As of a clamouring multitude enrag'd, The dash of floods, and hollow howl of winds Through wintery woods or cavern'd ruins heard, Rise from the distant depth where uproar reigns. Anon, with black eruption, from its jaws, A night of smoke, thick-driving, wave on wave, In stormy flow, and cloud involving cloud, Rolls surging forth, extinguishing the day; With vollied sparkles mix'd, and whirling drifts Of stones and cinders rattling up the air. Instant, in one broad burst, a stream of fire, Red-issuing, floods the hemisphere around. Nor pause, nor rest; again the mountain groans, Amazing, from its inmost cavern shook : Again, with loudening rage, intensely fierce, Disgorges pyramids of quivering flame, Spire after spire enormous, and torn rocks, Flung out in thundering ruins to the sky.
But see, in second pangs, the roaring hill From forth its depth a cloudy pillar shoots, Gradual and vast, in one ascending trunk Of length immense, heav'd by the force of fire, On its own base direct, aloft in air, Beyond the soaring eagle's sunward flight. Still as it swells, through all the dark extent, With wonder seen! ten thousand lightnings play In flash'd vibrations; and from height to height Incessant thunders roar. No longer now Protruded by the explosive breath below, At once the shadowy summit breaks away To all sides round, in billows broad and black, As of a turbid ocean stirr'd by winds, A vapoury deluge hiding Earth and Heaven.
Thus all day long and now the beamless Sun Sets as in blood. A dreadful pause ensues; Deceitful calm, portending fiercer storm. Sad Night at once, with all her deep-dy'd shades, Falls back and boundless o'er the scene.
And terrour rule the hour. Behold, from far, Imploring Heaven with supplicating hands And streaming eyes, in mute amazement fix'd, Yon peopled city stands; each sadden'd face Turn'd toward the hill of fears: and hark! once
The rising tempest shakes its sounding vaults, Now faint in distant murmurs, now more near Rebounding horrible, with all the roar
Of winds and seas, or engines big with death, That, planted by the murderous hand of War To shake the round of some proud capital, At once disploded, in one bursting peal Their mortal thunders mix. Along the sky, From east to south, a ruddy hill of smoke Extends its ridge, with dismal light inflam'd, Meanwhile, the fluid lake that works below, Bitumen, sulphur, salt, and iron-scum, Heaves up its boiling tide. The labouring mount Is torn with agonizing throes-at once, Forth from its side disparted, blazing pours A mighty river, burning in prone waves, That glimmer through the night, to yonder plain. Divided there, a hundred torrent-streams, Each ploughing up its bed, roll dreadful on, Resistless. Villages, and woods, and rocks, Fall flat before their sweep. The region round, Where myrtle walks and groves of golden fruit Rose fair, where harvest wav'd in all its pride, And where the vineyard spread her purple store, Maturing into nectar, now despoil'd
Of herb, leaf, fruit, and flower, from end to end Lies buried under fire, a glowing sea!
Thus roaming with adventurous wing the globe, From scene to scene excursive, I behold In all her workings, beauteous, great, or new, Fair Nature, and in all with wonder trace The sovereign Maker, first, supreme, and best, Who actuates the whole: at whose command, Obedient fire and flood tremendous rise, His ministers of vengeance, to reprove, And scourge the nations. Holy are his ways, His works unnumber'd, and to all proclaim Unfathom'd wisdom, goodness unconfin'd.
ENDLESS the wonders of creating power,
On Earth, but chief on high through Heaven display'd.
There shines the full magnificence unveil'd Of Majesty divine: refulgent there
Ten thousand suns blaze forth, with each his train Of worlds dependent, all bencath the eye And equal rule of one eternal Lord. To those bright climes, awakening all her powers, And spreading her unbounded wing, the Muse Ascending soars on, through the fluid space, The buoyant atmosphere; whose vivid breath, Soul of all sublunary life, pervades
The realms of Nature, to her inmost depths Diffus'd with quickening energy. Now still, From pole to pole th' aërial ocean sleeps, One limpid vacancy: now rous'd to rage By blustering meteors, wind, hail, rain, or cloud With thunderous fury charg'd, its billows rise, And shake the nether orb. Still as I mount, A path the vulture's-eye hath not observ'd, Nor foot of eagle trod, th' ethereal sphere Receding flies approach; its circling arch, Alike remote, translucent, and serene. Glorious expansion! by th' Almighty spread, Whose limits who hath seen! or who with him Hath walk'd the sun-pav'd circuit from old time, And visited the host of Heaven around!
Gleaming a borrow'd light, whence how small The speck of Earth, and dim air circumfus'd! Mutable region, vext with hourly change. But here, unruffled Calm her even reign Maintains external: here the lord of day, The neighbouring Sun, shines out in all his strength, Noon without night. Attracted by his beam, I thither bend my flight, tracing the source Where morning springs; whence her innumerous
Flow lucid forth, and roll through trackless ways Their white waves o'er the sky. The fountain-orb, Dilating as I rise, beyond the ken
Of mortal eye, to which earth, ocean, air, Are but a central point, expands immense, A shoreless sea of fluctuating fire,
That deluges all ether with its tide.
What power is that, which to its circle bounds The violence of flame! in rapid whirls Conflicting, floods with floods, as if to leave Their place, and, bursting, overwhelm the world! Motion incredible! to which the rage
Of oceans, when whole winter blows at once In hurricane, is peace. But who shall tell
That radiance beyond measure, on the Sun Pour'd out transcendent! those keen-flashing rays Thrown round his state, and to yon worlds afar Supplying days and seasons, life and joy! Such virtue he, the Majesty of Heaven, Brightness original, all-bounteous king, Hath to his creature lent, and crown'd his sphere With matchless glory. Yet not all alike Resplendent in these liquid regions pure, Thick mists, condensing, darken into spots, And dim the day. Whence that malignant light, When Cæsar bled, which sadden'd all the year With long eclipse. Some at the centre rise In shady circles, like the Moon beheld From Earth, when she her unenlighten'd face Turns thitherward opaque: a space they brood In congregated clouds; then breaking float To all sides round.
Broad as Earth's surface each, by slow degrees Spread from the confines of the light along, Usurping half the sphere, and swim obscure On to its adverse coast; till there they set, Or vanish scatter'd: measuring thus the time, That round its axle whirls the radiant orb. Fairest of beings! first-created light! Prime cause of beauty! for from thee alone, The sparkling gem, the vegetable race, The nobler worlds that live and breathe, their The lovely hues peculiar to each tribe, [charms, From thy unfailing source of splendour draw! In thy pure sh ne, with transport I survey This firmament, and these her rolling worlds, Their magnitudes, and motions: those how vast! How rapid these! with swiftness unconceiv'd, From west to east in solemn pomp revolv'd, Unerring, undisturb'd; the Sun's bright train, Progressive through the sky's light fluent borne Around their centre. Mercury the first, Near bordering on the day, with speedy wheel Flies swiftest on, inflaming where he comes, With sevenfold splendour, all his azure road. Next Venus to the westward of the Sun, Full orb'd her face, a golden plain of light, Circles her larger round. Fair morning-star! That leads on dawning day to yonder world, The seat of man, hung in the heavens remote, Whose northern hemisphere, descending, sees The Sun arise; as through the zodiac roll'd, Full in the middle path oblique she winds Her annual orb: and by her side the Moon, Companion of her flight, whose solemn beams, Nocturnal, to her darken'd globe supply A softer day-light; whose attractive power Swells all her seas and oceans into tides, From the mid-deeps o'erflowing to their shores. Beyond the sphere of Mars, in distant skies, Revolves the mighty magnitude of Jove, With kingly state, the rival of the Sun. About him round, four planetary moons, On Earth with wonder all night long beheld, Moon above moon, his fair attendants, dance, These, in th' horizon, slow-ascending climb The steep of Heaven, and, mingling in soft flow Their silver radiance, brighten as they rise. Those opposite roll downward from their noon To where the shade of Jove, outstretch'd in length A dusky cone immense, darkens the sky Through many a region. To these bounds arriv'd, A gradual pale creeps dim o'er each sad orb, Fading their lustre; till they sink involv'd
In total night, and disappear eclips'd. By this, the sage, who, studious of the skies, Heedful explores these late-discover'd worlds, By this observ'd, the rapid progress finds Of light itself: how swift the headlong ray Shoots from the Sun's height through unbounded space,
At once enlightening air, and Earth and Heaven. Last, outmost Saturn walks his frontier-round, The boundary of worlds; with his pale moons, Faint-glimmering through the darkness night has thrown,
Deep-dy'd and dead, o'er this chill globe forlorn: An endless desert, where extreme of cold Eternal sits, as in his native seat,
On wintry hills of never-thawing ice!
Such Saturn's earth; and yet ev'n here the sight, Amid these doleful scenes, new matter finds Of wonder and delight! a mighty ring, On each side rising from th' horizon's verge, Self-pois'd in air, with its bright circle round As night comes on, Encompasseth his orb. Saturn's broad shade, cast on its eastern arch, Climbs slowly to its height: and at th' approach Of morn returning, with like stealthy pace Draws westward off; till through the lucid round, In distant view th' illumin'd skies are seen.
Beauteous appearance! by th' Almighty's hand Peculiar fashion'd.-Thine these noble works, Great, universal Ruler! Earth and Heaven Are thine, spontaneous offspring of thy will, Seen with transcendent ravishment sublime, That lifts the soul to thee! a holy joy, By reason prompted, and by reason swell'd Beyond all height-for thou art infinite! Thy virtual energy the frame of things Pervading actuates: as at first thy hand Diffus'd through endless space this limpid sky, Vast ocean without storm, where these huge globes Sail undisturb'd, a rounding voyage each; Observant all of one unchanging law. Siniplicity divine! by this sole rule, The Maker's great establishment, these worlds Revolve harmonious, world attracting world With mutual love, and to their central Sun. All gravitating: now with quicken'd pace Descending tow'rd the primal orb, and now Receding slow, excursive from his bounds.
This spring of motion, this hid power infus'd Through universal nature, first was known To thee, great Newton! Britain's justest pride, The boast of human race; whose towering thought, In her amazing progress unconfin'd, From truth to truth ascending, gain'd the height Of science, whither mankind from afar Gaze up astonish'd. Now beyond that height, By death from frail mortality set free, A pure intelligence he wings his way Through wondrous scenes, new-open'd in the world Invisible, amid the general quire
Of saints and angels, rapt with joy divine, Which fills, o'erflows, and ravishes the soul! His mind's clear vision from all darkness purg'd, For God himself shines forth immediate there, Through those eternal climes, the frame of things, In its ideal barmony, to him Stands all reveal'd.—
But how shall mortal wing Attempt this blue profundity of Heaven, Unfathomable, endless of extent!
Where unknown suns to unknown systems rise, Whose numbers who shall tell? stupendous host! In flaming millions through the vacant hung, Sun beyond sun, and world to world unseen, Measureless distance, unconceiv'd by thought! Awful their order; each the central fire
Of his surrounding stars, whose whirling speed, Solemn and silent, through the pathless void, Nor-change, nor errour knows. But, their ways, By reason, bold adventurer, unexplor'd, Instructed can declare! What search shall find Their times and seasons! their appointed laws, Peculiar! their inhabitants of life,
And of intelligence, from scale to scale Harmonious rising and in fix'd degree; Numberless orders, each resembling each,
Yet all diverse!-Tremendous depth and height Of wisdom and of power, that this great whole Fram'd inexpressible, and still preserves, An infinite of wonders!-Thou, supreme, First, Independent Cause, whose presence fills Nature's vast circle, and whose pleasțire moves, Father of human kind! the Muse's wing Sustaining guide, while to the heights of Heaven, Roaming th' interminable vast of space, She rises, tracing thy almighty hand In its dread operations. Where is now
The seat of mankind, Earth? where her great scenes Of wars and triumphs? empires fam'd of old, Assyrian, Roman? or of later name, Peruvian, Mexican, in that new world, Beyond the wide Atlantic, late disclos'd?
Incredible to tell! thick, vapoury mists, From every shore exhaling, mix obscure Innumerable clouds, dispreading slow,
And deepening shade on shade; till the faint globe, Mournful of aspect, calls in all his beams. Millions of lives, that live but in his light, With horrour see, from distant spheres around, The source of day expire, and all his worlds At once involv'd in everlasting night!
Such this dread revolution: Heaven itself, Subject to change, so feels the waste of years. So this cerulian round, the work divine
Of God's own hand, shall fade; and empty night Reign solitary, where these stars now roll From west to east their periods: where the train Of comets wander their eccentric ways, With infinite excursion, through th' immense Of ether, traversing from sky to sky
Ten thousand regions in their winding road, Whose length to trace imagination fails! Various their paths; without resistance all Through these free spaces borne: of various face; Enkindled this with beams of angry light, Shot circling from its orb in sanguine showers: That, through the shade of night, projecting huge, In horrid trail, a spire of dusky flame, Embody'd mists and vapours, whose fir'd mass Keen vibrates, streaming a red length of air. While distant orbs, with wonder and amaze, Mark its approach, and night by night alarm'd Its dreaded progress watch, as of a foe Whose march is ever fatal; in whose train
Where is their place?-Let proud Ambition pause, Famine, and War, and desolating Plague,
And sicken at the vanity that prompts
His little deeds-With Earth, those nearer orbs, Surrounding planets, late so glorious seen, And each a world, are now for sight too small; Are almost lost to thought. The Sun himself, Ocean of flame, but twinkles from afar, A glimmering star amid the train of night! While in these deep abysses of the sky, Spaces incomprehensible, new suns,
Each on his pale horse rides; the ministers Of angry Heaven, to scourge offending worlds!
But lo! where one, from some far world return'd, Shines out with sudden glare through yonder sky, Region of darkness, where a Sun's lost globe, Deep overwhelm'd with night, extinguish'd lies. By some hid power attracted from his path, Fearful commotion! into that dusk tract, The devious comet, steep descending, falls
Crown'd with unborrow'd beams, illustrious shine; With all his flames, rekindling into life
Arcturus here, and here the Pleiades,
Amid the northern host: nor with less state, At sumless distance, huge Orion's orbs, Each in his sphere refulgent, and the noon Of Syrius, burning through the south of Heaven. Myriads beyond, with blended rays, inflame The milky way, whose stream of vivid light, Pour'd from innumerable fountains round, Flows trembling, wave on wave, from sun to sun, And whitens the long path to Heaven's extreme: Distinguish'd tract! But as with upward flight, Soaring, I gain th' immensurable steep, Contiguous stars, in bright profusion sown Through these wide fields, all broaden into suns, Amazing, sever'd each by gulfs of air, In circuit ample as the solar heavens.
From this dread eminence, where endless day, Day without cloud abides, alone and fill'd With holy horrour, trembling I survey
Now downward through the universal sphere Already past; now up to the heights untry'd, And of th' enlarging prospect find no bound! About me on each hand new wonders rise In long succession; here pure scenes of light, Dazzling the view; here nameless worlds afar, Yet undiscover'd: there a dying Sun,
Grown dim with age, whose orb of flame extinct,
Th' exhausted orb: and swift a flood of light Breaks forth diffusive through the gloom, and spreads In orient streams to his fair train afar Of moving fires, from night's dominion won, And wondering at the morn's unhop'd return. In still amazement lost, th' awaken'd mind Contemplates this great view, a Sun restor'd With all his worlds! while thus at large her flight Ranges these untrac'd scenes, progressive borne Far through ethereal ground, the boundless walk Of spirits, daily travellers from Heaven; Who pass the mystic gulf to journey here, Searching th' Almighty Maker in his works From worlds to worlds, and, in triumphant quire Of voice and harp, extolling his high praise.
Immortal natures! cloth'd with brightness round, Empyreal, from the source of light effus'd, More orient than the noon-day's stainless beam. Their will unerring; their affections pure, And glowing fervent warmth of love divine, Whose object God alone: for all things else, Created beauty, and created good, Illusive all, can harm the soul no more. Sublime their intellect, and without spot, Enlarg'd to draw Truth's endless prospect in, Ineffable, eternity and time;
The train of beings, all by gradual scale
Descending, sumless orders and degrees; Th' unsounded depth, which mortals dare not try, Of God's perfections; how these heavens first sprung From unprolific night; how mov'd and rul'd In number, weight, and measure; what hid laws, Inexplicable, guide the moral world,
Active as flame, with prompt obedience all The will Heaven fulfil: some his fierce wrath Bear through the nations, pestilence and war: His copious goodness some, life, light, and bliss, To thousands. Some the fate of empires rule, Commission'd, sheltering with their guardian wings The pious monarch, and the legal throne.
Nor is the sovereign, nor th' illustrious great, Alone their care. To every lessening rank Of worth propitious, these blest minds embrace With universal love the just and good, Wherever found; unpriz'd, perhaps unknown, Deprest by fortune, and with hate pursued, Or insult from the proud oppressor's brow. Yet dear to Heaven, and meriting the watch Of angels o'er his unambitious walk, At morn or eve, when Nature's fairest face, Calmly magnificent, inspires the soul With virtuous raptures, prompting to forsake The sin-born vanities, and low pursuits, That busy human kind; to view their ways With pity; to repay, for numerous wrongs, Meekness and charity. Or, rais'd aloft, Fir'd with ethereal ardour, to survey The circuit of creation, all these suns With all their worlds: and still from height to By things created rising, last ascend To that First Cause, who made, who governs all, Fountain of being, self-existent power, All-wise, all-good, who from eternal age Endures, and fills th' immensity of space; That infinite diffusion, where the mind Conceives no limits; undistinguish'd void, Invariable, where no land-marks are, No paths to guide Imagination's flight.
ADDRESSED TO THE EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.
THE following poem was originally intended for the stage, and planned out, several years ago, into a regular tragedy. But the author found it necessary to change his first design, and to give his work the form it now appears in; for reasons with which it might be impertinent to trouble the public: though, to a man who thinks and feels in a certain manner, those reasons were invincibly strong.
As the scene of the piece is laid in the most remote and unfrequented of all the Hebrides, or western isles that surround one part of Great Britain; it may not be improper to inform the reader, that he will find a particular account of it, in a little treatise published near half a century
ago, under the title of a Voyage to St. Kilda. The author, who had himself been upon the spot, describes at length the situation, extent, and produce of that solitary island; sketches out the natural history of the birds of season that transmigrate thither annually, and relates the singular customs that still prevailed among the inhabitants: a race of people then the most uncorrupted in their manners, and therefore the least unhappy in their lives, of any, perhaps, on the face of the whole Earth. To whom might have been applied what an ancient historian says of certain barbarous nations, when he compares them with their more civilized neighbours plus valuit apud hos ignorantia vitiorum, quam apud Græcos omnia philosophorum præcepta.
They live together, as in the greatest simplicity of heart, so in the most inviolable harmony and union of sentiments. They have neither silver nor gold; but barter among themselves for the few necessaries they may reciprocally want. To strangers they are extremely hospitable, and no less charitable to their own poor; for whose relief each family in the island contributes its share monthly, and at every festival sends them besides a portion of mutton or beef. Both sexes have a genius to poetry; and compose not only songs, but picces of a more elevated turn, in their own language, which is very emphatical. One of those islanders, having been prevailed with to visit the greatest trading town in North Britain, was infinitely astonished at the length of the voyage, and at the mighty kingdoms, for such he reckoned the larger isles, by which they sailed. He would not venture himself into the streets of that city without being led by the hand. At sight of the great church, he owned that it was indeed a lofty rock; but insisted that, in his native country of St. Kilda, there were others still higher. However the caverns formed in it, so he named the pillars and arches on which it is raised, were hollowed, he said, more commodiously than any he had ever seen there. At the shake occasioned in the steeple, and the horrible din that sounded in his ears upon tolling out the great bells, he appeared under the utmost consternation, believing the frame of nature was falling to pieces about him. He thought the persons who wore masks, not distinguishing whether they were men or women, had been guilty of some ill thing, for which they did not dare to show their faces. The beauty and stateliness of the trees which he saw then for the first time, as in his own island there grows not a shrub, equally surprised and delighted him: but he observed, with a kind of terrour, that as he passed among their branches, they pulled him back again. He had been persuaded to drink a pretty large dose of strong waters; and upon finding himself drowsy after it, and ready to fall into a slumber, which he fancied was to be his last, he expressed to his companions the great satisfaction he felt in so easy a passage out of this world: for, said he, it is attended with no kind of pain.
Among such sort of men it was that Aurelius sought refuge from the violence and cruelty of his enemies.
The time appears to have been towards the latter part of the reign of king Charles the Second: when those who governed Scotland under him, with no less cruelty than impolicy, made the people of that country desperate; and then plundered,
imprisoned, or butchered them, for the natural | To thousand nations deals her nectar'd cup Of pleasing bane, that soothes at once and kills, Is yet a name unknown. But calm Content That lives to reason; ancient Faith that binds The plain community of guileless hearts In love and union; Innocence of ill Their guardian genius: these, the powers that rule This little world, to all its sons secure
effects of such despair. The best and worthiest men were oft the objects of their most unrelenting fury. Under the title of fanatics, or seditious, they affected to herd, and of course persecuted, whoever wished well to his country, or ventured to stand up in defence of the laws and a legal govern- ment. I have now in my hands the copy of a warrant, signed by king Charles himself, for mili-Man's happiest life; the soul serene and sound tary execution upon them without process or con- viction and I know that the original is still kept in the secretary's office for that part of the united kingdom. Thus much I thought it necessary to say, that the reader may not be misled to look upon the relation given by Aurelius in the second canto, as drawn from the wantonness of imagina-For food or pastime. These light up their morn, tion, when it hardly arises to strict historical truth. What reception this poem may meet with, the author cannot foresee; and, in his humble, but happy retirement, he needs not be over anxious to know. He has endeavoured to make it one regular and consistent whole; to be true to nature in his thoughts, and to the genius of the language in his manner of expressing them. If he has succeeded in these points, but above all in effectually touch- ing the passions, which, as it is the genuine pro- vince, so is it the great triumph, of poetry; the candour of his more discerning readers will readily overlook mistakes or failures in things of less im- portance.
Taou faithful partner of a heart thy own, Whose pain, or pleasure, springs from thine alone; Thou, true as Honour, as Compassion kind, That, in sweet union, harmonize thy mind: Here, while thy eyes, for sad Amyntor's woe, And Theodora's wreck, with tears o'erflow,
O may thy friend's warm wish to Heaven preferr'd For thee, for him, by gracious Heaven be heard! So her fair hour of fortune shall be thine, Unmix'd; and all Amyntor's fondness mine. So, through long vernal life, with blended ray, Shall Love light up, and Friendship close our day: Till, summon'd late this lower heaven to leave, One sigh shall end us, and one earth receive.
AMYNTOR AND THEODORA : OR, THE HERMIT. CANTO I.
FAR in the watery waste, where his broad wave From world to world the vast Atlantic rolls, Or from the piny shores of Labrador To frozen Thule east, her airy height Aloft to Heaven remotest Kilda lifts; Last of the sea-girt Hebrides, that guard, In filial train, Britannia's parent-coast.
Thrice happy land! though freezing on the verge Of arctic skies; yet, blameless still of arts That polish to deprave, each softer clime, With simple Nature, simple Virtue blest! Beyond Ambition's walk: where never War Uprear'd his sanguine standard; nor unsheath'd For wealth or power, the desolating sword. Where Luxury, soft syren, who around
From passion's rage, the body from disease. Red on each cheek behold the rose of health; Firm in each sinew vigour's pliant spring; By temperance brac'd to peril and to pain, Amid the floods they stem, or on the steep Of upright rocks their straining steps surmount, And close their eve in slumbers sweetly deep, Beneath the north, within the circling swell Of Ocean's raging sound. But last and best, What Avarice, what Ambition shall not know, True Liberty is theirs, the heaven-sent guest, Who in the cave, or on th' uncultur'd wild, With Independence dwells; and Peace of mind, In youth, in age, their sun that never sets.
Daughter of Heaven and Nature, deign thy aid, Spontaneous Muse! O, whether from the depth Of evening forest, brown with broadest shade; Or from the brow sublime of vernal alp As morning dawns; or from the vale at noon, By some soft stream that slides with liquid foot Through bowery groves, where Inspiration sits And listens to thy lore, auspicious come! O'er these wild waves, o'er this unharbour'd shore, Thy wing high-hovering spread; and to the gale, The boreal spirit breathing liberal round From echoing hill to hill, the lyre attune With answering cadence free, as best beseems The tragic theme my plaintive verse unfolds.
Here, good Aurelius-and a scene more wild The world around, or deeper solitude, Affliction could not find-Aurelius here, By fate unequal and the crime of war Expell'd his native home, the sacred vale That saw him blest, now wretched and unknown, Wore out the slow remains of setting life In bitterness of thought: and with the surge, And with the sounding storm, his murmur'd moan Would often mix-oft as remembrance sad Th' unhappy past recall'd; a faithful wife, Whom Love first chose, whom Reason long endear'd, His soul's companion, and his softer friend; With one fair daughter, in her rosy prime, Her dawn of opening charms, defenceless left Within a tyrant's grasp! his foe profess'd, By civil madness, by intemperate zeal For differing rites, embitter'd into hate, And cruelty remorseless!-Thus he liv'd: If this was life, to load the blast with sighs; Hung o'er its edge, to swell the flood with tears, At midnight hour: for midnight frequent heard The lonely mourner, desolate of heart, Pour all the husband, all the father forth In unavailing anguish; stretch'd along The naked beach; or shivering on the clift, Smote with the wintry pole in bitter storm, Hail, snow, 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 sorrow long has wak'd, the weeping eye, And from the brain, with baleful vapours black,
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