And tipping every shaft with venom drawn
From her infernal store; around him rang'd
In terrible array, and strange diversity
Of uncouth shapes, stand his dread ministers.
Foremost Old Age, his natural ally
And firmest friend: next him, diseases thick,
A motley train; fever with cheek of fire;
Consumption wan; palsy, half warm with life,
And half a clay-cold lump; joint-torturing gout,
And ever-gnawing rheum; convulsion wild;
Swoln dropsy; panting asthma; apoplex
Full-gorg'd. There too the pestilence that walks
In darkness, and the sickness that destroys
At broad noon-day, These, and a thousand more,
Horrid to tell, attentive wait; and, when
By Heaven's command, Death waves his ebon wand,
Sudden rush forth to execute his purpose,
And scatter desolation o'er the earth.
Ill-fated man, for whom such various forms Of misery wait, and mark their future prey! Ah! why, All-righteous Father, didst thou make This creature, man? Why wake th' unconscious dust To life and wretchedness? O better far
Still had he slept in uncreated night,
If this the lot of being !-Was it for this
Thy breath divine kindled within his breast
The vital flame? For this was thy fair image
Stamp'd on his soul in godlike lineaments?
For this dominion given him absolute
O'er all thy creatures, only that he might reign
Supreme in woe? From the blest source of good
Could Pain and Death proceed? Could such foul ill
Fall from fair Mercy's hands? Far be the thought,
The impious thought! God never made a creature
But what was good. He made a living man:
The man of death was made by man himself.
Forth from his Maker's hands he sprung to life,
Fresh with immortal bloom; no pain he knew,
No fear of death, no check to his desires,
Save one command. That one command, (which stood "Twixt him and ruin, the test of his obedience,)
Urg'd on by wanton curiosity
He broke.-There in one moment was undone
The fairest of God's works.
That pluck'd in evil hour the fatal fruit,
Unbar'd the gates of hell, and let loose Sin
And Death, and all the family of Pain,
To prey upon mankind. Young Nature saw
The monstrous crew, and shook through all her frame,
Then fled her new-born lustre, then began
Heaven's cheerful face to low'r, then vapours chok'd
The troubled air, and form'd a vale of clouds
To hide the willing sun. The earth, convuls'd
With painful throes, threw forth a bristly crop
Of thorns and briars; and insect, bird, and beast,
That wont before with admiration fond
To gaze at man, and fearless crowd around him,
Now fled before his face, shunning in haste
Th' infection of his misery. He alone
Who justly might, th' offended Lord of man,
Turn'd not away his face; he, full of pity,
Forsook not in this uttermost distress
His best-lov'd work. That comfort still remain❜d,
(That best, that greatest comfort in affliction)
The countenance of God, and through the gloom
Shot forth some kindly gleams, to cheer and warm
Th' offender's sinking soul. Hope, sent from Heaven,
Up-rais'd his drooping head, and shew'd afar
A happier scene of things; the promis'd seed
Trampling upon the serpent's humbled crest,
Death of his sting disarm'd, and the dank grave
Made pervious to the realms of endless day,
No more the limit but the gate of life.
Cheer'd with the view, man went to till the earth
From whence he rose; sentenc'd indeed to toil,
As to a punishment; (yet ev'n in wrath
So merciful is Heaven!) this toil became
The solace of his woes, the sweet employ
Of many a live-long hour, and surest guard
Against disease and Death.-Death, though denounc'd,
Was yet a distant ill, by feeble arm
Of Age, his sole support, led slowly on.
Not then, as since, the short-liv'd sons of men
Flock'd to his realms in countless multitudes:
Scarce in the course of twice five hundred years
One solitary ghost went shivering down
To his unpeopled shore. In sober state,
Through the sequester'd vale of rural life,
The venerable patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way; labour prepar'd
His simple fare, and temperance rul'd his board.
Tir'd with his daily toil, at early eve
He sunk to sudden rest; gentle and pure
As breath of evening zephyr, and as sweet
Were all his slumbers; with the sun he rose,
Alert and vigorous as he, to run
His destin'd course. Thus nerv'd with giant strength,
He stem'd the tide of time; and stood the shock
Of ages rolling harmless o'er his head.
At life's meridian point arriv'd, he stood,
And looking round saw all the vallies fill'd
With nations from his loins; full well content
To leave his race thus scatter'd o'er the earth,
Along the gentle slope of life's decline
He bent his gradual way, till full of years
He dropt like mellow fruit into his grave.
Such in the infancy of time was man ;
So calm was life, so impotent was death.
Oh, had he but preserv'd those few remains,
Those shatter'd fragments of lost happiness,
Snatch'd by the hand of Heav'n from the sad wreck
Of innocence primeval, still had he liv'd
Great, ev'n in ruin; though fallen, yet not forlorn;
Though mortal, yet not every where beset
With Death in every shape! But he, impatient
To be completely wretched, hastes to fill up
The measure of his woes. "Twas man himself
That brought Death into the world, and man himself
Gave keenness to his darts, quicken'd his pace,
And multiplied destruction on mankind.
First Envy, eldest born of hell, embru'd
Her hands in blood, and taught the sons of men
To make a death which nature never made,
And God abhor'd, with violence rude to break
The thread of life, ere half its length was run,
And rob a wretched brother of his being.
With joy Ambition saw, and soon improv'd
The execrable deed. 'Twas not enough,
By subtle Fraud, to snatch a single life:
Puny impiety! whole kingdoms fell
To sate the lust of power; more horrid still,
The foulest stain and scandal of our nature
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