And hark! the lengthening roar continuous runs
Athwart the rifted deep: at once it bursts,
And piles a thousand mountains to the clouds.
Ill fares the bark with trembling wretches charg'd,
That, toft amid the floating fragments, moors
Beneath the fhelter of an icy ifle,

While night o'erwhelms the fea, and horror looks
More horrible. Can human force endure
Th' affembled mischiefs that besiege them round?
Heart-gnawing hunger, fainting weariness,
The roar of winds and waves, the crush of ice,
Now ceafing, now renew'd with louder rage,
And in dire echoes bellowing round the main.
More to embroil the deep, Leviathan

And his unwieldy train, in dreadful sport,

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1010

1015

Tempeft the loofen'd brine, while through the gloom,
Far from the bleak inhofpitable shore,

Loading the winds, is heard the hungry howl
Of famish'd monsters, there awaiting wrecks.
Yet Providence, that ever-waking eye,
Looks down with pity on the feeble toil
Of mortals loft to hope, and lights them safe,
Through all this dreary labyrinth of fate.

1020

'Tis done! dread Winter spreads his latest glooms, And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year. How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!

How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends

His defolate domain. Behold, fond man!

1025

See here thy pictur'd life; pafs fome few years,
Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent ftrength,

Thy

Thy fober Autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at last,

1035

And fhuts the fcene. Ah! whither now are fled,
Those dreams of greatnefs? those unfolid hopes
Of happiness? those longings after fame ?
Those restlefs cares? thofe bufy bustling days?
Thofe gay-fpent, feftive nights? thofe veering thoughts,
Loft between good and ill, that shar'd thy life?
All now are vanish'd! Virtue fole furvives,
Immortal never-failing friend of man,
His guide to happiness on high. And fee!
'Tis come, the glorious morn! the fecond birth
Of heaven and earth! awakening Nature hears
The new-creating word, and starts to life,

1040

In every heighten'd form, from pain and death
For ever free. The great eternal scheme,
Involving all, and in a perfect whole
Uniting, as the profpect wider fpreads,

1045

To reafon's eye refin'd clears up apace.

Ye vainly wife! ye blind prefumptuous! now,
Confounded in the duft, adore that Power,
And Wisdom oft arraign'd: fee now the cause,
Why unaffuming worth in fecret liv'd,

1050

And dy'd, neglected: why the good man's share

In life was gall and bitterness of foul:

1055

Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd

In ftarving folitude; while luxury,

In palaces, lay ftraining her low thought,

To form unreal wants: why heaven-born Truth,
And Moderation fair, wore the red marks

1060

Of

Of Superftition's fcourge: why licens'd Pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embofom'd foe,
Imbitter'd all our blifs, Ye good distrest!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's preffure, yet bear up a while,
And what your bounded view, which only faw
A little part, deem'd evil, is no more :
The ftorms of Wintery Time will quickly pafs,
And one unbounded Spring encircle all.

1065

A HYMN.

A HY

M N.

THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, these,
Are but the varied God. The rolling year

Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the foftening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the foreft fmiles;
And every sense, and every heart, is joy.
Then comes Thy glory in the Summer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy fun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year:
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales.
Thy bounty fhines in Autumn unconfin'd,
And fpreads a common feast for all that lives.
In Winter awful Thou! with clouds and ftorms
Around Thee thrown, tempeft o'er tempest roll'd,
Majeftic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding fublime, Thou bid't the world adore,
And humblest nature with Thy northern blast.
Myfterious round! what skill, what force divine,

Deep felt, in these appear! a fimple train,
Yet fo delightful mix'd with such kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combin'd;
Shade, unperceiv'd, fo foftening into fhade;
And all fo forming an harmonious whole;
That, as they still fucceed, they ravish still.
But wandeling oft, with brute unconscious gaze,

10

15

20

25

Man

Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand,
That, ever-bufy, wheels the filent spheres ;
Works in the fecret deep; shoots, fteaming, thence
The fair profufion that o'erfpreads the Spring:
Flings from the fun direct the flaming day;
Feeds every creature; hurls the tempeft forth;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With transport touches all the fprings of life.
Nature, attend join every living foul,
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky,

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35

In adoration join; and, ardent, raise

One general fong! To Him, ye vocal gales,

Breathe soft, whofe Spirit in your freshness breathes :
Oh, talk of Him in folitary glooms!

Where, o'er the rock, the fcarcely waving pine
Fills the brown fhade with a religious awe.

And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar,

Who shake th' astonish'd world, lift high to heaven
Th' impetuous fong, and fay from whom you rage.
His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills;
And let me catch it as I muse along.

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45

Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound;

50

Ye fofter floods, that lead the humid maze

Along the vale; and thou, majestic main,

A fecret world of wonders in thyself,

Sound His ftupendous praife; whose greater voice
Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.

55

Soft-roll your incenfe, herbs, and fruits, and flowers,
In mingled clouds to Him; whose fun exalts,
Whose breath perfumes you, and whofe pencil paints.

Ye