Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Haft thou explor❜d the fecrets of the deep,
Where, shut from use, unnumber'd treasures sleep?
Where, down a thousand fathoms from the day,
Springs the great fountain, mother of the fea?
Those gloomy paths did thy bold foot e'er tread,
Whole worlds of waters rolling o'er they head

Hath the cleft centre open'd wide to Thee?
Death's inmoft chambers didft Thou ever fee?
E'er knock at his tremendous gate, and wade
To the black portal through th' incumbent fhade
Deep are those shades; but shades ftill deeper hide
My counfels from the ken of human pride.

Where dwells the light? In what refulgent dome?
And where has darkness made her difmal home?
Thou know'ft, no doubt, fince thy large heart is fraught
With ripen'd wifdom, through long ages brought;
Since nature was call'd forth when Thou waft by,
And into being rose beneath thine eye!

Are mifts begotten? Who their father knew?
From whom defcend the pearly drops of dew?
To bind the ftream by night, what hand can boast,
Or whiten morning with the hoary froft?

Whose pow'rful breath, from northern regions blown,
Touches the fea, and turns it into stone ?
A fudden defart spreads o'er realms defac'd,
And lays one half of the creation waste ?

Thou know'ft Me not; Thy blindness cannot fee
How vaft a distance parts thy God from Thee.
Canft Thou in whirlwinds mount aloft? Canft Thou
In clouds and darkness wrap thy awful brow?
And, when day triumphs in meridian light,

Put forth thy hand, and shade the world with night?
Who launch'd the clouds in air, and bid them roll
Suspended feas aloft, from pole to pole?

Who

Who can refresh the burning fandy plain,
And quench the fummer with a waste of rain?
Who, in rough defarts, far from human toil,
Made rocks bring forth, and desolation fmile?
There blooms the rofe, where human face ne'er fhone,
And spreads its beauties to the fun alone.

To check the show'r, who lifts his hand on high,
And shuts the fluices of th' exhausted sky,

When earth no longer mourns her gaping veins,
Her naked mountains, and her ruffet plains;
But, new in life, a chearful profpect yields
Of fhining rivers, and of verdant fields;
When groves and forests lavish all their bloom,
And earth and heav'n are fill'd with rich perfume?
Haft Thou e'er scal'd my wintry skies, and seen
Of hail and fnows my northern magazine?
Thefe the dread treasures of mine anger are,

My funds of vengeance for the day of war,

When clouds rain death, and storms, at my command,
Rage through the world, or waste a guilty land.

Who taught the rapid winds to fly so fast,

Or shakes the centre with his eastern blast ?
Who from the skies can a whole deluge pour?
Who strikes through nature with the folemn roar
Of dreadful thunder, points it where to fall,
And in fierce lightning wraps the flying ball?
Not he who trembles at the darted fires,
Falls at the found, and in the flash expires.

Who drew the comet out to such a fize,

And pour'd his flaming train o'er half the skies?
Did Thy refentment hang him out? Does he
Glare on the nations, and denounce, from Thee?

Who on low earth can moderate the rein,
That guides the ftars along th' ethereal plain ?

Appoint

Appoint their feafons, and direct their course,
Their luftre brighten, and supply their force?
Canft Thou the fkies benevolence restrain,
And caufe the Pleiades to fhine in vain ?
Or, when Orion sparkles from his sphere,
Thaw the cold feason, and unbind the year?
Bid Mazzaroth his deftin'd ftation know,
And teach the bright Ar&turus where to glow?
Mine is the night, with all her stars; I pour
Myriads, and myriads I referve in store.

Doft Thou pronounce where day-light shall be born,
And draw the purple curtain of the morn;
Awake the fun, and bid him come away,
And glad thy world with his obfequious ray?
Haft Thou, inthron'd in flaming glory, driv❜n
Triumphant round the spacious ring of heav'n ?
That pomp of light, what hand fo far displays,
That diftant earth lies basking in the blaze?

Who did the foul with her rich powers invest, And light up reason in the human breast? To shine, with fresh increase of luftre, bright, When stars and fun are fet in endless night? To these my various questions make reply. Th' Almighty fpoke; and, fpeaking, fhook the fky. What then, Chaldæan Sire, was thy furprize! Thus Thou, with trembling heart, and down-caft eyes: "Once and again, which I in groans deplore,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

My tongue has err'd; but shall presume no more.

My voice is in eternal filence bound,

"And all my foul falls proftrate to the ground."

He ceas'd: When, lo! again th' Almighty spoke; The fame dread voice from the black whirlwind broke.. Can that arm measure with an arm divine?

And canft thou thunder with a voice like Mine?

VOL. I.

Or

Or in the hollow of thy hand contain
The bulk of waters, the wide-fpreading main,
When, mad with tempefts, all the billows rise
In all their rage, and dash the distant skies ?

Come forth, in beauty's excellence array'd;
And be the grandeur of thy pow'r display'd;
Put on omnipotence, and, frowning, make
The spacious round of the creation shake;
Dispatch thy vengeance, bid it overthrow
Triumphant vice, lay lofty tyrants low,
And crumble them to duft. When This is done,
I grant thy fafety lodg'd in Thee alone;
Of Thee Thou art, and may'ft undaunted stand
Behind the buckler of thine own right-hand.
Fond man! the vifion of a moment made!

Dream of a dream! and fhadow of a fhade!

What worlds haft Thou produc'd, what creatures fram'd; What infects cherish'd, that thy God is blam'd?

*

When pain'd with hunger, the wild Raven's brood

Loud calls on God, importunate for food,

Who hears their cry, who grants their hoarse request,
And ftills the clamour of the craving neft?

Who in the stupid Oftrich † has subdu'd

A parent's care, and fond inquietude?

While

* Another argument that Mofes was the author, is, that most of the creatures here mentioned are Egyptian. The reason given why the raven is particularly mentioned as an object of the care of Providence, is, because by her clamorous and importunate voice, she particularly feems always calling upon it; thence páσσ a κόραξε Elian. 1. ii. c. 48. is to afk earnestly. And fince there were ravens on the bank of the Nile more clamorous than the reft of that fpecies, thofe probably are meant in that place.

There are many instances of this bird's ftupidity: Let two

fuffice

While far fhe flies, her scatter'd eggs are found,
Without an owner, on the fandy ground;
Caft out on fortune, they at mercy lie,
And borrow life from an indulgent sky:
Adopted by the fun, in blaze of day,
They ripen under his prolific ray.
Unmindful she, that some unhappy tread

May crush her young in their neglected bed.

* What time she skims along the field with speed,

+ She fcorns the rider, and pursuing fteed.

How

fuffice. First, it covers its head in the reeds, and thinks itself all out of fight,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Secondly, They that go in pursuit of them, draw the skin of an Oftrich's neck on one hand, which proves a fufficient lure to take them with the other.

They have fo little brain, that Heliogabalus had fix hundred heads for his fupper.

Here we may observe, that our judicious as well as fublime author, just touches the great points of diftinction in each creature, and then haftens to another. A description is exact when you cannot add, but what is common to another thing; nor withdraw, but fomething peculiarly belonging to the thing described. A likeness is Loft in too much description, as a meaning often in too much illuftration.

* Here is marked another peculiar quality of this creature, which neither flies nor runs directly, but has a motion composed of both, and using its wings as fails, makes great speed.

Vafta velut Libye venantum vocibus ales

Cum premitur, calidas curfu transmittit arenas,

Inque modum veli finuatis flamine pennis

Pulverulenta volat

Claud. in Eutr.

+ Xenophon fays, Cyrus had horfes that could overtake the goat and

the

« НазадПродовжити »