:

The Bard resumes the history of man.-Earth on the morning of the last day. How men were occupied :-The husbandman--the merchant-the lawyer-the voluptuary-the beauty -the robber-the despot-the statesman-the newsmongerBishops-heroes-men of science.-No symptom of change:The sudden darkness :-Consternation of men.-The disregard or dissolution of human ties and affections.-Appearance of the Angel who swears that Time shall be no more.-The universal pause of Nature. The sound of the trumpet:-Awakening of the dead :-Renewal of the powers of life in the aged, sick, and dying :-Restoration of the maniac to reason.-The coffined, unburied dead arise :-Battle suspended :-The newfallen dead rise on the battle-field :-The mangled corpse rises beneath the knife of the dissector.-Effects of the Resurrection on the different orders of men :-Jubilee to the slave.-How the Resurrection surprised the religious student-How the different classes of men in contrasted situations.-Hallelujahs from heaven of the spirits of the just come to repossess their bodies, and despair of the damned spirits summoned from the place of punishment.-Earth every where gives up its dead :-Tombs and burial vaults open. The Memphian mummy and his purchaser. The hermit and bard buried in fancied solitude.-The family vault and all its generations.-Resurrection of the benevolent man of the miser-of the martyr.-Lament over the decay of Nature. The ancient renowned cities of Earth awake. -Resurrection of Jerusalem-of cities overwhelmed by the Flood, and by earthquakes.-Rising of the perished millions of battle-fields of the legions of Rome of the host of Sennacherib-of noble bands of patriots-of the caravan buried in the sands of the Desert-of seamen frozen at the Pole.Resurrection of the First Pair of Christian Missionaries to heathen lands.-The sea gives up its dead.-Ocean apostrophized. Its profound calm on the morning of the Resurrection.Address to Death :-His former power :-Conquered by the Son of God. Who are henceforth the inmates of his den.-His occupations through all Eternity.

THE

COURSE OF TIME.

BOOK VII.

As one who meditates at evening tide,
Wandering alone by voiceless solitudes,
And flies in fancy, far beyond the bounds
Of visible and vulgar things, and things
Discovered hitherto, pursuing tracts

As yet untravelled and unknown, through vast
Of new and sweet imaginings; if chance
Some airy harp, waked by the gentle sprites
Of twilight, or light touch of sylvan maid,
In soft succession fall upon
his ear,
And fill the desert with its heavenly tones;
He listens intense, and pleased exceedingly,
And wishes it may never stop; yet when
It stops, grieves not; but to his former thoughts
With fondest haste returns: so did the Seer,

So did his audience, after worship past,
And praise in heaven, return to sing, to hear
Of man, not worthy less the sacred lyre,
Or the attentive ear; and thus the bard,
Not unbesought, again resumed his song.

In customed glory bright, that morn, the Sun
Rose, visiting the earth with light, and heat,
And joy; and seemed as full of youth, and strong
To mount the steep of heaven, as when the Stars
Of morning sung to his first dawn, and night
Fled from his face. The spacious sky received
Him, blushing as a bride, when on her looked
The bridegroom; and, spread out beneath his eye,
Earth smiled. Up to his warm embrace, the Dews,
That all night long had wept his absence, flew;
The herbs and flowers their fragrant stores un-
locked,

And gave the wanton breeze that, newly woke,
Revelled in sweets, and from its wings shook health,
A thousand grateful smells; the joyous woods
Dried in his beams their locks, wet with the drops
Of night; and all the sons of music sung
Their matin song, from arboured bower, the thrush
Concerting with the lark that hymned on high.

On the green hill the flocks, and in the vale

The herds, rejoiced; and, light of heart, the hind Eyed amorously the milk-maid as she passed, Not heedless, though she looked another way.

No sign was there of change. All nature moved
In wonted harmony. Men, as they met,
In morning salutation, praised the day,

And talked of common things. The husbandman
Prepared the soil, and silver-tongued Hope
Promised another harvest. In the streets,
Each wishing to make profit of his neighbour,
Merchants, assembling, spoke of trying times,
Of bankruptcies, and markets glutted full;
Or, crowding to the beach, where, to their ear,
The oath of foreign accent, and the noise
Uncouth of trade's rough sons, made music sweet,
Elate with certain gain,-beheld the bark,
Expected long, enriched with other climes,
Into the harbour safely steer; or saw,
Parting with many a weeping farewell sad,
And blessing uttered rude, and sacred pledge,
The rich-laden carack, bound to distant shore,
And hopefully talked of her coming back,
With richer fraught; or sitting at the desk,

In calculation deep and intricate

Of loss and profit balancing, relieved,
At intervals, the irksome task, with thought
Of future ease, retired in villa snug.

With subtle look, amid his parchments, sat
The lawyer, weaving his sophistries for court
To meet at mid-day. On his weary couch,
Fat Luxury, sick of the night's debauch,
Lay groaning, fretful at the obtrusive beam,
That through his lattice peeped derisively.
The restless miser had begun again

To count his heaps. Before her toilet stood
The fair, and, as with guileful skill she decked
Her loveliness, thought of the coming ball,
New lovers, or the sweeter nuptial night.
And evil men of desperate, lawless life,
By oath of deep damnation leagued to ill
Remorselessly, fled from the face of day,
Against the innocent their counsel held,
Plotting unpardonable deeds of blood,
And villanies of fearful magnitude.
Despots, secured behind a thousand bolts,

The workmanship of fear, forged chains for man.
Senates were meeting, statesmen loudly talked