Infulting Gaul, has rous'd the world to war;
When keen, once more, within their bounds to prefs
Those polish'd robbers, those ambitious flaves,
The British Youth would hail thy wife command,
Thy temper'd ardor, and thy veteran skill.
The western fun withdraws the fhorten'd day; 1080 And humid evening, gliding o'er the sky,
In her chill progrefs, to the ground condens'd
The vapours throws. Where creeping waters ooze,
Where marshes stagnate, and where rivers wind,
Clufter the rolling fogs, and swim along
The dusky-mantled lawn. Mean-while the moon
Full-orb'd, and breaking through the fcatter'd clouds,
Shews her broad visage in the crimson'd east.
Turn'd to the fun direct, her spotted disk,
Where mountains rife, umbrageous dales defcend,
And caverns deep, as optic tube defcries,
1 A fmaller earth, gives us his blaze again,
Void of its flame, and sheds a fofter day.
Now through the paffing cloud she seems to stoop,
Now up the pure cœrulean rides fublime.
Wide the pale deluge floats, and ftreaming mild
O'er the sky'd mountain to the shadowy vale,
While rocks and floods reflect the quivering gleam,
The whole air whitens with a boundless tide
Of filver radiance, trembling round the world.
But when half blotted from the sky her light,
Fainting, permits the starry fires to burn
With keener luftre through the depth of heaven;
Or near extinct her deaden'd orb appears,
And scarce appears, of fickly beamless white;
Oft in this feafon, filent from the north
A blaze of meteors fhoots: enfweeping first
The lower kies, they all at once converge
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once
Relapfing quick as quickly reafcend,
And mix, and thwart, extinguish, and renew,
All æther courfing in a maze of light.
From look to look, contagious through the crowd, The panic runs, and into wondrous fhapes Th' appearance throws: armies in meet array, Throng'd with aërial spears and steeds of fire; Till the long lines of full-extended war In bleeding fight commixt, the fanguine flood Rolls a broad flaughter o'er the plains of heaven. As thus they fcan the vifionary scene, On all fides fwells the fuperftitious din, Incontinent; and bufy frenzy talks Of blood and battle; cities overturn'd,
And late at night in fwallowing earthquake funk,
Or hideous' wrapt in fierce afcending flame;
Of fallow famine, inundation, storm;
Of peftilence, and every great distress;
Empires fubvers❜d, when ruling fate has ftruck
'Th' unalterable hour: ev'n Nature's felf
Is deem'd to totter on the brink of time.
Not fo the man of philofophic eye,
And infpect fage; the waving brightness he
Curious furveys, inquifitive to know
The caufes, and materials, yet unfix'd,
Of this appearance beautiful and new.
Now black, and deep, the night begins to fall,
A fhade immenfe. Sunk in the quenching gloom,
Magnificent and vaft, are heaven and earth.
Order confounded lies; all beauty void;
Diftinction loft; and gay variety
One univerfal blot: fuch the fair power
Of light, to kindle and create the whole.
Drear is the ftate of the benighted wretch,
Who then, bewilder'd, wanders through the dark,
Full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge;
Nor vifited by one directive ray,
From cottage ftreaming, or from airy hall.
Perhaps, impatient as he ftumbles on,
Struck from the root of flimy rushes, blue,
The wild-fire fcatters round, or gather'd trails
A length of flame deceitful o'er the mofs:
Whither decoy'd by the fantastic blazę,
Now loft, and now renew'd, he finks abforpt,
Rider and horfe, amid the miry gulph:
While ftill, from day to day, his pining wife
And plaintive children his return await,
In wild conjecture loft. At other times,
Sent by the better Genius of the night,
Innoxious, gleaming on the horse's mane,
The meteor fits; and fhews the narrow path,
That winding leads through pits of death, or else
Inftructs him how to take the dangerous ford.
The lengthen'd night elaps'd, the morning fhines Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright, Unfolding
Unfolding fair the last autumnal day.
And now the mounting fun dispels the fog;
The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam;
And hung on every spray, on every blade
Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round.
Ah, fee, where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit
Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd,
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
And fix'd o'er fulphur: while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people, in their waxen cells,
Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoic'd
To mark, full flowing round, their copious ftores.
Sudden the dark oppreffive fteam afcends;
And, us'd to milder fcents, the tender race,
By thousands, tumble from their honey'd domes, 1180
Convolv'd, and agonizing in the duft.
And was it then for this you roam'd the Spring,
Intent from flower to flower? for this
Ceafelefs the burning Summer-heats away?
For this in Autumn fearch'd the blooming wafte, 1185
Nor loft one funny gleam? for this fad fate?
O, man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long,
Shall proftrate Nature groan beneath your rage,
Awaiting renovation? when oblig'd,
Muft you destroy? Of their ambrofial food
Can you not borrow; and, in just return,
Afford them fhelter from the wintery winds?
Or, as the fharp year pinches, with their own
Again regale them on some smiling day?
See where the ftony bottom of their town
Looks defolate, and wild; with here and there
A helpless number, who the ruin'd state
Survive, lamenting weak, caft out to death.
Thus a proud city, populous and rich,
Full of the works of peace, and high in joy,
At theatre or feaft, or funk in fleep,
(As late, Palermo, was thy fate) is feiz'd
By fome dread earthquake, and convulfive hurl'd
Sheer from the black foundation, stench involv'd,,
Into a gulph of blue fulphureous flame.
Hence every harsher fight! for now the day,
O'er heaven and earth diffus'd, grows warm, and high,
Infinite fplendor! wide investing all.
How ftill the breeze! fave what the filmy threads
Of dew evaporate brushes from the plain.
How clear the cloudlefs fky! how deeply ting'd
With a peculiar blue! th' ethereal arch
How fwell'd immenfe! amid whofe azure thron'd
The radiant fun how gay! how calm below
The gilded earth! the harvest-treasures all
Now gather'd in, beyond the rage of storms,
Sure to the fwain; the circling fence shut up;
And inftant Winter's utmost rage defy'd.
While, loose to festive joy, the country round
Laughs with the loud fincerity of mirth,
Shook to the wind their cares. The toil-ftrung youth,
By the quick sense of music taught alone,
Leaps wildly graceful in the lively dance.
every charm abroad, the village-toast,
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