Pour all the husband, all the father forth
In unavailing anguish, ftretch'd along
The naked beach, or fhiv'ring on the cliff,
Smote with the wint'ry pole in bitter ftorm,
Hail, fnow, and fhow'r, dark-drifting round his head!
Such were his hours, till time, the wretch's friend,
Life's great phyfician, fkill'd alone to close,
Where forrow long has wak'd, the weeping eye,
And from the brain, with baleful vapours black,
Each fullen spectre chase, his balm at length,
Lenient of pain, thro' every fever'd pulfe
With gentleft hand infus'd. A penfive calm
Arofe, but unaffur'd; as after winds.
Of ruffling wing the fea fubfiding flow
· Still trembles from the ftorm.
Her throne resuming, bid Devotion raise
To heav'n his eye, and thro' the turbid mists,
By fenfe dark-drawn between, adoring own,
Sole arbiter of fate, one Caufe Supreme,
All-juft, All-wife, who bids what ftill is beft
In cloud or funshine; whofe fevereft hand
Wounds but to heal, and chaftens to amend.
Thus in his bofom, ev'ry weak excess,
The rage of grief, the fellnefs of revenge,
To healthful measure temper'd and reduc'd
By Virtue's hand, and in her bright'ning beam'
Each error clear'd away, as fen-born fogs
Before th' afcending fun; thro' faith he lives.
Beyond Time's bounded continent, the walks
Of Sin and Death: anticipating heav'n
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 diffufive fpring,
That fears no ftorm, and fhall no winter know,
Th' immortal year empurples. If a figh
Yet murmurs from his breast, 'tis for the pangs
Those dearest names, a wife, a child, must feel,
Still fuff'ring in his fate; 'tis for a foe,
Who, deaf himself to mercy, may of Heav'n
That mercy, when most wanted, ask in vain.
The fun, now station'd with the lucid Twins,
O'er ev'ry fouthern clime had pour'd profuse
The rofy year, and in each pleasing hue
That greens the leaf, or thro' the bloffom glows
With florid light, his fairest month array'd;
While Zephyr, 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
ray ethereal, or unhail'd the rife
Of her mild reign. From warbling vale and hill,
With wild thyme flow'ring, betony and balm,
Blue lavender, and carmel's spicy root *,
Song, fragrance, health, ambrosiate ev'ry breeze.
But high above, the season full exerts
It's 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 aerial state
voyage
Annual to found, and in bold
O'er this wide ocean, thro' yon pathlefs sky,
One certain flight to one appointed shore,
By Heav'n's directive spirit here to raise
Their temporary realm, and form fecure,
The root of this plant, otherwife named argatilis fylvaticus, is aromatick, and by the natives reckoned cordial to the ftomach. See Martin's Weftern Ifies of Scotland, p. 180.
Where food awaits them copious from the wave,
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, piously 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 scene in air,
With wonder mark'd; now caft with level ray
Wide o'er the moving wilderness of waves,
From pole to pole thro' boundless space diffus'd,
Magnificently dreadful! where at large
Leviathan, with each inferior name
Of fea-born kinds, ten thousand thousand tribes,
Finds endless range for pafture and for sport.
Amaz'd he gazes, and adoring owns
The Hand Almighty, who it's channell❜d bed
Immeasurable funk, and pour'd abroad,
Fenc'd with eternal mounds the fluid fphere,
With ev'ry wind to waft large commerce on,
Join pole to pole, consociate fever'd worlds,
And link in bonds of intercourse and love
Earth's univerfal family. Now rofe
Sweet ev'ning's folemn hours the fun declin'd
Hung golden o'er this nether firmament,
Whose broad cerulean mirror, calmly bright,
Gave back his beamy vifage to the sky
With fplendour undiminish'd, and each cloud,
White, azure, purple, glowing round his throne
In fair aerial landscape. Here, alone,
On earth's remoteft verge Aurelius breath'd
The healthful gale, and felt the smiling scene
With awe-mix'd pleasure mufing as he hung
In filence o'er the billows hush'd beneath;
When, lo! a found amid the wave-worn rocks,
Deaf-murmuring rose, and plaintive roll'd along
From cliff to cavern, as the breath of winds,
At twilight hour, remote and hollow heard
Thro' wintry pines high waving o'er the steep
Of sky-crown'd Apenine: the fea-pie ceas'd
At once to warble; screaming from his neft
The fulmar foar'd, and shot a westward flight
From fhore to fea; on came, before her hour,
Invading Night, and hung the troubled fky
With fearful blackness round *; fad Ocean's face'
A curling undulation shiv'ry swept
From wave to wave; and now impetuous rofe
Thick cloud and ftorm, and ruin on his wing,
The raging South, and headlong o'er the deep
Fell horrible, with broad defcending blaft.
Aloft, and fafe beneath a shelt'ring cliff,
Whose mofs-grown fummit on the distant flood
Projected frowns, Aurelius ftood appall❜d,
His stunn'd ear smote with all the thund'ring main,
His eye with mountains furging to the stars,
Commotion infinite! Where yon laft wave
Blends with the fky it's foam, a fhip in view
Shoots fudden forth, steep-falling from the clouds,
Yet diftant feen and dim, till onward borne
Before the blat, each growing fail expands,
Each maft afpires, and all th' advancing frame
Bounds on his eye diftinet: with fharpen'd ken
It's courfe he watches, and in awful thought
That Pow'r invokes whofe voice the wild winds hear,
Whofe nod the furge reveres, to look from heav'n,
And fave who elfe muft perish, wretched men,
In this dark hour, amid the dread abyss,
With fears amaz'd, by horrors compafs'd round!
But, O ill-omen'd, death-devoted heads !
* See Martip's Voyage to St. Kilda, p. 58.
For Death beftrides the billow, nor your own
Nor others offer'd vows can stay the flight
Of inftant Fate. And, lo! his fecret feat,
Where never fun-beam glimmer'd, deep amidst
A cavern's jaws voraginous and vaft,
The ftormy Genius of the deep forfakes,
And o'er the waves, that roar beneath his frown,
Afcending baleful, bids the tempeft fpread,
Turbid and terrible with hail and rain,
It's blackest pinion, pour it's loud'ning blafts
In whirlwind forth, and from their lowest depth
Upturn the world of waters. Round and round
The tortur'd ship, at his imperious call,
Is wheel'd in dizzy whirl; her guiding helm
Breaks fhort; her mafts in crafhing ruin fall,
And each rent fail flies loofe in diftant air.
Now, fearful moment! o'er the found'ring hull
Half ocean heav'd, in one broad billowy curve
Steep from the clouds with horrid shade impends-
Ah! fave them, Heav'n! it burfts in deluge down
With boundless undulation! fhore and sky
Rebellow to the roar: at once ingulph'd,
Veffel and crew beneath it's torrent sweep
Are funk, to rife no more! Aurelius wept ;
The tear unbidden dew'd his hoary cheek:
He turn'd his ftep; he fled the fatal scene,
And brooding in fad filence o'er the fight
To him alone discloss'd, his wounded heart
Pour'd out to Heav'n in fighs: Thy will be done,
Not mine, Supreme Difpofer of Events!
But death demands a tear, and man must feel
For human woes: the reft fubmiffion checks.'
Not distant far, where this receding bay *
Looks northward on the pole, a rocky arch
See Martin's Voyage to St. Kilda, p. 201
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