This globe is for my verse a narrow bound;

'Attend
me, all
ye glorious worlds around!
O! all ye angels, howfoe'er disjoin'd,
Of every various order, place, and kind,
Hear, and affift, a feeble mortal's lays ;
'Tis our Eternal King I strive to praise.

But chiefly Thou, great Ruler! Lord of all!
Before whofe throne Arch-angels.prostrate fall.;
If at thy nod, from difcord, and from night,
Sprang beauty, and yon sparkling worlds of light,
Exalt e'en me; all inward tumults quell;
The clouds and darkness of mind difpel;
To my great fubject Thou my breast inspire,
And raise my labouring foul with equal fire.

my

-20

25

30

.35

Man, bear thy brow aloft, view every grace In God's great offspring, beauteous nature's face : See fpring's gay bloom; fee golden autumn's store; See how earth fmiles, and hear old ocean roar. Leviathans but heave their cumberous mail, It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies fail. Here, forests rise, the mountain's awful pride; Here, rivers measure climes, and worlds divide; 'There, vallies fraught with gold's refplendent feeds, Hold kings, and kingdoms fortunes, in their beds: 40 There, to the skies, afpiring hills afcend, And into diftant lands their fhades extend. View cities, armies, fleets; of fleets the pride, See Europe's law, in Albion's channel ride.

View the whole earth's vast landskip unconfin'd,
Or view in Britain all her glories join'd.

45

Then

Then let the firmament thy wonder raise;
'Twill raise thy wonder, but tranfcend thy praise.
How far from east to weft? The labouring eye
Can fcarce the distant azure bounds defcry:
Wide theatre! where tempefts play at large,
'And God's right-hand can all its wräth discharge.
Mark how those radiant lamps inflame the pole,
Call forth the feasons, and the year controul:
They fhine through time, with an unálter'd ray :
See This grand period rife, and That decay:
So vaft, this world's a grain; yet myriads grace,
With golden pomp, the throng'd ethereal space ;
So bright, with such a wealth of glory stor'd,
'Twere fin in heathens not to have ador'd.

How great, how firm, how facred all appears!
How worthy an immortal round of years!
Yet all muft drop, as autumn's fick liest grain,
And earth and firmament be fought in vain :
The tract forgot where conftellations shone,
Or where the Stuarts fill'd an awful throne:
Time shall be flain, all Nature be destroy'd,
Nor leave an atom in the mighty void.

Sooner, or later, in fome future date,
(A dreadful secret in the book of fate!)
This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows,
Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose;
When scenes are chang'd on this revolving earth,
Old empires fall, and give new empires birth;
While other Bourbons rule in other lands,
And (if man's fin forbids not) other Annes ;

While the still busy world is treading o'er
The paths they trod five thousand years before,
Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run,
Of earth diffolv'd, or an extinguish'd fun;
(Ye fublunary worlds, awake, awake!
Ye rulers of the nation, hear, and shake!)
Thick clouds of darkness shall arife on day;
In fudden night all earth's dominions lay;
Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend;
Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend;
The valleys yawn, the troubled ocean roar,
And break the bondage of his wonted shore;
A fanguine stain the filver moon o'erspread;
Darkness the circle of the fun invade;
From inmoft heaven inceffant thunders roll,
And the ftrong echo bound from pole to pole.
When, lo, a mighty trump, one half conceal'd
In clouds, one half to mortal eye reveal'd,
Shall pour a dreadful note; the piercing call
Shall rattle in the centre of the ball;
Th' extended circuit of creation shake,
The living die with fear, the dead awake.

Oh powerful blast! to which no equal found
Did e'er the frighted ear of nature wound,

Though rival clarions have been strain'd on high,
And kindled wars immortal through the sky,
Though God's whole enginery discharg`d, and all
The rebel angels bellow'd in their fall.

85

90

95

100

Have angels finn'd? and shall not man beware? 105 How fhall a fon of earth decline the fnare?

Not

115

Not folded arms, and flackness of the mind,
Can promise for the safety of mankind:
None are fupinely good: through care and pain,
And various arts, the steep afcent we gain.
This is the fcene of combat, not of reft,
Man's is laborious happiness at best;
On this fide death his dangers never cease,
His joys are joys of conqueft, not of peace.
If then, obfequious to the will of fate,
And bending to the terms of human state,
When guilty joys invite us to their arms,
When beauty smiles, or grandeur spreads her charms,
The confcious foul would this great scene display,
Call down th' immortal hofts in dread array,
The trumpet found, the Christian banner spread,
And raise from filent graves the trembling dead;
Such deep impreffion would the picture make,
No power on earth her firm resolve could shake;
Engag'd with angels fhe would greatly stand,
And look regardless down on fea and land;
Not proffer'd worlds her ardour could restrain,
And death might shake his threatening lance in vain!
Her certain conqueft would endear the fight,
And danger ferve but to exalt delight.

Inftructed thus to fhun the fatal spring,

Whence flows the terrors of that day I fing;
More boldly we our labours may pursue,
And all the dreadful image fet to view.

120

125

130

The fparkling eye, the fleek and painted breast, 135 The burnish'd fcale, curl'd train, and rifing creft,

All

All that is lovely in the noxious snake,
Provokes our fear, and bids us flee the brake:
The fting once drawn, his guiltless beauties rife
In pleasing luftre, and detain our eyes ;

We view with joy, what once did horror move,
And strong averfion foftens into love.

Say then, my Mufe, whom difmal fcenes delight,
Frequent at tombs, and in the realms of night;
Say, melancholy maid, if bold to dare

The last extremes of terror and despair;

Oh fay, what change on earth, what heart in man,
This blackest moment fince the world began.

Ah mournful turn! the blissful earth, who late
At leifure on her axle roll'd in state;
While thousand golden planets knew no reft,
Still onward in their circling journey prest;
A grateful change of seasons some to bring,
And sweet viciffitude of fall and fpring :
Some through vaft oceans to conduct the keel,

And fome thofe watery worlds to fink, or fwell :
Around her fome their fplendors to difplay,

And gild her globe with tributary day:
This world fo great, of joy the bright abode,

140

145

150

155

Heaven's darling child, and favourite of her God, 160
Now looks an exile from her Father's care,

Deliver'd o'er to darkness and despair.
No fun in radiant glory fhines on high;

No light, but from the terrors of the sky:

Fall'n are her mountains, her fam'd rivers loft,
And all into a second chaos toft :

165