Affyrian, Roman? or of later name,
Peruvian, Mexican, in that new world,
Beyond the wide Atlantic, late difclos'd?
Where is their place?-Let proud ambition pause,
And ficken at the vanity that prompts
His little deeds-With earth, thofe nearer orbs,
Surrounding planets, late, fo glorious feen,
And each a world, are now for fight too fmall;
Are almoft loft to thought. The fun himself,
Ocean of flame, but twinkles from afar,
A glimmering ftar amid the train of night!
While in thefe deep abyffes of the sky,
Spaces incomprehenfible, new fons,
Crown'd with unborrow'd beams, illuftrious
fhine;

Araturus here, and here the Pleiades,

Amid the northern hoft: nor with less state,
At fumless distance, huge Orion's orbs,
Each in his fphere refulgent, and the noon
Of Syrius, burning through the fouth of heaven.
Myriads beyond, with blended rays, inflame
The Milky Way, whofe ftream of vivid light,
Pour'd from innumerable fountains round,
Flows trembling, wave on wave, from fun to fan,
And whitens the long path to heaven's extreme;
Diftinguish'd tract! But as with upward flight,
Soaring, I gain th' immenfurable steep,
Contiguous ftars, in bright profusion sown
Through these wide fields, all broaden into suns,
Amazing, fever'd each by gulphs of air,
In circuit ample as the folar heavens.

Shot circling from its orb in fanguine showers
That, through the fhade of night, projecting
huge,

In horrid trail, a fpire of dufky flame,
Embody'd mifts and vapours, whofe fir'd mafs
Keen vibrates, ftreaming a red length of air.
While diftant orbs, with wonder and amaze,
Mark its approach, and night by night alarm'd
Its dreaded progrefs watch, as of a foe
Whofe march is ever fatal; in whofe train
Famine, and war, and defolating plague,
Each on his pale horfe rides; the minifters
Of angry heaven, to fcourge offending worlds!
But lo, where one, from foine far world
return'd,

Shines out with fudden glare through yonder sky,
Region of darkaefs, where a fun's loft globe,
Deep overwhelm'd with night, extinguifh'd lies,
By fome hid power attracted from his path,
Fearful commotion ! into that dusk tract,
The devious comet, fteep defcending, falls
With all his flames, rekindling into life
Th' exhaufted orb: and fwift a flood of light
Breaks forth diffufive through the gloom, and
fpreads

In orient ftreams to his fair train afar
Of moving fires, from night's dominion won,
And wondering at the morn's unhop'd return.

In fill amazement loft, th' awaken'd mind
Contemplates this great view, a fun reftor'd
With all his worlds! while thus at large her flight

From this dread eminence, where endless day, Ranges thefe untrac'd fcenes, progreffive borne

Day without cloud abides, alone and fill'd
With holy horror, trembling I survey

Now downward through the univerfal fphere
Already paft; now up to the heights untry'd,
And of th' enlarging profpect find no bound!
About me on each hand new wonders rife
In long fucceffion; here pure fcenes of light,
Dazzling the view; here namelei's worlds afar,
Yet undifcover'd: there a dying fur,
Grown dim with age, whose orb of flame extinct,
Incredible to tell! thick, vapoury mists,
From every thore exhaling, mix obfcure
Innumerable clouds, difpreading flow,
And deepening fhade on fhade; till the faint
globe,

Mournful of afpect, calls in all his beams,
Millions of lives, that live but in his light,
With horror fee, from diftant fpheres around,
The fource of day expire, and all his worlds
At once involv'd in everlasting night!

Such this dread revolution: heaven itself,
Subject to change, fo feels the wafte of years.
So this cerulian round, the work divine

Of God's own hand, fhall fade; and empty night
Reign folitary, where thefe ftars now roll
From west to eat their periods: where the train
Of comets wander their eccentric ways
With infinite excurfion, through th' immenfe -
Of ether, traversing from ikky to sky
Ten thoufand regions in their winding road,
Whofe length to trace imagination fails!
Various their paths; without resistance all
Through thefe free spaces borne: a various face;
Enkindled this with beams of angry light,

Far through ethereal ground, the boundless
walk

Of fpirits, daily travellers from heaven:
Who pafs the myftic gulph to journey here,
Searching th' Almighty Maker in his works
From worlds to worlds, and, in triumphant quire
Cf voice and harp, extolling his high praife,
Immortal natures! cloath'd with brightness
round,

Empyreal, from the fource of light effus'd,
More orient than the noon-day's ftainless beam,
Their will unerring; their affections pure,
And glowing fervent warmth of love divine,
Whofe object God alone: for all things elfe,
Created beauty, and created good,

Illufve all, can charm the foul no more.
Sublime their intellect, and without spot,
Enlarg'd to draw Truth's endleis prospect in,
Ineffable, eternity and time;

The train of beings, all by gradnal scale
Defcending, fumlefs orders and degrees;
Th'unfounded depth, which mortals dare not try,
Of God's perfections; how thefe heavens firft
From unprolific night; how mov'd and rul'd
fprung
In number, weight, and measure; what hid laws,
Inexplicable, guide the moral world.

Active as flame, with prompt obedience all
The will of heaven fulfil: fome his fierce wrath
Bear through the nations, peftilence and war:
His copious goodness fome, life, light, and blifs,
To thoufands. Some the fate of empires rule,
Commiffion'd, freltering with their guardian wings
The pious monarch, and the legal throne.

.

Nor is the fovereign, nor th' illuftrious great,
Alone their care. To every leffening rank
Of worth propitious, thefe bleft minds embrace
With univerfal love the juft and good,
Wherever found; unpriz'd, perhaps unknown,
Depret by fortune, and with hate pursued,
Or infult from the proud oppreffor's brow.
Yet dear to heaven, and meriting the watch
Of angel's o'er his unambitious walk,
At morn or eve, when Nature's faireft face,
Calmly magnificent, infpires the foul
With virtuous raptures, prompting to forfake
The in-born vanities, and low purfuits,
That bufy human kind; to view their ways
With pity; to repay, for numerous wrongs,
Meeknefs and charity. Or, rais'd aloft,
Fir'd with ethereal ardour, to furvey
The circuit of creation, all thefe funs

25

This little world, to all its fons fecure
Man's happiest life; the foul ferene and found
From paffion's rage, the body from disease.
Red on each cheek behold the rose of health;
Firm in each finew Vigor's pliant spring,
By temperance brac❜d to peril and to pain,
Amid the foods they item, or on the steep
Of upright rocks their ftraining steps furmount,
For food or partime. Thefe light up their morn,
And clofe their eve in flumbers tweetly deep,
Beneath the north, within the circling fwell
Of ocean's raging found. But last and beft,
What Avarice, what Ambition fhall not know,
True liberty is theirs, the heaven-fent guest, 36
Who in the cave, or on th' uncultur'd wild,
With Independence dwells; and Peace of mind,
In youth, in age, their fun that never fets.
Daughter of heaven and nature, deign thy aid,

With all their worlds: and ftill from height to Spontaneous Mufe! O whether from the depth height,

By things created rifing, laft afcend

Of evening foreft, brown with broadeft shade;"
Or from the brow fublime of vernal Alp.

To that Firt Caufe, who made, who governs all, As morning dawns; or from the vale at noon,

Fountain of being, felf-exiftent power,
All-wife, all-good, who from eternal age
Endures, and fills th' immenfity of space;
That infinite dintufion, where the mind
Conceives no limits; undistinguish'd void,
Invariable, where no land-marks are,
No paths to guide Imagination's fiight.

By fome fort ftream that flides with liquid foot
Through bowery groves, where Infpiration fits
And liftens to thy lore, aufpicious come!
O'er thefe wild waves, o'er this unharbour'd
fhore,.

Here, good Aurelius-and a fcene more wild
The world around, or deeper folitude,
Affliction could not find-Aurelius here,
By fate unequal and the crime of war
Expell'd his native home, the facred vale
That faw him bleft, now wretched and unknown,
Wore out to flow remains of fetting life
In bitterness of thought and with the furge,

60.

AR in the watery wafte, where his broad And with the founding ftorm, his murmur'd

FAR

wave

From world to world the vaft Atlantic rolls,
On from the piny fhores of Labrador
To frozen Thulé eaft, her airy height
Aloft to heaven remoteft Kilda lifts;
Laft of the fea-girt Hebrides, that guard,
In filial train, Britannia's parent-coast.
Thrice happy land! though freezing on the verge
Of arctic kies; yet, blamelefs ftill of arts
That polish to deprave, each fofter clime,
With fimple nature, fimple virtue bleft!
Beyond Ambition's walk: where never War
Uprear'd his fanguine ftandard; nor unfheath'd,
For wealth or power, the defolating fword.
Where Luxury, foft fyren, who around
To thoufand nations deals her nectar'd cup
Of pleasing bane, that foothes at once and kills,
name unknown. But calm content

Is yet

That lives to reafon ; ancient Faith that binds
The plain community of guilelefs hearts
In love and union; Innocence of ill

10

15

20

Their guardian genius: thefe, the powers that

rule VOL. VII,

Such were his hours; till Time, the wretch's friend,

90

Life's great phyfician, fkill'd alone to close,
Where forrow long has wak'd, the weeping eye,
And from the brain, with baleful vapours black,
Each fullen spectre chace, his balm at length,
Lenient of pain, through every fever'd pulfe
With gentleft hand infus'd, A penfive calm
Arofe, but unaffur'd: as, after winds
Of ruffling wing, the fea fubfiding flow
Still trembles from the ftorm. Now Reafon firft,
Her throne refuming, bid Devotion raise
To heaven his eye; and through the turbid mift,
By fenfe dark-drawn between, adoring own,
Sole arbiter of fate, one Caufe fupreme,
All-juft, all-wife, who bids what still is beft,
In cloud or fun-fhine; whofe fevereft hand
Wounds but to heal, and chaftens to amend.

95

Thus, in his bofom, every weak excefs,
The rage of grief, the fellnefs of revenge,
To healthful measure temper'd and reduc'd
By Virtue's hand; and in her brightening beam
Each error clear'd away, as fen-born fogs
Before th' afcending fun; through faith he lives
Beyond Time's bounded continent, the walks
Of Sin and Death. Anticipating heaven
In pious hope, he feems already there,
Safe on her facred fhore; and fees beyond,
In radiant view, the world of light and love,
Where Peace delights to dwell; where one fair

morn

Magnificently dreadful! where, at large,
Leviathan, with each inferior name

155

170

100 Of fea-born kinds, ten thousand thousand tribes,
Finds endless range for pafture and for fport, 160
Amaz'd he gazes, and adoring owns
The hand Almighty, who its channel'd bed
Immeasurable funk, and pour'd abroad,
Fenc'd with eternal mounds, the fluid sphere;
With every wind to waft large commerce on, 165
Join pole to pole, confociate fever'd worlds,
And link in bonds of intercourfe and love
Earth's univerfal family. Now rose
Sweet evening's folemn hour. The fun declin'd
Hung golden o'er this nether firmament;
Whofe broad cerulean mirror, calmly bright,
Gave back his beamy visage to the sky
With fplendor undiminish'd; and each cloud,
White, azure, purple, glowing round his throne
In fair aëreal landfcape. Here, alone
On earth's reinoteft verge, Aurelius breath'd
The healthful gale, and felt the fmiling icene
With awe-mix'd pleasure, mufing as he fung
In filence o'er the billows hufh'd beneath.
When lo! a found, amid the wave-worn rocks,
Deaf-murmuring rofe, and plaintive roll'd along
From cliff to cavern: as the breath of winds,
At twilight hour, remote and hollow heard
Through wintery pines, high-waving o'er the
steep

Still orient fmiles, and one diffufive spring,
That fears no ftorm, and fhall no winter know,
Th' immortal year empurples If a figh
Yet murmurs from his breaft; 'tis for the pangs
Those dearest names, a wife, a child muft feel,
Still fuffering in his fate: 'tis for a foe,
Who, deaf him felf to mercy, inay of heaven
That mercy, when moft wanted, ask in vain.

The fun, now ftation'd with the lucid Twins,
O'er every fouthern clime had pour'd profufe 120
The rofy year; and in each pleasing hue,
That greens the leaf, or through the bloffom
glows

With florid light, his faireft month array'd:
While Zephyre, while the filver-footed dews,
Her foft attendants, wide o'er field and grove 125
Fresh fpirit breathe, and fhed perfuming balm.
Nor here, in this chiil region, on the brow
Of winter's wafte dominion, is unfelt
The ray ethereal, or unhail'd the rife
Of her mild reign. From warbling vale and hill,
With wild-thyme flowering, betony, and balm,
Blue lavender and carmel's fpicy root,
Song, fragrance, health, ambrofiate every breeze.
But, high above, the feafon full exerts
Its vernal force in yonder peopled rocks,
To whofe wild folitude, from worlds unknown,
The birds of passage tranfmigrating come,
Unnumber'd colonies of foreign wing,
At Nature's fummons their aëreal ftate
Annual to found; and in bold voyage fteer, 140

135

Line 132. The root of this plant, otherwife named "argatilis fylvaticus, is aromatic; and by the natives reckoned cordial to the flomach. See Martin's Wefern Iles of Scotland, p. 180.

175

191

Of sky-crown'd Appennine. The Sea-pye ceas'd
At once to warble. Screaming, from his neft
The Fulmar foar'd, and shot a westward flight
From fhore to fea. On came, before her hour,
Invading night, and hung the troubled sky
With fearful blackness round*. Sad ocean's face
A curling undulation fhivery fwept
From wave to wave: and now impetuous rofe,
Thick cloud and ftorm and ruin on his wing,
The raging South, and headlong o'er the deep
Fell horrible, with broad-defcending blast.
Aloft, and safe beneath a fheltering cliff,
Whofe mofs-grown fummit on the diftant flood
Projected frowns, Aurelius ftood appall❜d:
His ftunn'd ear fmote with all the thundering
main!

195

His eye with mountains furging to the stars! 200
Commotion infinite. Where yon laft wave

* See Martin's voyage to St. Kilda, p. 58,

.

The 230