My fatal love on her devoted head
Drew down-it must be fo! the judgment due
To me and mine: or was Amyntor fav'd
For its whole quiver of remaining wrath?
For ftorms more fierce ? for pains of sharper fting?
And years of death to come?—Nor further voice,
Nor flowing tear his high-wrought grief fupply'd:
With arms outspread, with eyes in hopeless gaze 260
To heaven uplifted, motionless and mute
He stood, the mournful semblance of despair.
The lamp of day, though from mid-noon declin'd,
Still flaming with full ardor, shot on earth
Oppreffive brightnefs round; till in soft steam, 265
From ocean's bofom his light vapours drawn,
With grateful intervention o'er the sky
Their veil diffusive spread; the scene abroad
Soft-shadowing, vale and plain, and dazzling hill.
Aurelius, with his gueft, the western cliff
Afcending flow, beneath its marble roof,
From whence in double ftream a lucid fource
Roll'd founding forth, and, where with dewy wing
Fresh breezes play'd, fought refuge and repose,
Till cooler hours arife. The fubject ifle
Her village-capital, where health and peace
Are tutelary gods; her small domain
Of arable and pasture, vein'd with streams
That branching bear refreshful moisture on
To field and mead; her ftraw-roof'd temple rude, 280 Where piety, not pride, adoring kneels,
Lay full in view. From scene to scene around
Aurelius gaz'd; and, fighing, thus began.
Not we alone; alas! in every clime,
The human race are fons of forrow born.
Heirs of tranfmitted labour and disease,
Of pain and grief, from fire to fon deriv'd,
All have their mournful portion; all must bear
Th' impos'd condition of their mortal state,
Viciffitude of fuffering. Caft thine eye
Where yonder vale, Amyntor, floping spreads
Full to the noon-tide beam its primrose-lap,
From hence due east. Amyntor look'd, and saw,
Not without wonder at a fight fo strange,
Where thrice three.females, carneft each and arm'd 295
With rural inftruments, the foil prepar'd
For future harveft. Thefe the trenchant fpade,
To turn the mold and break th' adhesive clods,
Employ'd affiduous. Thofe, with equal pace,
And arm alternate, ftrew'd its fresh lap white
With fruitful Ceres: while, in train behind,
Three more th' incumbent harrow heavy.on
O'er-labour'd drew, and clos'd the toilfome task.
Behold! Aurelius thus his fpeech renew'd,
From that foft fex, too delicately fram'd
For toils like thefe, the task of rougher man,
What yet neceffity demands fevere.
Twelve funs have purpled thefe encircling hills
With orient beams, as many nights along
Their dewy fummits drawn th' alternate veil
Of darkness, fince, in unpropitious hour,
The husbands of those widow'd mates, who now
For both must labour, launch'd, in quest of food,
Their ifland-fkiff adventurous on the deep.
Them, while the sweeping net fecure they plung'd 315
The finny race to fnare, whofe foodful fhoals
Each creek and bay innumerable croud,
As annual on from fhore to fhore they move
In watery caravan; them, thus intent,
Dark from the fouth a guft of furious wing,
Upfpringing, drove to fea: and left in tears,
This little world of brothers and of friends!
But when, at evening-hour, disjointed planks,
Borne on the furging-tide, and broken oars,
To fight, with fatal certainty, reveal'd
The wreck before furmiz'd; one general groan,
To heaven afcending, spoke the general breast
With fharpeft anguish pierc'd. Their ceafelefs plaint,
Through thefe hoarfe rocks, on this refounding fhore,
At morn was heard: at midnight too were feen, 330
Difconfolate on each chill mountain's height,
The mourners fpread, exploring land and fea
With eager gaze-till from yon lesser isle,
Yon round of mofs-clad hills, Borera nam'd-
Full north, behold! above the foaring lark,
Its dizzy cliffs aspire, hung round and white
With curling mists-at last from yon hoar hills,
Inflaming the brown air with sudden blaze,
And ruddy undulation, thrice three fires,
Like meteors waving in a moonless sky,
T 2
Our eyes, yet unbelieving, faw distinct,
Succeffive kindled, and from night to night
Renew'd continuous. Joy, with wild excess,
Took her gay turn to reign; and Nature now
From rapture wept: yet ever and anon
By fad conjecture damp'd, and anxious thought
How from yon rocky prifon to release
Whom the deep fea immures (their only boat
Destroy'd) and whom th' inevitable siege
Of hunger must affault. But hope fustains
The human heart: and now their faithful wives,
With love-taught skill and vigour not their own,
On yonder field th' autumnal year prepare.
Amyntor, who the tale distressful heard
With fympathizing forrow, on himself,
On his feverer fate, now pondering deep,
Rapt by fad thought the hill unheeding left ;
And reach'd, with fwerving step, the distant strand.
Above, around, in cloudy circles wheel'd,
Or failing level on the polar gale
That cool with evening rofe, a thousand wings,
The fummer-nations of these pregnant cliffs,
Play'd sportive round, and to the fun outspread
Their various plumage; or in wild notes hail'd
His parent-beam that animates and chears
All living kinds. He, glorious from amidst
* The author who relates this story adds, that the produce of grain that feafon was the most plentiful they had feen for many years before. Vide Martin's De fcription of the Western Isles of Scotland, p. 286.
A pomp of golden clouds, th' Atlantic flood
Beheld oblique, and o'er its azure breast
Wav'd one unbounded blufh: a fcene to strike
Both ear and eye with wonder and delight!
But, loft to outward fenfe, Amyntor pass'd
Regardless on, through other walks convey'd
Of baleful profpect; which pale Fancy rais'd
Inceffant to herself, and fabled o'er
With darkest night, meet region for despair!
Till northward, where the rock its fea-wafh'd base
Projects athwart and fhuts the bounded scene,
Rounding its point, he rais'd his eyes and faw,
At distance faw, defcending on the shore,
Forth from their anchor'd boat, of men unknown 380
A double band, who by their geftures strange
There fix'd with wondering: for at once they knelt
With hands upheld; at once, to heaven, as feem'd,
One general hymn pour'd forth of vocal praise.
Then, flowly rifing, forward mov'd their steps: 385
Slow as they mov'd, behold! amid the train,
On either fide fupported, onward came
Pale and of piteous look, a penfive maid;
As one by wafting fickness fore affail'd,
Or plung'd in grief profound-Oh, all ye powers! 390
Amyntor ftartling, cry'd, and shot his foul
In rapid glance before him on her face.
Illufion! no-it cannot be. My blood
Runs chill: my feet are rooted here-and fee!
To mock my hopes, it wears her gracious form. 395 The fpirits who this ocean waste and wild
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