As in the cheek with opening roles warm,
Each piercing glance improves the growing charm.
Then fighing deep, diftracted at the view,
"Adieu, I cry'd, ye blissful fcenes adieu:
"That fun muft ceafe to gild the flow'ry plain:
"The moon be loft with all the starry train :
"Plung'd in one fire, each mighty frame confume,
"'Tis God, th' eternal God has feal'd their doom."
Lo! at the word (each tranfient ray withdrawn)
A low'ring cloud at once o'ercaft the dawn:
From its dark breaft, with fwelling tempefts flor'd;
Pale lightning flafh'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 prey,
It swept the woods, and bore the hills away,
But now, with terror rifing on the fight,
A burning comet flafh'd unufual 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 difplays;
The waving forefts catch the spreading blaze;
The earth no more its central fire contains,
It rag'd and fwell'd refiftlefs 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,
The mountains blaze, a mighty ridge of fire!
Where ftood the fnow-crown'd alps, (an awful name!)
Now roll'd the doubling fmoke, and fpiry flame;'
While o'er the Andes in a whirlwind driv'n
Burft the blue gleam, and darknefs wrapt the heav'n.
Ev'n Etna rocks with a reluctant groan,
Sunk in a flame more dreadful than its own:
A fiery ftream the deep Volcano pours,
And from its mouth inceffant thunder roars.
Each humbler vale partakes the gen'ral doom,
The fmiling meads refign their lovely bloom;
Not Afia's fields th' impetuous flood retain,
It bounds with fury o'er the wide champaign,
Whate'er to view revolving feafons bring,
Each opening flow'r, the painted child of fpring,
Bleak winter's fnow, with fummer's rofy pride,
And autumn's ripening ftores, augment the tide :
On its broad wave it bears the fhining spoil,
Hills burft, rocks melt, woods blaze, and oceans boil.
Such, man, thy life, when death's relentless rage
Crops thy gay bloom, or chills thy with'ring age;
In vain thy with would ftop th' invader's pow'r,
Who fpares the leaf to revel on the flow'r.
O! how transported with a fleeting dream
We fondly launch, and glide along the ftream!
Nor think of tempefts, mis'ry, pain, or death,
The ftorms above us, and the wrecks beneath!
When lo! at once a cloudy fcene fucceeds,
It low'rs, frowns, blackens, bellows o'er our heads;
Bounds o'er the feas, and with destructive sweep,
Flings wave on wave, and whelms us in the deep.
Where now the nation, whofe controuling law,
Rul'd ev'ry ftate, and held a world in awe?
Say where, Britannia, thy remoter plain?
Thy fields enrich'd with plenty's welcome train ?
Thy fleets, to found their dreadful fame afar,
And rule the deep, the thunderbolts of war?
Still in my thought thy happier days detain'd,
When George, when Anna, when Eliza reign'd;
I see, I hear the battle's wild alarms,
See trembling foes, and thy triumphant arms!
I fee fublime the floating navy rife,
The pompous ftreamers waving as fhe flies!
I fee the fhudd'ring hosts that round her fall,
The haughty Spaniard here, and there the Gaul.
I fee great Bourbon fainting and dismay'd,
And view the laurel blafted on his head.
O! while my country's glory fires my lays,
How my fond heart runs lavish in her praise !
But fee, 'tis fled!-I urge, implore its stay,
In vain: the charming vision dies away;
The plains where once her fhouting armies flood,
The ftream's broad wave that blush'd with hostile blood,
Roll'd in the mafs of fire neglected lay,
And join'd th' involving cloud that hid the day.
See earth's pale fons! a mighty throng appear!
How wild their looks with agonizing fear!
Swift, as the hart, from her purfuing train,
Climbs the fteep rock, and flies along the plain :
'Tis thus, the tempeft's dreadful rage to fhun,
They fweep the field, and fhiver as they run.
Here yawning gulphs their dreadful wrecks disclose,
There nature labours with convulfive throws:
Here the flame bursts, and blazes to the skies,
There flash the pointed lightnings on their eyes.
Amaz'd, aghaft the trembling throng retire,
Eye the bright gleam, and mark the speeding fire;
Hung on the steepy cliff, all wild with dread,
Heav'n's awful thunder rattles o'er their head!
The skies above with doubling roars rebound,
Below ftrong earthquakes rend the tott'ring ground. 'Tis noise around, 'tis chaos all beneath ;
One fcene of horror, temult, rage and death,
Burfts on their fight! the fatal word is past,
And panting nature groans, and breathes her laft,
So, when tempeftuous at th' Eternal's word
The teeming fkies a wat'ry deluge pour'd;
The vaft abyfs its mighty deep display'd,
And the flood rofe o'er Atlas' tow'ring head
Some nation fell, in each augmented wave
Diffolv'd, and earth was one prodigious grave.
Mark where yon mines their radiant ftores unfold,
Peru's rich duft, or Chili's beds of gold!
Infidious bane! that makes deftruction smooth,
Thou foe to virtue, liberty, and truth!
Whofe arts the fate of monarchies decide,
Who gild't deceit, the darling child of pride!
How oft, allur'd by thy perfuafive charms,
Have earth's contending powers appear'd in arms!
What nations brib'd have own'd thy pow'rful reign!
For thee what millions plow'd the ftormy main!
Travel'd from pole to pole with ceafelefs toil,
And felt their blood, alternate, freeze and boil.
But now the mantling flames in concourse join,
And deep defcending feize the burning mine;
Its richest treasures aid the mounting blaze,
'Twas all confufion, tumult, and amaze.
When lo! a cloud juft opening on the view
Illum'd with dazzling light th' ethereal blue!
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