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58 The Storm.-Haffan, or The Camel-Driver.

A STORM.

Now burfts the wave that from the clouds impends,

And fwell'd with tempefts on the fhip defcends; White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud Howl o'er the matts, and fing through every fhroud;

Pale, trembling, tir'd, the failors freeze with fears, And instant death on ev'ry wave appears.

DRYDEN'S VIRgil.

HASSAN, OR THE CAMEL-DRIVER,

IN filent horror o'er the boundless waste
The driver Haffan with his camels pafs'd;
One crufe of water on his back he bore,
And his light fcrip contain'd a scanty store;
A fan of painted feathers in his hand,
To guard his shaded face from scorching sand.

The

Haffan, or The Camel-Driver.

59

The fultry fun had gain'd the middle sky,
And not a tree and not a herb was nigh;
The beafts with pain their dufty way pursue,
Shrill roar'd the winds, and dreary was the view.
With defp'rate forrow wild, th' affrighted man
Thrice figh'd, thrice ftruck his breaft, and thus
began:

"Sad was the hour, and lucklefs was the day, When firft from Schiraz' walls I bent my way!

"Ah! little thought I of the blafting wind, The thirst or pinching hunger that I find ! Bethink thee, Haffan, where fhall thirst afsuage, When fails this crufe, his unrelenting rage? Soon fhall this fcrip its precious load refign, Then what but tears and hunger fhall be thine? Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear In all my griefs a more than equal fhare! Here, where no fprings in murmurs break away, Or mofs-crown'd fountains mitigate the day, In vain ye hope the green delights to know, Which plains more bleft or verdant vales beflow.

Here

бо

Haffan, or The Camel-Driver.

Here rocks alone and tasteless sands are found, And faint and fickly winds for ever howl around. O cease, my fears! all frantic as I go,

When thought creates unnumber'd scenes of woe,
What if the lion in his rage I meet!

Oft in the duft I view his printed feet:
And fearful! oft when day's declining light
Yields her pale empire to the mourner night,
By hunger rous'd he scours the groaning plain,
Gaunt wolves and fullen tigers in his train.
At that dead hour the filent afp fhall creep,
If aught of reft I find, upon my fleep;
Or fome swoln ferpent twist his scales around,
And wake to anguish with á burning wound.
Thrice happy they, the wife contented poor,
From luft of wealth and dread of death fecure!
They tempt no deserts, and no griefs they find;
Peace rules the day where reafon rules the mind.
Sad was the hour, and luckless was the day,
When first from Schiraz' walls I bent my way."

COLLINS.

The Orange Tree.-The Generations of Man. 61

THE ORANGE TREE.

IN the foft bofom of Campania's vale,
When now the wintry tempefts all are fled,
And genial fummer breathes her gentle gale,
The verdant orange lifts its beauteous head;
From every branch the balmy flow'rets rife,
On every bough the golden fruits are feen;
With odours sweet it fills the smiling skies:
But, in the midst of all its blooming pride,
A fudden blast from Apenninus blows,

Cold with perpetual snows;

The tender blighted plant fhrinks up its leaves, and dies.

LORD LYTTELTON.

THE GENERATIONS OF MAN.

LIKE leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now with'ring on the

ground.

G

Another

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Another race the following spring supplies,
They fall fucceffive, and fucceffive rise :
So generations in their course decay,
So flourish these, when those are past away.

WOLVES.

POPE'S HOMER.

By wintry famine rous'd, from all the tract
Of horrid mountains which the fhining Alps,
And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees,

Branch out ftupendous into distant lands;
Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave!
Burning for blood! bony, and gaunt, and grim,
Affembling wolves in raging troops descend;
And, pouring o'er the country, bear along,
Keen as the north wind fweeps the gloffy fnow.
All is their prize. They fasten on the steed,
Prefs him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart.
Nor can the bull his awful front defend,
Or fhake the murdering favages away.
Rapacious at the mother's throat they fly,
And tear the screaming infant from her breaft.

The

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