The Fottr Elements. 117
Nor yet of fait and fugar, fweet and fmart,
Both when we Hft to water we convert.
Alas thy fliips and oars could do no good
Did they but want my Ocean and my flood.
The wary merchant on his weary beaft
Tranffers his goods from fouth to north and eafl,
Unlefs I eafe his toil, and do tranfport
The wealthy fraight unto his wifhed port.
Thefe be my benefits, which may fuffice:
I now muft fhew what ill ^ there in me lies.
The flegmy Conftitution I uphold,
All humors, tumors which are bred of cold :
O're childhood and ore winter I bear fway.
And Luna for my Regent I obey.
As I with fhowers oft times refrefh the earth,
So oft in my excefs I caufe a dearth.
And with abundant wet fo cool the ground.
By adding cold to cold no fruit proves found.
The Farmer and the Grafier do "- complain
Of rotten fheep, lean kine, and mildew'd grain.
And with my wafting floods and roaring torrent,
Their cattel hay and corn I fweep down current.
Nay many times my Ocean breaks his bounds.
And with aftonifliment the world confounds,
And fwallows Countryes up, n'er feen again.
And that an ifland makes which once was Main:
Thus Britain fair^ (tis thought) was cut ixovn France
Scicily from Italy by the like chance,
2 force. « Plowman both. ^ Thus Albion.
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