This page needs to be proofread.
Nature that well foreknows a Nations Fate,
Thus fitted Caledonia to be great.
Her [1] various Aſpects the Deſign explain,
And [2] Circumſtances ſhall reſiſt in vain.
Subject no more to ev'ry croſs Event,
She ſhall be Great and Rich, as Nature meant.
View next her Seas, from ancient Terrors nam'd,
For Bug-bear Storms, by Bug-bear Sailors fam'd.
[3] Phenician Sailors, wiſe in Ignorance,
- ↑ Various Aspects, Respecting the Situation of the Coast, or the Plan of the Countrey, which easily discovers that Scotland is equally qualified for Trade with any Nation in the World, whether we consider her Openness to all Parts of the Trading World; or the Convenience of her Harbours, safe Roads, and Neighbourhood both to the German and Atlantick Oceans.
- ↑ Her unhappy Circumstances, with respect to the rest of Brittain, have, without doubt, been the great Obstructions of her Prosperity, particularly as to Trade.
- ↑ The Ancients, in their sailing these Seas, were strangely surprized at two things, 1. The Length of the Days, which they, being general|ly Phenicians and South-Countrey Merchants, had not been used to: From whence some of them, more addicted to superstitious Observations than the rest, blindly imagined, that (since the farther they went North-ward, the Days were the longer, and in some parts hardly any Night) the E|lisium Shades must needs be thereabouts, and that if they should go further, they should come at length to Bright Eternal Day. 2. They were surpriz'd not with the Storms and Tempests only, but with the Tides and Currents, which were not only strange to 'em, but particularly terrible, in that they drove 'em in amongst the Rocks and Shores, where they often perish'd, not from any Real Danger, but for Want of Judgment From whence we have them often expressing themselves in this manner,
- ↑ Thule, an Island in the north of Scotland, was frequently fabled among the Ancients to represent the Elisium, which could be for no other Reason than the Length of the Days. Bright THƲLE far advanc'd in raging Seas. Dierum spatia ultra nostri () his mensuram & nox clara, & extrema Britan|niae p•rte b •vis, ut finem atque initium Lucis exiguo discrimine internoseas—Nec Solem occidere & exsurgere, sed transire adfirmant. Tacit. Vit. Agri|colae Cap. 12 Sect. 5.
