My eye descending from the hill surveys Where Thames among the wanton valleys strays. Thames, the most lov’d of all the Ocean’s sons, By his old sire to his embraces runs, Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea, Like mortal life to meet eternity. Tho’ with those streams he no resemblance hold, Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold; His genuin and less guilty wealth t’explore, Search not his bottom, but survey his shoar; O’er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing, And hatches plenty for th’ ensuing spring. Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay, Like mothers which their infants overlay. Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave, Like profuse Kings, resume the wealth he gave. No unexpected inundations spoil The mower’s hopes, nor mock the plowman’s toil: But godlike his unwearied bounty flows; First loves to do, then loves the good he does. Nor are his blessings to his banks confin’d, But free and common as the sea or wind; When he to boast, or to disperse his stores Full of the tributes of his greateful shores Visits the world, and in his flying tow’rs Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours; Finds wealth where ’tis, bestows it where it wants, Cities in deserts, woods in cities plants. So that to us nothing, no place is strange, While his fair bosom is the world’s exchange. O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream My great example, as it is my theme! Tho’ deep yet clear, tho’ gentle, yet not dull, Strong without rage, without o’erflowing full. Heav’n her Eridanus no more shall boast, Whose fame in thine, like lesser currents lost. The great advantage of this river is the tides flowing above seventy miles up it, twice in every twenty-four hours, and hence arises its great convenience with respect to trade and navigation; and as the tide is influenced by the moon, so each tide is twenty-four minutes later than that before, and therefore wants but twelve minutes of a whole hour in twenty-four: by this rule the return of the tide at any distance from the new or full moon may be easily computed by the following tide table at London Bridge. +----------+--------------+ | | Time of | | | high-water | | | at London. | +----------+--------------+ | N. Moon. | Hour. Min. | | F. Moon. | 3 | +----------+--------------+ | 1 | 3 48 | | 2 | 4 31 | | 3 | 5 14 | | 4 | 6 52 | | 5 | 6 30 | | 6 | 7 3 | | 7 | 7 36 | | 8 | 8 24 | | 9 | 9 27 | | 10 | 10 30 | | 11 | 11 28 | | 12 | 12 26 | | 13 | 1 19 | | 14 | 2 12 | +----------+--------------+