Page:Caledonia (Defoe).djvu/44

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Hail Bleſt Conjunction, Brittain's laſt beſt Hour,
Shall Caledonia to her ſelf reſtore;
Aſſert her long neglected Property,
Her Bleſſing, her Inheritance, the Sea.

In hopes of this, let's land and range the Shore,
And view the Nation that the World calls Poor.
Plenty's a doubtful Word miſtook by moſt,
A modern Term for Luxury and Waſte.
So Canaan flow'd. the Lands in Plenty drown'd;
Yet Egypt did in vaſt Increaſe abound.
The World's amuſ'd with different Forms of Words,
When various Sence the various Thought affords.
Nature's by vaſt Compariſons explain'd,
And all her Contradictions ſo maintain'd.
So Scotlands Barren, Fruitful, Poor and Rich:
Speak Malice, Speak Inſulters, tell us which.
Deſcribe the Globe, run all the Climates o'er,
She's Poor compar'd to Rich, and Rich compar'd to Poor.

In Climates next, let's view her Northern Coaſt,
A fruitful Stile, with Epithets emboſ't,
The Horrid, Boiſtrous, Barren, and the Cold,
What Fabl'd Monſtrous Stories have been told!
Yet range the Globe, and her Extremes ſurvey,
And ſail from [1] Magellan to Hudſons Bay;
Ditto the Jeſt, and when the Truth's but told,
She's Cold compar'd to Hot, and Hot compar'd to Cold.


  1. The two extreme Parts of America, and almost both uninhabitably Cold, and to which Scotland being compared, may be stiled a hot Climate, as compar'd to Mexico and Peru, she merits the Name of Cold.