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• That sweet recefs, where Love and Virtue long
In happy league had dwelt, which War itself
• Beheld with rev'rence, could their fury 'scape;

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• Defpoil'd, defac'd, and wrapp'd in wasteful flames: For flame and rapine their confuming march

< From hill to vale by daily ruin mark’d.

So, borne by winds along, in baleful cloud,
Embody'd locusts from the wing defcend

On herb, fruit, flow'r, and kill the rip'ning year;
While, wafte behind, deftruction on their track

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A man,

And ghaftly famine wait. My wife and child
He dragg'd, the ruffian dragg'd-O Heav'n! do I,
furvive to tell it! At the hour

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Sacred to reft, amid the fighs and tears

Of all who faw and curs'd his coward rage,

He forc'd, unpitying, from their midnight-bed,

By menace, or by torture, from their fears

· My laft retreat to learn, and ftill detains

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Beneath his roof accurs'd, that beft of wives,

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⚫ And nature bleed.-Ah! let not bufy thought Search thither, but avoid the fatal coaft:

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• Discov'ry there, once more my peace of mind

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My hopes in Heav'n!' He faid: but, O fad Mufe!
Can all thy moving energy of pow'r

To shake the heart, to freeze th' arrefted blood,
With words that weep, and ftrains that agonize;
Can all this mournful magick of thy voice
Tell what Amyntor feels! O Heav'n! art thou--
• What have I heard ?-Aurelius! art thou he
• Confufion! horror!-that moft 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;

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A deadly

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

The traveller, from heav'n by lightning ftruck,
Is fix'd at once immoveable, his eye

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With terror glaring wild, his ftiff'ning limbs

In fudden marble bound; fo ftood, fo look'd,
The heart-fmote parent at this tale of death,
Half utter'd, yet too plain! No figh to rise,
No tear had force to flow; his fenfes all,
Thro' all their pow'rs fufpended, and fubdu'd
To chill amazement. Silence for a space-
Such difmal filence faddens earth and sky

Ere firft the thunder breaks-on either fide
Fill'd up this interval fevere. At last,
As from fome vifion 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,
Let all thy wrongs be vifited, and thus

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⚫ My horrors end!'-then madly would have plung'd
The weapon's hoftile point. His lifted arm
Aurelius, tho' with deep difmay, and dread,
And anguifh fhook, yet his fuperior foul
Collecting, and resuming all himself,
Seiz'd fudden; then perusing, with strict eye,
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 stay

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A crime that Nature fhrinks from, and to which
Heav'n has indulg'd no mercy. Sov'reign Judge!
Shall man firft violate the law divine,

That plac'd him here dependent on thy nod,.

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• Refign'd,

Refign'd, unmurm'ring, to await his hour

• Of fair difmiffion hence; fhall man do this, < Then dare thy presence, rush into thy fight,

Red with the fin, and recent from the stain,

• Of unrepented blood! Call home thy sense;

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• Know what thou art, and own his hand most just Rewarding or afflicting. But, fay on :

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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 afk? My Theodora's fate,

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Ah, me ! is known too plain. Have I then finn'd,

• Good Heav'n! beyond all grace! But fhall I blame

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• It's wild excefs? Heav'n gave her to my wish;

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• That gift Heav'n has resum'd; righteous in both :

For both, his providence be ever bless'd !'

By fhame reprefs'd, with rifing wonder fill'd, Amyntor, flow-recovering into thought, Submiffive 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' fwelling tears, what language cannot tell,

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Now rofe to meet, now shunn'd the Hermit's glance,
Shot awful at him, till the various fwell,

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Of paffion ebbing, thus he fault'ring spoke :

• What haft thou done? why fav'd a wretch unknown ?

• Whom knowing, e'en thy goodness must abhor.

• Mistaken man! the honour of thy name,

Thy love, truth, duty, all must be my foes.

I am-Aurelius! turn that look afide,

That brow of terror, while this wretch can fay,
Abhorrent say, he is-Forgive me, Heav'n!
Forgive me, Virtue! if I would renounce

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• Whom Nature bids me rev'rence--by her bond, • Rolando's fon; by your more facred ties,

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As to his crimes an alien to his blood;

• For crimes like his--'

Rolando's fon! Just Heav'n!

Ha! here, and in my pow'r! A war of thoughts,
All terrible arifing, shakes my frame

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• 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 foul; by rage betray'd

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⚫ 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
Sufpended held; but as the welcome blow,
With arms difplay'd, Amyntor seem'd to court,
Behold, in fudden confluence gath❜ring round,
The natives ftood, whom kindness hither drew,
The man unknown with each relieving aid
Of love and care, as ancient rites ordain,
To fuccour and to ferve. Before them came
Montano, venerable fage! whose head

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The hand of Time with twenty winter's fnow
Had fhower'd, and to whose intellectual eye

Futurity, behind her cloudy veil,

Stands in fair light difclos'd. Him, after pause,

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Aurelius drew apart, and in his care

Amyntor plac'd, to lodge him and fecure;

To fave him from himself, as one with grief

Tempeftuous, and with rage, diftemper'd deep :
This done, nor waiting for reply, alone
He fought the vale, and his calm cottage gain'd.

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CANTO III.

WHERE Kilda's fouthern hills their fummit lift

With triple fork to heav'n, the mounted fun

Full, from the midmoft, fhot in dazzling stream

His noon-tide ray and now, in lowing train,
Were feen flow-pacing westward o'er the vale,
The milky mothers, foot purfuing foot,
And nodding as thy move, their oozy meal,
The bitter healthful herbage of the shore,
Around it's rocks to graze *; for, ftrange to tell!
The hour of ebb, tho' ever varying found,
As yon pale planet wheels from day to day
Her courfe inconftant, their fure inftinct 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 obferv'd, that guide
To labour and repofe a fimple race,

These native figns to due repaft at noon,

Frugal and plain, had warn'd the temp'rate isle,
All but Aurelius: he, unhappy man!

By Nature's voice folicited in vain,

Nor hour obferv'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 conflict borne,
Where nature, reafon, oft the doubtful scale

Inclin'd alternate, fummoning each aid

That virtue lends, and o'er each thought infirm
Superior rifing, in the might of Him

Who ftrength from weakness, as from darkness light,
Omnipotent can draw, again refign'd,

Again he facrific'd to Heav'n's high will

Each foothing weakness of a parent's breast,

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*The cows often feed on the alga marina, and they can diftinguish exactly the tide of ebb from the tide of flood, though, at the fame time, they are not within view of the fhore. When the tide has ebbed about two hours, then they fteer their courfe directly to the nearest shore, in their ufual order, one after another. I had occafion to make this obfervation thirteen times in one week. Martin's Western Isles of Scotland, p. 156.

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