265.

"Or if my heedlefs youth has fiept aftray, Too foon forgetful of thy gracious hand; On me alone thy just displeasure lay,

1065

But take thy judgments from this mourning

land.

266.

"We all have finn'd, and thou haft laid us

low,

As humble earth from whence at first we

came :

Like flying fhades before the clouds we show, And fhrink like parchment in confuming flame.

Ver. 1063. Derrick, Step'd.

1070

Ver. 1069. Like flying fhades before the clouds we show, And shrink like parchment in confuming flume.] Two energetic lines founded on fcriptural allufions, Pfalm cix. v. 22, I go hence like the fhadow that departeth."

66

This laft image Dr. Glynn has transferred into his Seatonian Prize Poem," the Day of Judgment," with fo much felicity, that I must be pardoned for tranfcribing the whole of the Prayer with which he concludes his fpirited poem:

"Power fupreme,

"O everlasting king, to thee I kneel,

"To thee I lift my voice. With fervent heat
"Melt all ye elements! and thou, high heav'n,
"Shrink like a fhrivel'd fcroll! but think, O Lord,
"Think on the best, the nobleft of thy works!
"Think on thine own bright image! think on him
"Who died to fave us from thy righteous wrath,

And 'midft the wreck of worlds remember Man!"

JOHN WARTON.

267.

"O let it be enough what thou haft done; When spotted deaths ran arm'd through every ftreet,

With poifon'd darts which not the good could

fhun,

The speedy could out-fly, or valiant meet.

268.

"The living few, and frequent funerals then, 1075 Proclaim'd thy wrath on this forfaken place: And now thofe few, who are return'd agen, Thy fearching judgments to their dwellings

trace.

269.

"O pafs not, Lord, an abfolute decree,
Or bind thy fentence unconditional : 1080
But in thy fentence our remorfe foresee,
And in that forefight this thy doom recal.

270.

"Thy threatnings, Lord, as thine thou may'st

revoke :

But, if immutable and fix'd they stand, Continue ftill thyfelf to give the stroke, And let not foreign foes opprefs thy land."

Ver. 1085. Continue ftill thyself to give the ftroke,

And let not foreign foes opprefs thy land.]

1085

He imitates the pious fubmiflion of David:-"Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man."--2 Sam. xxiv. 14.

JOHN WARTON,

271.

Th' Eternal heard, and from the heavenly quire
Chofe out the cherub with the flaming fword;
And bad him fwiftly drive th' approaching fire
From where our naval
our naval magazines were

ftor❜d.

272.

The bleffed minifter his wings display'd,

1090

And like a shooting star he cleft the night: He charg'd the flames, and those that disobey'd He lafh'd to duty with his fword of light.

273.

The fugitive flames, chaftis'd, went forth to

1095

prey On pious ftructures, by our fathers rear'd; By which to heaven they did affect the way, Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard.

274.

The wanting orphans faw with watʼry eyes, Their founders' charity in duft laid low; 1100 And fent to God their ever-anfwer'd cries,

For he protects the poor, who made them so.

Ver. 1096. On pious ftructures, &c.] He here, I prefume, alludes to Chrift's Hospital, &c. &c.

JOHN WARTON.

Ver. 1097. By which to heaven they did affect the way,

Ere faith in churchmen without works was heard.] This paffage is a farcafm upon thofe who reduce all principles of religion to the fingle article of faith, which, according to fome, is fufficient for falvation, exclusive of every other tenet.

DERRICK,

275.

Nor could thy fabrick, Paul's, defend thee long, Though thou wert facred to thy Maker's praise ;

Though made immortal by a poet's fong; 1105 And poets' fongs the Theban walls could

raife.

276.

The daring flames peep'd in, and faw from far
The awful beauties of the facred quire;
But, fince it was prophan'd by Civil War,
Heaven thought it fit to have it purg'd by

fire.

277.

1110

Now down the narrow streets it fwiftly came, And widely opening did on both fides prey : This benefit we fadly owe the flame,

If only ruin muft enlarge our way.

Ver. 1107. flames peep'd in] In cenfuring some seeming blemishes in this piece, fuch as the above lines, I fhould be mortified to be placed among thofe idle and petty objectors, who miftake cavilling for criticifing; fuch as he who blamed Tasso for making Erminia cut off her hair, to bind up Tancred's wounds, with a fword, as a fword will not cut hair; or he who thought Raphaël had made the boat too little to receive the miraculous capture of fish; or he who objected to the figure of Laocoon being reprefented as naked when he was in the act of facrificing. I hall for ever read the Seafons of Thomson with delight and admiration, though I cannot forbear objecting to the two last lines as a conceit, alluding to his fubject,

The ftorms of wintry Time will quickly pafs,

And one unbounded Spring encircle all.

The verfe below about God's taking an extinguisher is an abfurdity of the moft glaring kind. (Verfe 1129.) Dr. J. WARTON,

It feem'd as if the ftars more fickly rofe,

And farther from the feverish north retire.

279.

In th' empyrean heav'n, the blefs'd abode,
The Thrones and the Dominions proftrate

At length th' Almighty caft a pitying eye,
And mercy foftly touch'd his melting breast:
He faw the town's one half in rubbish lie,

1125

And eager flames drive on to storm the reft.

281.

An hollow cryftal pyramid he takes,
In firmamental waters dipt above;

Of it a broad extinguisher he makes,

And hoods the flames that to their quarry drove.

1130

Ver. 1126. And eager flames drive on] The original edition erroneously reads give.

TODD.