Some with vast costly tombs would purchase it, "Here lies the great"-false Marble ! where? Nothing but small and sordid dust lies there.Some build enormous mountain-palaces, The fools and architects to please; A lasting life in well-hewn stone they rear: So he, who on th' Egyptain shore Was slain so many hundred years before, Lives still, (oh ! life most happy and most dear! Oh! life that epicures envy to hear!) Lives in the dropping ruins of his amphitheatre. His father-in-law an higher place does claim [breath. He, since that toy his death, Does fill all mouths, and breathes in all men's 'Tis true, the two immortal syllables remain ; But, oh, ye learned men! explain What essence, what existence, this, What substance, whatsubsistence, what hypostasis, In six poor letters is! In those alone does the great Cæsar live, 'Tis all the conquer'd world could give. With a refin'd fantastic vanity, Think we not only have, but give, eternity. Who his to morrow would bestow, For all old Homer's life, e'er since he dy'd till 'Twas gaudy all; and rich in every part now! My faithful breast did cover, Of essences, of gems; and spirit of gold Drawn forth by chymic angels' art. And flaming manes their necks array'd: But such light solid ones as shine On the transparent rocks o' th' Heaven crystal line. Thus mounted the great prophet to the skies; Or that which so they call, Wonder'd from hence to see one rise. Awhile the sacred footsteps bore ; The wheels and horses' hoofs hizz'd as they past them o'er ! He past by th' Moon and planets, and did fright All the worlds there which at this meteor gaz'd,' And their astrologers amaz'd With th' unexampled sight. But where he stopp'd will ne'er be known, To a better thing do aspire, And mount herself, like him, to eternity in fire. TO THE NEW YEAR. GREAT Janus! (who dost,sure, my mysteries view hen, when I was of late a wretched mortal lover. With all thine eyes, yet think'st them all too few If thy fore-face do see No better things prepar'd for me, Than did thy face behind; If still her breast must shut against me be, Alas! what need I thus to pray? His well-hors'd troops, the Months, and Days,and Sourness and lees, which to the bottom sink, Remain for latter years to drink; Until, some one offended with the taste, The vessel breaks, and out the wretched relics run at last. If then, young Year ! thou needst must come, The birth beyond its time can never tarry, Chuse thy attendants well; for 'tis not thee Let neither Loss of Friends, or Fame, or Liberty, Nor let thy livery be Either black Sin, or gaudy Vanity: Nay, if thou lov'st me, gentle Year! Vain fruitless love, I mean; for, gentle Year There's of this caution little need, Yet, gentle Year! take heed How thou dost make Such a mistake: Such love I mean, alone, As by thy cruel predecessors has been shown; space: Because we fight, and battles gain; Some captives call, and say," the rest are slain:". Who write of twenty thousand years, That really we live : Whilst all these shadows, that for things we take, Are but the empty dreams which in Death's sleep we make. For, though I'ave too much cause to doubt it, But these fantastic errours of our dream I fain would try for once if life can live with out it. Into the future times why do we pry, That would ev'n happiest men affright; The book of Fate is writ, 'Tis well we understand not it; We should grow mad with little learning there: Upon the brink of every ill we did foresee, Undecently and foolishly We should stand shivering, and but slowly venture The fatal flood to enter. Since, willing or unwilling, we must do it; They feel least cold and pain who plunge at once into it. Lead us to solid wrong; We pray God our friends' torments to prolong, To be as long a dying as Methusalem. Bid both the poles supp,ess their stormy noise, Than e'er was rais'd by God before, To scourge the rebel world, and march it round about. I see the sword of God brandish'd above, I see the scabbard cast away; How will it sweat and reek in blood! God does a solemn sacrifice prepare ; [food, The altar all the land, and all men in 't the vic tims are. Since, wicked men's more guilty blood to spare, So will they fall, so will they flee, Nature and Time shall both be slain, [we With such deep sense by God's own hand were writ (Whose eloquence, though we understand not, we admire) Shall crackle, and the parts together shrink [lend; With such a violent storm as blows down tree and all. And thou, O cursed land! Which wilt not see the precipice where thou dost stand (Though thou stand'st just upon the brink) Thou of this poison'd bowl the bitter dregs shalt Thy rivers and thy lakes shall so [drink. That by thine own dead shall be slain As one who buys, surveys, a ground, So careful and so strict he is, He walks about the perishing nation, The serpents through thy streets shall roll, And in thy lower rooms the wolves shall howl, And thy gilt chambers lodge the raven and the [owl, And all the wing'd ill-omens of the air, Though no new ills can be foreboded there: The lion then shall to the leopard say, "Brother leopard, come away; Behold a land which God has given us in prey Behold a land from whence we see stay. The glutted vultures shall expect in vain Shall find at last the business done, To dance and revel in the mask of night, Aught happen to be left behind; If any relics but remain ; They in their dens shall lurk, beasts in the palaces shall reign. To call us home, Home to the promis'd Canaan above, [honey flow; And with worse harden'd hearts do our own Pharaohs grow. Ah! lest at last we perish so, [prince Think, stubborn man, think of th' Egyptian (Hard of belief and will, but not so hard as thou); Think with what dreadful proofs God did convince The feeble arguments that human power could show; Think what plagues attend on thee, The kind instructing punishment enjoy ; Who Moses' God does now refuse, more oft than Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red-sea Moses he. "If from some god you come," (said the proud With half a smile and half a frown; king But what god can to Egypt be unknown?) shall destroy. The river yet gave one instruction more; And, from the rotten fish and unconcocted gore, (Which was but water just before) A loathsome host was quickly made, "What sign, what powers, what credence do you That scal'd the banks, and with loud noise did bring?" "Behold his seal! behold his hand!" Cries Moses, and casts down th' all-mighty wand. Th' all-mighty wand scarce touch'd the earth, When, with an undiscerned birth, Th' all-mighty wand a serpent grew, And his long half in painted folds behind him drew: Upwards his threatening tail he threw; He gap'd and hiss'd aloud, With flaming eyes survey'd the trembling crowd, And, like a basilisk, almost look'd th' assembly dead; Swift fled th' amazed king, the guards before him fled. Jannes and Jambres stopp'd their flight, And with proud words allay'd th' affright. "The God of slaves," said they, how can he be More powerful than their master's deity?" And down they cast their rods, And mutter'd secret sounds that charm the servile gods. The evil spirits their charms obey, And in a subtle cloud they snatch the rods away, And serpents in their place the airy jugglers lay. Serpents in Egypt's monstrous land Were ready still at hand, And all at the Old Serpent's first command. So much was over-power'd, On the fam❜d bank the prophets stood, Touch'd with their rod, and wounded, all the flood: Flood now no more, but a long vein of putrid Th' amazed crocodiles made haste to ground; From their vast trunks the dropping gore they spied, Thought it their own, and dreadfully aloud they cried. Nor all thy priests, north no, From whence thy wandering Nile begins his course Of this new Nile thou seest the sacred source; What plague more just could on thy waters fall? all the country invade. As Nilus when he quits his sacred bed (But like a friend he visits all the land With welcome presents in his hand) So did this living tide the fields o'erspread: In vain th' alarmed country tries To kill their noisome enemies; [arise. From th' unexhausted source still new recruits Nor does the earth these greedy troops suffice, The towns and houses they possess, The temples and the palaces, Nor Pharaoh, nor his gods, they fear; Both their importune croakings hear. Unsatiate yet, they mount up higher, Where never sun-born frog durst to aspire, And in the silken beds their slimy members place; A luxury unknown before to all the watery race! The water thus her wonders did produce; But both were to no use; [cuse. As yet the sorcerers' mimic power serv'd for ex"Try what the earth will do," said God, and lo! They strook the earth a fertile blow, And all the dust did straight to stir begin; [find And every dust did an arm'd vermin prove, Either to man or beast. Not Pharaoh from th' unquiet plague could be, This was God's hand; and 'twas but just, To punish thus man's pride, to punish dust with dust. Lo! the third element does his plagues prepare Did all the houses fill: And over all the land did the full vial shake. Sink, and prevent the lifted blow: The generous horse from the full manger turns his head, Does his lov'd floods and pastures scorn, With the once-ravishing smell of all his dappled mistresses; He flings the pregnant ashes through the air, And speaks a mighty prayer; Both which the ministering winds around all As gentle western blasts with downy wings, To th' unborn buds with vital whispers say, [way: The passionate buds break through the bark their So, wheresoe'er this tainted wind but blew, Swelling pains and ulcers grew: It from the body call'd all sleeping poisons out, And to them added new ; A noisome spring of sores, as thick as leaves, did sprout. Heaven itself is angry next; (Woe to man, when Heaven is vext!) And murmur'd first in an imperfect sound: Waves the expected signal of his wand; rons move, And fill the spacious plains above; One would have thought, their dreadful day to have seen, The very hail, and rain itself, had kindled been. The infant corn, which yet did scarce appear, Escap'd this general massacre Of every thing that grew, And the well-stor'd Egyptian year Began to clothe her fields and trees anew. Gave with large bounty to the thankful soil, Breath'd forth a violent western wind, Which all these living clouds did headlong bear (No stragglers left behind) Into the purple sea, and there bestow On the luxurious fish a feast they ne'er did know. With untaught joy Pharaoh the news does hear, And little thinks their fate attends on him and his so near. What blindness or what darkness did there e'er Like this undocile king's appear! What, e'er, but that which now does represent And paint the crime out in the punishment? From the deep baleful caves of Hell below, Where the old mother Night does growSubstantial Night, that does disclaim Privation's empty name Through secret conduits monstrous shapes arose, Such as the Sun's whole force could not oppose : They with a solid cloud All Heaven's eclipsed face did shroud ; Seem'd, with large wings spread o'er the sea and earth, To brood up a new Chaos's deformed birth. The living men were in their standing houses bu Through which the rolling thunder first does And ghosts complain'd, and spirits murmured; play, And opens wide the tempest's noisy way. And straight a stony shower Of monstrous hail does downwards pour, Such as ne'er Winter yet brought forth, From all her stormy magazines of the north. It all the beasts and men abroad did slay, O'er the defaced corpse, like monuments, lay; The houses and strong-bodied trees it broke, Nor ask'd aid from the thunder's stroke; Some swimming o'er the water's face, And Fancy's multiplying sight View'd all the scenes invisible of Night. Of God's dreadful anger these Were but the first light skirmishes; The shock and bloody battle now begins, The plenteous harvest of full-ripen'd sins. It was the time when the still Moon Was mounted softly to her noon, And dewy sleep,which from Night's secret springs Gently as Nile the land o'erflows. When lo! from the high countries of refined day, The golden heaven without allay Whose dross, in the creation purg'd away, [arose, Made up the Sun's adulterate rayMichael, the warlike prince, does downwards fly, Swift as the journies of the sight, Swift as the race of light, |