No traces left of all the busy scene,
But that remembrance fays,The things have been!
While learning thro' the gloom benighted strays,
And the dim objects vanish as we gaze!
"But (questions doubt) whence fickly nature feels
"The ague-fits her face so oft reveals ?
"Whence earthquakes heave the earth's aftonish'd breaft?
"Whence tempefts rage? or yellow plagues infeft?
"Whence draws rank Afric her empoison'd stores ?
"Or liquid fires explosive Ætna pours ?"
Go, fceptic mole! demand th' eternal caufe,
The secret of his all-preserving laws?
The depths of Wisdom infinite explore,
And ask thy Maker-why thou know'ft no more?
Thy error ftill in mortal things as great,
As vain to cavil at the ways of fate.
To ask why profp'rous vice fo oft fucceeds,
Why fuffers innocence, or virtue bleeds!
Why monsters, nature must with blushes own,
By crimes grow pow'rful, and disgrace a throne!
Why faints and fages, mark'd in ev'ry age,
Perish, the victims of tyrannic rage!
Why Socrates for truth and freedom fell,
While Nero reign'd the delegate of hell!
In vain by reason is the maze purfu’d,
Of ill triumphant, and afflicted good.
Fix'd to the hold, fo might the failor aim
To judge the pilot, and the fteerage blame;
As we direct to God what should belong,
Or fay that fov'reign Wisdom governs wrong.
Nor always vice does uncorrected go,
Nor virtue unrewarded pass below!
Oft facred juftice lifts her awful head,
And dooms the tyrant and th' ufurper dead;
Oft Providence, more friendly than fevere,
Arrefts the hero in his wild career;
Directs the fever, poinard or the ball,
By which an Ammon, Charles, or Cæfar fall:
Or when the curfed Borgias * brew the cup
For merit,-bids the monsters drink it up;
On violence oft retorts the cruel spear,
Or fetters cunning in its crafty snare:
Relieves the innocent, exalts the juft,
And lays the proud oppreffor in the duft!
But faft as Time's swift pinions can convey,
Haftens the pomp of that tremendous day,
When to the view of all created eyes,
God's high tribunal fhall majestic rife,
When the loud trumpet shall assemble round
The dead, reviving at the piercing found!
Where men and angels fhall to audit come,
And millions yet unborn receive their doom!
Then fhall fair Providence, to all display'd,
Appear divinely bright without a fhade;
* Pope Alexander VI. and his fon, Cæfar Borgia. Mr. Gordon's history.
In light triumphant all her acts be shown,
And blushing doubt, eternal Wisdom own!
Mean while, thou great intelligence fupreme,
Sov'reign director of this mighty frame,
Whose watchful hand, and all-obferving ken,
Fashions the hearts, and views the ways of
Whether thy hand the plenteous table spread,
Or measure sparingly the daily bread;
Whether or wealth or honours gild the scene,
Or wants deform, and wasting anguish stain;
On thee let truth and virtue firm rely,
Blefs'd in the care of thy approving eye!
Know that thy Providence, their conftant friend,
Thro' life fhall guard them, and in death attend;
With everlasting arms their cause embrace,
And crown the paths of piety with
Ye Seraphs, who God's throne incircling still
With holy zeal your golden cenfers fill;
Ye flaming minifters, to diftant lands
Who bear, obfequious, his divine commands;
Ye Cherubs who compofe the facred choir,
Attuning to your voice th' angelic lyre!
Or ye, fair natives of the heav'nly plain,
Who once were mortal-now a happier train!
Who spend in peaceful love your joyful hours,
In blissful meads and amaranthine bow'rs,
Shock'd at the scene, tho' fenfe averts its eye,
Nor stops the wond'rous process to defcry;
Yet jufter thought the myftic change pursues,
And with delight almighty wisdom views!
The brute, the vegetable world furveys,
Sees life fubfifting ev'n from life's decays!
Mark there, self-taught, the penfive reptile come,
Spin his thin shroud, and living build his tomb!
With conscious care his former pleasures leave,
And dress him for the business of the grave!
Thence pafs'd the short-liv'd change,renew'd he fprings,
Admires the skies, and tries his painted wings!
With airy flight the insect roves abroad,
And scorns the meaner earth he lately trod!
Thee, potent, let deliver'd Ifrael praise,
And to thy Name their grateful homage raise!
Thee potent God! let Egypt's land declare,
Which felt thy juftice, awfully fevere!
How did thy frown benight the fhadow'd land?
Nature revers'd, how own thy high command?
When jarring elements their use forgot,
And the fun felt thy overcafting blot!
When earth produc'd the peftilential brood,
And the foul ftream was crimson'd into blood!
How deep the horrors of that awful night!
How ftrong the terror, and how wild the fright!
When o'er the land thy fword vindictive past,
And men and infants breath'd at once their laft!
How did thy arm thy favour'd tribes convey!
Thy light conducting, point th' amazing way!
Obedient ocean to their march divide,
The wat❜ry wall diftinct on either fide;
While thro' the deep the long proceffion led,
And faw the wonders of the
Nor long they march'd, till black'ning in the rear,
The vengeful tyrant and his hoft appear;
Plunge down the deep,-the waves thy nod obey,
And whelm the threat'ning storm beneath the sea!
Nor yet thy pow'r thy chosen train forfook,
When thro' Arabia's fands their way they took;
By day thy cloud was present to the fight,
Thy fiery pillar led the march by night;
Thy hand amidst the waste their table spread,
With feather'd viands, and with Heav'nly bread:
When the dry wilderness no ftreams fupply'd,
Gufh'd from the yielding rock the vital tide!
What limits can Omnipotence confine!
What obstacles restrain thy arm divine!
Since ftones and waves their fettled laws forego,
Since feas can harden, and fince rocks can flow?
On Sinai's top the Muse, with ardent wing,
The triumphs of Omnipotence would fing,
When o'er its airy brow thy cloud difplay'd,
Involv'd the nations in its awful shade!
When gloomy darkness fill'd its midmost space,
And the rock trembled to its rooted base;
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