Oh fay, what change on earth, what heart in man,
This blackest moment fince the world began.
Ah mournful turn! the blissful earth, who late
At leisure on her axle roll'd in state;
While thousand golden planets knew no rest,
Still onward in their circling journey preft;
A grateful change of feafons fome to bring,
And sweet viciffitude of fall and spring;
Some thro' vaft oceans to conduct the keel,
And fome those watry worlds to fink or fwell;
Around her fome their fplendors to display,
And gild her globe with tributary day;
This world fo great, of joy the bright abode,
Heav'n's darling child, and fav'rite of her God,
Now looks an exile from her father's care,
Deliver'd o'er to darkness and despair;
No fun in radiant glory fhines on high,
No light but from the terrors of the sky:
Fall'n are her mountains, her fam'd rivers loft,
And all into a second Chaos tost:
One univerfal ruin spreads abroad,
Nothing is fafe beneath the throne of God.
Such, earth, thy fate! what then canft thou afford
To comfort and fupport thy guilty lord,
Man, haughty lord of all beneath the moon ?
How muft he bend his foul's ambition down,
Proftrate the reptile own, and difavow
His boasted stature and affuming brow?
Claim kindred with the clay, and curfe his form,
That speaks distinction from his sister worm?
What dreadful pangs the trembling heart invade?
Lord, why doft thou forfake whom thou haft made?
Who can fuftain thy anger? who can stand?
Beneath the terrors of thy lifted hand?
It flies the reach of thought! oh! fave me, Pow'r
Of pow'rs fupreme, in that tremendous hour!
Thou who, beneath the frown of fate has stood,
And in thy dreadful agony sweat blood;
Thou who, for me, thro' every throbbing vein,
Has felt the keeneft edge of mortal pain;
Whom death led captive thro' the realms below,
And taught thofe horrid mysteries of woe;
L. 2
Defend me, O my God! oh fave me, Pow'r
Of pow'rs fupreme, in that tremendous hour!
From eaft to weft they fly, from pole to line,
Imploring fhelter from the wrath divine;
Beg flames to wrap, or whelming feas to fweep,
Or rocks to yawn, compaffionately deep;
Seas caft the monfter forth to meet his doom,
And rocks but prison up for wrath to come.
So fares a traitor to an earthly crown,
While death fits threat'ning in his prince's frown,
His heart's difmay'd; and now his fears command
To change his native for a diftant land:
Swift orders fly, the king's fevere decree
Stands in the channel, and locks up the sea;
The port he feeks, obedient to her lord,
Hurls back the rebel to his lifted (word.
But why this idle toil to paint that day?
This time elaborately thrown away?
Words all in vain pant after the diftrefs,
The height of eloquence would make it lefs;
Heav'ns! e'en the good man trembles.-
And is there a laft day? and must there come
A fure, a fix'd, inexorable doom?
Ambition, fwell! and, thy proud fails to show,
Take all the winds that vanity can blow,
Wealth on a golden mountain blazing stand,
And reach an India forth in either hand;
Spread all thy purple clusters, tempting vine,
And thou, more dreaded foe, bright beauty fhine;
Shine all; in all your charms together rife,
That all, in all your charms, I may despise,
While I mount upward on a strong defire,
Born, like Elijah, in a car of fire.
In hopes of glory to be quite involv'd!
To fmile at death! to long to be diffolv'd!
From our decays a pleasure to receive!
And kindle into transport at a grave!
What equals this? and fhall the victor now
Boaft the proud laurels on his loaded brow?
Religion! oh thou cherub, heavenly bright!
Oh joys unmix'd, and fathomlefs delight!
Thou, thou art all; nor find I in the whole
Creation aught, but God and my own foul.
For ever then, my soul, thy God adore,
Nor let the brute creation praise him more.
Shall things inanimate my conduct blame,
And flufh my confcious cheek with fpreading fhame?
They all for him purfue, or quit their end;
The mounting flames their burning pow'r fufpend :
In folid heaps th' unfrozen billows stand,
To reft and filence aw'd by his command:
Nay, the dire monsters that infest the flood,
By nature dreadful, and a-thirst for blood,
His will can calm, their favage tempers bind,
And turn to mild protectors of mankind.
Did not the prophet this great truth maintain
In the deep chambers of the gloomy main ;
When darkness round him all her horrors spread,
And the fea billow'd o'er his finking head?
When now the thunder rores, the lightning flies,
And all the warring winds tumultuous rise ;]
When now the foaming furges toft on high,
Disclose the fands beneath, and touch the sky;
When death draws near, the mariners, aghaft,
Look back with terror on their actions past,
Their courage fickens into deep difmay,
Their hearts thro' fear and anguish melt away,
Nor tears nor pray'rs the tempeft can appease;
Now they devote their treasure to the feas,
Unload their shatter'd barque, tho' richly fraught,
And think the hopes of life are cheaply bought
With gems and gold; but oh! the ftorm fo high,
Nor gems, nor gold, the hopes of life can buy.
The trembling prophet then, themselves to fave,
They headlong plunge into the briny wave;
Down he defcends, and booming o'er his head
The billows close, he's number'd with the dead.
(Hear, O ye juft! attend ye virtuous few!
And the bright paths of piety purfue.)
Lo! the great ruler of the world, from high,,
Looks fmiling down with a propitious eye,
Covers his fervant with his gracious hand,
And bids tempeftous nature filent ftand;
Commands the peaceful waters to give place,
Or kindly fold them in a soft embrace:
He bridles in the monsters of the deep,
The bridl'd monsters awful distance keep;
Forget their hunger, while they view their prey,
And guiltless gaze, and round the stranger play.
But ftill arile new wonders! nature's Lord
Sends forth into the deep his pow'rful word,
And calls the great leviathan: the great
Leviathan attends in all his ftate;
Exults for joy, and with a mighty bound
Makes the sea shake, and heav'n and earth refound;
Blackens the waters with the rifing fand,
And drives vaft billows to the distant land.
As yawns an earthquake, when imprison'd air
Struggles for vent, and lays the centre bare,
The whale expands his jaws enormous size,
The prophet views the cavern with furprize;
Measures his monstrous teeth afar defcry'd,
And rolls his wond'ring eyes from fide to fide;
Then takes poffeffion of the fpacious feat,
And fails fecure within the dark retreat.
Now is he pleas'd the northern blast to hear,
And hangs on liquid mountains void of fear;
Or falls immers❜d into the deeps below,
Where the dead filent waters never flow;
To the foundations of the hills convey'd,
Dwells in the shelving mountains dreadful shade;
Where plummet never reach'd he draws his breath,
And glides ferenely thro' the paths of death.
Two wondrous days and nights thro' coral groves,
Thro' labyrinths of rocks and fands he roves:
When the third morning with its level rays
The mountain gilds, and on the billows plays,
It fees the king of waters rife, and pour
His facred guest uninjur'd on the shore :
A type of that great blessing, which the muse
In her next labour ardently pursues.
— Εκ γαίης ἐλπίζομεν ἐς φάΘ. ἔλθειν,
Λείψαν ἀποιχομένων, ὀπίσω δὲ Θεοὶ τελέθονται.
---We hope that the departed will rife again from the duft; after which, like the Gods, they will be immor
OW man awakes, and from his filent bed,
Where he was flept for ages, lifts his head;
Shakes off the flumber of ten thousand years,
And on the borders of new worlds appears.
Whate'er the bold, the rash adventure cost,
In wide eternity I dare be loft.
The mufe is wont in narrow bounds to fing,
To teach the swain, or celebrate the king.
I grafp the whole, no more to parts confin'd,
I lift my voice, and fing to human kind :
I fing to men and angels; angels join,
While fuch the theme, their facred songs with mine.
Again the trumpet's intermitted found
Rolls the wide circuit of creation round,
An univerfal congrefs to prepare
Of all that ever breath'd the vital air:
In fome wide field, which active whirlwinds fweep,
Drive cities, forests, mountains to the deep,
To fmooth and lengthen out th' unbounded space,
And spread an area for all human race.
Now monuments prove faithful to their trust,
And render back their long committed dust.
Now charnels rattle; fcatter'd limbs, and all
The various bones, obfequious to the call,
Self-mov'd advance; the neck perhaps to meet
The distant head, the distant legs, the feet.
Dreadful to view, fee through the dusky sky,
Fragments of bodies in confufion fly,
To diftant regions journeying, there to claim
Deferted members, and complete the frame.
|