Because we fight, and battles gain; Some captives call, and fay " the reft are flain :” Because we heap up yellow earth, and fo Rich, valiant, wife, and virtuous, seem to grow: From hieroglyphic proofs of heraldry, We grow That really we Live : Whilft all these Shadows, that for Things we take, Are but the empty dreams which in Death's fleep we make. But these fantastic errors of our dream Lead us to folid wrong; We pray God our friends' torments to prolong, And wish uncharitably for them To be as long a dying as Methusalem. The ripen'd foul longs from his prifon to come; We feek to close and plaifter up by art The cracks and breaches of th' extended fhell, And in that narrow cell Would rudely force to dwell The noble vigorous bird already wing'd to part. THE THE XXXIVth CHAPTER OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. Awake, and with attention hear, Thou drowsy World! for it concerns thee near; To what from God, I, his loud prophet, tell. Then e'er was rais'd by God before, To fcourge the rebel world, and march it round about. I fee the fword of God brandish'd above, And from it ftreams a difmal ray; I see the scabbard caft away; How red anon with flaughter will it prove ! How will it fweat and reek in blood! How will the fcarlet-glutton be o'ergorged with his And devour all the mighty feast ! [food, Nothing foon but bones will reft.. God does a folemn facrifice prepare ; But not of oxen, nor of rams, Not of kids, nor of their dams, Not of heifers, nor of lambs: The altar all the land, and all men in 't the victims are. Since men their birth-right forfeit still by sin ; So will they fall, fo will they flee, Nature and Time shall both be flain, With all the beauteous characters that in it With fuch deep fenfe by God's own hand were writ (Whofe eloquence, though we understand not, we adShall crackle, and the parts together shrink Like parchment in a fire: [mire) Th' exhaufted fun to th' moon no more fhall lend; But truly then headlong into the fea defcend: The glittering hoft, now in fuch fair array, Thick as ripe fruit, or yellow leaves, in autumn fall, With fuch a violent storm as blows down tree and all. And And thou, O curfed land! Which wilt not fee the precipice where thou doft stand (Though thou ftand'st just upon the brink) Thou of this poifon'd bowl the bitter dregs fhalt drink. Thy rivers and thy lakes fhall fo With human blood o'erflow, That they shall fetch the flaughter'd corpse away, And rob the beafts and birds to give the fifh their prey: The rotting corpfe fhall fo infect the air, Beget fuch plagues and putrid venoms there, That by thine own dead shall be slain As one who buys, furveys, a ground, Left any nook or corner he should mifs : He walks about the perifhing nation, And in thy lower rooms the wolves shall howl, And all the wing'd ill-omens of the air, Though no new ills can be foreboded there : "Brother leopard, come away; "Behold a land which God has given us in prey! "Behold a land from whence we fee "Mankind expuls'd, his and our common enemy !" The brother leopard shakes himself, and does not stay, The glutted vultures fhall expect in vain New armies to be flain; Shall find at laft the business done, To dance and revel in the mask of night, The moon and ftars, their sole spectators, shall affright : And, if of loft mankind Aught happen to be left behind; If any relics but remain ; They in the dens shall lurk, beasts in the palaces fhall reign. THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT. S this thy bravery, Man, is this thy pride? Rebel to God, and flave to all befide! Captiv'd by every thing! and only free All creatures, the Creator faid, were thine; No creature but might fince fay, "Man is mine." In black Egyptian slavery we lie; And sweat and toil in the vile drudgery of |