Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal
Crush'd horrible, convulfing heaven and earth.
Down comes a deluge of fonorous hail,
Or prone-defcending rain. Wide-rent, the clouds
Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquench'd,
Th' unconquerable lightning ftruggles through,
Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls,
And fires the mountains with redoubled rage.
Black from the ftroke, above, the fmouldering pine
Stands a fad shatter'd trunk; and, ftretch'd below,
A lifeless groupe the blafted cattle lie:
Here the foft flocks, with that fame harmless look
They wore alive, and ruminating ftill
In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull,
And ox half-rais'd. Struck on the caftled cliff,
The venerable tower and spiry fane
Refign their aged pride. The gloomy woods
Start at the flash, and from their deep recess,
Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates fhake. 1160
Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud
The repercuffive roar: with mighty crush,
Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks
Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky,
Tumble the fmitten cliffs; and Snowden's peak, 1165
Diffolving, inftant yields his wintery load.
Far-feen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze,
And Thulè bellows through her utmost isles.
Guilt hears appall'd, with deeply troubled thought.
yet not always on the guilty head
Defcends the fated flash.
And his Amelia were a matchlefs pair;
With equal virtue form'd, and equal grace,
The fame, diftinguish'd by their fex alone:
Hers the mild luftre of the blooming morn,
And his the radiance of the rifen day.
They lov'd but fuch their guileless paffion was,
As in the dawn of time inform'd the heart
Of innocence, and undiffembling truth.
"Twas friendship heighten'd by the mutual wish, 1180
Th' enchanting hope, and fympathetic glow,
Beam'd from the mutual eye. Devoting all
To love, each was to each a dearer felf;
Supremely happy in th' awaken'd power
Of giving joy. Alone, amid the fhades,
Still in harmonious intercourfe they liv'd
The rural day, and talk'd the flowing heart,
Or figh'd and look'd unutterable things.
So pafs'd their life, a clear united stream,
By care unruffled; till, in evil hour,
The tempeft caught them on the tender walk,
✓ Heedlefs how far, and where its mazes ftray'd, While, with each other bleft, creative love
Still bade eternal Eden smile around.
Prefaging inftant fate, her bofom heav'd
Unwonted fighs, and stealing oft a look
Of the big gloom on Celadon her eye
Fell tearful, wetting her diforder'd cheek.
In vain affuring love, and confidence
In Heaven, reprefs'd her fear; it grew, and fhook
Her frame near diffolution. He perceiv'd
Th' unequal conflict; and as angels look On dying faints, his eyes compaffion shed, With love illumin'd high. "Fear not, he faid, "Sweet innocence! thou ftranger to offence, "And inward storm! He, who yon fkies involves "In frowns of darkness, ever fmiles on thee "With kind regard. O'er thee the secret shaft "That waftes at midnight, or th' undreaded hour "Of noon, flies harmless: and that very voice, 1210 "Which thunders terror through the guilty heart, "With tongues of feraphs whispers peace to thine. "'Tis fafety to be near thee fure, and thus "To clafp perfection!" From his void embrace, Mysterious heaven! that moment, to the ground, 1215 A blacken'd corfe, was ftruck the beauteous maid. But who can paint the lover, as he stood, Pierc'd by fevere amazement, hating life, Speechlefs, and fix'd in all the death of woe! So, faint refemblance! on the marble tomb, The well-diffembled mourner stooping stands,
For ever filent, and for ever fad.
As from the face of heaven the fhatter'd clouds
Tumultuous rove, th' interminable sky
Sublimer fwells, and o'er the world expands
A purer azure. Through the lighten'd air
A higher luftre and a clearer calm,
Diffufive, tremble; while, as if in fign
Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy,
Set off abundant by the yellow ray,
Invests the fields; and nature smiles reviv'd.
'Tis beauty all, and grateful song around,
Join'd to the low of kine, and numerous bleat
Of flocks thick-nibbling through the clover'd vale.
And fhall the hymn be marr'd by thanklefs man, 1235
Moft favour'd; who with voice articulate
Should lead the chorus of this lower world?
Shall he, fo foon forgetful of the hand
That hush'd the thunder, and ferenes the sky,
Extinguish'd feel that spark the tempeft wak'd,
That fenfe of powers exceeding far his own,
Ere yet his feeble heart has lost its fears ?
Chear'd by the milder beam, the sprightly youth
Speeds to the well-known pool, whose crystal depth
A fandy bottom fhews. A while he ftands
Gazing th' inverted landskip, half afraid
To meditate the blue profound below;
Then plunges headlong down the circling flood.
His ebon treffes and his rofy cheek
Infant emerge; and through th' obedient wave,
At each fhort-breathing by his lip repel❜d,
With arms and legs according well, he makes,
As humour leads, an eafy-winding path
While, from his polifh'd fides, a dewy light
Effufes on the pleas'd spectators round.
This is the pureft exercise of health,
The kind refresher of the fummer heats;
Nor, when cold Winter keens the brightening flood,
Would I weak-fhivering linger on the brink.
Thus life redoubles, and is oft preferv'd,
By the bold fwimmer, in the fwift illapfe
Of accident difaftrous. Hence the limbs
Knit into force; and the fame Roman arm,
That rose victoricus o'er the conquer'd earth,
First learn'd, while tender, to fubdue the wave.
Ev'n from the body's purity, the mind
Receives a fecret fympathetic aid.
Clofe in the covert of an hazel copfe,
Where winded into pleasing folitudes
Runs out the rambling dale, young Damon fat, 1270
Penfive, and pierc'd with love's delightful pangs.
There to the ftream that down the distant rocks
Hoarfe-murmuring fell, and plaintive breeze that play'd
Among the bending willows, falfely he
Of Mufidora's cruelty complain'd.
She felt his flame; but deep within her breast,
In bashful coynefs, or in maiden pride,
The foft return conceal'd; fave when it stole
In fide-long glances from her downcast eye,
Or from her swelling foul in ftifled fighs.
Touch'd by the scene, no ftranger to his vows,
He fram'd a melting lay, to try her heart;
And, if an infant paffion ftruggled there,
To call that paffion forth. Thrice happy swain !
A lucky chance, that oft decides the fate
Of mighty monarchs, then decided thine.
For, lo conducted by the laughing Loves,
This cool retreat his Mufidora fought :
Warm in her cheek the sultry season glow'd;
And, rob'd in loose array, she came to bathe
Her fervent limbs in the refreshing stream.
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