With heads declin'd, ye cedars homage pay;
Be smooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way!
The Saviour comes! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films fhall purge the visual ray,
And on the fightless eye-ball pour the day:
'Tis he th' obftructed paths of found fhall clear,
And bid new mufic charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb fhall fing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No figh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,
From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear.
In + adamantine chains fhall Death be bound,
And Hell's grim Tyrant feel th' eternal wound.
As the good fhepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the pureft air,
Explores the loft, the wand'ring sheep directs,
By day o'erfees them, and by night protects,
The tender lambs he raifes in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bofom warms;
Thus fhall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promis'd || father of the future age.
No more fhall § nation against nation rife,
Nor ardent warriours meet with hateful
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover❜d o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes fhall bend,
And the broad faulchion in a plow-share end.
Then palaces fhall rife; the joyful * Son
Shall finish what his short-liv'd Sire begun ;
Their vines a fhadow to their race fhall yield,
And the fame hand that fow'd, fhall reap the field.
The swain in barren + defarts with furprize
See lillies fpring, and sudden verdure rise;
And starts, amidft the thirty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear,
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste fandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn :
To leaflefs fhrubs the flow'ring palms fucceed, 75 And od❜rous myrtle to the noifom weed.
lambs with wolves fhall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tyger lead;
VER.67. The fwain in barren defarts] Virg. E. iv. v. 28.
Molli paulatim flavefcet campus arista,
Incultifque rubens pendebit fentibus uva,
Et dure quercus fudabunt rofcida mella.
The fields fhall grow yellow with ripen'd ears, and the red grape fhall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard aak fhall diftill honey like dew.
ISAIAH, Ch. xxxv. v. 7. The parched ground shall become a fool, and the thirsty land fprings of water: In the babitations where dragons lay, Jhall be grafs, and reeds, and rushes. Ch. lv. v. 13. Inftead of the thorn fhall come. up the fir-tree, and inftead of the briar fhall come up the myrtle tree.
VER. 77. The lambs with wolves, etc.] Virg. E. iv. v. 21.
Ipiæ latte domum referent diftenta capella
* Ch. lxv. v. 21, 22.
Ch. xli. v. 19. andCh. lv. v. 13.
+ Ch. xxxv. V. I, 7.
|| Ch. xi. v. 6, 7, 8.
The fteer and lion at one crib fhall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet.
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crefted bafilifk and fpeckled fnake,
Pleas'd the green luftre of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue fhall innocently play.
Rife, crown'd with light, imperial + Salem, rife! 85
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes!
See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future fons, and daughters yet unborn,
Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones.
Occidet et ferpens, et fallax herba veneni
The goats fhall bear to the fold their udders diftended with milk: nor fhall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The ferpent fhall die, and the kerb that conceals poijon shall die,
ISAIAH, Ch. xi. v. 16, etc. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child fhall lead them. And the lion shall eat firav like the ox. And the fucking child shall play on the hole of the afp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the cockatrice. P.
VER. 85. Rife, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rife!] The thoughts of Ifaiah, which compofe the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above thofe general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftieft parts of his Pollio.
Magnus ab integro fæclorum nafcitur ordo!
toto furget gens aurea mundo!
incipient magni procedere menfes !
Afpice, venturo lætentur ut omnia fæclo! etc. The reader needs only to turn to the paffages of Isaiah, here cited. P.
* Ch. lxv. v. 25. † Ch. lx. v. 1. Ch. lx.. V. 4,
In crouding ranks on ev'ry fide arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with proftrate kings
And heap'd with products of + Sabæan fprings!
For thee Idume's fpicy forefts blow,
And feeds of gold in Ophyr's mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day!
No more the rifing † Sun shall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her filver horn;
But loft, diffolv'd in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflows thy courts: the Light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The || feas fhall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 105
Rocks fall to duft, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains;
Thy realm for ever lafts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!
* Ch. lx. v. 3. † Ch lx. v. 6. Ch. Ix. v. 19, 20• Ch. li. v. 6. and Ch liv. v. 10.
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