Thy wing high-hovering fpread; and to the gale,
The boreal spirit breathing liberal round-
From echoing hill to hill, the lyre attune
With answering cadence free, as beft befeems
The tragic theme my plaintive verfe unfolds.
Here, good Aurelius-and a fcene more wild
The world around, or deeper folitude,
Affliction could not find-Aurelius here,
By fate unequal and the crime of war
Expell'd his native home, the facred vale
That faw him bleft, now wretched and unknown,
Wore out the flow remains of fetting life
In bitterness of thought: and with the furge,
And with the founding storm, his murmur'd moan
Would often mix-Oft as remembrance fad
Th' unhappy paft recall'd; a faithful wife,
Whom Love first chofe, whom Reafon long endear'd, 65
His foul's companion and his fofter friend ;
With one fair daughter, in her rofy prime,
Her dawn of opening charms, defenceless left
Within a tyrant's grafp! his foe profefs'd,
By civil madnefs, by intemperate zeal
For differing rites, embitter'd into hate,
And cruelty remorfelefs!-Thus he liv'd
If this was life, to load the blast with fighs;
Hung o'er its edge, to fwell the flood with tears,
At midnight hour: for midnight frequent heard
The lonely mourner, defolate of heart,
Pour all the hufband, all the father forth
Ia unavailing anguish ; ftretch'd along
The naked beach; or thivering on the cliff,
Smote with the wintery pole in bitter storm,
Hail, fnow, and shower, dark-drifting round his head.
Such were his hours; till Time, the wretch's friend,
Life's great physician, skill'd alone to close,
Where forrow long has wak'd, the weeping eye,
And from the brain, with baleful vapours black, 85
Each fullen fpectre chace, his balm at length,
Lenient of pain, through every fever'd pulse
With gentlest hand infus'd. A penfive calm
Arofe, but unaffur'd: as, after winds
Of ruffling wing, the fea fubfiding flow
Still trembles from the storm. Now Reason first,
Her throne refuming, bid Devotion raise
To heaven his eye; and through the turbid mifts,
By fenfe dark-drawn between, adoring own,
Sole arbiter of fate, one Cause fupreme,
All-just, all-wife, who bids what still is beft,
In cloud or fun-fhine; whose severest hand
Wounds but to heal, and chaftens to amend.
Thus, in his bofom, every weak exceís,
The rage of grief, the felnefs of revenge,
To healthful measure temper'd and reduc'd
By Virtue's hand; and in her brightening beam
Each error clear'd away, as fen-born fogs
Before th' afcending fun; through faith he lives
Beyond Time's bounded continent, the walks
Of Sin and Death. Anticipating heaven
In pious hope, he seems already there,
Safe on her facred fhore; and fees beyond,
In radiant view, the world of light and love,
Where Peace delights to dwell; where one fair morn
Still orient fmiles, and one diffusive spring,
That fears no ftorm and shall no winter know,
Th' immortal year empurples. If a figh
Yet murmurs from his breaft; 'tis for the pangs
Those dearest names, a wife, a child, muft feel, 11.5
Still fuffering in his fate: 'tis for a foe,
Who, deaf himself to mercy, may of heaven
That mercy, when most wanted, ask in vain.
The fun, now ftation'd with the lucid Twins,
O'er every fouthern clime had pour'd profuse
The rofy year; and in each pleafing hue,
That greens the leaf, or through the bloffom glows
With florid light, his fairest month array'd:
While Zephyre, while the filver-footed dews,
Her foft attendants, wide o'er field and grove
Fresh spirit breathe, and shed perfuming balm,
Nor here, in this chill region, on the brow
Of winter's wafte dominion, is unfelt
The ray ethereal, or unhail'd the rife
Of her mild reign. From warbling vale and hill, 130 With wild-thyme flowering, betony, and balm,
Blue lavender and carmel's fpicy root,
Song, fragrance, health, ambrosiate every breeze.
Line 132. The root of this plant, otherwise named "argatilis fylvaticus," is aromatic; and by the natives reckoned cordial to the ftomach. See Martin's Weftern Ides of Scotland, p. 180.
But, high above, the feafon full exerts Its vernant force in yonder peopled rocks, To whofe wild folitude, from worlds unknown, The birds of paffage tranfmigrating come, Unnumber'd colonies of foreign wing, At Nature's fummons their aëreal state Annual to found; and in bold voyage steer, O'er this wide ocean, through yon pathless sky, One certain flight to one appointed shore: By heaven's directive spirit, here to raise Their temporary realm; and form fecure, Where food awaits them copious from the wave, 145 And shelter from the rock, their nuptial leagues: Each tribe apart, and all on tasks of love, To hatch the pregnant egg, to rear and guard Their helpless infants, pioufly intent.
Led by the day abroad, with lonely step,
And ruminating sweet and bitter thought,
Aurelius, from the western bay, his eye
Now rais'd to this amufive fcene in air,
With wonder mark'd; now caft with level ray
Wide o'er the moving wilderness of waves,
From pole to pole through boundless space diffus'd,
Magnificently dreadful! where, at large,
Leviathan, with each inferior name
Of fea-born kinds, ten thoufand thousand tribes,
Finds endless range for pafture and for sport.
Amaz'd he gazes, and adoring owns
The band Almighty, who its channel'd bed
Immeafurable funk, and pour'd abroad,
Fenc'd with eternal mounds, the fluid fphere;
With every wind to waft large commerce on,
Join pole to pole, confociate fever'd' worlds,
And link in bonds of intercourfe and love
Earth's univerfal family. Now rose
Sweet evening's folemn hour. The fun declin'd
Hung golden o'er this nether firmament;
Whofe broad cerulean mirror, calmly bright,
Gave back his beamy vifage to the sky
With fplendor undiminish'd; and each cloud,
White, azure, purple, glowing round his throne
In fair aëreal landfcape. Here, alone
On earth's remoteft verge, Aurelius breath'd
The healthful gale, and felt the finiling fcene
With awe-mix'd pleasure, muling as he hung
In filence o'er the billows hush'd beneath.
When lo! a found, amid the wave-worn rocks,
Deaf-murmuring rofe, and plaintive roll'd 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 fteep
Of fky-crown'd Apenine. The Sea-pye ceas'd 185
At once to warble. Screaming, from his neft
The Fulmar foar'd, and fhot a weftward flight
From thore to fea. On came, before her hour,
Invading night, and hung the troubled sky
With fearful blacknefs round *. Sad ocean's face 190
A curling undulation fhivery fwept
From wave to wave and now impetuous rofe,
See Martin's voyage to St. Kilda, p. 58.
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