THE

COURSE OF TIME.

BOOK VIII.

THE

COURSE OF TIME.

BOOK VIII.

REANIMATED now, and dressed in robes
Of everlasting wear, in the last pause
Of expectation, stood the human race;
Buoyant in air, or covering shore and sea,
From east to west, thick as the eared grain,
In golden autumn waved, from field to field,
Profuse, by Nilus' fertile wave, while yet
Earth was, and men were in her valleys seen.

Still all was calm in heaven: nor yet appeared The Judge nor aught appeared, save here and there,

On wing of golden plumage borne at will,

A curious angel, that from out the skies,
Now glanced a look on man, and then retired.
As calm was all on earth: the ministers

Of God's unsparing vengeance waited still
Unbid: no sun, no moon, no star gave light:
A blest and holy radiance, travelled far
From day original, fell on the face

Of men, and every countenance revealed;
Unpleasant to the bad, whose visages
Had lost all guise of seeming happiness,

With which on earth such pains they took to hide

Their misery in. On their grim features, now

The plain unvisored index of the soul,

The true untampered witness of the heart,
No smile of hope, no look of vanity
Beseeching for applause, was seen; no scowl
Of self important, all-despising pride,
That once upon the poor and needy fell,

Like winter on the unprotected flower,