Whence Tartar grand, or Mogul great? Their people sell; one half on the' other feed. Of Nature's wealth, from commerce rent, Mid citron forests, and pomegranate groves, Not so thine, China! blooming wide, Each deck carouse, each flag stream out, Sacred are ships, of birth divine! An angel drew the first design; With which the Patriarch* Nature's ruin braved: How sacred, too, the Merchant's name!— Merchants in distant courts revered, Ungrateful song! her growth inspires thy lines. 'Tis theirs to know the tides, the times, Britain! to these, and such as these, The river broad, and foaming seas, Which sever lands to mortals less renowned, Those severed parts of earth unite: The march of stars, the birth of climes: Trade's the full pulse that sends their vigour round. Praise is the sacred oil that feeds Could, O could one engrossing hand Hast thou looked round the spacious earth? One bright encomium, undesigned, on trade. Trade springs from peace, and wealth from trade, Then perish War-detested War! Wide wasting storms before the genial sun? Peace is the merchant's summer clear; • Coffee. The burning lamp of godlike deeds: Launch from the Thames, and end among the stars. If to my subject rose my soul, Your fame should last while oceans roll: Ye Syrens! sing; ye Tritons! blow; Its end fulfil, means cherish, source adore: Of ancient art, and ancient praise, The springs are opened in my lays:* Olympic heroes' ghosts around me throng, Then let us bless with awe, and tremble at thy store. And think their glory sung anew, Nor be too fond of life at best; Her cheerful, not enamoured guest: Till chiefs of equal fame they view, Nor grudge to Britons bold their Theban song. Let thought fly forward; 'twill gay prospects give, Not Pindar's theme with mine compares; Prospects immortal! that deride A Tyrian wealth, a Persian pride, And make it perfect fortitude to live. O for eternity! a scene To fair adventurers serene! O, on that sea to deal in pure renown! The poor man's empire! and the subject's crown! Adore the gods, and plough the seas: Glorious while heaven-born freedom lasts, earth. THE CLOSE. CONTENTS. As far surpassed as useful cares Transcend diversion light, and glory vain: And panting steed to him belong; Nor, Chandos! thou the Muse despise A Pindar's head or Theron's heart. None British born will sure disdain Weak ivy curls round naval oak, And smiles at winds and storms unbroke; By strength not her's sublime: thus proud to soar, Be dumb, ye groveling sons of verse, Who sing not actions, but rehearse, This subject now first sung. How sung. Preferable to And fool the muse with impotent desire! Pindar's subject. How Britain should be sung by all. THEE, Trade! I first, who boast no store, O bless my country! and thou payest my song. Thou art the Briton's noblest theme: Ye sacrilegious! who presume Ye Syrens, sing; ye Tritons, blow; To dress plain sense, and fire the generous blood, From pole to pole; to Britain all belong: Nor sport imaginations vain; But list with yon ethereal train* The shining muse, to serve the public good. • The Stars. Britain to heaven: from heaven descends my song. -Tibi res antiquæ laudis, et artis Ingredior, sanctos ausus recludere fontes ; Aseræumque cano Romana per oppida carmen-Virg A Paraphrase ON PART OF THE BOOK OF JOB.* THRICE happy Jobt long lived in regal state, Where counsellors are hushed, and mighty kings Who gives his tongue a loose so bold and vain, Then Job contained no more, but cursed his fate. And tells the world's Creator what is just: His day of birth, its inauspicious light, It is disputed among the critics, who was the author of the book of Job; some give it to Moses, some to others. As I was engaged in this little performance, some arguments occurred to me which favour the former of these opinions; arguments I have flung into the following notes, where little else is to be expected. 1 The Almighty's speech, chap. xxxviii. &c. which is what I paraphrase in this little work, is by much the finest part of the noblest and most ancient poem in the world. Bishop Patrick says, its grandeur is as much above all other poetry, as thunder is louder than a whisper. In order to set this distinguished part of the poem in a fuller light, and give the reader a clearer conception of it, I have abridged the preceding and subsequent parts of the poem, and joined them to it; so that this book is a sort of an epitome of the whole book of Job. I use the word paraphrase, because I want another which might better answer to the uncommon liberties I have taken. I have omitted, added, and transposed. The mountain, the comet, the sun, and other parts, are entirely added: those upon the peacock, the lion, &c. are much enlarged; and I have thrown the whole into a method more suitable to our notions of regularity. The judicious, if they compare this piece with the original, will, I flatter myself, find the reasons for the great liberties I have indulged myself in through the whole. Longinus has a chapter on interrogations, which shows that they contribute very much to the sublime. This speech of the Almighty is made up of them. Interrogation seems, indeed, the proper style of majesty incensed. It differs from other manner of reproof as bidding a person execute himself does from a common execution; for he that asks the guilty a proper question, makes him, in effect, pass sentence on himself. Of late so brave, now lift a dauntless eye, When shouting sons of God the triumph crowned, And can thy span of knowledge grasp the ball? Who, stretching forth his sceptre o'er the deep, I I chained them with my word: the boiling sea, The book of Job is well known to be dramatic, and, like the tragedies of old Greece, is fiction built on truth. Probably this most noble part of it, the Almighty speaking out of the whirlwind (so suitable to the after-practice of the Greek stage, when there happened dignus vindice nodus) is fictitious; but it is a fiction more agreeable to the time in which Job lived than to any since. Frequent before the law were the appearances of the Almighty after this manner, Exod. ch. xix Ezek. ch. i, &c. Hence is he said to dwell in thick darkness, and have his way in the whirlwind "Thus far thy floating tide shall be conveyed; Where dwells the Light? in what refulgent And where has darkness made her dismal home? With ripened wisdom, through long ages brought, Are mists begotten? who their father knew? Touches the sea, and turns it into stone? In clouds and darkness wrap thy awful brow! Suspended seas aloft, from pole to pole? And spreads its beauties to the sun alone. To check the shower who lifts his hand on high, And shuts the sluices of the' exhausted sky, There is a very great air in all that precedes, but this is signally sublime. We are struck with admiration to see the vast and ungovernable ocean receiving commands, and punctually obeying them; to find it like a managed horse, raging, tossing, and foaming, but by the rule and direction of its master. This passage yields in sublimity to that of Let there be light, &c. so much only, as the absolute government of nature yields to the creation of it. The like spirit in these two passages is no bad concurrent argument that Moses is author of the book of Job. When earth no longer mourns her gaping veins, Hast thou e'er scaled my wint'ry skies, and seen Rage through the world, or waste a guilty land. Who drew the comet out to such a size, And draw the purple curtains of the Morn? Who did the soul with her rich powers invest, What then, Chaldean Sire! was thy surprise? eyes: "Once and again, which I in groans deplore, My voice is in eternal silence bound, He ceased: when, lo! again the' Almighty spoke; The same dread voice from the black whirlwind broke! Can that arm measure with an arm divine? And can'st thou thunder with a voice like mine? Or in the hollow of thy hand contain The bulk of waters, the wide-spreading main, Come forth, in Beauty's excellence arrayed, Fond man! the vision of a moment made! Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade! What worlds hast thou produced, what creatures framed, What insects cherished, that thy God is blamed? And still the clamour of the craving nest? 'Another argument that Moses was the author is, that most of the creatures here mentioned are Egyptian. The reason given why the raven is particularly mentioned as an object of the care of Providence is, because by her clamorous and importunate voice she particularly seems always calling upon it. And since there were ravens on the Nile more clamorous than the rest of that species, those probably are meant in this place. There are many instances of this bird's stupidity: let two suffice. First, it covers its head in the reeds, and thinks itself out of sight. Secondly, They that go in the pursuit of them draw the skin of an ostrich's neck on one hand, which proves a sufficient lure to take them with the other. Unmindful she that some unhappy tread How rich the peacock ! what bright glories run Who taught the hawk to find, in seasons wise, Perpetual summer, and a change of skies? When clouds deform the year, she mounts the wind, Shoots to the south, nor fears the storm behind; The sun returning, she returns again, Lives in his beams, and leaves ill days to men. Though strong the hawk, though practised well to fly,s An eagle drops her in a lower sky: Knowest thou how many moons, by me assigned, Roll o'er the mountain goat and forest hind,¶ • Here is marked another peculiar quality of this creature, which neither flies nor runs directly, but has a motion com posed of both, and using its wings as sails, makes great speed. + Xenophon says, Cyrus had horses that could overtake the goat and the wild ass, but none that could reach this creature. A thousand golden ducats, or an hundred camels, was the stated price of a horse that could equal their speed. Though this bird is but just mentioned in my author, 1 could not forbear going a little further, and spreading those beautiful plumes (which are shut up) into half a dozen lines. The circumstance I have marked of his opening his plumes to the sun is true: Expandit colores adversa marim sole, quia sic fulgentius radiant. Plin. lx. c. 20. § Thuanus (De re Accip.) mentions a hawk that flew from Paris to London in a night. And the Egyptians, in regard to its swiftness, made it their symbol for the wind; for which reason we may suppose the hawk, as well as the crow above, to have been a bird of note in Egypt. The eagle is said to be of so acute a sight, that when she is so high in the air that man can not see her, she can discern the smallest fish under water. My author accurately understood the nature of the creatures he describes, and seems to have been a naturalist as well as a poet, which the next note will They have so little brain, that Heliogabalus had six hundred confirm. heads for his supper. Here we may see that our judicious as well as sublime author just touches the points of distinction in each creature, and then hastens to another. A description is exact when you can not add, but what is common to another thing; nor withdraw, but something peculiarly belonging to the thing described. A ikeness is lost in too much description, as a meaning often in too much illustration. ¶ The meaning of this question is, Knowest thou the time and circumstances of their bringing forth for to know the time only was easy, and had nothing extraordinary in it; but the circumstance had something peculiarly expressive of God's providence, which makes the question proper in this place. Pliny observes, that the hind with young is by instinct directed to a certain herb called Seselis, which facilitates the birth. Thunder also (which looks like the more immediate hand of |