The most in fields, like herded beasts, lie down,
To dews obnoxious, on the grassy floor;
And, while their babes in sleep their sorrows drown,
Sad parents watch the remnants of their store.

While by the motion of the flames they guess
What streets are burning now, and what are near,
An infant, waking, to the paps would press,
And meets, instead of milk, a falling tear.

No thought can ease them but their Sovereign's care, Whose praise the' afflicted as their comfort sing: E'en those, whom want might drive to just despair, Think life's a blessing under such a King.

Mean time be sadly suffers in their grief,
Outweeps an hermit, and outprays a saint;
All the long night he studies their relief,

How they may be supplied and he may want.

* O God! (said he) thou patron of my days,
Guide of my youth in exile and distress!
Who me unfriended brought'st, by wondrous ways,
The kingdom of my fathers to possess:

'Be thou my judge with what unwearied care
I since have labour'd for my people's good;
To bind the bruises of a Civil war,

And stop the issues of their wasting blood!

Thou, who hast taught me to forgive the ill, And recompense, as friends, the good misled; If mercy be a precept of thy will,

Return that mercy on thy servant's head.

Or, if my heedless youth has stepp'd astray, Too soon forgetful of thy gracious hand; On me alone thy just displeasure lay,

But take thy judgments from this mourning land.

We all have sinn'd, and thou hast laid us low As humble earth, from whence at first we came : Like flying shades before the clouds we show, And shrink like parchment in consuming flame.

O let it be enough what thou hast done [street, When spotted deaths ran arm'd through every With poison'd darts, which not the good could shun, The speedy could outfly, or valiant meet.

The living few, and frequent funerals then,
Proclaim'd thy wrath on this forsaken place;
And now those few, who are return'd again,
Thy searching judgments to their dwellings trace.

O pass not, Lord, an absolute decree,
Or bind thy sentence unconditional;
But in thy sentence our remorse foresee,
And, in that foresight, this thy doom recall,

Thy threatenings, Lord, as thine, thou may'st re-
But if immutable and fix'd they stand,

Continue still thyself to give the stroke,
And let not foreign foes oppress thy land.'

[voke;

The' Eternal heard, and from the heavenly choir
Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword;
And bade him swiftly drive the' approaching fire
From where our naval magazines were stor❜d.

The blessed minister his wings display'd,

And, like a shooting star, he cleft the night: He charg'd the flames, and those that disobey'd He lash'd to duty with his sword of light.

The fugitive flames, chastis'd, went forth to prey
On pious structures, by our fathers rear'd;
By which to Heav'n they did affect the way,
Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard.

The wanting orphans saw, with watry eyes,
Their founders' charity in dust laid low;
And sent to God their ever-answer'd cries;
For he protects the poor who made them so.

Nor could thy fabric, Paul, defend thee long,
Though thou wert sacred to thy Maker's praise:
Though made immortal by a poet's song;

And poets' songs the Theban walls could raise.

The daring flames peep'd in, and saw from far
The awful beauties of the sacred quire;
But since it was profan'd by civil war,

Heav'n thought it fit to have it purg'd by fire.

Now down the narrow streets it swiftly came,
And, widely opening, did on both sides prey;
This benefit we sadly owe the flame,

If only ruin must enlarge our way.

And now four days the sun had seen our woes, Four nights the moon beheld the' incessant fire; It seem'd as if the stars more sickly rose,

And farther from the feverish North retire.

VOL. I.

H

In the' empyrean Heav'n, the bless'd abode,
The Thrones and the Dominions prostrate lie,
Not daring to behold their angry God;

And an hush'd silence damps the tuneful sky.

At length the' Almighty cast a pitying eye,
And mercy softly touch'd his melting breast;
He saw the Town's one half in rubbish lie,
And eager flames drive on to storm the rest,

An hollow crystal pyramid he takes,
In firmamental waters dipt above;
Of it a broad extinguisher he makes,

And hoods the flames that to their quarry strove.

The vanquish'd fires withdraw from every place,
Or, full with feeding, sink into a sleep:-
Each household genius shews again his face,
And from the hearths the little lares creep.

Our King this more than natural change beholds;
With sober joy his heart and eyes abound:
To the All-good his lifted hands he folds,

And thanks him low on his redeemed ground.

As when sharp frosts had long constrain'd the earth, A kindly thaw unlocks it with cold rain;

And first the tender blade peeps up to birth,
And straight the green fields laugh with promis'd
grain.

By such degrees the spreading gladness grew
In every heart which fear had froze before:
The standing streets with so much joy they view,
That with less grief the perish'd they deplore.