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The faithlefs vain difturber of mankind,

Infulting Gaul, has rous'd the world to war;

1075 When keen, once more, within their bounds to prefs Thofe polifh'd robbers, thofe ambitious flaves, The BRITISH YOUTH would hail thy wife command, Thy temper'd ardour and thy veteran skill.

THE western fun withdraws the shortened day; 1080 And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky,

In her chill progrefs, to the ground condens'd
The vapours throws. Where creeping waters ooze,
Where marshes ftagnate, and where rivers wind,
Clufter the rolling fogs, and fwim along

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The dusky mantled lawn. Mean-while the moon
Full-orb'd, and breaking thro' the scatter'd clouds,
Shews her broad vifage in the crimson'd east.

Turn'd to the fun direct, her fpotted disk,

Where mountains rife, umbrageous dales defcend, 1090 And caverns deep, as optic tube defcries,

A fmaller earth, gives us his blaze again,

Void of its flame, and fheds a fofter day.

Now thro' the paffing cloud fhe feems to ftoop,

Now up the pure cerulean rides fublime.

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Wide the pale deluge floats, and streaming mild

O'er

O'er the sky'd mountain to the shadowy vale, While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleam, The whole air whitens with a boundless tide

Of filver radiance, trembling round the world. I100

BUT when half blotted from the sky her light,
Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn
With keener luftre thro' the depth of heaven;
Or near extinct her deadened orb appears,
And scarce appears, of fickly beamless white;
Oft in this season, filent from the north
A blaze of meteors fhoots: enfweeping first
The lower skies, they all at once converge
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once
Relapfing quick as quickly reafcend,

And mix, and thwart, extinguifh, and renew,
All ether courfing in a maze of light.

FROM look to look, contagious thro' the crowd, The panic runs, and into wondrous shapes

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Th' appearance throws: Armies in meet array, 1115
Throng'd with aërial spears, and steeds of fire;
Till the long lines of full-extended war

In bleeding fight commixt, the fanguine flood

Rolls

Rolls a broad flaughter o'er the plains of heaven.
As thus they scan the vifionary scene,
On all fides fwells the fuperftitious din,
Incontinent; and busy frenzy talks

Of blood and battle; cities overturn'd;
And late at night in fwallowing earthquake funk,
Or hideous wrapt in fierce afcending flame;
Of fallow famine, inundation, storm;

Of peftilence, and every great distress;

Empires fubvers'd, when ruling fate has ftruck

The unalterable hour: even Nature's felf

Is deem'd to totter on the brink of time.
Not fo the Man of philofophic eye,

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And inspect fage; the waving brightness he

Curious furveys, inquifitive to know

The causes, and materials, yet unfix'd,

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Of this appearance beautiful and new.

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Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall,

A fhade immense. Sunk in the quenching gloom,
Magnificent and vaft, are heaven and earth.

Order confounded lies; all beauty void;

Distinction loft; and gay variety

One univerfal blot: fuch the fair power

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Of

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Of light, to kindle and create the whole.

Drear is the state of the benighted wretch,

Who then, bewilder'd, wanders thro' the dark,
Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge;

Nor vifited by one directive ray,

From cottage ftreaming, or from airy hall.
Perhaps impatient as he ftumbles on,

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Struck from the root of flimy rushes, blue,
The wild-fire fcatters round, or gathered trails 1150
A length of flame deceitful o'er the mofs :
Whither decoy'd by the fantastic blaze,
Now loft and now renew'd, he finks abforpt,
Rider and horse, amid the miry gulph:
While ftill, from day to day, his pining wife,
And plaintive children his return await,
In wild conjecture loft. At other times,
Sent by the better Genius of the night,
Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane,
The meteor fits; and fhews the narrow path,
That winding leads thro' pits of death, or else
Inftructs him how to take the dangerous ford.

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THE lengthened night elaps'd, the morning fhines Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright,

Unfold

Unfolding fair the last autumnal day.

And now the mounting fun dispels the fog;
The rigid hoar-froft melts before his beam ;
And hung on every spray, on every blade
Of grafs, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round.

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AH fee where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit 1170
Lies the still heaving hive! at evening fnatch'd,
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
And fix'd o'er fulphur: while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people, in their waxen cells,

Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes 1175
Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoiced
To mark, full flowing round, their copious ftores.
Sudden the dark oppreffive fteam afcends;

And, us'd to milder fcents, the tender race,

By thousands, tumble from their honeyed domes, 1180
Convolv'd, and agonizing in the dust.

And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring,
Intent from flower to flower? for this you toil'd
Ceaseless the burning Summer-heats away?
For this in Autumn fearch'd the blooming waste, 1185
Nor loft one funny gleam? for this fad fate?
O Man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long,

Shall

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