Reverse of nature! fhall fuch copies then
Arraign th' originals of Maro's pen!
And the rude notions of pedantic schools
Blafpheme the facred founder of our rules!
The delicacy of the nicest ear

Finds nothing harsh or out of order there.
Sublime or low, unbended or intenfe,
The found is ftill a comment to the fenfe.
A skilful ear in numbers fhould prefide,
And all difputes without appeal decide.
This ancient Rome and elder Athens found,
Before mistaken stops debauch'd the found.
When, by impulfe from heaven, Tyrtæus fung,
In drooping foldiers a new courage sprung;
Reviving Sparta now the fight maintain'd,
And what two generals loft a poet gain'd..
By fecret influence of indulgent skies,
Empire and poefy together rife.

Truc poets are the guardians of a state,

And, when they fail, portend approaching fate..
For that which Rome to conqueft did inspire,
Was not the Veftal, but the Mufes' fire;
Heaven joins the bleffings: No declining age
E'er felt the raptures of poetic rage.

Of many faults, rhyme is (perhaps) the cause;
Too ftrict to rhyme, we flight more useful laws,
For that, in Greece or Rome, was never known,
Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown:

Subdued, undone, they did at laft obey,

And change their own for their invaders' way.

I grant

I grant that from fome moffy, idol oak,
In double rhymes our Thor and Woden spoke;
And by fucceffion of unlearned times,

As Bards began, fo Monks rung on the chimes.

But now that Phoebus and the facred Nine, With all their beams on our bleft ifland fhine, Why should not we their ancient rites restore, And be, what Rome or Athens were before?

*Have we forgot how Raphael's numerous profe • Led our exalted fouls through heavenly camps, And mark'd the ground where proud apoftate thrones Defy'd Jehovah! Here, 'twixt host and host, (A narrow, but a dreadful interval)

• Portentous fight! before the cloudy van

Satan with vaft and haughty ftrides advanc'd, Came towering arm'd in adamant and gold. • There bellowing engines, with their fiery tubes, • Difpers'd æthereal forms, and down they fell By thoufands, angels on arch-angels roll'd; Recover'd, to the hills they ran, they flew, Which (with their ponderous load, rocks, waters, ' woods)

From their firm feats torn by the shaggy tops

They bore like fhields before them through the air, • Till more incens'd they hurld them at their foes. All was confufion, heaven's foundations fhook, Threatning no less than univerfal wreck, For Michael's arm main promontories flung,

* An effay on blank verse, out of Paradife Loft, B. VI.

'And

And over-preft whole legions weak with fin: • Yet they blafphem'd and struggled as they lay, • Till the great ensign of Messiah blaz❜d,

• And (arm'd with vengeance) God's victorious Son (Effulgence of paternal deity)

• Grafping ten thousand thunders in his hand,
• Drove th' old original rebels headlong down,
And sent them flaming to the vast abyss.'
O may I live to hail the glorious day,
And fing loud pæans through the crowded way,
When in triumphant state the British Muse,
True to herself, fhall barbarous aid refuse,
And in the Roman majesty appear,
Which none know better, and none come fo near.

A PARAPHRASE

ON THE

CXLVIII th

P S A L

M.

Azure vaults! O cryftal sky!

The world's transparent canopy,

Break your long filence, and let mortals know
With what contempt you look on things below.

Wing'd fquadrons of the god of war,
Who conquer wherefoe'er you are,

Let echoing anthems make his praises known
On earth his footstool, as in heaven his throne.

Great

Great eye

of all, whofe glorious ray

Rules the bright empire of the day,

O praise his name, without whofe purer light
Thou hadst been hid in an abyss of night.

Ye moon and planets, who dispense, By God's command, your influence; Refign to him, as your Creator due, That veneration which men pay to you.

Faireft, as well as first, of things,
From whom all joy, all beauty springs ;
O praife th' Almighty Ruler of the globe,
Who ufeth thee for his empyreal robe.

Praise him ye loud harmonious fpheres,
Whofe facred ftamp all nature bears,

Who did all forms from the rude chaos draw,
And whofe command is th' univerfal law:

Ye watery mountains of the sky,

And you

fo far above our eye,

Vaft ever-moving orbs, exalt his name,

Who gave its being to your glorious frame,

Ye dragons, whose contagious breath
Peoples the dark retreats of death,

Change your fierce hiffing into joyful fong,

And praife your Maker with your forked tongue.

Praise

Praise him, ye monsters of the deep,

That in the feas vaft bofoms fleep;

At whofe command the foaming billows roar,
Yet know their limits, tremble and adore.

Ye mifts and vapours, hail and fnow,

And you who through the concave blow, Swift executors of his holy word,

Whirlwinds and tempests, praise th' Almighty Lord.

Mountains, who to your Maker's view Seem less than mole-hills do to you, Remember how, when first Jehovah spoke, All heaven was fire, and Sinai hid in smoke.

Praise him, fweet offspring of the ground, With heavenly nectar yearly crown'd ; And ye tall cedars, celebrate his praise, That in his temple facred altars raife.

Idle muficians of the spring,

Whofe only care 's to love and fing,

Fly through the world, and let your trembling throat Praise your Creator with the sweetest note.

Praise him each favage furious beast,
That on his ftores do daily feast :

And you tame flaves of the laborious plow,
Your weary knees to your Creator bow.

Majeftic