It is a dreadful pleafing fight ! The flowers attract, the arms affright; The flowers with lively beauty bloom, The arms denounce an instant doom.
Thus when the Britons in array Their enfigns to the fun display, In the fame flag are lilies shown, And angry lions fternly frown; On high the glittering standard flies,
And conquers all things---like your eyes.
Part of the XXXVIII and XXXIX Chapters of JOB.
A PARAPHRASE.
NOW 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 thoufand! 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 reason's ray Vies 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 sky, 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 shores ? By thy command does fair Aurora rife, 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 ambrosial dew diftils,
Th' ambrofial dew with balmy odour fills dengele 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 fprung;
Why night, in fable rob'd, as day-light fades, O'er half the nations draws her awful shades ? Now peaceful nature lies diffus'd in ease; A folemn tillness reigns o'er land and feas.
Sleep sheds o'er all his balm! to deep refign'd, Birds, beafts lie hush'd, and busy human-kind. No air of breath disturbs the drowzy woods, No whispers murmur from the silent floods! The moon sheds down a filver-reaming light, And glads the melancholic face of night :; Now clouds fwift-kimming veil her fullied ray, + Now bright he 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 krong, a bridegroom gay, The fun fprings dancing through the gates of day: He thakes his dewy locks, and hurls his beams O'er the proud hills, and down the glowing ftreams: 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 hush'd, and busy human-kind. The fainting murmur dies upon the floods, And fighing breezes lull the drowzy woods, + Now bright the blazes, and fupplies the day.
The fiery courfers and the car display A ftream of glory, and a flood of day. Did e'er thy eye defcend into the deep, Or haft thou feen where infant tempests fleep? Was e'er the grave or regions of the night, Yet trod by thee, or open'd to thy fight? Has death difclos'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 fway, Or, where the fource of everlasting day?
Say, why, the driving hail with rushing found 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 spangled plain? Or, gathering in the vale, a current flows, And on each flower a sudden spring bestows? Say, why with gentle fighs the evening breeze Salutes the flowers, or murmurs through the trees! Or why loud winds in ftorms of vengeance fly," Howl o'er the main, and thunder in the sky? Say, to what wondrous magazines repair The viewlefs 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 starry vault, and dash the heaven.
Know'ft thou, why comets threaten in the air, Heralds of woe, deftruction, and despair, The plague, the sword, and all the forms of war F 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' exhausted urns of thirsty springs fupply, And mitigate the fever of the fky?
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,
Reftrain 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 inftruct the rofe to glow, Or to the lily give unsullied fnow?
Teach fruits to knit from bloffoms by degrees, Swell into orbs, and load the bending trees, Whose 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 rise, 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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