Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past

Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow

Sabean odours, from the spicy shore

Of Araby the bless'd; with such delay

Well pleas'd, they slack their course; and many a league

Cheer'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles:

So entertain'd those odorous sweets

Paradise Lost, iv. 152.

Another passage, scarcely less poetical, and, in moral beauty, far superior, affords a still more striking coincidence:

The merchant, who towards spicy regions sails,