Out-burns Vefuvius; rocks eternal pour
Their melted mass, as rivers once they pour'd;
Stars rush; and final ruin fiercely drives
Her plowshare o'er creation !—while aloft,
More than aftonishment! if more can be!
Far other firmament than e'er was seen,
Than e'er was thought by man! far other stars!
Stars animate, that govern these of fire;
Far other fun !-A fun, O how unlike
The Babe at Bethlem! how unlike the Man,
That groan'd on Calvary!-Yet He it is;
That Man of forrows! O how chang'd! what pomp!
In grandeur terrible, all heaven defcends!
And gods, ambitious, triumph in his train.
A fwift archangel, with his golden wing,
As blots and clouds, that darken and difgrace
The fcene divine, fweeps ftars and funs aside.
And now, all drofs remov'd, heaven's own pure day,
Full on the confines of our æther, flames.
While (dreadful contraft!) far, how far beneath!
Hell, bursting, belches forth her blazing feas,
And forms fulphureous; her voracious jaws
Expanding wide, and roaring for her prey.
Lorenzo! welcome to this fcene; the laft
In nature's courfe; the first in wifdom's thought.
This ftrikes, if aught can strike thee; this awakes 190
The most fupine; this fnatches man from death.
Roufe, roufe, Lorenzo, then, and follow me,
Where truth, the most momentous man can hear,
Loud calls my foul, and ardour wings her fight.
I find my inspiration in my theme;
The grandeur of my fubject is my Muse.
At midnight, when mankind is wrapt in peace,
And worldly fancy feeds on golden dreams;
To give more dread to man's most dreadful hour,
At midnight, 'tis prefum'd, this pomp will burst 200 From tenfold darkness; fudden as the spark
From fmitten fteel; from nitrous grain, the blaze.
Man, farting from his couch, shall sleep no more!
The day is broke, which never more shall clofe !
Above, around, beneath, amazement all!
Terror and glory join'd in their extremes !
Our God in grandeur, and our world on fire!
All nature ftruggling in the pangs of death!
Doft thou not hear her? Doft thou not deplore
Her ftrong convulfions, and her final groan?
Where are we now? Ah me! the ground is gone,
On which we stood; Lorenzo! while thou may'st,
Provide more firm fupport, or fink for ever!
Where? How? From whence? Vain hope! it is too late!
Where, where, for fhelter, fhall the guilty fly,
When confternation turns the good man pale ?
Great day! for which all other days were made;
For which earth role from chaos, nan from earth;
And an eternity, the date of Gods,
Defcended on poor earth-created man!
Great day of dread, decifion, and despair!
At thought of thee, each fublunary with
Lets go its eager grafp, and drops the world;
And catches at each reed of hope in heaven.
At thought of thee !-and art thou absent then?
Lorenzo! no; 'tis here; it is begun ;-
Already is begun the grand affize,
In thee, in all: deputed conscience scales
The dread tribunal, and forestalls our doom;
Foreftalls; and, by foreftalling, proves it fure.
Why on himself should man void judgment pass ?
Is idle nature laughing at her fons?
Who confcience fent, her sentence will support,
And God above affert that God in man.
Thrice happy they! that enter now the court
Heaven opens in their bofoms: but, how rare,
Ah me! that magnanimity, how rare!
What hero, like the man who stands himself;
Who dares to meet his naked heart alone;
Who hears, intrepid, the full charge it brings,
Refolv'd to filence future murmurs there?
The coward flies; and, flying, is undone.
(Art thou a coward? No :) The coward flies;
Thinks, but thinks flightly; asks, but fears to know ;
Asks, "What is truth ?" with Pilate; and retires; 245
Diffolves the court, and mingles with the throng;
Afylum fad! from reason, hope, and heaven!
Shall all, but man, look out with ardent eye,
For that great day, which was ordain'd for man?
O day of confummation! mark supreme
(If men are wife) of human thought! nor least,
Or in the fight of angels, or their King!
Angels, whofe radiant circles, height o'er height,
Order o'er order, rifing, blaze o'er blaze,
As in a theatre, furround this fcene,
Intent on man, and anxious for his fate.
Angels look out for thee; for thee, their Lord,
To vindicate his glory; and for thee,
Creation universal calls aloud,
To dif-involve the moral world, and give
To nature's renovation brighter charms.
Shall man alone, whofe fate, whofe final fate, Hangs on that hour, exclude it from his thought?
I think of nothing else; I fee! I feel it!
All nature, like an earthquake, trembling round! 265
All Deities, like fummer's fwarms, on wing!
All basking in the full meridian blaze !
I fee the Judge inthron'd! the flaming guard!
The volume open'd! open'd every heart!
A fun-beam pointing out each fecret thought!
No patron! interceffor none! now past
The sweet, the clement, mediatorial hour!
For guilt no plea! to pain, no paufe! no bound!
Inexorable, all! and all, extreme!
Nor man alone; the foe of God and man,
From his dark den, blafpheming, drags his chain,
And rears his brazen front, with thunder fearr'd:
Receives his fentence, and begins his hell,
All vengeance past, now, feems abundant grace :
Like meteors in a stormy sky, how roll
His baleful eyes! he curfes whom he dreads;
And deems it the first moment of his fall.
'Tis prefent to my thought!—and yet where is it?
Angels can't tell me; angels cannot guess
The period; from created beings lock'd
In darkness. But the process, and the place,
Are lefs obfcure; for these may man enquire.
Say, thou great close of human hopes and fears!
Great key of hearts! great finisher of fates!
Great end! and great beginning! fay, Where art thou? Art thou in time, or in eternity?
Nor in eternity, nor time, I find thee.
Thefe, as two monarchs, on their borders meet,
(Monarchs of all elaps'd, or unarriv'd !)
As in debate, how best their powers ally'd,
May fwell the grandeur, or discharge the wrath,
Of Him, whom both their monarchies obey.
Time, this faft fabric for him built (and doom'd
With him to fall) now bursting o'er his head;
His lamp, the fun, extinguish'd; from beneath
The frown of hideous darkness, calls his fons
From their long flumber; from earth's heaving womb,
To fecond birth! contemporary throng!
Rous'd at One çall, upstarted from One bed,
Preft in One croud, appall'd with One amaze,
He turns them o'er, Eternity! to thee.
Then (as a king depos'd difdains to live)
He falls on his own scythe; nor falls alone;
His greatest foe falls with him; Time, and he
Who murder'd all Time's offspring, Death, expire. 310
Time was! Eternity now reigns alone!
Aweful Eternity! offended queen!
And her refentment to mankind, how just!
With kind intent, foliciting accefs,
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