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Book II.

CIDER.

123

Did not the Arctic tract fpontaneous yield
A cheering purple berry, big with wine

Intensely fervent, which each hour they crave, 245
Spread round a flaming pile of pines, and oft
They interlard their native drinks with choice
Of strongest Brandy, yet fcarce with thefe aids
Enabled to prevent the fudden rot

Of freezing nofe, and quick-decaying feet?

Nor less the sable borderers of Nile,

259

temperature of the fummer air in Spitzbergen. At the noon of July zoth, he fays, in lat. 80° 30′, long. 3° 26', the mercury food at 37; at midnight, at 331. In lat. 80° 41', long. 2° 12', on July 16th at noon, at 49; at midnight, 48.-This, he obferves, was the greatest degree of warmth he found there.

244. A cheering purple berry-]

The Juniper tree abounds in many of the countries within the Arctic Circle, as Greenland, Norway, Lapland, &c.Of the Juniper berries, the natives make various kinds of drinks. "The four drink "of the Laplanders," fays a northern traveller, confifts of an infufion of Juniper berries and of a grain like lentils. It grows there in great abundance, as do Juniper trees. Of that grain they also make brandy, "which has the fame effect as that diftilled from grapes; and their common drink is as ftrong as French wine, Our beer was more acceptable to them, than our meat. They drank freely of it, and were also pleased with the brandy we gave them; yet they preferred "their own four drink to either our brandy or beer."-See Travels through the most Northern Parts of Europe, by a Gentleman employed by the North-Sea Company of Copenhagen to make Dif

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Of freezing nofe, or quick-decaying feet.]

Mr. Pennant, in his introduction to his Artic Zoology, fpeaking of the late attempts of the Ruffians to colonife Spitzbergen and other Arctic iflands, obferves that "few of the Ruffians die from the severity of the cold, but are often frost-bitten, fo. as to lose their toes and fingers.".

251. Nor lefs the fable borderers of Nile, &c.]

Egypt lies between the 20th and 32d degrees of North latitude, but being fituated between two ridges of mountains, with a fandy foil which

R &

throws

Nor who Taprobane manure, nor they

Whom funny Borneo bears, are ftor'd with streams Egregious, Rum, and Rice's fpirit extract:

throws back the reflection of the fun's rays, it is confiderably more fultry than other countries under the fame parallel of latitude.

The contrast which our Poet here exhibits in his two descriptions of the inhabitants of the Polar region, and thofe of the torrid Zone, reminds us of that part of the third GEORGIC, where Virgil, having very beautifully defcribed the wandering life of the African fhepherds, makes an immediate tranfition to his admired defcription of the Scythian winter.

At non qua Scythiæ gentes, &c.

G. iii. 349.

Upon which paffage Dr. Warton, in his very excellent notes on the Georgics, juftly obferves, that "This variety, this magic art of conveying the reader from one climate to another, conftitutes one of the "greatest beauties of poetry."

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252. Nor who Taprobane manure- ·]

The island of Ceylon, a confiderable fpice-ifland belonging to the Dutch, was well known to the ancients, and is described by Ptolemy, under the name of Taprobane. It lies in the Indian Ocean between five and ten degrees of north latitude. Milton calls it the utmost Indian ifle TAPROBANE.

It is alfo mentioned by Ovid,

Aut ubi TAPROBANEN Indica cingit aqua.

P. L. iv. 75.

PONT. L. i. Ep. v. 80.

Manure is here used in the fame fenfe as in the following paffage of Milton; on which one of his commentators obferves that "the word manuring is not" there "to be understood in its common sense, but, as working with hands, from the French manœuvrer,

We must be risen,

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Borneo, one of the Sunda iflands, and, before our late difcoveries, reckoned the largest island in the known world, lies immediately under the line, being fituated between feven degrees north, and four degrees fouth latitude."

Rice's Spirit extract-]

254. Arrack is made from rice, fyrup of fugar, and the juice of the cocoatree fermented together and then diftilled.The art of making Arrack

was

BOOK II.

CIDER.

For here, expos'd to perpendicular rays,

125

255

eyes,

In vain they covet fhades and Thrafcias' gales,
Pining with Equinoctial heat, unless
The cordial glass perpetual motion keep
Quick-circuiting: nor dare they close their
Void of a bulky charger near their lips,
With which, in often-interrupted fleep,
Their frying blood compels to irrigate
Their dry-furr'd tongues, else minutely to death
Obnoxious, dismal death, th' effect of drought!

260

More happy they, born in Columbus' world, 265 Carybbes, and they, whom the Cotton-plant With downy-sprouting vefts arrays! Their woods Bow with prodigious nuts, that give at once

was originally established at Goa, and, as the Abbè Raynal obferves, is one of thofe branches of trade, of which the industry of the Dutch has deprived the Portuguefe.

256.

Thrafcias-]

Milton has introduced this wind (fo called by the Greeks, because it blew upon them northward from Thrace) into his account of the winds which he describes as producing ftorms in the world after the fall of man. Boreas and Cæcias, and Argeftes loud,

And THRASCIAS

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267.

whom the Cotton-plant

In downy-fprouting vefts arrays-]

Cotton is the produce of the Cotton-tree, which grows in the Eaft and

Weft Indies; and in Africa.

Virgil speaks of the

Nemora Ethiopum, MOLLI CANENTIA LANA.

GEORGIC. ii. 120.

Celefial

ers ay ply the pump, ft, till the wide breach is clos'd; erful, unfatigu'd, still move ker, then alone concern'd,

owl forbids their pleasing work.

rding thou art bent, thy hopes

as when

et cliff, with fudden fhock-]

280

to have been borrowing from his own Splendid

a well-fraught fhip

re, or through the Ægean deep ill cruizing near

hore, with hideous crush

harybdis (dangerous rocks!)

anding, whence the shatter'd oak, - unable to withstand,

in at the gaping fide

aves gufh with impetuous rage

helming; horrors feize

eath in their eyes appears,

lave, they pump, they fwear, they pray.

ginal place, is excellent, and cannot be too much at have been fpared; as well as the defcription of a fucker, which precedes it.

Are

Hardly di With lif

Delights

285

Cider it is drun from Vi arable la

ne

al

BOOK II.

CIDER.

127

Are frustrate, should'st thou think thy pipes will flow
With early limpid, wine. The hoarded store, 284
And the harsh draught, must twice endure the fun's
Kind ftrengthening heat, twice winter's purging cold.
There are, that a compounded fluid drain
From different mixtures, Woodcock, Pippin, Moyle,
Rough Eliot, fweet Pearmain: the blended streams,
Each mutually correcting each, create
A pleasurable medley, of what taste
Hardly distinguish'd; as the showery arch
With lifted colours gay, Or, Azure, Gules,
Delights and puzzles the beholder's

285.

muft twice endure the fun's

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eye,

290

Kind ftrengthening heat, twice winter's purging cold-] Cider of a prime quality fhould be kept two years in cafk, before it is drunk, or bottled.- -Philips's manner of telling us this is borrowed from Virgil's firft GEORGIC, V. 47, where he recommends letting arable land lie fallow two years, that it may have four plowings.

Illa feges demum votis refpondet avari
Agricolæ, BIS quæ SOLEM, BIS FRIGORA fenfit.
That land rewards the greedy peafant's pains,
Which twice the fun, and twice the cold fuftains.

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With lifted colours gay, or, azure, gules-]

DRYDEN.

We cannot well pafs by this paffage, without remarking the great juft nefs and beauty of this fimile.

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On which laft paffage the Commentators have obferved that Milton alluded to the three primary colours.-Philips has specified them.

That

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