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
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,
AR in the watery wafte, where his broad And with the founding ftorm, his murmur'd
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
That lives to reafon ; ancient Faith that binds The plain community of guilelefs hearts In love and union; Innocence of ill
Their guardian genius: thefe, the powers that
Such were his hours; till Time, the wretch's friend,
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.
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
Magnificently dreadful! where, at large, Leviathan, with each inferior name
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
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.
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!
His eye with mountains furging to the stars! 200 Commotion infinite. Where yon laft wave
* See Martin's voyage to St. Kilda, p. 58,
Blends with the fky its foam, a ship in view Shoots fudden forth, fteep-falling from the clouds :
Yet diftant feen and dim, till, onward borne Before the blast, each growing fail expands, 205 Each maft afpires, and all th' advancing frame Bounds on his eye distinct. With fharpen'd ken Its courfe he watclies, and in awful thought That power invokes, whofe voice the wild winds hear,
Whofe nod the furge reveres, to look from heaven, And fave, who elfe muft perifh, wretched men, In this dark hour, amis the dread abyfs, With fears amaz'd, by horrors compafs'd round. But O, ill-omen'd, death-devoted heads! For death beftrides the billow, nor your own, 215 Nor others' offer'd vows can ftay the flight Of inftant fate. And, lo! his fecret feat, Where never fun-beam glimmer'd, deep amidst A cavern's jaws voraginous and vaft, The tormy Genius of the deep forlakes: And o'er the waves, that roar beneath his frown, Afcending baleful, bids the tempest spread, Turbid and terrible with hail and rain, Its blacket pinion, pour its loudening blasts In whirlwind forth, and from their loweft depth Upturn the world of waters. Round and round The tortur'd hip, at his imperious call,
He lay. The living luftre from his eye, The vermil hue extinguifh'd from his cheek: And in their place, on each chill feature fpread, The fhadowy cloud and ghaftliness of death With pale fuffufion fat. So looks the moon, 265 So faintly wan, through hovering mists at eve, Grey autumn's train. Faft from his hairs dif- till'd
The briny wave: and close within his grafp Was clench'd a broken oar, as one who long Had ftein'd the flood with agonizing breast, 270 And ftruggled ftrong for life. Of youthful prime
He feem'd, and built by Nature's nobleft hand; Where bold proportion,, and where foftening grace,
Mix'd in each limb, and harmoniz'd his frame.
Aurelius, from the breathlefs clay, his eye 275 To heaven imploring rais'd: then, for he knew That life, within her central cell retir'd, May lurk unfeen, dimini'd but not quench'd, He bid tranfport it speedy through the vale, To his poor cell that lonely ftood and low, Safe from the north beneath a floping hill: An antique frame, orbicular, and rais'd On columns rude; its roof with reverend mofs Light-fhaded o'er; its front in ivy hid,
That mantling crept aloft. With pious hand 285 They turn'd, they chaf 'd his frozen limbs, and fum'd
Is wheel'd in dizzy whirl: her guiding helm Breaks fhort ; her mafts in crathing ruin fall ; And each rent fail flies loofe in distant air. Now, fearful moment! o'er the foundering hull, Half ocean heav'd, in one broad billowy curve, Steep from the clounds with horrid fhade im- pends-
Ah! fave them, heaven! it burfts in deluge down With boundless undulation. Shore and fky Rebellow to the roar. At once engulph'd, Veffel and crew beneath its torrent sweep Are funk, to rife no more. Aurelius wept: The tear unbidden dew'd his hoary cheek. He turn'd his step; he fled the fatal scene, And brooding, in fad filence, o'er the fight To him alone difclos'd, his wounded heart Pour'd out to heaven in fighs: Thy will be done, Not mine, fupreme Difpofer of Events ! But death demands a tear, and man must feel 245 For human woes: the reft fubmiffion checks.
vapoury air with aromatic fmells: Then, drops of fovereign efficacy, drawn From mountain plants, within his lips infus'd. Slow, from the mortal trance, as men from dreams
Of direful vision, shuddering he awakes: While life, to scarce-relt motion, faintly lifts His fluttering pulse, and gradual o'er his cheek The rofy current wins its refluent way. Recovering to new pain, his eyes he turn'd 295. Severe on heaven, on the furrounding hills With twilight dim, and on the croud unknown Diffolv'd in tears around; then clos'd again, As loathing light and life. At length, in founds Broken and eager, from his heaving breaft 300 Distraction fpoke-Down, down with every fail. Mercy, weet heaven!-Ha! now whole ocean fweeps
In tempest o'er our heads-My foul's laft hope! We will not part-Help, help! yon' wave, be hold!
That fwells betwixt, has borne her from my fight.
O, for a fun to light this black abyss! Gone-loft-for ever loft! He ceas'd. Amaze And trembling on the pale affiftants fell: Whom now, with greeting and the words of
The facred filenee due to grief fupreme. Then thus at laft. O from devouri ng feas, By miracle efcap'd! if, with thy life, Thy fenfe return'd, can yet difcern the Hand All-wonderful, that through yon raging fea, Yon whirling weft of tempeft, led thee fafe; That Hand divine with grateful awe confess, With profirate thanks adore. When thou, alas! Waft number'd with the dead, and clos'd within Th' unfathom'd gulph; when human hope was filed, 325
And human help in vain-th' Almighty Voice, Then bade deftruction fpare, and bade the deep Yield up its prey that, by his mercy fav'd, That mercy, thy fair life's remaining race, A monument of wonder as of love, May juftify; to all the fons of men, Thy brethren, ever prefent in their need. Such praife delights him moft-
He bears me not. Some fecret anguifh, fome tranfcendent woe, 335 Sits heavy on his heart, and from his eyes, Through the clos'd lids, now rolls in bitter
Yet, fpeak thy foul, afflicted as thou art! For knew, by mournful privilege 'tis mine, Myfelf moft wretched and in forrow's ways Severely train'd, to fhare in every pang The wretched feel; to foothe the fad of heart; To number tear for tear, and groan for groan, With every fon and daughter of diftrefs. Speak then, and give thy labouring bofom vent: My pity is, my friendship fhall be, thine; To calm thy pain, and guide thy virtue back, Through reafon's paths, to happiness and heaven. The hermit thus; and, after fome fad paufe Of mufing wonder, thus the Man unknown. 350 What have I heard?-On this untravel'd fhore, Nature's laft limit, bemm'd with oceans round Howling and harbourlefs, beyond all faith A comforter to find! whofe language wears The garb of civil life; a friend, whose breaft The gracious meltings of fweet pity move! Amazement all! my grief to filence charm'd Is loft in wonder-But, thou good unknown, If woes, for ever wedded to defpair, That with no cure, are thine, behold in me 360 A meet companion ; One whom earth and heaven Combine to curfe; whom never future morn Shall light to joy, nor evenin with repofe Defcending fhade-, fon of this wild world! From focial converse though for ever barr'd, 365 Though chill'd with endlefs winter from the pole, Yet warm'd by goodness, form'd to tender fenfe Of human woes, beyond what milder climes, By fairer funs attemper'd, courtly boaft; O fay, did, e'er thy breaft, in youthful life, Touch'd by a beam from Beauty all-divine, Did e'er thy bofom her sweet influence own, In pleafing tumult pour'd through every vein, And panting at the heart, when firft our eye Receives impreffion! Then, as paffion grew, 375 Did heaven confenting to thy with indulge
That blifs no wealth can bribe, no power bestow,
That blifs of angels, love by love repaid? Heart ftreaming full to heart in mutual flow Of faith and friendfrip, tenderness and truth- If these thy fate diftingui 'd, thou wilt then, My joys conceiving, image my defpair, How total! how extreme! For this, all this, Late my fair fortune, wreck'd on yonder flood, Lies loft and bury'd there--O, awful heaven! Who to the wind and to the whelming wave Her blameless head devoted, thou alone Can't tell what I have loft-0, ill-ftarr'd maid! O, most undone Amynter!-Sighs and tears, And heart-heav'd groan, at this, his voice fup- prefs'd:
The reft was agory and dumb defpair.
Now o'er their heads damp night her ftormy gloom
Spread, ere the glimmering twilight was expir'd,
With huge and heavy horror clofing round In doubling clouds on clouds. The mournful fcene,
The moving tale, Aurelius deeply felt: And thus reply'd, as one in Nature kill'd, With foft aflenting forrow in his look, And words to foothe, not combat hopeless love. Amyntor, by that heaven who fees thy tears! By faith and friendship's fympathy divine! Could I the forrows heal I more than fare, This Lofom, trust me, fheuld from thine transfer Its fharpeft grief. Such grief, alas! how juft? How long in filent anguish to defcend, When reason and when fondnefs o'er the tomb Are fellow-mourners? He, who can refign, Has never lov'd: and wert thou to the fenfe, The facred feeling of a lofs like thine, Cold and infenfible, thy breaft were then No manfon for humanity, or thought Of noble aim. Their dwelling is with love, And tender pity; whofe kind tears adorns The clouded cheek, and fan&tifies the foul They foften, not fubdue. We both will mix, 415 For her thy virtue lov'd, thy truth laments, Our focial fighs and fill, as morn unveils The brightening hill, or evening's mify fhade Its brow obfcures, her gracefulness of form, Her mind all-lovely, each ennobling each, 420 Shall be our frequent theme. Then shalt thou hear
From me, in fad return, a tale of wces, So terrible-Amyntor, thy pain'd heart Amid its own, will fhudder at the ills That mine has bled with-But behold! the dark And drowsy hour steals fast upon our talk. Here break we off: and thou, fad mourner, try Thy weary limbs, thy wounded mind, to balm With timely fleep. Each gracious wing from heaven
Of thofe that minister to erring man, Near-hovering, hufh thy paffion into calm; Serene thy flumbers with prefented fcenes Of brightest vifions; whisper to thy heart That holy peace which goodnefs ever fhares : And to us both be friendly as we need,
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