“What cannot active government perform,

New moulding man? wide stretching from these shores

A people savage from remotest time.

A huge, neglected empire, ONE VAST MIND

By heaven inspired from Gothic darkness call'd.

Immortal Peter! first of Monarchs! He

His stubborn country tamed, her rocks, her fens;

Her floods, her seas, her ill submitting sons;

And while the fierce Barbarian he subdued,

To more exalted soul he rais'd the Man.

Ye shades of antient heroes, ye who toil'd

Thro' long successive ages to build up

A labouring plan of state, behold at once

The wonder done! behold the matchless prince!

Who left his native throne where reign'd till then

A mighty shadow of unreal power;

Who greatly spurn'd the slothful pomp of courts;

And roaming every land, in every port

His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand

Unwearied, plying the mechanic tool,

Gather'd the seeds of trade, of useful arts

Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.

Charg'd with the stores of Europe, home he goes!

Then cities rise amid th'illumined wastes

O'er joyless desarts smiles the rural reign;

Far distant flood to flood is social joined,

Th'astonished Euxine hears the Baltick roar,

Proud navies ride on seas that never foam'd

With daring keel before; and armies stretch

Each way their dazzling files, repressing here

The frantic Alexander of the North,

And awing there stern Othman's shrinking sons.

Sloth flies the land, and ignorance, and vice

Of old dishonour proud: it glows around. {p. 299}

Taught by the ROYAL HAND that rous'd the whole,

One scene of arts, of arms, of rising trade:

For what his wisdom plann'd and power enforc'd

More potent still, his great example shew'd.1