No bloom of fpring, o'er all the thrifty vaft,
Nor Spiry grafs is found; but fands instead
In fteril hills, and rough rocks rising grey.
A land of fears! where vifionary forms,
Of griefly spectres from air, flood, and fire,
Swarm: and before them speechlefs horror ftalks!
Here, night, by night, beneath the ftariefs duk,
The fecret hag and forcerer unblest
Their fabbath hold, and potent spells compofe,
Spoils of the violated grave: and now,
Late, at the hour that fevers night from morn,
When fleep has filenc'd every thought of man,
They to their revels fall, infernal throng!
And as they mix in circling dance, or turn
To the four winds of heavens with haggard gaze;
Shot ftreaming from the bofom of the north,
Opening the hollow gloom, red meteors blaze,
To lend them light, and diftant thunders roll,
Heard in low murmurs thro' the lowering sky.
From these fad feenes, the wafte abodes of
death,

With devious wing, to fairer climes remote Southward I ftray; where Caucafus in view, Bulwark of nations, in broad eminence Upheaves from realm to realm a hundred hills, On from the Cafpian to the Euxine stretch'd, Pale-glittering with eternal fnows to heaven. From this chill fteep, which midnight's higheft

fades

Scarce climb to darken, rough with mumuring woods,

Imagination travels with quick eye
Unbounded o'er the globe, and wondering views
Her rolling feas and intermingled ifles;
Her mighty continents out-ftretch'd immense,
Where Europe, Afa, Afric, of old fame,
Their regions numberless extend and where
To farthest point of weft, Columbus late,
Thro' untry'd oceans borne to fhores unknown,
Moor'd his firft keel adventurous, and beheld
A new, a fair, a fertile world arife!
But nearer scenes of happy rural view,
Green dale, and level down, and bloomy hill,
The Mufe's walk, on which the fun's bright eye
Propitious looks, invite her willing step.
Here fee, around me fmiling, myrtle groves,
And mountains crown'd with aromatic woods
Of vegetable gold, with vales amidft,

-A fullen calm unusual, dark and dead,
Arifes inaufpicious o'er the heavens.
The beamlefs fun looks wan; a fighing cold
Winters the fadow'd air; the birds on high,
Shrieking, give fign of fearful change at hand:
And now, within the bofom of the globe,
Where fulphur ftor'd, and nitre peaceful flept,
For ages, in their fubterranean bed,
Ferments th' approaching tempeft. Vapoury
ftreams,

Inflammable, perhaps by winds fublim'd,
Their deadly breath apply. Th' enkindled mafs,
Mine fir'd by mine in train, with boundless rage,
With horror unconceiv'd, disploded bursts
Its central prifon--Shook from shore to shore,
Reels the broad continent with all its load,
Hills, forefts, cities. The lone defert quakes:
Her favage fons howl to the thunder's groan,
And lightning's ruddy glare: while from beneath,
Deaf diftant roarings, thro' the wide profound,
Rueful are heard, as when Defpair complains.

Gather'd in air, o'er that proud Capital,
Frowns an involving cloud of gloomy depth,
Cafting dun night and terror o'er the heads
Of her inhabitants. Aghaft they ftand,
Sad-gazing on the mournful fkies around;
A moment's dreadful filence! Then loud fcreams

And eager fupplications rend the skies.
Lo, crouds on crouds, in hurry'd ftream along,
From ftreet to ftreet, from gate to gate roll' on,
This, that way burst in waves, by horror wing'd
Her frame convulfive rocking to and fro,
To diftant hill or cave: while half the globe,
Trembles with fecond agony. Upheav'd
In furges, her vext furface rolls a fea.
Ruin enfues towers, temples, palaces,
Flung from their deep foundations roof on roof
Crush'd horrible, and pile on pile o'erturn'd,
Fall total-In that univerfal groan,
Sounding to heaven, expir'd a thoufand lives,
C'erwhelm'd at once, one und ftinguish'd wreck!

Sight full of fate! up from the centre torn, The ground yawns horrible a hundred mouths, Flashing pale flames-down through the gulphs profound,

Screaming, whole crouds of every age and rank, With hands to heaven rais'd high imploring aid,

Spring,

Lord of the year, indulges to each field

The fanning breeze, live fpring, and theltering grove.

In thefe bleft plains, a fpacious city fpreads
Its round extent magnificent, and feems
The feat of empire. Dazzling in the fy,
With far-feen blaze her towery structures fhine,
Elaborate works of art! each opening gate
Sends forth its thoufands: Peace and plenty
round

Environ her. In each frequented fchool
Learning exalts his head and Commerce pours
Jato her arms a thousand foreign realms.
How fair and fortunate! how worthy all
Cf lafting blifs fecure! Yet all muft fail,
O'er turn'd and loft-nor fhall their place be found.

Earth huts her ponderous jaws. Part loft in
night,
Return no more: part on the waiting wave,
Borne through the darkness of th' infernal world,
Far diftant rife, emerging with the flood;
Pale as afcending ghosts caft back to day,
A huddering band! Diftraction in each eye.
Stares wildly, motionlefs they pant, they catch
A gulp of air, and grafp with dying aim
The wreck that drives along, to gain from fate,"
Short interval! a moment's doubtful life.
For now earth's folid sphere afunder rent
With final diffolution, the huge mafs
Fails undermir'd-down, down th' extenfive feat
Of this fair city, down her buildings, fink !..
Sinks the full pride her ample walis enclos'd,

In one wild hovock crash'd, with burit beyond Heaven's loudeft thunder! Uproar unconceiv'd! Image of Nature's general frame destroy'd!

Now greatly terrible, how dark and deep The purposes of heaven! At once o'erthrown, White age and youth, the guilty and the juft, O, feemingly fevere! promifcuous fall. Reason, whose daring eye in vain explores The fearful providence, confus'd fubdued To filence and amazement, with due praise Acknowledges th' Almighty, and adores His will unerring, wifeft, jufteft, best!

The country mourns around with alter'd look. Fields, where but late the many-colour'd Spring Sat gaily dreft, amid the vernal breath Of roles, and the fong of nightingales, Soft-warbled, flent languish now and die. Rivers engulph'd their ample channels leave A fandy tract; and goodly mountains, hurl'd In whirlwind from their feat, obftruct the plain With rough incumbrance; or through depths of

earth

Fall ruinous, with all their woods immers❜d.
Sulphureous damps of dark and deadly power,
Steam'd from th' abyfs, fly fecret over-head,
Wounding the healthful air; whence foul difeafe,
Murrain and rot, in tainted herds and flocks:
In man fore fickness, and the lamp of life
Dimm'd and diminish'd; or more fatal ill
Of mind, unfettling reafon overturn'd.
Here into madnefs work'd, and boiling o'er
Outrageous fancies, like the troubled fea
Foaming out mud and filth: here downward
funk

To folly, and in ille mufing wrapt;

Now chacing with fond aim the flying cloud;
Now numbering up the drops of falling rain.

A while the fiery Spirit in its cell
Infidious flumbers, till fome chance unknown,.
Perhaps fome rocky fragment from the roof
Detach'd, and roll' with rough collufion down
Its echoing vault, ftrikes out the fatal spark
That blows it into rage. Shakes earth again,
Wide through her entrails torn. To all fides
flafh'd,

The flames bear downward on the central deep, Immeasurable fource, whence ocean fills

His numerous feas, and pours them round the globe.

The liquib orb, through all its dark expanse,
In dire commotion boils; and bursting way
Up through th' unfounded bottoms of the main."
Where never tempeft ruffied, lifts the deeps,.
At once, in billowy mountains to the sky,
With raving violence. And now, their fhcres
Rebellowing to the furge, they swallow ferce,
C'erfwelling mound and cliff: now fwift and
Strange,

With refluent wave retreating, leave the beach.
A naked waste of fands-Meantime, behold!
Yon neighbouring Mountain rifing bleak and
bare,

Its double top in fteril afhes hid,

But

green around its bafe with oil and wine, Gives fign of ftorm and defolation near; Storehouse of fate! from whofe internal womb

With fiery minerals and metallic ore
Pernicious fraught, ascends eternal smoke :
Now wavering loose in air; now borne on high,
A dufky column heightening to the fun!
Imagination's eye looks down difmay'd
The fteepy gulph, pale-Haming and profound,
With hourly tumult vext, but now incens'
To fevenfold fury. Firft difcordant founds,
As of a clamouring multitude enrag'd,

The dafh of floods, and hollow howl of winds'
Through wintery woods or cavern'd ruins heard,
Rife from the diftant depth where uproar reigns.
Anon, with black éruption, from its jaws,
A night of fmoke, thick driving, wave on wave,
In formy flow, and cloud involving cloud,
Rells furging forth, extinguishing the day;
With vollied fparkles mix'd, and whirling drifts
Of ftones and cinders rattling up the air.
Inftant, in one broad burft, a fream of fire,
Red-iffuing, floods the hemifphere around.
Nor paufe, nor reft; again the mountain groans.
Amazing, from its inmoft cavern fhook :
Again, with loudening rage, intenfely fierce,
Difgorges pyramids of quivering flame,
Spire after spire enormous, and torn rocks,
Flung out in thundering ruins to the fky.

But fee, in fecond pangs, the roaring hill
From forth its depth a cloudy pillar fhoots,
Gradual and vaft, in one afcending trunk
Of length immenfe, heav'd by the force of fire,
On its own base direct, aloft in air,
Beyond the foaring eagle's funward flight.
Still as it fwells, through all the dark extent,
With wonder feen! ten thousand lightnings play
In flash'd vibrations; and from height to height
Inceffant thunders roar. No longer now
Protruded by the explofive breath below,
At once the fhadowy fummit breaks away
To all fides round, in billows broad and black,
As of a turbid occan firr'd by winds,
A vapoury deluge hiding earth and heaven.

Thus all day long and now the beamless fun Sets as in blood. A dreadful paufe enfues; Deceitful calm, portending fiercer ftorm. Sad night at once, with all her deep-dy'd shades," Falls back and boundlefs o'er the feene. Sufpenfe And terror rule the hour. Behold, from far, Imploring heaven with fupplicating hands And ftreaming eyes, in mute amazement fix'd, Yon peopled City ftands; each fadden'd face Turn'd toward the hill of fears: and hark! once

more

The ring tempeft fhakes its founding vaults,,
Now faint in diftant murmurs, now more near-
Rebounding horrible, with all the roar

Of winds and feas; or engines big with death,
That, planted by the murderous hand of War
To fake the round of fome proud capital,
At once difploded, in one burfing peal
Their mortal thunders mix. Along the sky,
From eaft to fouth, a ruddy hill of fmole
Extends its ridge, with difinal light infiam'd.
Meanwhile, the fluid Lake that works below,
Bitumen, fulphur, falt, and iron-fcum,
Heaves up its boiling tide. The labouring rtun
Is torn with agonizing throes at once,

Next Venus to the weftward of the fun, Full orb'd her face, a golden plain of light, Circles her larger round. Fair morning-ftar!, That leads on dawning day to yonder world, The feat of man, hung in the heavens remote, Whofe northern hemisphere, defcending, fees, The fun arife; as through the zodiac roll'd, Full in the middle path oblique the winds Her annual orb: and by her fide the Moon, Companion of her Hight, whofe folemn beams, No&urnal, to her darken'd globe fupply A fo ter day-light; whofe attractive power Swells all her feas and oceans into tides, From the mid-deeps o'erflowing to their fhores. Beyond the fphere of Mars, in diftant skies, Revolves the mighty magnitude of Jove, With kingly state, the rival of the fun. About him round, four planetary moons, On earth with wonder all night long beheld, Moon above moon, his fair attendants, dance. The e, in th' horizon, flow afcending climb The fteep of heaven, and, mingling in foft flow Their lver radiance, brighten as they rife. Thofe oppofite roll downward from their noon To where the shade of Jove, outfretch'd in length A duty cone immenfe, darkens the sky Through many a region. To thefe bounds arriv'd, A gradual pale creeps dim o'er each fad orb, Fading their lufre; till they fink involv'd In total night, and difappear eclips'd. By this, the Sage, who, ftudious of the skies, Heedful explores thefe late discover'd worlds, By this obferv'd, the rapid progress finds. Of light itfelf: how fwift the headlong ray Shoots from the fun's height through unbounded fpace,

At once enlightning air, and earth, and heaven.
Laft, outmost Saturn walks his frontier-round,
The boundary of worlds; with his pale moons,
Faint-glimmering through the darkness night has
thrown,

Deep-dy'd and dead, o'er his chill globe forlorn:
An endlefs defart, where extreme of cold
Eternal fits, as in his native feat,

On wintery hills of never-thawing-ice!
Such Saturn's earth; and yet ev'n here the fight,
Amid thefe doleful fcenes, new matter finds
Cf wonder and delight! a mighty ring,
On each fide rifing rom th' horizon's verge,
Self-pois d in air, with its bright circle round
Encompafleth his orb. As night comes on,
Saturn's broad fhade, caft on its eastern arch,
Climbs flowly to its height: and at th' approach
Of morn returning, with like ftealthy pace
Draws weftward off; till through the lucid round,
In diftant view th' illumin'd fies are feen.
Beauteous appearance! by th' Almighty's hand
Peculiar faf ion'd.-Thine thefe noble works,
Great, univerfal Ruler! earth and heaven
Are thine, fpontaneous offspring of thy will,
Seen with tranfcendent ravifhment fublime,
That lifts the foul to thee! a holy joy,
By reafon prompted, and by reafon fwell'd
Beyood all height for thou art infinite!
Thy virtual energy the frame of things
Pervading actuates; as at firft thine hand

Diffus'd through endlefs fpace this limpid fky,
Vaft ocean without ftorm, where thefe huge globes
Sail undisturb'd, a rounding voyage each;
Obfervant all of one unchanging law.
Simplicity divine! by this fole rule,
The Maker's great eftablishment, thefe worlds
Rovolve harmonious, world attracting world
With mutual love, and to their central fun
All gravitating now with quicken'd pace
Descending tow'rd the primal orb, and now
Receding flow, excurfive from his bounds.

This fpring of motion, this hid power infus'd
Through univerfal nature, firft was known
To thee, great Newton! Britain's jufteft pride,
The boaft of human race; whofe towering
thought,

In her amazing progrefs unconfin'd.

From truth to truth afcending, gain'd the height
Of fcience, whither mankind from afar
Gaze up aftonifh'd. Now beyond that height,
By death from frail mortality fet free,
A pure intelligence he wings his way
Through wondrous fcenes, new-open'd in the
world

Invifible, amid the general quire

Of faints and angels, rapt with joy divine,
Which fills, o'erflaws, and ravishes the foul!
His mind's clear vision from all darkness purg'd,
For God himfelf fhines forth immediate there,
Through thofe eternal climes, the frame of things,
In its ideal harmony, to him
Stands all reveal'd.-

But how fhall mortal wing
Attempt this blue profundity of heaven,
Unfathomable, endless of extent !
Where unknown funs to unknown fyftems rife,
Whose numbers who fhall tell? ftupendous hoft!
In flaming millions through the vacant hung,
Sun beyond fun, and world to world unfeen,
Meafurelefs diftance, unconceiv'd by thought!
Awful their order; each the central fire
Of his furrounding ftars, whofe whirling speed,
Solemn and flent, through the pathlefs void,
Nor change, nor error knows. But, who their
ways,

By reason, bold adventurer, unexplor'd,
Inftructed can declare! What fearch fhall find
Their times and feafons! their appointed laws.
Peculiar their inhabitants of life,
And of intelligence, from fcale to scale
Harmonious ring and in fix'd degree;
Numberlefs orders, each refembling each,
Yet all diverfe!-Tremendous depth and height
Of wisdom and of power, that this great whole
Fram'd inexpreffible, and ftill preserves,
An infinite of wonders!-Thou, fupreme,
Firft, Independent caufe, whose presence fills
Nature's vaít circle, and whofe pleasure moves,
Father of human kind! the Mufe's wing
Suftaining guide, while to the heights of heaven,
Roaming th' interminable vast of space,
She rifes, tracing thy almighty hand
In its dread operations. Where is now
The feat of mankind, earth? where her great
fcenes

Of wars and triumphs? empires fam'd of old,