There Faction roar, Rebellion bite her chain,
And gasping Furies thirst for blood in vain."
Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays
Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days:

VER. 409.]

NOTES.

To hear the favage youth repeat

In loose numbers wildly sweet,

Their feather-cinctured chiefs, and dufky loves,

411

415

420

fays Mr. Gray, moft beautifully in his ode; dusky loves is more accurate than fable; they are not negroes.

VER. 422. in vain.] This conclufion both of Horace and of Pope is feeble and flat. The whole fhould have ended with this fpeech of Thames at this line, 422.