'Is far beneath my daring, I look down.
On all the splendors of the British crown.
This globe is for my verse a narrow bound;
Attend me, all the glorious worlds around!
O! all ye angels, howsoe'er disjoin'd,
Of every various order, place, and kind,
Hear, and assist, a feeble mortal's lays;
'Tis your Eternal King I strive to praise.
But chiefly Thou, great Ruler! Lord of all!
Before whose throne archangels prostrate fall;
If at thy nod, from discord, and from night,
Sprang beauty, and yon sparkling worlds of light,
Exalt e'en me; all inward tumults quell;
The clouds and darkness of my mind dispel;
To my great subject Thou my breast inspire,
And raise my lab'ring soul with equal fire.
Man, bear thy brow aloft, view every grace
In God's great offspring, beauteous nature's face:
See spring's gay bloom; see golden autumn's store;
See how earth smiles, and hear old ocean roar.
Leviathans but heave their cumb'rous mail,
It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies sail.
Here, forests rise, the mountains awful pride;
Here, rivers measure climes, and worlds divide;
There, vallies fraught with gold's resplendent seeds,
Hold kings, and kingdoms fortunes, in their beds:
There, to the skies, aspiring hills ascend,
And into distant lands their shades extend.
View cities, armies, fleets; of fleets the pride,
See Europe's law, in Albion's channel ride.
The last Day. Book 1, line 33.
Published by Vernor & Hood. Poultry.
View the whole earth's vast landskip unconfin'd, Or view in Britain all her glories join'd.
Then let the firmament thy wonder raise; 'Twill raise thy wonder, but transcend thy praise. How far from east to west? The lab'ring eye Can scarce the distant azure bounds descry: Wide theatre! where tempests play at large, And God's right-hand can all its wrath discharge. Mark how those radient lamps inflame the pole, Call forth the seasons, and the year controul: They shine thro' time, with an unalter'd ray: See This grand period rise, and That decay: So vast, this world's a grain; yet myriads grace, With golden pomp, the throng'd ethereal So bright, with such a wealth of glory stor❜d, 'Twere sin in heathens not to have ador'd.
How great, how firm, how sacred, `all appears! How worthy an immortal round of years! Yet all must drop, as autumn's sickliest grain, And earth and firmament be sought in vain : The tract forgot where constellations shone, Or where the STUARTS fill'd an awful throne: Time shall be slain, all nature be destroy'd, Nor leave an atom in the mighty void. Sooner, or later, in some future date, (A dreadful secret in the book of fate!) This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows, Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose; When scenes are chang'd on this revolving earth, Old empires fall, and give new empires birth;
While other Bourbons rule in other lands,
A if man's sin forbids not) other ANNES;
While the still busy world is treading o'er
The paths they trod five thousand years before,
Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run,
Of earth dissolv'd, or an extinguish'd sun;
(Ye sublunary worlds, awake, awake!
Ye rulers of the nation, hear, and shake!)
Thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day;
In sudden night all earth's dominions lay;
Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend;
Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend;
The valleys yawn, the troubled ocean roar,
And break the bondage of his wonted shore;
A sanguine stain the silver moon o'erspread;
Darkness the circle of the sun invade;
From inmost heav'n incessant thunders roll,
And the strong echo bound from pole to pole.
When, lo, a mighty trump, one half conceal'd
In clouds, one half to mortal eye reveal'd,
Shall pour a dreadful note; the piercing call
Shall rattle in the centre of the ball;
Th' extended circuit of creation shake,
The living die with fear, the dead awake.
Oh pow'rful blast! to which no equal sound
Did e'er the frighted ear of nature wound,
Tho' rival clarions have been strain'd on high,
And kindled wars immortal thro' the sky,
Tho' God's whole enginery discharg'd, and all
The rebel Angels bellow'd in their fall.
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