He whirl'd the tempeft through the howling air,
Rattled the dreadful thunder-clap on high,
And rais'd the roaring elemental war

Betwixt the fea-green waves and azure sky.

Then, like heav'n's mild embaffador of love

To man repentant, bade the tumult cease, Smooth'd the blue bofom of the realms above, And hush'd the rebel elements to peace.

Unlike to this in spirit or in mien

b

Another form fucceeded to my view;

A two-legg'd brute which Nature made in spleen,
Or from the loathing womb unfinish'd drew.

Scarce could he fyllable the curfe he thought,
Prone were his eyes to earth, his mind to evil,
A carnal fiend to imperfection wrought,

The mongrel offspring of a Witch and Devil.

c

Next bloom'd, upon an ancient foreft's bound,
The flow'ry margin of a filent stream,
O'er-arch'd by oaks with ivy mantled round,
And gilt by filver CYNTHIA's maiden beam.
On the green carpet of th' unbended grass,
A dapper train of female fairies play'd,
And ey'd their gambols in the wat❜ry glass,
That smoothly stole along the fhad'wy glade.

b Caliban in the Tempest.

© Fairy-land from the Midsummer Night's Dream.

Through

Through these the queen TITANIA pafs'd ador'd,
Mounted aloft in her imperial car,

Journeying to fee great OBERON her lord

Wage the mock battles of a sportive war.

Arm❜d cap-a-pee forth march'd the fairy king,
A ftouter warrior never took the field,
His threat'ning lance a hornet's horrid sting,
The fharded beetle's scale his fable fhield.

Around their chief the elfin hoft appear'd;
Each little helmet sparkled like a star,
And their sharp spears in pierceless phalanx rear'd,
A grove of thistles, glitter'd in the air.

The scene then chang'd, from this romantic land,
To a bleak waste by bound'ry unconfin'd,

Where three fwart fifters d of the weird band
Were mutt'ring curfes to the troublous wind.

Pale Want had wither'd every furrow'd face,

Bow'd was each carcafe with the weight of years,

And each funk eye-ball from its hollow cafe

Diftill'd cold rheum's involuntary tears.

Hors'd on three staves they posted to the bourn
Of a drear ifland, where the pendant brow

Of a rough rock, fhagg'd horribly with thorn,
Frown'd on the boift'rous waves which rag'd below.

d The witches in Macbeth..

Deep

Deep in a gloomy grot remote from day,

Where smiling Comfort never fhew'd her face,
Where light ne'er enter'd, fave one rueful ray
Discov'ring all the terrors of the place,

They held damn'd myft'ries with infernal state,
Whilst ghastly spectres glided flowly by,
The fcritch-owl fcream'd the dying call of fate,
And ravens croak'd their baleful augury.

No human footstep cheer'd the dread abode,
Nor fign of living creature could be seen,
Save where the reptile fnake, or fullen toad,
The murky floor had foil'd with venom green.

Sudden I heard the whirlwind's hollow found,
Each weird fifter vanish'd into smoke,
Now a dire yell of fpirits underground

Thro' troubled Earth's wide yawning surface broke ;

When lo! each injur'd apparition rose;

Aghaft the murd'rer started from his bed;

Guilt's trembling breath his heart's red current froze,
And Horror's dew-drops bath'd his frantic head.

More had I feen-but now the God of day

O'er earth's broad breast his flood of light had spread, When Morpheus call'd his fickle dreams away, And on their wings each bright illufion fled,

• Ghosts in Macbeth, Richard III. &c.

Yet

Yet itill the dear ENCHANTRESS of the brain
My waking eyes with wifhful wand'rings fought,.
Whofe magic will controuls' th' ideal train,
The ever-reflefs progeny of THOUGHT.
Sweet power, I faid, for others' gild the ray
Of Wealth, or Honour's folly-feather'd crown,
Or lead the madding multitude aftray

To grafp at air-blown bubbles of renown.

Me (humbler lot!) let blameless blifs engage,
Free from the noble mob's ambitious strife,
Free from the muck-worm mifer's lucrous rage,
In calm Contentment's cottag'd vale of life.

If frailties there (for who from them is free?)
Through Error's maze my devious footsteps lead,
Let them be frailties of humanity,

And my heart plead the pardon of my head.

Let not my reafon impioufly require

What heav'n has plac'd beyond its narrow span,
But teach it to fubdue each fierce defire,
Which wars within its own small empire, man.

Teach me, what all believe, but few poffefs,
That life's best science is ourfelves to know,
The first of human bleffings is to bless,
And happiest he who feels another's woe.

Thus

Thus cheaply wife, and innocently great,
While Time's smooth fand shall regularly pass,
Each deftin'd atom's quiet courfe I'll wait,
Nor rafhly break, nor wish to stop the glass.

And when in death my peaceful afhes lie,

If e'er fome tongue congenial speaks my name,
Friendship shall never blush to breathe a figh,
And great ones envy such an honest fame.