It is a dreadful pleasing fight!
The flowers attract, the arms affright;
The flowers with lively beauty bloom,
The arms denounce an inftant doom.
Thus when the Britons in array Their enfigns to the fun display, In the fame flag are lilies shown, And angry lions sternly frown;
On high the glittering ftandard flies,
And conquers all things---like your eyes.
Part of the XXXVIII and XXXIX Chapters of JO B.
A PARAPHRASE.
N WOW from the fplendors of his bright abode
On wings of all the winds th' Almighty rode,
And the loud voice of thunder spoke the God.
Cherubs, and feraphs from cœleftial bowers,
Ten thousand thousand! bright, ethereal powers!
Miniftrant round, their radiant files unfold,
Arm'd in eternal adamant, and gold!
Whirlwinds and thundrous ftorms his chariot drew
'Tween worlds and worlds, triumphant as it flew :
He stretch'd his dark pavilion o'er the floods,
Bade hills fubfide, and rein'd th' obedient clouds,
Then from his awful gloom the godhead spoke,
And at his voice affrighted nature shook.
Vain man! who boldly with dim reafon's ray
Vics with his God, and rivals his full day!
* But tell me now, fay how this beauteous frame
Of all things, from the womb of nothing came;
When nature's Lord with one Almighty call
From no-where rais'd the world's capacious ball?
Say if thy hand directs the various rounds
Of the vaft earth, and circumfcribes the bounds?
How orbs oppos'd to orbs amid the fky,
In concert move, and dance in harmony?
What wondrous pillars their foundations bear
When hung felf-balanc'd in the fluid air?
Why the vaft tides fometimes with wanton play
In fhining mazes gently glide away;
Anon, why fwelling with impetuous stores
Tumultuous tumbling, thunder to the fhores?
By thy command does fair Aurora rise,
And gild with purple beams the blushing skies;
The warbling lark falutes her chearful ray,
And welcomes with his fong the rifing day;
The rifing day ambrofial dew diftils,
Th' ambrofial dew with balmy odour fills
The flowers, the flowers rejoice, and nature fimiles.
*But tell me, mortal, when th' Almighty faid, Be made, ye worlds! how worlds at once were made ; When hofts of angels wrapt in wonder fung
His praife as order from diforder sprung;
Why night, in fable rob'd, as day-light fades,
O'er half the nations draws her awful fhades ?
Now peaceful nature lies diffus'd in eafe ;
A folemn ftillness reigns o'er land and feas.
* Sleep sheds o'er all his balm to fleep refign'd,
Birds, beafts lie hufh'd, and bufy human-kind.
No air of breath disturbs the drowzy woods,
No whispers marmur from the filent floods!
The moon sheds down a filver-streaming light,
And glads the melancholic face of night:
Now clouds fwift-skimming veil her sullied ray,
Now bright fhe blazes with a fuller day
The ftars in order twinkle in the skies,
And fall in filence, and in filence rife:
Till, as a giant ftrong, a bridegroom gay,
The fun fprings dancing through the gates of day :
He shakes his dewy locks, and hurls his beams
O'er the proud hills, and down the glowing streams :
His fiery courfers bound above the main,
And whirl the car along the ethereal plain:
No more the monsters of the defert roar,
Doubling the terrors of the midnight hour.
The fowl, the fishes, to repofe refign'd,
All, all lie hufh'd, and bufy human-kind.
The fainting murmur dies upon the floods,
And fighing breezes lull the drowzy woods,
Now bright fhe blazes, and fupplies the day.
The fiery courfers and the car difplay
A ftream of glory, and a flood of day.
Did e'er thy eye defcend into the deep,
Or haft thou seen where infant tempests sleep?
Was e'er the grave or regions of the night,
Yet trod by thee, or open'd to thy fight?
Has death disclos'd to thee her gloomy ftate,
The ghaftly forms, the various woes that wait
In terrible array before her awful gate?
Know'st thou where darkness bears eternal sway,
Or, where the fource of everlasting day?
Say, why, the driving hail with rushing sound
Pours from on high, and rattles on the ground?
Why hover fnows, down-wavering by degrees,
Shine from the hills, or glitter from the trees?
Say, why, in lucid drops, the balmy rain
With sparkling gems impearls the fpangled plain?
Or, gathering in the vale, a current flows,
And on each flower a fudden spring beftows?
Say, why with gentle fighs the evening breeze
Salutes the flowers, or murmurs through the trees !
Or why loud winds in storms of vengeance fly,
Howl o'er the main, and thunder in the sky?
Say, to what wondrous magazines repair
The viewless beings, when ferene the air?
Till, from their dungeons loos'd, they roar aloud,
Upturn whole oceans, and tofs cloud on cloud,
While waves encountering waves in mountains driven,
Swell to the ftarry vault, and dafh the heaven.
Know'st thou, why comets threaten in the air,
Heralds of woe, deftruction, and despair,
The plague, the fword, and all the forms of war?
On ruddy wings why forky lightning flies,
And rolling thunder grumbles in the skies ?
Say, can thy voice, when fultry Sirius reigns,
And funs intenfely glowing cleave the plains,
Th' exhaufted urns of thirsty springs supply,
And mitigate the fever of the sky?
Or, when the heavens are charg'd with gloomy clouds, And half the skies precipitate in floods,
Chace the dark horror of the storm away,
Restrain the deluge, and restore the day?
By thee does fummer deck herself with charms,
Or hoary winter lock his frozen arms;
Say, if thy hand instruct the rose to glow,
Or to the lily give unfullied fnow?
Teach fruits to knit from bloffoms by degrees,
Swell into orbs, and load the bending trees,
Whofe various kinds a various hue unfold,
With crimson blush, or burnish into gold?
Say, why the fun arrays with fhining dyes
The gaudy bow that gilds the gloomy skies?
He from his urn pours forth his golden ftreams,
And humid clouds imbibe the glittering beams;
Sweetly the varying colours fade or rife,
And the vast arch embraces half the fkies.
Say, didft thou give the mighty feas their bars,
Fill air with fowl, or light up heaven with stars,
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