The doom'd defert, to avarice stands confess'd;
Her eyes averted are, and steel'd her breast.
Envy afquint the future wonder eyes:
Bold Infult, pointing, hoots him as he flies;
While coward Cenfure, fkill'd in darker ways,
Hints fure detraction in diffembled praise!
Hunger, thirst, nakedness, there grievous fall!
Unjuft derision too!- that tongue of gall!
Slow comes Relief, with no mild charms endued, 235
Ufher'd by Pride, and by Reproach purfued.
Forc'd Pity meets him with a cold respect,
Unkind as Scorn, ungenerous as Neglect.
Yet, fuffering Worth! thy fortitude will fhine:
Thy foes are Virtue's, and her friends are thine! 240
Patience is thine, and Peace thy days fhall crown;
Thy treasure Prudence, and thy claim Renown:
Myriads, unborn, fhall mourn thy hapless fate,
And myriads grow, by thy example, great!
Hark! from the watch-tower rolls the trumpet's found,
Sweet through ftill night, proclaiming safety round!
Yon fhade illuftrious quits the realms of rest,
To aid fome orphan of its race diftreft,
Safe winds him through the fubterraneous way,
That mines yon manfion, grown with ruin grey, 250
And marks the wealthy, unfufpected ground,
Where, green with ruft, long-buried coins abound.
This plaintive ghost, from earth when newly fled,
Saw thofe, the living trufted, wrong the dead;
He faw, by fraud abus'd, the lifeless hand
Sign the false deed that alienates his land;
Heard, on his fame, injurious cenfure thrown,
And mourn'd the beggar'd orphan's bitter groan.
Commiffion'd now the falfehood he reveals,
To juftice foon th' enabled heir appeals;
Soon, by his wealth, are coftly pleas maintain'd,
And, by difcover'd truth, loft right regain'd.
But why (may fome enquire) why kind fuccefs,
Since mystic heaven gives mifery oft to bless?
Though mifery leads to happiness and truth,
Unequal to the load, this languid youth,
Unftrengthen'd virtue scarce his bofom fir'd,
And fearful from his growing wants retir'd.
Oh, let not cenfure, if (untried by grief,
If, amidst woe, untempted by relief,)
He stoop'd reluctant to low arts of shame,
Which then, ev'n then he fcorn'd, and blush'd to name. Heaven fees, and makes th' imperfect worth its care, And chears the trembling heart, unform'd to bear, Now rifing fortune elevates his mind,
He shines unclouded, and adorns mankind.
So in fome engine, that denies a vent,
If unrefpiring is fome creature pent,
It fickens, droops, and pants, and gafps for breath,
Sad o'er the fight swim fhadowy mifts of death; 280
If then kind air pours powerful in again,'
New heats, new pulfes quicken every vein ;
From the clear'd, lifted, life-rekindled eye,
Difpers'd, the dark and dampy vapours fly.
From trembling tombs the ghofts of greatness rife, 285 And o'er their bodies hang with wiftful eyes;
Or difcontented stalk, and mix their howls
With howling wolves, their screams with fcreaming owls.
The interval 'twixt night and morn is nigh,
Winter more nitrous chills the fhadow'd sky.
Springs with foft heats no more give borders green,
Nor fmoaking breathe along the whiten'd scene;
While steamy currents, fweet in profpect, charm
Like veins blue-winding on a fair-one's arm.
Now Sleep to Fancy parts with half his power 295
And broken flumbers drag the restless hour.
The murder'd feems alive, and ghaftly glares,
And in dire dreams the confcious murderer fcares,
Shews the yet-fpouting wound, th' enfanguin'd floor,
The walls yet-fmoaking with the spatter'd gore; 300
Or fhrieks to dozing justice, and reveals
The deed, which fraudful art from day conceals;
The delve obscene, where no fufpicion pries,
Where the disfigur'd corse unshrouded lies;
The fure, the striking proof, so strong maintain'd, 305
Pale guilt starts felf-convicted, when arraign'd.
Thefe fpirits treafon of its power divest,
And turn the peril from the patriot's breast.
Those folemn thought inspire, or bright defcend
To snatch in vision fweet the dying friend.
But we deceive the gloom, the matin bell
Summons to prayer!-Now breaks th'inchanter's fpell!
And now-But yon fair spirit's form furvey!
'Tis fhe!-Olympia beckons me away!
I hafte!I fly!-adeu!-and when you fee
The youth who bleeds with fondness, think on me :
Tell him my tale, and be his pain carest ;
By love I tortur'd was, by love I'm bleft.
When worship'd woman we entranc'd behold,
We praife the Maker in his fairest mould;
The pride of nature, harmony combin'd,
And light immortal to the foul refin'd!
Depriv'd of charming woman, foon we mifs
The prize of friendship, and the life of blifs!
Still through the fhades Olympia dawning breaks! 325 What bloom, what brightness lufters o'er her cheeks! Again he calls!-I dare no longer stay!
A kind farewell-Olympia, I obey.
He turn'd, nor longer in my fight remain'd; The mountain he, I fafe the city gain'd.
TILL o'er my mind wild Fancy holds her fway,
Still on ftrange, vifionary land I ftray..
Now fcenes crowd thick! now indiftinct appear!
Swift glide the months, and turn the varying year!
Near the Bull's horn light's rifing monarch draws; 5
Now on its back the Pleiades he thaws!
From vernal heat pale winter forc'd to fly,
Northward retires, yet turns a watery eye;
Then with an aguish breath nips infant blooms,
Deprives unfolding fpring of rich perfumes,
Shakes the flow-circling blood of human race,
And in sharp, livid looks contracts the face.
Now o'er Norwegian hills he ftrides away:
Such flippery paths Ambition's fteps betray.
Turning, with fighs, far fpiral firs he fees,
Which bow obedient to the fouthern breeze.
Now from yon Zemblan rock his crest he shrouds,
Like Fame's, obfcur'd amid the whitening clouds;
Thence his loft empire is with tears deplor'd:
Such tyrants fhed o'er liberty reftor'd.
Beneath his eye (that throws malignant light
Ten times the meafur'd round of mortal fight)
A wafte, pale glimmering, like a moon, that wanes
A wild expanse of frozen fea contains.
It cracks!-vaft floating mountains beat the fhore! 25 Far off he hears thofe icy ruins roar,
And from the hideous crash distracted flies,
Like one, who feels his dying infant's cries.
Near, and more near the rushing torrents found,
And one great rift runs through the vaft profound, 30
Swift as a fhooting meteor; groaning loud,
Like deep-roll'd thunder through a rending cloud.
The late dark Pole now feels unfetting day :
In hurricanes of wrath he whirls his way;
O'er many a polar Alp to Froft he goes,
O'er crackling vales, embrown'd with melting fnows:
Here bears stalk tenants of the barren space,
Few men, unfocial those!-a barbarous race!
At length the cave appears! the race is run:
How he recounts vaft conquests loft and won,
And taleful in th' embrace of Frost remains,
Barr'd from our climes, and bound in icy chains.
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