Where neighbouring hills fome cloudy sheet sustain,
Freez'd o'er the nether vale a penfile plain,
Crofs the roof'd hollow rolls the maffy round,
The crack'd ice rattles, and the rocks refound!
Cenfures, difputes, and laughs, alternate, rise;
And deafening clangor thunders up the skies.
Thus, amid crowded images, ferene,
From hour to hour we paff'd, from scene to scene:
Faft wore the night. Full long we pac'd our way: 55
Vain fteps! the city yet far diftant lay.
While thus the Hermit, ere my wonder spoke,
Methought, with new amufement, filence broke:
Yon amber-hued cafcade, which fleecy flies
Through rocks, and strays along the tracklefs fkies 60
To frolic fairies marks the mazy ring;
Forth to the dance from little cells they spring,
Measur'd to pipe or harp!—and next they fland,
Marshal'd beneath the moon, a radiant band!
In frost-work now delight the fportive kind:
Now court wild fancy in the whistling wind.
Hark! the funereal bell's deep-founding toll,
To blifs, from mifery, calls fome righteous foul!
Juft freed from life, life fwift-afcending fire,
Glorious it mounts, and gleams from yonder spire! 70
Light claps its wings!-it views, with pitying fight,
The friendly mourner pay the pious rite;
The plume high wrought, that blackening nods in air; The flow-pac'd weeping pomp; the folemn prayer; The decent tomb; the verfe, that Sorrow gives, 75 Where, to remembrance fweet, fair virtue lives.
Now to mid-heaven the whiten'd moon inclines,
And fhades contract, mark'd out in clearer lines;
With noiseless gloom the plains are delug'd o'er:
See!-from the north, what streaming meteors pour! 80
Beneath Bootes fprings the radiant train,
And quiver through the axle of his wain.
O'er altars thus, impainted, we behold
Half-circling glories fhoot in rays of gold.
Crofs æther fwift elance the vivid fires!
As fwift again each pointed flame retires !
In Fancy's eye encountering armies glare,
And fanguine enfigns wave unfurl'd in air!
Hence the weak vulgar deem impending fate,
A monarch ruin'd, or unpeopled ftate.
Thus comets, dreadful vifitants! arife
To them wild omens! fcience to the wife!
These mark the comet to the fun incline,
While deep-red flames around its centre fhine!
While its fierce rear a winding trail difplays,
And lights all æther with the fweepy blaze!
Or when, compell'd, it flies the torrid zone,
And shoots by worlds unnumber'd and unknown;
By worlds, whofe people, all-aghaft with fear,
May view that minifter of vengeance near!
Till now, the tranfient glow, remote and loft,
Decays, and darkens 'mid involving frost!
Or when it, fun-ward, drinks rich beams again,
And burns imperious on th'ætherial plain !
learn'd-one curious eyes it from afar,
ling through night, a new illuftrious star!
The moon, defcending, faw us now pursue The various talk:-the city near in view! Here from ftill-life (he cries) avert thy fight,
And mark what deeds adorn, or fhame the night! 110 But, heedful, each immodest prospect fly;
Where decency forbids enquiry's eye.
Man were not man, without love's wanton fire,
But reafon's glory is to quell defire.
What are thy fruits, O Luft? Short bleffings, bought With long remorfe, the feed of bitter thought; Perhaps fome babe to dire difeafes born,
Doom'd for another's crimes, through life, to mourn;
Or murder'd, to preferve a mother's fame;
Or caft obfcure; the child of want and fhame!
Falfe pride! What vices on our condu& steal,
From the world's eye one frailty to conceal!
Ye cruel mothers!-Soft! thofe words command;
So near fall cruelty, and mother stand?
Can the dove's bofom fnakey venom draw?
Can its foot fharpen, like the vulture's claw?
Can the fond goat, or tender, fleecy dam
Howl, like the wolf, to tear the kid, or lamb?
Yes, there are mothers-There I fear'd his aim,
And, confcious, trembled at the coming name;
Then, with a figh, his issuing words oppos'd!
Straight with a falling tear the fpeech he clos'd.
That tenderness, which ties of blood deny,
Nature repaid me from a ftranger's eye.
Pale grew my cheeks! -But now to general views 135
which thus my friend renews.
Yon mansion, made by beaming tapers gay,
Drowns the dim night, and counterfeits the day.
From lumin'd windows glancing on the eye,
Around, athwart, the frisking shadows fly.
There midnight riot spreads illufive joys,
And fortune, health, and dearer time destroys.
Soon death's dark agent to luxuriant cafe,
Shall wake sharp warnings in fome fierce disease.
O man thy fabric's like a well-form'd ftate;
Thy thoughts, first rank'd, were fure defign'd the great;
Paffions plebians are, which faction raise;
Wine, like pour'd oil, excites the raging blaze:
Then giddy anarchy's rude triumphs rife :
Then fovereign reafon from her empire flies:
That ruler once depos'd, wisdom and wit,
To noife and folly, place and power submit;
Like a frail bark thy weaken'd mind is toft,
Unfteer'd, unbalanc'd, till its wealth is loft.
The mifer-spirit eyes the spendthrift heir,
And mourns, too late, effects of fordid care.
His treasures fly to cloy each fawning flave;
Yet grudge a stone to dignify his grave.
For this, low-thoughted craft his life employ'd;
For this, though wealthy, he no wealth enjoy'd; 160
For this, he grip'd the poor, and alms deny'd,
Unfriended liv'd, and unlamented died.
Yet smile, griev'd shade! when that unprofperous store
Faft-leffens, when gay hours return no more;
Smile at thy heir, beholding, in his fall,
Men once oblig'd, like Him, ungrateful all!
Then thought-infpiring woe his heart fhall mend,
And prove his only wife, unflattering friend.
Folly exhibits thus unmanly fport,
While plotting Mischief keeps referv'd her court. 170
Lo! from that mount, in blafting fulphur broke,
Stream flames voluminous, enwrapp'd with smoke!
In chariot-shape they whirl up yonder tower,
Lean on its brow, and like destruction lower !
From the black depth a fiery legion springs;
Each bold, bad spectre claps her founding wings:
And straight beneath a summon'd, traiterous band,
On horror bent, in dark convention stand:
From each fiend's mouth a ruddy vapour flows,
Glides through the roof, and o'er the council glows: 180
The villains, close beneath th' infection pent,
Feel, all-poffefs'd, their rifing galls ferment;
And burn with faction, hate, and vengeful ire,
For rapine, blood, and devastation dire!
But Juftice marks their ways: she waves, in air, 185
The fword, high-threatening, like a comet's glare.
While here dark Villainy herself deceives,
There ftudious Honesty our view relieves.
A feeble taper, from yon lonesome room,
Scattering thin rays, juft glimmers through the gloom.
There fits the fapient BARD in museful mood,
And glows impaffion'd for his country's good!
All the bright spirits of the juft, combin'd,
Inform, refine, and prompt his towering mind!
He takes the gifted quill from hands divine,
Around his temples rays refulgent shine!
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