"Heirs of eternity! yborn to rise

"Through endless states of being, still more near "To bliss approaching, and perfection clear, "Can you renounce a fortune so sublime,

"Such glorious hopes, your backward steps to fteer, "And roll, with-viieft brutes, through mud and flime! "No! no! Your heaven-touch'd hearts disdain the "fordid crime !"

LXII.

Enough! enough!" they cry'd-strait, from the
croud,

The better fort on wings of transport fly.
As when amid the lifeless fummits proud
Of Alpine cliffs, where to the gelid fky.
Snows pil'd on fnows in wintry torpor ly,
The rays divine of vernal Phoebus play;
Th' awaken'd heaps, in streamlets from on high,
Rouz'd into action, lively leap away,

Glad-warbling through the vales, in their new Being

gay.

LXIII.

Not lefs the life, the vivid joy ferene,

That lighted up these new-created men,

Than that which wings th' exulting spirit clean, When, just deliver'd from this fleshly den,

It foaring feeks its native skies agen.

How light its effence! how unclogg'd its powers, Beyond the blazon of my mortal pen!

Even so we glad forfook these finful bowers,
Even fuch enraptur'd life, fuch energy was ours.
LXIV.

But far the greater part, with rage enflam'd,
Dire-mutter'd curfes, and blafphem'd high Jove.

"Ye

"Ye fons of hate! (they bitterly exclaim'd),
"What brought you to this feat of peace and love?
"While with kind nature, here amid the grove,
"We pass'd the harmless fabbath of our time,
"What to disturb it could, fell men, emove
"Your barbarous hearts? Is happiness a crime?
Then do the fiends of hell rule in yon heaven fublime.
LXV.

"Ye'impious wretches, (quoth the knight in wrath),
"Your happiness behold!"—Then strait a wand`
He wav'd, an anti-magic power that hath,
Truth from illufive falfhood to command.
Sudden, the landscape finks on every hand;
The pure quick streams are marshy puddles found;
On baleful heaths the groves all blacken'd stand;
And, o'er the weedy foul abhorred ground,

Snakes, adders, toads, each loathsome creature crawls around.

LXVI.

And here and there, on trees by lightning scath'd,
Unhappy wights who loathed life yhung:

Or, in fresh gore and recent murder bath'd,
They weltering lay; or elfe, infuriate flung
Into the gloomy flood, while ravens fung

The funeral dirge, they down the torrent rowl'd:
These, by distemper'd blood to madness ftung,
Had doom'd themselves; whence oft, when night
controul'd

The world, returning hither their fad fpirits howl'd.
LXVII.

Mean-time a moving fcene was open laid;
That lazar-houfe, 1 whilom in my lay
Depeinted have, its horrors deep-display'd,
And gave unnumber'd wretches to the day,

Who

Who toffing there in fqualid mifery lay.
Soon as of facred light th' unwonted smile
Pour'd on thefe living catacombs its ray,

Through the drear caverns stretching many a mile, The fick up-rais'd their heads, and dropp'd their woes a while.

LXVIII.

"O heaven! (they cry'd), and do we once more fee "Yon blessed fun, and this green-earth so fair? "Are we from noisome damps of pest-house free? "And drink our fouls the sweet ethereal air? “O thou! or Knight, or God! who holdest there "That fiend, oh keep him in eternal chains! But what for us, the children of despair,

"Brought to the brink of hell, what hope remains? "Repentance does itself but aggravate our pains.” LXIX.

The gentle Knight, who saw their rueful cafe,
'Let fall adown his filver beard some tears.
"Certes (quoth he) it is not even in grace

T'undo the past, and eke your broken years: .66 Nathless, to nobler worlds repentance rears, "With humble hope, her eye; to her is given "A power the truly contrite heart that chears; "She quells the brand by which the rocks are riven; "She more than merely softens, she rejoices HEAVEN. LXX.

"Then patient bear the fufferings you have earn'd, "And by thefe fufferings purify the mind; "Let wisdom be by past miscondu&t learn'd ; "Or pious die, with penitence refign d'; "And to a life more happy and refin'd, "Doubt not, you fhall, new creatures, yet arife. "Till then, you may expect in me to find

"One

**One who will wipe your forrow from your eyes, One who will foothe your pangs, and wing you to the skies."

LXXI.

They filent heard, and pour'd their thanks in tears. "For you (refum'd the Knight with sterner tone) "Whofe hard dry hearts th' obdurate demon fears,

That villain's gifts will cost you many a groan`; "In dolorous mansion long you must bemoan "His fatal charms, and weep your stains away; "Till, foft and pure as infant-goodness grown, "You feel a perfect change i then, who can say, "What grace may yet shine forth in heaven's eternal day?”

LXXII.

This faid, his powerful wand he wav'd anew;
Inftant, a glorious angel-train defcends,
The Charities, to wit, of rofy hue;

Sweet love their looks á gentle radiance lends,
And with feraphic flame compaffion blends.
At once, delighted, to their charge they fly:
When, lo! a goodly hofpital afcends;

In which they bade each lenient aid-be nigh, That could the fick-bed smoothe of that fad company. *LXXIII.

It was a worthy edifying fight,:

And gives to human kind peculiar grace,
To fee kind hands attending day and night,
With tender ministry, from place to place.
Some prop the head; fome, from the pallid face
Wipe off the faint cold dews weak nature sheds ;
Some reach the healing draught: the whilft, to chafe
The fear fupreme, around their soften'd beds,

Some holy man by prayer all opening heaven difpreds.
VOL. I.
LXXIV. Attended

Nn

LXXIV.

Attended by a glad acclaiming train,
Of those he refcu'd had from gaping hell,
Then turn'd the Knight; and, to his hall again
Soft-pacing, fought of Peace the moffy cell:
Yet down his cheeks the gems of pity fell,
To fee the helpless wretches that remain❜d,

There left through delves and desarts dire to yell; Amaz'd, their looks with pale dismay were ftain'd, And spreading wide their hands they meek repentance feign'd.

LXXV.

But, ah! their scorned day of grace was past:
For (horrible to tell !) a defart wild

Before them stretch'd, bare, comfortless, and vast ;
With gibbets, bones, and carcafes defil'd.
There nor trim field, nor lively culture smil'd ;
Nor waving shade was feen, nor fountain fair;
But fands abrupt on fands lay loosely pil'd,

Through which they floundering toil'd with painful

care,

Whilft Phoebus fmote them fore, and fir'd the cloudless

air.

LXXVI.

Then, varying to a joyless land of bogs,
The fadden'd country a grey waste appear'd;
Where nought but putrid ftreams and noisome fogs
For ever hung on drizzly Auster's beard;
Or elfe the ground by piercing Caurus fear'd,
Was jagg'd with frost, or heap'd with glazed fnow:
Through these extremesa ceaseless round they fteer'd,
By cruel fiends still hurry'd to and fro,

Gaunt Beggary, and Scorn, with many hell-hounds

moe.

LXXVII. The