Its echoing vault, strikes out the fatal spark
That blows it into rage. Shakes earth again,
Wide through her entrails torn. To all fides flash'd,
The flames bear downward on the central deep,
Immeafurable fource, whence ocean fills
His numerous feas, and pours them round the globe.
The liquid orb, through all its dark expanse,
In dire commotion boils; and bursting way
Up through th' unfounded bottoms of the main.
Where never tempest ruffled, lifts the deeps,
At once, in billowy mountains to the fky,
With raving violence. And now their shores,
Rebellowing to the surge, they swallow fierce,
O'erswelling mound and cliff: now swift and strange,
With refluent wave retreating, leave the beach
A naked waste of sands-Meantime, behold!
Yon neighbouring Mountain rifing bleak and bare,
Its double top in steril ashes hid,
But green around-its base with oil and wine,
Gives fign of storm and desolation near:
Storehouse of fate! from whose infernal womb,
With fiery minerals and metallic ore
Pernicious fraught, afcends eternal smoke:
Now wavering loofe in air; now borne on high,
A dusky column heightening to the fun!
Imagination's eye looks down dismay'd
The steepy gulph, pale-flaming and profound,
With hourly tumult vext, but now incens'd
To fevenfold fury. First, discordant sounds,
As of a clamouring multitude enrag'd,
The dash of floods, and hollow howl of winds
Through wintery woods or cavern'd ruins heard,
Rife from the distant depth where uproar reigns.
Anon, with black eruption, from its jaws,
A night of smoke, thick-driving, wave on wave,
In stormy flow, and cloud involving cloud,
Rolls furging forth, extinguishing the day;
With vollied fparkles mix'd, and whirling drifts
Of ftones and cinders rattling up the air.
Instant, in one broad burst, a stream of fire,
Red-ifsuing, floods the hemisphere around.
Nor pause, nor rest; again the mountain groans.
Amazing, from its inmost cavern shook:
Again, with loudening rage, intensely fierce,
Disgorges pyramids of quivering flame,
Spire after spire enormous, and torn rocks,
Flung out in thundering ruins to the sky.
But fee, in second pangs, the roaring hill
From forth its depth a cloudy pillar shoots,
Gradual and vast, in one afcending trunk
Of length immenfe, heav'd by the force of fire,
On its own base direct, aloft in air,
Beyond the foaring eagle's sunward flight.
Still as it swells, through all the dark extent,
With wonder seen! ten thousand lightnings play
In flash'd vibrations; and from height to height
Inceffant thunders roar. No longer now
Protruded by the explosive breath below,
At once the shadowy summit breaks away
To all fides round, in billows broad and black,
As of a turbid ocean stirr'd by winds,
A vapoury deluge hiding earth and heaven.
Thus all day long: and now the beamless sun
Sets as in blood. A dreadful pause ensues;
Deceitful calm, portending fiercer storm.
Sad night at once, with all her deep-dy'd shades,
Falls back and boundless o'er the scene. Suspense
And terror rule the hour. Behold, from far,
Imploring heaven with fupplicating hands
And streaming eyes, in mute amazement fix'd,
Yon peopled City stands; each fadden'd face
Turn'd toward the hill of fears: and hark! once more
The rifing tempest shakes its founding vaults,
Now faint in distant murmurs, now more near
Rebounding horrible, with all the roar
Of winds and seas; or engines big with death,
That, planted by the murderous hand of War
To shake the round of fome proud capital,
At once disploded, in one bursting peal
Their mortal thunders mix. Along the sky,
From east to fouth, a ruddy hill of smoke
Extends its ridge, with dismal light inflam'd.
Meanwhile, the fluid Lake that works below,
Bitumen, fulphur, falt, and iron-scum,
Heaves up its boiling tide. The fabouring mount
Is torn with agonizing throes-at once,
Forth from its fide disparted, blazing pours
A mighty river, burning in prone waves,
That glimmer through the night, to yonder plain.
Divided there, a hundred torrent-streams,
Each ploughing up its bed, roll dreadful on,
Resistless. Villages, and woods, and rocks,
Fall flat before their sweep. The region round,
Where myrtle walks and groves of golden fruit
Rose fair, where harvest wav'd in all its pride,
And where the vineyard spread her purple store,
Maturing into nectar, now despoil'd
Of herb, leaf, fruit, and flower, from end to end
Lies buried under fire, a glowing sea!
Thus roaming with adventurous wing the globe,
From scene to scene excursive, I behold
In all her workings, beauteous, great, or new,
Fair Nature, and in all with wonder trace
The sovereign Maker, first, supreme, and best,
Who actuates the whole: at whose command,
Obedient fire and flood tremendous rise,
His minifters of vengeance, to reprove,
And scourge the nations. Holy are his ways,
His works unnumber'd, and to all proclaim
Unfathom'd wisdom, goodness unconfin'd.
NDLESS the wonders of creating power,
On earth, but chief on high through heaven
There shines the full magnificence unveil'd
Of Majesty divine: refulgent there
Ten thousand funs blaze forth, with each his train
Of worlds dependent, all beneath the eye
And equal rule of one eternal Lord.
To those bright climes, awakening all her powers,
And spreading her unbounded wing, the Mufe
Afcending foars, on through the fluid fpace,
The buoyant atmosphere; whose vivid breath,
Soul of all fublunary life, pervades
The realms of Nature, to her inmost depths
Diffus'd with quickening energy. Now still,
From pole to pole th' aërial ocean fleeps,
One limpid vacancy: now rous'd to rage
By blustering meteors, wind, hail, rain, or cloud
With thunderous fury charg'd, its billows rise,
And shake the nether orb. Still as I mount,
A path the vulture's eye hath not observ'd,
Nor foot of eagle trod, th' ethereal sphere
Receding flies approach; its circling arch
Alike remote, translucent, and serene.
Glorious expanfion! by th' Almighty spread,
Whose limits who hath seen! or who with him
Hath walk'd the sun-pav'd circuit from old time,
And vifited the host of heaven around!
Gleaming a borrow'd light, whence how small
The speck of earth, and dim air circumfus'd!
Mutable region, vext with hourly change.
But here, unruffled calm her even reign
Maintains external: here the lord of day.
The neighbouring fun, shines out in all his strength,
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