" That sweet recess, where Love and Virtue long
* In happy league had dwelt, which war itself

280
• Beheld with rev’rence, could their fury 'scape;
• Despoil'd, defac'd, and wrapp'd in wasteful flames:
• For flame and rapine their consuming march
• From hill to vale by daily ruin mark'd.
So, borne by winds along, in baleful cloud,

a85
Embody'd locusts from the wing defcend
« On herb, fruit, flow'r, and kill the rip'ning year i
• While, waste behind, deitruction on their track
* And ghastly famine wait. My wife and child
• He dragg'd, the ruffian dragg'd-O Heav'n! do I, 290
• A man, survive to tell it! At the hour
• Sacred to rest, amid the sighs and tears
. Of all who saw and curs'd his coward

rage,
• He forc’d, unpitying, from their midnight-bed,
By menace, or by torture, from their fears

295
My last retreat to learn, and fill detains
• Beneath his roof accurs'd, that beft of wives,
• Emilia ! and our only pledge of love,

My blooming Theodora !Manhood there
· And nature bleed.Ah! let not busy thought

300
• Search thither, but avoid the fatal coast :
• Discov'ry there, once more my peace of mind

Might wreck, once more to defperation fink
My hopes in Heav'n!' He said: but, О fad Muse!
Can all thy moving energy of pow's

305
To shake the heart, to freeze th' arrested blood,
With words that weep, and strains that agonize ;
Can all this mournful magick of thy voice
Tell what Amyntor feels! Heav'n! art thou
• What have I heard ?--Aurelius! art thou he ?mer
• Confufion! horror!--that mot wrong'd of men !
• And, O moft wretched too!alas! no more,
• No more a father on that fatal flood
• Thy Theodora! At these words he fell;

A deadly

310 315

330

A deadly cold ran freezing thro' his veins,
And life was on the wing, her loath'd abode
For ever to forsake. As on his

way
The traveller, from heav'n by lightning struck,
Is fix'd at once immoveable, his eye
With terror glaring wild, his ftiff'ning limbs

320 In sudden marble bound; fo stood, so look’d,

;
The heart-smote parent at this tale of death,
Half utter'd, yet too plain ! No figh to rise,
No tear had force to flow; his senses all,
Thro’ all their pow'rs suspended, and subdu'd

325 To chill amazement.

Silence for a space
Such dismal silence saddens-earth and ky
Ere first the thunder break'son either side
Fill'd

up

this interval severe. At last,
As from some vision that to frenzy fires
The fleeper's brain, Amyntor waking wild,
A poniard, hid beneath his various robe,
Drew furious forth-Me, me!' he cry'd, on me
• Let all thy wrongs be visited, and thus
• My horrors end!'-then madly would have plung'd 335
The weapon's hostile point. His lifted arm
Aurelius, tho' with deep dismay, and dread,
And anguish thook, yet his superior soul
Collecting, and resuming all himself,
Seiz'd fudden; then perusing, with strict eye,

340
And beating heart, Amyntor's blooming form,
Nor from his air or feature gath'ring aught
To wake remembrance, thus at length bespoke :

• O dire attempt! who'er thou art, yet fay
Thy hand self-violent, nor thus to guilt,

345
If guilt is thine, accumulating add
! A crime that Nature shrinks from, and to which
• Heav'n has indulg'd no mercy., Sov'reign Judge !

Shall man first violate the law divine,
That plac'd him here dependent on thy nod,

350 • Refign'd,

355

360

365

• Refign'd, unmurm'ring, to await his hour
• Of fair dismission hence; shall man do this,

Then dare thy presence, rusli into thy fight,
• Red with the fin, and recent from the stain,
• Of unrepented blood! Call home thy fenfe ;
• Know what thou art, and own his hand most just
• Rewarding or afflicting. But, fay on :
. My foul, yet trembling at thy frantick deed,
• Recals thy words, recals their dire import;

They urge me on, they bid me ask no more.
• What would I ask? My Theodora's fate,

Ah, me! is known too plain. Have I then finn'd,
• Good Heav'n! beyond all grace! But shall I blame
" His rage of grief; and in myself admit
• It's wild excefs? Heav'n gave her to my wish;
• That gift Heav'n has resum'd; righteous in both :
* For both, his providence be ever bless'd!'

By shame repress'd, with rifing wonder fill'd,
Amyntor, slow-recovering into thought,
Submissive on his knee the good man's hand
Grafp'd close, and bore with ardour to his lips.
His eye, where fear, confusion, rev'rence, spoke,
Thro' swelling tears, what language cannot tell,
Now rose to meet, now shunn'd the Hermit’s glance,
Shot awful at him, till the various swell,
Of passion ebbing, thus he fault'ring spoke :

• What haft thou done ? why fav'd a wretch unknown ?
• Whom knowing, e'en thy goodnefs muft abhor.
• Miftaken man ! the honour of thy name,
• Thy love, truth, duty, all must be my foes.

, ,
• I am-Aurelius! turn that look aside,
• That brow of terror, while this wretch can say,
• Abhorrent say, he is—Forgive me, Heav'n!

Forgive me, Virtue ! if I would renounce
• Whom Natare bids me rev'rence-by her bond,
• Rolando's fon; by your more sacred ties,

нь

370

375

380

385

A As

390

395

400

• As to his crimes an alien to his blood;
. For crimes like his-
• Rolando's son! Just Heav'n!
• Ha! here, and in my pow'r! A war of thoughts,
• All terrible arising, fhakes my

frame
• With doubtful conflict.:- By one stroke to reach
« The father's heart, tho' feas are spread between,
• Were great revenge ! - Away! Revenge? on whom?
· Alas! on my own soul; by rage betray'd
• E'en to the crime my reason most condemns
• In him who ruin'd me!' Deep-mov'd he spoke,
And his own poniard o'er the proftrate youth
Suspended held; but as the welcome blow,
With arms display'd, Amyntor seem'd to court,
Behold, in fudden confluence gath'ring round,
The natives stood, whom kindness hither drew,
The man unknown with each relieving aid
Of love and care, as ancient rites ordain,
To succour and to serve. Before them came
Montano, venerable fage! whose head
The hand of Time with twenty winter's snow
Had lower'd, and to whose intellectual eye
Futurity, behind her cloudy veil,
Stands in fair light disclos'd. Him, after pause,
Aurelius drew apart, and in his care
Amyntor plac'd, to lodge him and secure;
To save him from himself, as one with grief
Tempestuous, and with rage, distemper'd deep :
This done, nor waiting for reply, alone
He fought the vale, and his calm cottage gain'd.

405

410

4'5

WH

HERE Kilda's southern hills their fùmmit lift

With triple fork to heav'n, the mounted fun Full, from the midmost, hot in dazzling stream

His noon-tide ray: and now, in lowing train,
Were seen flow-pacing westward o'er the vale,
The milky mothers, foot pursuing foot,
And nodding as thy move, their oozy meal,
The bitter healthful herbage of the shore,
Around it's rocks to graze *; for, strange to tell!
The hour of ebb, tho' ever varying found,
As yon pale planet wheels from day to day
Her course inconstant, their sure instinct feels,
Intelligent of times, by Heav'n's own hand,
To all it's creatures equal in it's care,
Unerring mov'd. These signs observ'd, that guide
To labour and repose a simple race,
These native signs to due repast at noon,
Frugal and plain, had warn’d the temp’rate isle,
All but Aurelius : he, unhappy man!
By Nature's voice solicited in vain,
Nor hour observ'd, nor due repast partook.
The child no more! the mother's fate untold !
Both in black prospect rifing to his eye:
'Twas anguish there ; 'twas here distracting doubt!
Yet after long and painful confli&t borne,
Where nature, reason, oft the doubtful scale
Inclin'd alternate, summoning each aid
That virtue lends, and o'er each thought infirm
Superior rising, in the might of Him
Who strength from weakness, as from darkness light,
Omnipotent can draw, again resign'd,
Again he sacrific'd to Heav'n's high will
Each foothing weakness of a parent's breast,

20

25

30

The cows often feed on the alga marina, and they can distinguish exactly the tide of ebb from the tide of flood, though, at the same time, they are not within view of the shore. When the tide has ebbed about two hours, then they steer their course directly to the nearest shore, in their usual order, one after another. I had occasion to make this observation thirteen times in one week. Martin's Western Iles of Scotland, p. 156. H h 2

The