Dejects his watchful eye; and from the hand 1055
Of feeble juftice, ineffectual, drop
The fword and balance: mute the voice of joy,
And hufh'd the clamour of the bufy world.
Empty the streets, with uncouth verdure clad ;
Into the worst of defarts fudden turn'd
1060
The chearful haunt of Men: unless efcap'd [reigns,
From the doom'd house, where matchlefs horvor
Shut up by barbarous fear, the fmitten wretch,
With frenzy wild, breaks lofe; and, loud to heaven
Screaming, the dreadful policy arraigns,
Inhuman, and unwife. The fullen door,
Yet uninfected, on its cautious hinge
Fearing to turn, abhors fociety:
Dependants, friends, relations, Love himself,
Savag'd by woe, forge: the tender tie,
The fweet engagement of the feeling heart,
But vain their felfifh care: the circhngiky,
The wide enlivening air is full of fate;
And ftruck by turns, in folitary pangs
They fall, unbleft, untended, and unmourn'd, 1075
Thus o'er the proftrate city black Despair
Extends her raven wing; while, to complete
The fcene of defolation, ftretch'd around,
The grim guards ftand, denying all retreat,
And give the flying wretch a be.ter death.
Much yet remains unfung: the rage intenfe
Of brazen-vaulted fkies, of iron fields,
Where drought and famine ftarve the blafted year:
Fir'd by the torch of noon to tenfold rage,
Th' infuriate bill that thoots the pillar'd flame; 1085
And, rous'd within the fubterranean world,
Th' expanding earthquake, that refiftless thakes
Afpiring cities from their folid bafe,
And buries mountains in the flaming gulph.
But 'tis enough; return my vagrant Muse:
A nearer fcene of horror calls thee home.
Behold, flow fettling o'er the lurid grove Unusual darkness broods; and growing gains The full poffeffion of the fky, furcharg'd With wrathful vapour, from the fecret beds, 1095 Where fleep the mineral generations, drawn.
Thence Nitre, Sulphur, and the fiery fpume
Of fat bitumen, fteaming on the day,
With various tinctur'd trains of latent flame,
Pollute the fty, 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 fpring. Aboding filence reigns, 1105
Dread thro' the dun expanfe; save the dull found
That from the mountain, previous to the storm,
Rolls o'er the muttering earth, difturbs the flood,
And shakes the foreft leaf without a breath.
Prone, to the loweft vale, th' aërial tr bes
Defcend: the tempeft-loving raven scarce
Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze
The cattle ftand, and on the fcowling heavens
Caft a deploring eye; by Man forfook,
Who to the crowded cottage hies him faft,
Or feeks the shelter of the downward cave.
'Tis liftening fear, and dumb amazement all;
When to the startled eye the fudden glance
Appears far fouth, eruptive thro' the cloud;
And following flower, in explosion vaft,
The thunder raifes his tremendous voice.
At first, heard folemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempeft growls; but as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burden on the wind,
The lightnings flafh a larger curve, and more
The noife aftounds: till over head a fheet
Of livid flame difclofes wide; then fhuts,
And opens wider: fhuts and opens ftill
Expanfive, wrapping ether in a blaze.
Follows the loosen'd aggravated roar,
Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal
Cruth'd horrible, convulfing heaven and earth.
Down comes a deluge of fonorous hail,
Or prone-defcending rain. Wide rent, the clouds,
Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquench'd,
Th' unconquerable lightning ftruggles through,
Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls,
And fires the mountains with redoubled rage. 1136
Black from the stroke, above, the smouldring pine Stands a fad shattered trunk; and ftretch'd below, A lifeless groupe the blasted cattle lie.
Here the foft flocks, with that fame harmless look They wore alive, and ruminating ftill
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
Refign their aged pride. The gloomy woods
Start at the flash, and from their deep recefs,
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates thake.
Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud
The repercuffive roar: with mighty crush,
Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks
Of Permanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky,
Tumble the fmitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak,
Diffolving, inftant y elds his wintry load.
Far feen, the heights of healhy Cheviot blaze,
And Thulè bellows thro' her utmoft ifles.
Guilt hears appal'd, with deeply troubled thought. And yet not always on the guilty head Defcends the fated flafh. Young Celadon And his Amelia were a matchless pair; With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace, The fame, diftinguifh'd by their fex alone : Hers the mild luftre of the blooming morn, And his the radiance of the risen day.
They lov'd: but fuch their guileless paffion was,
As in the dawn of time inform'd the heart
Of innocence, and undiffembling truth.
"Twas friendship heighten'd by the mutual wish,
Th' inchanting hope, and fympathetic glow, 1171
Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all
To love, each was to each a dearer felf;
Supremely happy in th' awaken'd power
Of giving joy. Alone, amid the shades,
Still in harmonious intercourfe they lived
The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart,
Or figh'd, and look'd unutterable things.
So pafs'd their life, a clear united stream,
By care unruffled; till, in evil hour,
The tempeft caught them on the tender walk,
Heedlefs how far, and where it mazes ftray'd,
While, with each other bleft, creative love
Still bade eternal Eden fmile around.
Heavy with inftant fate her bofom heav'd
Unwonted fighs, and ftealing oft a look
Of the big gloom, on Celadon her eye
Fell tearful, wetting her disorder'd cheek.
In vain affuring love, and confidence
*In Heaven, reprefs'd her fear; it grew, and shook Her frame near diffolution. He perceiv'd ́Th' unequal conflict, and as angels look On dying faints, his eyes compaffion shed, With love illumin'd high. "Fear not, he said, "Sweet innocence; thou ftranger to offence, 1195 "And inward ftorm! He, who yon fky involves "In frowns of darkness, ever fmiles on thee
"With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft "That wastes at midnight, or th' undreaded hour, "Of noon, flies harmless; and that very voice, 1200 "Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, "With tongues of teraphs whispers peace to thine. "'Tis fafety to be near thee fure, and thus
To clafp perfection!" From his void embrace 1204 (Mysterious Heaven!) that moment, to the ground, A blacken'd corfe, was ftruck the beauteous maid. But who can paint the lover, as he stood,
Pierc'd by fevere amazement, hating life,
Speechleis, and fix'd in all the death of woe!
So, faint refemblance, on the marble tomb,
The well-diffembled mourner ftooping stands,
For ever filent, and for ever fad.
As from the face of heaven the shatter'd clouds Tumultuous rove, th' interminable sky
Sublimer fwells, and o'er the world expands 1215
A purer azure. Nature, from the ftorm,
Shines out afresh; and thro' the lightened air
A higher luftre and a clearer calm,
D.ffufive, tremble; while, as if in fign
Of danger paft, a glittering robe of joy,
Set off abundant by the yellow ray,
Invefts the fields, yet dropping from diftrefs.
'Tis beauty all, and grateful fong around
Join'd to the low of kine, and numerous bleat
Of Hocks thick-nibbling thro' the clover'd vale. 1225
And thall the hymn be marr'd by thanklefs man,
Mott favour'd; who with voice articulate
Should lead the chorus of this lower world?
Shall be, fo foon forgetful of the hand
That hufh'd the thunder, and ferenes the fky, 1230
Extinguish'd feel that spark the tempeft wak',
That fenfe of powers exceeding far his own,
Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears?
Cheer'd by the milder beam, the fprightly youth Speeds to the well-known pool, whofe cryftal depth A fandy bottom fhews. A while he ftands Gazing th' inverted landskip, half afraid To mediate the blue profound below; Then plunges headlong down the circling flood, His ebon treffes, and his rofy cheek
Inftant emerge; and thro' th' obedient wave,
At each fhort breathing by his lip repell'd,
With arms and legs according well, he makes,
As humour leads, an eafy winding path;
While, from his polifh'd fides, a dewy light 1245
Effufes on the pleas'd fpectators round.
This is the pureft exercife of health,
The kind refresher of the fummer heats;
Nor, when cold winter keens the brightening flood,
Would I weak-fhivering linger on the brink. 1250
Thus life redoubles, and is oft preferv'd,
By the bold fwimmer, in the fwift illapfe
Of accident difaftrous. Hence the limbs
Knit into force; and the fame Roman arm,
That rofe victorious o'er the conquer'd earth, 1255 First learn'd, while tender, to fubdue the wave. Even, from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a fecret fympathetic aid.
Clofe in the covert of an hazel copfe,
Where winded into pleafing folitudes
Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon fat, Penfive, and pierc'd with love's delightful pangs. There to the ftream that down the diftant rocks
Hoarfe murmuringfell, and plaintivebreezethatplay a Among the bending willows, falfely he
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