And by the voice of all its elements

To preach the gen'ral doom*. When were the winds Let flip with fuch a warrant to deftroy?

When did the waves fo haughtily o'erleap

Their ancient barriers, deluging the dry?
Fires from beneath, and meteors † from above,
Portentous, unexampled, unexplain'd,

Have kindled beacons in the fkies; and th' old
And crazy earth has had her shaking fits
More frequent, and forgone her usual rest.
Is it a time to wrangle, when the props
And pillars of our planet seem to fail,
And Nature with a dim and fickly eye
To wait the close of all? But grant her end
More diftant, and that prophecy demands
A longer refpite, unaccomplish'd yet;

* Alluding to the calamities at Jamaica.

August 18, 1783.

Alluding to the fog that covered both Europe and Afia during the whole sum

mer of 1783.

Still they are frowning fignals, and bespeak

Displeasure in his breaft who fmites the earth.
Or heals it, makes it languifh or rejoice.

And 'tis but feemly, that, where all deferve
And ftand expos'd by common peccancy
To what no few have felt, there should be peace,
And brethren in calamity fhould love.

Alas for Sicily! rude fragments now
Lie scatter'd where the shapely column stood.
Her palaces are duft. In all her streets

The voice of finging and the fprightly chord
Are filent. Revelry, and dance, and show
Suffer a fyncope and folemn pause;

While God performs upon the trembling stage
Of his own works his dreadful part alone.

How does the earth receive him?With what figns

Of gratulation and delight, her king?

Pours fhe not all her choiceft fruits abroad,

Her fweeteft flow'rs, her aromatic gums,

Difclofing paradife where'er he treads?

She quakes at his approach. Her hollow womb,
Conceiving thunders, through a thousand deeps

And fiery caverns roars beneath his foot.

The hills move lightly, and the mountains fmoke,

For he has touch'd them. From th' extremeft point Of elevation down into th' abyss

His wrath is bufy, and his frown is felt.

The rocks fall headlong, and the vallies rife,

The rivers die into offenfive pools,

And, charg'd with putrid verdure, breathe a grofs
And mortal nuifance into all the air.

What folid was, by transformation ftrange,
Grows fluid; and the fixt and rooted earth,
Tormented into billows, heaves and fwells,
Or with vortiginous and hideous whirl
Sucks down its prey infatiable. Immenfe
The tumult and the overthrow, the pangs
And agonies of human and of brute
Multitudes, fugitive on ev'ry fide,

And fugitive in vain. The fylvan fcene
Migrates uplifted; and, with all its foil
Alighting in far diftant fields, finds out
A new poffeffor, and furvives the change.
Ocean has caught the frenzy, and, upwrought
To an enormous and o'erbearing height,
Not by a mighty wind, but by that voice
Which winds and waves obey, invades the fhore
Refiftlefs. Never fuch a fudden flood,

Upridg'd fo high, and fent on fuch a charge,
Poffefs'd an inland fcene. Where now the throng

That prefs'd the beach, and, hafty to depart,
Look'd to the fea for fafety? They are gone,
Gone with the refluent wave into the deep-
A prince with half his people! Ancient tow'rs,
And roofs embattled high, the gloomy scenes
Where beauty oft and letter'd worth confume
Life in the unproductive fhades of death,

Fall

prone: the pale inhabitants come forth,

And, happy in their unforeseen release

From all the rigours of restraint, enjoy

The terrors of the day that fets them free.

Who then, that has thee, would not hold thee fast,

Freedom! whom they that lose thee so

regret,

That ev❜n a judgment, making way for thee,
Seems in their eyes a mercy for thy fake.

Such evil fin hath wrought; and fuch a flame Kindled in heaven, that it burns down to earth, And, in the furious inqueft that it makes

On God's behalf, lays waste his fairest works.
The very elements, though each be meant

The minifter of man, to ferve his wants,
Confpire against him. With his breath he draws
A plague into his blood; and cannot use

Life's neceffary means, but he must die.

Storms rife t' o'erwhelm him; or, if ftormy winds

Rife not, the waters of the deep shall rise,

And, needing none affiftance of the storm,

Shall roll themselves afhore, and reach him there.

T