And scarce the wealthy can one half retire
Before he rushes in to share the prey.

CCL.

The rich grow suppliant, and the poor grow proud;
Those offer mighty gain, and these ask more:
So void of pity is th' ignoble crowd,

When others' ruin may increase their store!

CCLI.

As those who live by shores with joy behold
Some wealthy vessel split or stranded nigh,

1000

And from the rocks leap down for shipwreck'd gold, And seek the tempests which the others fly:

CCLII.

So these but wait the owners' last despair,
And what's permitted to the flames invade;
E'en from their jaws the hungry morsels tear,
And on their backs the spoils of Vulcan lade.

CCLIII.

The days were all in this lost labour spent;
And when the weary king gave place to night,
His beams he to his royal brother lent,

And so shone still in his reflective light.

CCLIV.

Night came, but without darkness or repose,

A dismal picture of the gen'ral doom;

Where souls distracted, when the trumpet blows,
And half unready, with their bodies come.

Volume 1.

1010

CCLV.

Those who have homes, when home they do repair,
To a last lodging call their wand'ring friends
Their short uneasy sleeps are broke with care,
To look how near their own destruction tends.

CCLVI.

Those who have none sit round where once it was,
And with full eyes each wonted room require;
Haunting the yet warm ashes of the place,
As murder'd men walk where they did expire.

CCLVII.

Some stir up coals, and watch the Vestal fire,
Others in vain from sight of ruin run;
And while thro' burning labyrinths they retire,
With loathing eyes repeat what they would shun.

CCLVIII.

1020

1030

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.

CCLIX.

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.

CCLX.

No thought can ease them but their Sov'reign's care, Whose praise th' afflicted as their comfort sing:

E'en those whom want might drive to just despair, Think life's a blessing under such a King.

CCLXI.

Meantime he sadly suffers in their grief,
Outweeps an hermit, and outprays a saint:
All the long night he studies their relief,
How they may be supply'd and he may want.

CCLXII.

1040

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

CCLXIII.

"Be thou my judge, with what unweary'd care "I since have labour'd for my people's good, 1050 "To bind the bruises of a Civil war,

"And stop the issues of their wasting blood!

CCLXIV.

"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 servants head.

CCLXV.

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

10 59

"But take thy judgments from this mourning land.

Dryden.]

I ij

CCLXVI.

"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.

CCLXVII.

"O let it be enough what thou hast done!

"When spotted deaths ran arm'd thro' ev'ry street, "With poison'd darts, which not the good could shun, "The speedy could outfly or valiant meet.

CCLVVIII.

"The living few, and frequent fun'rals then, "Proclaim'd thy wrath on this forsaken place; 1070 "And now those few, who are return'd again, "Thy searching judgments to their dwelling trace.

CCLXIX.

"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.

CCLXX.

[voke;

"Thy threat'nings, 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."

CCLXXI.

Th' Eternal heard, and from the heav'nly choir
Chose out the cherub with the flaming sword,

1080

And bade him swiftly drive th' approaching fire
From where our naval magazines were stor❜d.

CCLXXII.

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.

CCLXXIII.

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.

CCLXXIV.

The wanting orphans saw, with wat❜ry eyes,
Their founder's charity in dust laid low,
And sent to God their ever answer'd cries,
For he protects the poor who made them so.

CCLXXV.

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

1090

And poets' songs the Theban walls could raise. 1100

CCLXXVI.

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.