"That hour is come, when GOD himself shall rise, "Sublime in wrath, and rend the burning fkies; 56 "Arreft the boundless planets as they roll,

"And burst the labouring earth from pole to pole; "Bid hell's remote dominions hear and shake,

« While Nature finks, and all the dead awake." 60

WARM'D as he spoke, I felt th' enliv'ning ray;'

Then loos'd from earth, triumphing foar'd

away:

We mount at once, and, lighter than the wind,
Left, as we flew, the distant clouds behind.
Then far remov'd beheld th' abodes below,
And wait in deep fufpenfe th' impending blow.

65

Now o'er the brightning eaft Aurora spread, And ting'd the blushing cloud with morning red; The hill's proud fummit caught the waving gleam: The pale ray trembled on the quiv'ring stream; 70 Then opening gradual from the fhades of night The cloud-topt foreft fhone with dawning light, Serene the beauteous landscape rose to view, The mead's green mantle wet with fpangling dew, The gay-rob'd flow'rs that glow'd with heighten'd

bloom,

And bow'ring dales, and groves that breath'd perfume.

75

So

So when the Tempest's sweepy blaft is o'er,
Nor bursts the rushing wind, nor prattling show'r:
No hov'ring mist obscures th' emerging day,
Wide o'er the profpect pours the streamy ray; 80
A fresher cloud the dewy fields exhale,

With richer fragrance blows the balmy gale;
The echoing hills with louder notes rebound,
And all th' illumin'd landscape rings around.
Charm'd and furpriz'd we faw the fair abode,
The plains with beauty's flow'ry offspring ftrow'd,
Beheld the city's distant spires arise,

Or tow'r's dim top that touch'd the bending skies;
Or view'd the wild, with trackless paths o'ercaft,
Where roams the lion thro' the naked waste;
Or penfive, ey'd the folitary pile

85

99

Where flits the night-bird thro' the glimm'ring ifle: Struck deep with woe, we mark'd the domes o'er

thrown

Where once the Beauty bloom'd, the Warrior shone;
We faw Palmyra's mould'ring tow'rs decay'd, 95
The loose wall tott'ring o'er the trembling shade!
Or fall'n Persepolis that desert lay!

Or Balbec's fanes that catch'd the quiv'ring ray!
Vain pomp of pow'r!-now in the throne of kings
Shrieks the 'lone owl, the raven shakes her wings. 109

THEN

THEN o'er the boundless deeps our eyes were roll'd,
The waves all brightning flam'd with beamy gold.
Here mov'd in gradual rows the billows heave,
There on the rough rock foams the madning wave,
Or dash the torrents down the cliff's fteep fide, 105
Or thro' the cavern fweeps the rushing tide;
We mark'd the river's long majestic train,

And ftreams that murmur'd o'er the flow'ry plain;
The lake whofe waves with lucid radiance glow,
Not finer tints imprefs the fhow'ry bow,
The fountain bubbling thro' the moss-clad hill,
And wand'ring wild the sweetly-tinkling rill.

THEN o'er the champain's broider'd lawns we ftray, Where gaily warbling thrill'd the wood-land lay, Survey'd with rapture all th' inviting scene, The vary'd landscape, and the vivid green';

115

A charming train of all the mufes themes,
Gay meads, and pointed rocks, and purling streams;
Hills, vales, and woods in fweet diforder fpread,

And blooming fields in all, their pomp difplay'd. 120
Still at each look (amid the countless store)
We mark'd fome feature unobferv'd before;
As in the cheek with opening roses warm,
Each piercing glance improves the growing charm."

THEN

THEN fighing deep, diftracted at the view, "Adieu, I cry'd, ye blissful scenes adieu ! "That Sun must cease to gild the flow'ry plain : "The Moon be loft, with all the starry train:

125

Plung'd in one fire, each mighty frame confume, " 'Tis God, th' Eternal God has feal'd their doom."

135

Lo! at the word (each tranfient ray withdrawn) A low'ring cloud at once o'ercaft the dawn: 132 From its dark breaft, with fwelling tempefts ftor'd; Pale lightning flash'd, and dreadful thunder roar'd. Earth's glowing bofom felt a fudden wound, And strong convulfions rent the opening ground; The rapid Whirlwind with impetuous sweep Burfts from its vaults, and rais'd the labouring deep; Rocks, cities, ftreams at once its wond'rous It swept the woods, and bore the hills away.

prey,

140

Thus, when Olympus fhook with loud alarms,
*When all th' angelick hofts appear'd in arms,
Each adverse legion stood unmov'd with fear,
Each God-like Cherub wav'd a flaming spear;
Hills, forefts, rocks their mutual rage fupply,
They flung th' enormous mountains thro' the sky;
From the deep earth th' exalted cedars tore,

And buried Nature in the wild uproar.

C

145

BUT

When all th' angelic host, &c. See MILTON's battle of the angels. Book V1.

BUT now, with terror rifing on the fight,
* A burning Comet flash'd unusual light.
Quick as the wind, the wing'd deftruction came
O'er all the void, and drew a length of flame;
Shap'd thro' the parting clouds its dreadful way,
And pour'd on earth intolerable day.
At once the cave its inmost void displays;
The waving forefts catch the spreading blaze;
The earth no more its central fire contains,
It rag'd and fwell'd refiftless o'er the plains.

Now in a broader range the deluge raves,
And rolls triumphant thro' the boiling waves;
O'er all the hills the rifing flames afpire,

150

155

160

The Mountains blaze, a mighty ridge of fire!
Where ftood the fnow-crown'd Alps (an awful name!)
Now roll'd the doubling smoke, and spiry flame;

* A burning Comet, &c.] That the general conflagration will be effected by the near approach of a comet to the fun, is at least a probable fuppofition; and probability, in a subject of this kind, is the utmoft that can be expected. The atmosphere of thofe irregular bodies, (which the learned have been fo much puzzled to account for) is, by the obfervations of the most curious, thought to confit of a continual efflux of fmoak, rifing at first to a determinate height from

While

all parts of the comets themselves, and then making off to that which is oppofite to the fun. It would feem reasonable from this to conclude, that the conflagration muft neceffarily be a confequence of fuppofing the earth involved in this atmosphere, if we take in the prodigious quantity of fire lodged in its own cavities-But is not the account ftill more credible, when we add to these the action of the fun, which in this conjunction will be doubly intenfe?