Not only countries now as long ago

Known, till’d, inhabited, and civilized;

As Egypt, Greece, and Rome, with all their arts,

Trades, customs, polities, and history:

But deep in yet scarce navigated seas,

Countries uncouth, with their peculiar growths

Of vegetation or of life; where men

Are savage as the soil they never till;

Or never were, or were so long ago,

Their very story blotted from the page