Oft deems the prelude of approaching storms. No dread of storms the master's soul restrain, A captive fetter'd to the oar of gain: His anxious heart, impatient of delay, 100 Expects the winds to sail from Candia's bay, Determined, from whatever point they rise, To trust his fortune to the seas and skies. Thou living ray of intellectual fire, Whose voluntary gleams my verse inspire, Ere yet the deepening incidents prevail, Till roused attention feel our plaintive tale; Record whom chief among the gallant crew The unblest pursuit of fortune hither drew! Can sons of Neptune, generous, brave, and bold, 110 In pain and hazard toil for sordid gold? They can! for gold too oft with magic art Can rule the passions, and corrupt the heart: This crowns the prosperous villain with applause, To whom in vain sad merit pleads her cause; This strews with roses life's perplexing road, And leads the way to pleasure's soft abode; This spreads with slaughter'd heaps the bloody plain, And pours adventurous thousands o'er the main. II. The stately ship with all her daring band 120 To skilful Albert own'd the chief command: Though train'd in boisterous elements, his mind Was yet by soft humanity refined; Each joy of wedded love at home he knew; Aboard, confest the father of his crew! Brave, liberal, just, the calm domestic scene Had o'er his temper breathed a gay serene: Him Science taught by mystic lore to trace The planets wheeling in eternal race; To mark the ship in floating balance held, 130 By earth attracted, and by seas repell'd; Or point her devious track through climes unknown That leads to every shore and every zone. He saw the moon through heaven's blue concave glide, And into motion charm the expanding tide, While earth impetuous round her axle rolls, Exalts her watery zone, and sinks the poles; Light and attraction, from their genial source, He saw still wandering with diminish'd force; While on the margin of declining day 140 Night's shadowy cone reluctant melts away-- Inured to peril, with unconquer'd soul, The chief beheld tempestuous oceans roll: O'er the wild surge when dismal shades preside, His equal skill the lonely bark could guide; His genius, ever for the event prepared, Rose with the storm, and all its dangers shared. Rodmond the next degree to Albert bore, A hardy son of England's farthest shore, Where bleak Northumbria pours her savage train 150 In sable squadrons o'er the northern main; That, with her pitchy entrails stored, resort, A sooty tribe, to fair Augusta's port: Where'er in ambush lurk the fatal sands,