165

Fenc'd with eternal mounds, the Auid sphere;
With
every

wind to waft large commerce on,
Join pole to pole, confociate sever'd worlds,
And link in bonds of intercourse and love
Earth's universal family. Now rose
Sweet evening's folemn hour. The sun declin'd
Hung golden o'er this nether firmament;

170
Whose broad cerulean mirror, calmly bright,
Gave back his beamy visage to the sky
With splendor undiminish'd; and each cloud,
White, azure, purple, glowing round his throne
In fair aëreal landscape. Here, alone

175 On earth's remotest verge, Aurelius breath'd The healthful gale, and felt the siniling scene With awe-mix'd pleasure, musing as he hung in filence o'er the billows hush'd beneath. When lo! a sound, amid the wave-worn rocks, 180 Deaf-murmuring rose, and plaintive rollid along From cliff to cavern : as the breath of winds, At twilight-hour, remote and hollow heard Through wintery pines, high-waving o'er the steep Of sky-crownd Apenine. The Sea-pye ceas'd At once to warble. Screaming, from his nest The Fulmar soar'd, and shot a westward flight From shore to sea. On came, before her hour, Invading night, and hung the troubled sky With fearful blackness round *. Sad ocean's face 190 A curling undulation fhivery swept From wave to wave : and now impetuous rose,

R

Thick See Martin's voyage to St. Kilda, p. 58.

185

a

200

Thick cloud and storm and ruin on his wing,
The raging South, and headlong o’er the deep
Fell horrible, with broad-descending blaft. 195
Aloft, and safe beneath a sheltering cliff,
Whose moss-grown summit on the distant flood
Projected frowns, Aurelius stood appallid :
His funn'd ear (mote with all the thundering.main!
His

eye with mountains furging to the stars !
Commotion infinite. Where yon last wave
Blends with the sky its foam, a ship, in view
Shoots sudden-forth, steep-falling from the clouds :
Yet distant seen and dim ;, till, onward borne
Before the blast, each growing fail expands,

205
. Each malt aspires, and all th' advancing frame
Bounds on his eye distinct. With sharpen’d ken
Its course he watches, and in awful thought
That power invokes, whose voice the wild winds hear,
:Whose-nod the surge revcres, to look from heaven, 210
And save, who else must perish, wretched men,
In this dark hour, amid the dread abyss,
With fears amaz'd, by horrors compass'd round.
But 0, ill.omen'd, death-devoted heads !
For death bestrides the billow, nor your own, 215
Nor others' offer'd vows can stay the flight
Of instant fate. And, lo! his secret seat,
Where never sun-beam glimmer’d, deep amidst
A cavern's jaws voraginous and vast,
The stormy Genius of the deep forsakes :
And o'er the wayes, that roar beneath his frown,
Ascending baleful, bids the tempest Spread,

220

Tuibid and terrible with hail and rain,
Its blackest pinion, pour its loudening blasts
In whirlwind forth, and from their lowest depth 225
Upturn the world of waters. Round and round
The tortur'd lip, at his imperious call,
Is wheeld in dizzy whirl: her guiding helm
Breaks fhort; her masts in crashing ruin fall;
And each rent fail flies loose in diftant air.

230
Now, fearful moment! o'er the foundering hull,
Half ocean heav’d, in one broad billowy curve,
Steep from the clouds with horrid fhade impends -
Ah! save them, heaven! it bursts in deluge down
With boundless undulation. Shore and sky 235
Rebellow to the roar. At once engulph'd,
Vessel and crew beneath its torrent fweep
Are funk, to rise no more. Aurelius weptr
The tear unbidden dew'd his hoary cheek.
He turn’d his step; he fled the fatal scene,
And brooding, in fad filence, o'er the fight
To him alone disclos'd, his wounded heart
Pour'd out to heaven in fighs: Thy will be done,
Not mine, supreme Disposer of Events !
But death demands a tear, and man must feel 245
For human woes: the rest submission checks.

Not distant far, where this receding bay Looks northward on the pole, a rocky arch Expands its self-pois d concave; as the gate, Ample, and broad, and pillar'd maffy-proof, 250

of

24.0

*

R 2

* See Martin's voyage to St. Kilda, p. 20.

Of some unfolding temple. On its height
Is heard the tread of daily-climbing flocks,
That, o'er the green roof spread, their fragrant food
Untended

crop. As through this cavern'd path,
Involv'd in pensive thought Aurelius past, 255
Struck with faj echoes from the founding vault
Remurmur'd.fhrill, he stopt, he rais’d his head;
And saw th' assembled natives in a ring,
With wonder and with pity bending o'er
A shipwreck'd man. All-motionless on earth 260
He lay. The living luftre from his eye,
The vermil hue extinguish'd from his check :
And in their place, on each chill feature fpread,
The shadowy cloud and ghaftliness of death
With pale suffufion sat. So looks the moon,

26;
So faintly wan, through hovering mists at eve,
Grey autumn's train. Fast from his hairs distillid
The briny wave : and close within his graip
Was clench'd a broken oar, as one who long
Had stem'd the flood with agonizing breast, 270
And struggled strong for life. Of youthful prime
He seem'd, and built by Nature's noblest hand;
Where bold proportion, and where foftening grace,
Mix'd in each limb, and harmoniz'd his frame.

Aurelius, from the breathless clay, his eye 275
To heaven imploring rais'd: then, for he knew
That life, within her central cell retir'd,
May lurk unseen, diminish'd but not quench’d,
He bid transport it fpeedy through the vale,
To his peor cell that lonely stood and low,

Safe from the north beneath a noping hill:
An antique frame, orbicular, and rais'd
On columns rude; its roof with reverend moss
Light-faded o'er; its front in ivy hid,
That mantling crept aloft. With pious hand

285
They turn’d, they chaf'd his frozen limbs, and fuin'd
The vapory air with aromatic smells :
Then, drops of sovereign efficacy, drawn
From mountain plants, within his lips infus d.
Slow, from the mortal trance, as men from dreains 296
Of direful vision, shuddering he awakes :
While life, to scarce-felt motion, faintly lifts
His fluttering pulse, and gradual o'er his cheek
The rosy current wins its refluent way.
Recovering to new pain, his eyes he turnid 295
Severe on heaven, on the surrounding hills
With twilight dim, and on the croud unknown
Dissolv'd in tears around : then clos'd again,
As loathing light and life. At length, in sounds
Broken and eager, from his heaving breast 300
Distraction spoke-Down, down with every sail.
Mercy, sweet heaven! - Ha! now whole ocean sweeps
In tempest o’er our heads-My soul's last hope !
We will not part-Help! help! yon wave, behold!
That swells betwixt, has borne her from my sight. 305
O, for a sun to light this black abyss !
Gove-loft--for ever lost! He ceas'd. Amaze
And trembling on the pale assistants fell:
Whom now, with greeting and the words of peace,
Aurelius bid depart. A pause ensued,

315 Mute,

a

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