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In this great temple, which the skies surround
For homage to its Lord a narrow bound.

'O Thou! whose balance doth the mountains
weigh,

Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey,
Whose breath can turn those wat'ry worlds to flame,
That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame;
Earth's meanest son, all trembling, prostrate falls,
And on the boundless of thy goodness calls.

'Oh! give the winds all past offence to sweep,
To scatter wide, or bury in the deep:
Thy power, my weakness, may I ever see,
And wholly dedicate my soul to thee:

Reign o'er my will; my passions ebb and flow
At thy command, nor human motive know!
If anger boil, let anger be my praise,
And sin the graceful indignation raise:
My love be warm to succour the distressed,
And lift the burden from the soul oppressed.
'Oh may my understanding ever read
This glorious volume which thy wisdom made!
Who decks the maiden Spring with flowery pride?
Who calls forth Summer, like a sparkling bride?
Who joys the mother Autumn's bed to crown?
And bids old Winter lay her honours down?
Not the great Ottoman, or greater Czar,
Not Europe's arbitress of peace and war.

May sea, and land, and earth, and heaven, be
joined,

To bring the eternal Author to my mind!
When oceans roar, or awful thunders roll,

Oh how divine! to dread the milky way
To the bright palace of the Lord of day
His court admire, or for his favour sue,
Or leagues of friendship with his saints renew;
Pleased to look down, and see the world asleep,
While I long vigils to its founder keep!

'Can'st thou not shake the centre? Oh, contri
Subdue by force, the rebel in my soul.
Thou who can'st still the raging of the flood,
Restrain the various tumults of my blood:
Teach me, with equal firmness, to sustain
Alluring pleasure, and assaulting pain.
Oh may I pant for thee in each desire!
And with strong faith foment the holy fire!
Stretch out my soul in hope, and grasp the prize
Which in Eternity's deep bosom lies!
At the great day of recompense behold,
Devoid of fear, the fatal book unfold!
Then wafted upward to the blissful seat,
From age to age my grateful song repeat;
My light, my life, my God, my Saviour, see,
And rival angels in the praise of thee!'

BOOK III.

Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitnr, affore tempus,
Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia cœli
Ardeat; et mundi moles operosa laboret.

Ovid Met.

THE book unfolding, the resplendent seat
May thoughts of thy dread vengeance shake my Of saints and angels, the tremendous fate
soul;
Of guilty souls, the gloomy realms of wo,
When earth's in bloom, or planets proudly shine, And all the horrors of the world below,
Adore, my heart, the majesty Divine!

I next presume to sing. What yet remains

'Through every scene of life, or peace or war, Demands my last, but most exalted strains;
Plenty or want, thy glory be my care!
Shine we in arms? or sing beneath our vine?
Thine is the vintage, and the conquest thine:
Thy pleasure points the shaft, and bends the bow,
The cluster blasts, or bids it brightly glow:

Tis thou that lead'st our powerful armies forth,
And giv'st great Anne thy sceptre o'er the North.
'Grant I may ever, at the morning ray,
Open with prayer the consecrated day;
Tune thy great praise, and bid my soul arise,
And with the mounting sun ascend the skies;
As that advances, let my zeal improve,
And glow with ardour of consummate love;
Nor cease at eve, but with the setting sun
My endless worship shall be still begun.
And, oh! permit the gloom of solemn Night
To sacred thought may forcibly invite.
When this world's shut, and awful planets rise;
Call on our minds, and raise them to the skies;
Compose our souls with a less dazzling sight,
And show all nature in a milder light;
How every boist'rous thought in calms subsides!
How the smoothed spirit into goodness glides!

And let the muse or now affect the sky,
Or in inglorious shades for ever lie.
She kindles; she's inflamed, so near the goal;
She mounts; she gains upon the starry pole;
The world grows less as she pursues her flight,
And the sun darkens to her distant sight,
Heaven opening, all its sacred pomp displays,
And overwhelms her with the rushing blaze!
The triumph rings! archangels shout around!
And echoing Nature lengthens out the sound!

Then thousand trumpets now at once advance;
Now deepest silence lulls the vast expanse:
So deep the silence, and so strong the blast,
As Nature died, when she had groaned her last
Nor man nor angel moves; the Judge on high
Looks round, and with his glory fills the sky,
Then on the fatal book his hand he lays,
Which high to view supporting seraphs raise,
In solemn form the rituals are prepared
The seal is broken, and a groan is heard.
And thou, my soul! (oh, fall to sudden prayer,
And let the thought sink deep!) shalt thou be
there?

See on the left (for by the great command
The throng divided falls on either hand)
How weak, how pale, how haggard, how obscene,
What more than death in every face and mien?
With what distress, and glarings of affright,
They shock the heart, and turn away the sight?
In gle my orbs their trembling eyeballs roll,
And tell the horrid secrets of the soul:

Who raised the vale, and laid the mountain low
And taught obedient rivers where to flow;
Who with vast fleets, as with a mighty chain,
Could bind the madness of the roaring main;
All lost? all undistinguished? nowhere found?
How will this truth in Bourbon's palace sound?
That hour, on which the Almighty King on
high,

Each gesture mourns, each look is black with care, From all eternity has fixed his eye,

And every groan is laden with despair.

Reader! if guilty, spare the muse, and find

A truer image pictured in thy mind.

Whether his right hand favoured or annoyed,
Continued, altered, threatened, or destroyed,
Southern or eastern sceptre downward hurled,

Should'st thou behold thy brother, father, wife, Gave north or west dominion o'er the world;
And all the soft companions of thy life,
Whose blended interests leveled at one aim,
Whose mixed desires sent up one common flame,
Divided far, thy wretched self alone

The point of time, for which the world was built,
For which the blood of God himself was spilt,
That dreadful moment is arrived.—————

Cast on the left of all whom thou hast known,
How would it wound? what millions would'st
thou give

For one more trial, one day more to live?
Flung back in time an hour, a moment's space,
To grasp with eagerness the means of grace,
Contend for mercy with a pious rage,
And in that moment to redeem an age?
Drive back the tide, suspend a storm in air,
Arrest the sun, but still of this despair.

Mark, on the right, how amiable a grace!
Their Maker's image fresh in every face!
What purple bloom my ravished soul admires,
And their eyes sparkling with immortal fires!
Triumphant Beauty! charms that rise above
This world, and in blessed angels kindle love!
To the great Judge with holy pride they turn,
And dare behold the Almighty's anger burn,
Its flash sustain, against its terror rise,
And on the dread tribunal fix their eyes,

Are these the forms that mouldered in the dust?
Oh, the transcendent glory of the just!
Yet still some thin remains of fear and doubt
The infected brightness of their joy pollute.
Thus the chaste bridegroom, when the priest draws
nigh,

Beholds his blessing with a trembling eye,
Feels doubtful passions throb in every vein,
And in his cheeks are mingled joy and pain,
Lest still some intervening chance should rise,
Leap forth at once, and snatch the golden prize,
Inflame his wo, by bringing it so late,
And stab nim in the crisis of his fate.
Since Adam's family, from first to last,
Now into one distinct survey is cast,
Look round, vain-glorious Muse! and you whoe'er
L'evote yourselves to Fame, and think her fair,
Look round, and seek the lights of human race,
Whose shining acts Time's brightest annals grace;
Who founded sects, crowns conquered or re-
sigved,

Aloft, the seats of bliss their pomp display,
Brighter than brightness this distinguished day;
Less glorious when of old the eternal Son
From realms of night returned with trophies won:
Through Heaven's high gates when he triumphant
rode,

And shouting angels hailed the Victor-God.
Horrors beneath, darkness in darkness, hell
Of hell, where torments behind torments dwell;
A furnace formidable, deep and wide,
O'erboiling with a mad sulphureous tide,
Expands its jaws, most dreadful to survey,
And roars outrageous for the destined prey:
The sons of light scarce unappalled look down,
And nearer press Heaven's everlasting throne

Such is the scene, and one short moment's

• space

Concludes the hopes, and fears of human race.
Proceed who dares!--I tremble as I write;
The whole creation swims before my sight
I see, I see the Judge's frowning brow
Say not 'tis distant; I behold it now;
I faint, my tardy blood forgets to flow,
My roul recoils at the stupendous wo;
That wo, those pangs, which from the guilty
breast

In these, or words like these, shall be expressed :

'Who burst the barriers of my peaceful gravel
Ah! cruel Death, that would no longer save,
But grudged me even that narrow dark abode,
And cast me out into the wrath of God;
Where shrieks, the roaring flame, the rattling
chain,

And all the dreadful eloquence of pain,
Our only song; black fire's malignant light,
The sole refreshment of the blasted sight.

'Must all those powers Heaven gave me to sup-
ply

My soul with pleasure, and bring in my joy,
Rise up in arms against me, join the foe,
Sense, reason, memory, increase my wo?
And shall my voice, ordained on hymns to dwell,

dove names to nations, or famed empires joined; Corrupt to groans, and blow the fires of hell?

Oh! must I look with terror on my gain,
And with existence only measure pain ?
What! no reprieve, no least indulgence given,
No beam of hope, from any point of Heaven!
Ah, Mercy! Mercy! art thou dead above?
Is love extinguished in the source of love?
'Bold that I am, did heaven stoop down to hell?
The expiring Lord of life my ransom seal?
Have I not been industrious to provoke?
From his embraces obstinately broke?
Pursued and panted for his mortal hate,
Earned my destruction, laboured out my fate?
And dare I on extinguished love exclaim?
Take, take full vengeance; rouse the slackening
flame;

Just is my lot-but, oh, must it transcend
The reach of time, despair a distant end?
Where dreadful growth shoot forward, and arise
Where Thought can't follow, and bold Fancy dies.
'Never! where falls the soul at that dread sound?
Down an abyss how dark, and how profound!
Down, down, (I still am falling—horrid pain!)
Ten thousand thousand fathoms still remain;
My plunge but still begun-and this for sin?
Could I offend if I had never been,

But still increased the senseless happy mass,
Flowed in the stream, or shivered in the grass.
'Father of mercies! why from silent earth
Didst thou awake, and curse me into birth?
Tear me from quiet, ravish me from night,
And make a thankless present of thy light?
Push into being a reverse of thee,

And animate a clod with misery!

Call back thy thunders, Lord: hold in thy rage,
Nor with a speck of wretchedness engage;
Forget me quite, nor stoop a worm to blame,
But lose me in the greatness of thy naine.
Thou art all love, all mercy, all divine,
And shall I make those glories cease to shine î
Shall sinful man grow great by his offence,
And from its course turn back Omnipotence?
'Forbid it; and, oh grant, great God, at least
This one, this slender, almost no request;
When I have wept a thousand lives away,
When Torment is grown weary of its prey,
When I have raved ten thousand years in fire,
Ten thonsand thousands, let me then expire.'

Deep anguish! but too late: the hopeless soul,
Bound to the bottom of the burning pool,
Though loth, and ever loud blaspheming, owns
He's justly doomed to pour eternal groans;
Inclosed with horrors, and transfixed with pain,
Rolling in vengeance, struggling with his chain;
To talk to fiery tempests, to implore
The raging flame to give its burnings o'er;
To toss, to writhe, to pant beneath his load,
And bear the weight of an offended God.

The favoured of their Judge in triumph move
To take possession of their thrones above,
Satan's accursed desertion to supply,
And fill the vacant stations of the sky;
Again to kindle long extinguished rays,
And with new lights dilate the heavenly blaze
To crop the roses of immortal youth,
And drink the fountain-head of sacred truth
To swim in seas of bliss, to strike the string,

'The beasts are happy; they come forth, and And lift the voice to their Almighty King;

keep

Short watch on earth, and then lie down to sleep:
Pain is for man; and, oh, how vast a pain
For crimes which made the Godhead bleed in vain?
Annulled his groans, as far as in them lay,
And flung his agonies and death away?
As our dire punishment for ever strong,
Our constitution, too, for ever young,
Cursed with returns of vigour, still the same,
Powerful to bear, and satisfy the flame;
Still to be caught, and still to be pursued ;
To perish still, and still to be renewed.

'And this my help, my God, at thy decree?
Nature is changed, and hell should succour me.
And canst thou then, look down from perfect bliss,
And see me plunging in the dark abyss?
Calling thee Father in a sea of fire?
Or pouring blasphemies at thy desire?
With mortals' anguish wilt thou raise thy name,
And by my pangs Omnipotence proclaim?

'Thou who canst toss the planets to and fro,
Contract not thy great vengeance to my wo;
Crush worlds; in hotter flames fallen angels lay;
On me almighty wrath is cast away,

To lose eternity in grateful lays

And fill Heaven's wide circumference with praise.
But I attempt the wondrous height in vain,
And leave unfinished the too lofty strain:
What boldly I begin, let others end;
My strength, exhausted, fainting I descend,
And choose a less but no ignoble theme,
Dissolving elements, and worlds in flame.

The fatal period, the great hour, is come,
And Nature shrinks at her approaching doom;
Loud peals of thunder give the sign, and ail
Heaven's terrors in array surround the ball;
Sharp lightnings with the meteor's blaze conspire
And, darted downward, set the world on fire:
Black rising clouds the thickened ether choke,
And spiry flames dart through the rolling smoke,
With keen vibrations cut the sullen night,
And strike the darkened sky with dreadful light;
From Heaven's four regions, with immortal force
Angels drive on the wind's impetuous course,
To enrage the flame; it spreads, it soars on high.,
Swells in the storm, and billows through the sky;
Here winding pyramids of fire ascend,
Cities and deserts in one ruin blend ·

Here blazing volumes, wafted, overwhelm
The spacious face of a far distant realm;
There, undermined, down rush eternal hills,
The neighbouring vales the vast destruction fills.
Hear'st thou that dreadful crack, that sound
which broke

Like peals of thunder, and the centre shook?
What wonders must that groan of Nature tell?
Olympus there, and mightier Atlas, fell,
Which seemed, above the reach of Fate, to stand
A towering monument of God's right-hand,
Now dust and smoke, whose brow, so lately,
spread

O'er sheltered countries its diffusive shade.

Show me that celebrated spot, where all
The various rulers of the severed ball
Have humbly sought wealth, honour, and redress,
That land which Heaven seemed diligent to
bless,

Once called Britannia; can her glories end?
And can't surrounding seas her realms defend?
Alas! in flames behold surrounding seas!
Like oil, their waters but augment the blaze.
Some angel say, where ran proud Asia's bound?
Or where with fruits was fair Europa crowned?
Where stretched waste Lybia? where did India's

store

Sparkle in diamonds, and her golden ore?
Each lost in cach, their mingling kingdoms glow,
And all dissolved, one fiery deluge flow:
Thus earth's contending monarchies are joined,
And a full period of ambition find.

And now whate'er or swims, or walks, or flies,
Inhabitants of sea, or earth, or skies;
All on whom Adam's wisdom fixed a name,
All plunge, and perish in the conquering flame.

This globe alone would but defraud the fire, Starve its devouring rage; the flakes aspire, And catch the clouds, and make the heavens their prey;

The sun, the moon, the stars, all melt away;

All, all is lost; no monument, no sign,
Where once so proudly blazed the gay machine.
So bubbles on the foaming stream expire;
So sparks that scatter from the kindling fire;
The devastations of one dreadful hour,
The great Creator's six days' work devour:
A mighty, mighty ruin! yet one soul
Has more to boast, and far outweighs the whole,
Exalted in superior excellence,

Casts down to nothing such a vast expense.
Have ye not seen the eternal mountains nod,
An earth dissolving, a descending God?
What strange surprises through all nature ran?
For whom these revolutions but for man?
For him Omnipotence new measures takes,
For him through all eternity awakes;
Pours on him gifts sufficient to supply
Heaven's loss, and with fresh glories fill the sky.

Think deeply then, O Man! how great thou art:
Pay thyself homage with a trembling heart;
What angels guard no longer dare neglect,
Slighting thyself, affront not God's respect.
Enter the sacred temple of thy breast,
And gaze and wander there, a ravished guest;
Gaze on those hidden treasures thou shalt find,
Wander through all the glories of thy mind:
Of perfect knowledge, see, the dawning light
Foretells a moon most exquisitely bright!
Here springs of endless joy are breaking forth:
There buds the promise of celestial worth!
Worth which must ripen in a happier clime,
And brighter sun, beyond the bounds of time.
Thou, minor, canst not guess thy vast estate,
What stores, on foreign coasts, thy landing wait,
Lose not thy claim, let virtue's paths be trod,
Thus glad all Heaven, and please that bounteous
God,

Who, to light thee to pleasures, hung on high
Yon radiant orb, proud regent of the sky:
That service done, its beams shall fade away,
And God shine forth in one eternal day!

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