Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta
In mare purpureum violentior influit amnis.
And Mr. Addison, at the sight of this river, is inspired with a degree of enthusiasm, which does not always animate his poetry.
Fired with a thousand raptures, I survey,
Eridanus thro’ flowery meadows stray;
The King of Floods! that, rolling o’er their plains,
The towering Alps of half their moisture drains,
And, proudly swoln with a whole winter’s snows,
Distributes wealth and plenty where he flows.
Notwithstanding all that the Latin poets, and, in imitation of them, those of other nations, have sung of the Po, I am convinced that no river in the world has been so well sung as the Thames.