From the doom'd house, where matchsess horror reigns,
Skut up by barbarous fear, the smitten wretch,
With frenzy wild, breaks loose; and, loud to heaven
Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns, 1065
Inhuman, and unwise. The fullen door,
Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge
Fearing to turn, abhors fociety:
Dependants, friends, relations, love himself,
Savag'd by woe, forget the tender tie, 1070
The sweet engagement of the feeling heart.
But vain their selfish care: the circling sky,
The wide enlivening air is full of fate;
Ard, struck by turns, in solitary pangs
They fall, unbleft, untended, and unmourn'd. 1075
Thus o'er the prostrate city black Despair
Extends her raven wing; while, to compleat
The scene of desolation, stretch'd around,
The grim guards ftand, denying all retreat,
And give the flying wretch a better death. 1080

Much yet remains unsung: the rage intense
Of brazen-vaulted skies, of iron fields,
Where drought and famine starve the blafted year:
Fir’d by the torch of noon to tenfold rage,
Th' infuriate hill that shoots the pillar'd famè; 1085
And, rous'd within the subterranean world,
Th' expanding earthquake, that refiftless fhakes
Aspiring cities from their folid base,

And

And buries mountains in the flaming gulph.
But 'tis enough; return, my vagrant Mufe:
A nearer scene of horror calls thee home.

1090

1

1100

BEHOLD, Now-settling o'er the lurid grove
Unusual darkness broods; and growing gains
The fall poffeffion of the sky, surcharg'd
With wrathful yapour, from the secret beds, 1095
Where sleep the mineral generations, drawn.
Thence Nitre, Sulphur, and the fiery spume
Of fat Bitumen, steaming on the day,
With various-tinctur'd trains of latent flame,
Pollute the sky, and in yon

baleful cloud,
A reddening gloom, a magazine of fate,
Ferment; till, by the touch ethereal rous’d,
The dash of clouds, or irritating war
Of fighting winds, while all is calm below,
They furious spring. A boding filence reigns, 1105
Dread thro' the dun expanse; fave the dull found
That from the mountain, previous to the storm,
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood,
And shakes the forest-leaf without a breath.
Prone, to the lowest vale, the aërial tribes
Descend: the tempeft-loving raven scarce
Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze
The cattle stand, and on the scouling heavens
Caft a deploring eye; by Man forsook,

Who

Who to the crowded cottage hies him faft,
Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave.

1115

'Tis listening fear, and dumb amazement all: When to the startled eye the sudden glance Appears far fouth, eruptive thro' the cloud; 1120 And following flower, in explosion vast, The Thunder raises his tremendous voice. At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven, The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes, And rolls its awful burden on the wind, 1125 The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds: till over head a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts, And opens wider; shuts and

opens

still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze.

1130 Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal Crush'd horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.

Down comes a deluge of fonorous hail, Or prone-descending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds, 1135 Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquench'd, Th' unconquerable lightning struggles through, Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, And fires the mountains with redoubled

rage. 1139 Black from the stroke, above, the smouldring pine Stands a sad shatter'd trunk; and, stretch'd below,

A

A lifeless groupe the blasted cattle lie.
Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look
They wore alive, and ruminating still
In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull, 1145
And ox half-rais'd. Struck on the castled cliff,
The venerable tower and spiry fane
Resign their aged pride. The gloomy woods
Start at the fash, and from their deep recess,
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake. 1150
Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud
The repercussive roar: with mighty crush,
Into the flashing deep, from the rudé rocks
Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky,
Tumble the smitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak, 1155
Diffolving, instant yields his wintry load.
Far-seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze,
And Thulè bellows thro' her utmost islez.

Guilt hears appalld, with deeply troubled thought. And yet not always on the guilty head 116) Descends the fated flash. Young CELADON And his AMELIA were a matchless pair; With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace, The fame, distinguish'd by their fex alone: Hers the mild luftre of the blooming morn, 1165 And his the radiance of the risen day.

THEY

1

The y lov’d: But such their guileless passion was,
As in the dawn of time inform'd the heart
Of innocence, and undiffembling truth.
'Twas friendship heightened by the mutual wish, 1170
Th' enchanting hope, and sympathetic glow,
Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all
To love, each was to each a dearer self;
Supremely happy in th' awakened power
Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades,
Still in harmonious intercourse they liv'd
The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart,
Or figh'd, and look'd unatterablc things.

1175

So pass’d their life, a clear united stream,
By care unrufiled; till, in evil hour,

1180
The tempest caught them on the tender walk,
Heedless how far, and where its mazes stray'd,
While, with each other bleft, creative love
Still bade eternal Eden sinile around.
Heavy with instant fate her bosom heav'd 1185
Unwonted sighs, and stealing oft a look
Of the big gloom on CELADON her eye
Fell tearful, wetting her disordered cheek.
In vain alluring love, and confidence
In Heaven, repress’d her fear; it grew, and shook
Her frame near dissolution. He perceiv'd
Thi unequal conflict, and as angels look