Page images
PDF
EPUB

Bereav'd of happiness thou may'ft partake
His punishment, eternal mifery;
Which would be all his folace and revenge,
As a despite done against the most High,
Thee once to gain companion of his woe.
But liften not to his temptations, warn
Thy weaker; let it profit thee to' have heard'
By terrible example the reward

905

910

Of

I grant that from fome moffy idol oak

In double rimes our Thor and Woden fpoke;

And by fucceffion of unlearned times,

As Bards began, fo Monks rung on the chimes.

But now that Phoebus and the facred Nine

With all their beams on our bleft iland fhine,

Why should not we their ancient rites reftore,

And be what Rome or Athens were before?

Have we forgot how Raphael's

numerous profe

Led our exalted fouls through
heav'nly camps,
And mark'd the ground where

proud apoftate Thrones
Defy'd Jehovah! Here, 'twixt hoft
and hoft,
(A narrow but a dreadful interval)
Portentous fig before the cloudy

van

Sat:n with vaft and haughty ftrides advanc'd,

Came towring arm'd in adamant
and gold.

There bellowing engins with their
fiery tubes
Difpers'd ethereal forms, and down
they fell

By thoufands, Angels on Arch-
Angels roll'd;
Recover'd, to the hills they ran,
they flew,

Which (with their pond'rous load,
rocks, waters, woods)
From their firm feats torn by the
fhaggy tops,

They bore like fhields before them
through the air,

Till more incens'd they hurl'd them
at their foes.

All was confufion, Heav'n's foun-
dations fhook,
Threatning no lefs than univerfal
wrack,

For Michael's arm main promon-
tories flung,

And over-preis'd whole legions
weak with fin;
Yet they blafphem'd and strucol
as they lay,

Of disobedience; firm they might have stood, Yet fell; remember, and fear to tranfgrefs.

[blocks in formation]

יד

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »