The tract forgot where conftellations fhone, Or where the Stuarts fill'd an awful throne: Time fhall be flain, all Nature be destroy'd, Nor leave an atom in the mighty void.

70

75

80

Sooner, or later, in fome future date, (A dreadful fecret in the book of fate !) This hour, for aught all human wifdom knows, Or when ten thoufand harvefts more have rose ; When scenes are chang'd on this revolving earth, Old empires fall, and give new empires birth; While other Bourbons rule in other lands And (if man's fin forbids not; other Annes; While fill the bufy world is treading o'er The paths they trod five thousand years before, Thoughlefs as thofe who now life's mazes run, Of earth diffolv'd, or an extinguish'd fun ; (Ye fublunary worlds, awake, awake! Ye rulers of the nation, hear, and shake) Thick clouds of darknefs fhall arife on day; In fudden night all earth's dominions lay; Impetuous winds the fcatter'd forefts rend; Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend; The valleys yawn, the troubled ocean roar, And break the bondage of his wonted fhore; A fanguine ftain the filver moon o'erspread; Darknefs the circle of the fun invade; From innoft heaven inceffant thunders roll, And the ftrong echo bound from pole to pole, When, lo, a mighty trump, one half conceal'd In clouds, one half to mortal eye reveal'd, Shall pour a dreadful note: the piercing call 95 Shall rattle in the centre of the ball; 'Th' extended circuit of creation shake, The living die with fear, the dead awake.

vain!

99

100

Oh powerful blaft! to which no equal found Did e'er the frighted car of nature wound, Though rival clarions have been ftrain'd on high, And kindled wars immortal through the sky, Though God's whole eng.nery difcharg'd, and all The rebel angels bellow'd in their fall.

Have angels finn'd? and fhall not man beware ?

110

How fhall a fon of earth decline the fnare?
Not folded arms, and flackness of the mind,
Can promife for the fafety of mankind:
None are fupinely good: through care and pain,
And various arts, the fleep afcent we gain.
This is the fcene of combat, not the reft,
Man's is laborious happinefs at best;
On this fide death his dangers never cease,
His joys are joys of conqueft, not of peace.
If then, obfequious to the will of fate,
And bending to the terms of human ftate,
When guilty joys invite us to their arms,
When beauty files, or grandcur fpreads her
charms,

Ah mournful turn! the blissful earth, who late
At leisure on her axle roll d in state;
While thoufand golden planets knew no rest,
Still onward in their circling journey preft;
A gratefui change of feafons fome to bring,
And fweet viciflitude of fall and spring:
Some through vaft oceans to conduct the keel, 155
And fome thofe watery worlds to fink, or fweil :
Around her fome their splendors to display,
And gild her globe with tributary day :
This world fo great, of joy the bright abode,
Heaven's darling child, and favourite of her God,
Now locks an exile from her Father's care,
Deliver d o'er to darkness and defpair.
No fun in radiant glory fhines on high:
No light, but from the terrors of the sky:
Fall'n are her mountains, her fam'd rivers loft, 165
And all into a fecond chaos toft :

One univerfal ruin fpreads abroad:
Nothing is fafe beuea h the throne of God,

161

Such, earth, thy fate what then canst thou

afford

170

175

180

Thou,

Thou, who for me, through every throbbing vein, 185

Haft felt the keenest edge of mortal pain;
Whom death led captive through the realms
below,

And taught thofe horrid mysteries of woe;
Defend me, O my God! Oh fave me, Power
Of powers fupreme, in that tremendous hour!
From east to west they fly, from pole to
line,

191

Imploring fhelter from the wrath divine;
Beg flames to wrap, or whelming feas to fweep,
Or rocks to yawn, compaffionately deep:
Seas caft the monfter forth to meet his doom, 195
And rocks but prifon up for wrath to come.

So fares a traitor to an earthly crown;
While death fits threatening in his prince's frown,
His heart's difmay'd; and now his fears com-
mand,

To change his native for a distant land :
Swift orders fly, the king's fevere decree
Stands in the channel and locks up the fea;
The port he feeks, obedient to her lord,
Hurls back the rebel to his lifted fword.

200

205

But why this idle toil to paint that day? This time elaborately thrown away? Words all in vain pant after the diftrefs, The height of eloquence would make it lefs; Heavens! how the good man trembles !And is there a Laft Day? and must there

A fure, a fix'd, inexorable doom?
Ambition fwell, and, thy proud fails to fhow,
Take all the winds that Vanity can blow:
Wealth on a golden mountain blazing ftand,
And reach an India forth in either hand;
Spread all thy purple clusters, tempting vine,
And thou, more dreaded foe, bright beauty,
fhine;

Shine all; in all your charns together rife;
That all, in all your charms, I may defpife,
While I mount upward on a strong defire,
Borne, like Elijah, in a car on fire.

215

220

225

In hopes of glory to be quite involv'd! To fmile at death! to long to be diffolv'd! From our decays a pleasure to receive! And kindie into tranfport at a grave! What equals this? And fhall the victor now Boaft the proud laurels on his loaded brow? Religion! Oh thou cherub, heavenly bright! Oh joys unmix'd, and fathomlefs delight! Thou, Thou art all; nor find thy in the whole Creation aught, but God and my own foul. 231 For ever then, my foul, thy God adore, Nor let the brute creation praife him more. Shall things inanimate my conduct blame, And flush my confcious check with fpreading fhame?

235

They all for him purfuc, or quit, their end; The mounting flames their burning power fuf. pend;

In folid heaps th' unfrozen billows stand,
To reft and filence aw'd by his command:
Nay, the dire monsters that infeft the flood,
By nature dreadful, and athirst for blood,

240

His will can calm, their favage tempers bind,
And turn to mild protectors of mankind.
Did not the prophet this great truth maintain
In the deep chambers of the gloomy main; 245
When darkness round him all her horrors spread,
And the loud occan bel'ow'd o'er his head?

When now the thunder roars, the lightening flies,

And all the warring winds tumultuous rife ;
When now the foaming furges, toft on high, 250
Difclofe the fands beneath, and touch the fky;
When death draws near, the mariners aghaft
Look back with terror on their actions paft;
Their courage fickens into deep difmay,
Their hearts, through fear and anguifh, melt
255

away;

Nor tears, nor prayers, the tempeft can appeale; Now they devote their treasure to the feas; Unload their fhater'd barque, though richly fraught,

And think the hopes of life are cheaply bought With gems and gold; but oh, the storm fo high! Nor gems nor gold the hopes of life can buy. 261 The trembling prophet then, themselves to fave,

270

They headlong plunge into the briny wave;
Down he defcends, and, booming o'er his head,
The billows clofe; he's number d with the dead.
(Hear, Oye juft! attend, ye virtuous few! 265
And the bright paths of piety purfue)
Lo! the great Ruler of the world, from high,
Looks fmiling down with a propitious eye,
Covers his fervant with his gracious hand,
And bids tempestuous nature filent ftand;
Commands the peaceful waters to give place,
Or kindly fold him in a foft embrace:
He bridles-in the monfters of the deep:
The bridled monsters awful diflance keep:
Forget their hunger, while they view their prey;
And guiltiefs gaze, and round the stranger play.
Eut ftill arife new wonders; nature's Lord
Sends forth into the deep his powerful word,
And calls the great leviathan: the great
Leviathan attends in all his flate;

Exults for joy, and, with a mighty bound,

275

285

Makes the fea fhake, and leav'n and earth re

found;

air

Blackens the waters with the rifing find,
And drives vaft billows to the distant land. 285
As yawns an earthquake, when imprifon'd
Struggles for vent, and lays the centre bare,
The whale expands his jaws enormous fize;
The prophet views the cavern with furprize:
Meatures his monfrous tecth, afar defcry'd, 290
And rolls his wondering eyes from fide to fide;
1hen takes poffeflion of the spacious feat,
And fails fecure within the dark retreat.

Now is he pleas'd the northern biaft to hear,
And hangs on liquid mountains, void of ear; 195
Or falls immers'd into the depths below;
here the dead filent waters never flow;
To the foundations of the hills convey'd,
Dwells in the shelving mountain's dreadful fhade;
Where

N

The LAST DAY.

BOOK IL

306

We hope, that the departed will rife "again from the dut: after which, like "the Gods, they will be immortal."

PHOCYL.

OW Man awakes, and from his filent bed,
Where he has flept for ages, lifts his head,
Shakes off the flumber of ten thousand years,
And on the borders of new worlds appears.
Whate'er the bold, the rafh, adventure coft,
In wide Eternity I dare be loft.

The Mufe is wont in narrow bounds to fing,
To teach the frain, or celebrate the king.

I grafp the whole, no more to parts confin'd,

I lift my voice, and fing to buman kind:

I fing to men and angels: angels join,

5

The trumpet's found each fragrant mote shall hear, 45

Or fix'd in earth, or if afloat in air,
Obey the fignal wafted in the wind,
And not one fleeping atom lag behind.

So fwarming bees, that on a fummer's day
In airy rings, and wild meanders play, 50
Charm'd with the brazen found, their wander-
ings end,

And, gently circling, on a bough defcend.

The body thus renew'd, the confcious foul, Which has perhaps been fluttering near the pole, Or midft the burning planets wondering ftray'd, Or hover'd o'er where her pale corpfe was laid: Or rather coafted on her final state, And fear'd, or with'd for, her appointed fate; This foul, returning with a conftant flame, Now weds for ever her immortal frame.

60

Lite, which ran down before, fo high is wound, The fprings maintain an everlasting round.

10

Thus a frail model of the work defign'd Firfi takes a copy of the builder's mind, Before the ftructive firm with lafting oak, And marble bowels of the folid rock, Turns the ftrong arch, and bids the columns rife, And bear the lefty palace to the skies; The wrongs of time enabled to surpass,

65

70

mine.

That ancient, facred, and illustrious * dome, Where foon or late fair Albion's heroes come, From camps, or courts, though great, or wife, or just,

75

To feed the worm, and moulder into duft ;
That folemn mansion of the royal dead,
Where paffing flaves o'er fleeping monarchs tread,
Now populous o'erflows; a numerous race
of rifing king fill all th' extended space:
A life well fpent, not the victorieus fword,
Awards the crown, and files the greater lord. 8

Nor monuments alone, and burial-earth,
Labours with man to this his fecond birth;
But where gay palaces in ponip arife,
And gilded theatres invade the fkies,
Nations fhail wake, whose unrespected bones 85
Support the pride of their luxrious fons.
The most magnificent and coftly dorae
Is but an upper chamber to a tomb.
No fpot on earth, but has fupply'd a grave,
And hum n fkulls the fpacious ocean pave.
All's full of man; and at this dreadful turn,
The fwarm shall iffue, and the hive fhall burn.
Not all at once, nor in like manner, rife:
Some lift with pain their flow unwilling eyes;
Shrink backward from the terror of the light, 95
And bless the grave, and call for lafting night.
Others,

* Westminster Abbey.

90

Others, whofe long-attempted virtue ftood
Fix'd as a rock, and broke the rushing flood,
Whose firm refolve, nor beauty could melt down,
Nor raging tyrants from their posture frown; 100
Such, in this day of horrors, shall be seen
To face the thunders with a god-like mien;
The planets drop, their thoughts are fixt above;
The centre shakes, their hearts difdain to move :
An earth diffolving, and a heaven thrown wide,
A yawning gulph, and fiends on every fide, 106
Serene they view, impatient of delay,
And blefs the dawn of everlasting day.

Here greatness prostrate falls; there, firength
gives place;

Here, lazars fmile; there, beauty hides her

face.

Chriftians, and Jews, and Turks, and Pagans

nown

To bless a people, and oblige a crown. And now you rife, eternally to fshine, Eternally to drink the rays divine

Indulgent God! Oh how hall mortal raise His foul to due returns of grateful praise, For bounty fo profuse to human kind, Thy woudrous gift of an eternal mind? Shall I, who, fome few years ago, was lefs Than worm, or mite, or fhadow can express, Was Nothing; fhall I live, when every fire And every star shall languish and expire? When earth's no more, shall I furvive above, And through the radiant files of angels move? Or, as before the throne of God I ftand, See new worlds rolling from His spacious hand, Where our adventures fhall perhaps be taught, As we now tell how Michael fung or fought; All that has being in full concert join, And celebrate the depths of Love divine!

VOL, Vill.

This mighty scene I next prefume to draw: Attend, great Anna, with religious awe. Expect not here the known successful arts To win attention, and command our hearts: Fiction, be far away; let no machine Defcending here, no fabled God, be seen ; Behold the God of Gods indeed defcend, And worlds unnumber'd his approach attend! 160 Lo! the wide theatre, whofe ample space Muft entertain the whole of human race, As heaven's all-powerful edict is prepar'd, And fenced around with an immortal guard. Tribes, provinces, dominions, worlds, o'er165

flow

The mighty plain, and deluge all below:
And every age, and nation, pours along;
Nirarod and Bourbon mingle in the throng:
Adam falutes his youngest fon; no fign
Of all thofe ages, which their births disjoin. 170
How empty learning, and how vain is art,
But as it mends the life, and guides the heart!
What volumes have been fwell'd, what time been
spent,

To fix a hero's birth-day, or descent !
What joy must it now yield, what rapture raise.
176.
To fee the glorious race of ancient days;
To greet thofe worthies, who perhaps have food
Illuftrious on record before the flood!
Alas! a nearer care your foul demands.
Cæfar un-noted in your prefence ftands.

180

How vaft the concourfe! net in number more The waves that break on the refounding fore, The leayes that trèmble in the fhady grove, The lamps that gild the spangled vaults above : Thofe overwhelming armies, whose command Said to one empire, Fall; another Stand: Whose rear lay wrapt in night, while breaking

dawn

185

Rouz'd the broad front, and call'd the battle on : Great Xerxes' world in arms, proud Cannæ's field,

190

Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield, (Another blow had broke the Fate's decree, And earth had wanted her fourth monarchy) Immortal Blenheim, fam'd Ramilla's hoft, They all are here, and here they All are lost : Their millions fwell to be difcern'd in vain, 195 Loft a billow in th' unbounded main. This echoing voice now rends the yielding air, "For judgment, judgment, fons of men prepare!"

Earth shakes anew ; I hear her groans profound ; And hell through all ber trembling realms refound,