Its echoing vault, ftrikes 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 tempeft ruffled, lifts the deeps,
At once, in billowy mountains to the fky,
With raving violence. And now their shores,
Rebellowing to the furge, they swallow fierce,
O'erfwelling mound and cliff: now fwift and ftrange,
With refluent wave retreating, leave the beach
A naked waste of fands-Meantime, behold!
Yon neighbouring Mountain rifing bleak and bare, Its double top in fteril afhes hid,
green around-its base with oil and wine,
Gives fign of ftorm and defolation near:
Storehoufe of fate! from whofe infernal womb,
With fiery minerals and metallic ore
Pernicious fraught, ascends 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, difcordant founds,
As of a clamouring multitude enrag'd,
The dafh of floods, and hollow howl of winds
Through wintery woods or cavern'd ruins heard,
Rife from the diftant depth where uproar reigns.
Anon, with black eruption, from its jaws,
A night of smoke, thick-driving, wave on wave,
In ftormy flow, and cloud involving cloud,
Rolls furging forth, extinguishing the day;
With vollied fparkles mix'd, and whirling drifts
Of stones and cinders rattling up the air.
Inftant, in one broad burft, a ftream of fire,
Red-iffuing, floods the hemifphere around.
Nor paufe, nor reft; again the mountain groans.
Amazing, from its inmoft cavern shook:
Again, with loudening rage, intensely fierce,
Difgorges pyramids of quivering flame,
Spire after fpire enormous, and torn rocks,
Flung out in thundering ruins to the sky.
But fee, in fecond pangs, the roaring hill
From forth its depth a cloudy pillar shoots,
Gradual and vaft, 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 funward flight.
Still as it fwells, 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 fun
Sets as in blood. A dreadful paufe enfues;
Deceitful calm, portending fiercer storm.
Sad night at once, with all her deep-dy'd fhades,
Falls back and boundless o'er the scene. Sufpenfe
And terror rule the hour. Behold, from far,
Imploring heaven with fupplicating hands
And streaming eyes, in mute amazement fix'd,
Yon peopled City ftands; each fadden'd face
Turn'd toward the hill of fears: and hark! once more
The rifing tempeft shakes its founding vaults,
Now faint in diftant murmurs, now more near
Rebounding horrible, with all the roar
Of winds and feas; or engines big with death,
That, planted by the murderous hand of War
To shake the round of fome proud capital,
At once difploded, in one bursting peal
Their mortal thunders mix. Along the sky,
From eaft 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-fcum,
Heaves up its boiling tide. The fabouring mount
Is torn with agonizing throes-at once,
Forth from its fide difparted, 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,
Refiftlefs. Villages, and woods, and rocks,
Fall flat before their sweep. The region round,
Where myrtle walks and groves of golden fruit
Rofe fair, where harvest wav'd in all its pride,
And where the vineyard spread her purple ftore,
Maturing into nectar, now defpoil'd
Of herb, leaf, fruit, and flower, from end to end
Lies buried under fire, a glowing fea!
Thus roaming with adventurous wing the globe,
From scene to scene excurfive, I behold
In all her workings, beauteous, great, or new,
Fair Nature, and in all with wonder trace
The fovereign Maker, first, fupreme, and best,
Who actuates the whole: at whofe command,
Obedient fire and flood tremendous rife,
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 fhines the full magnificence unveil'd
Of Majefty 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 Muse
Afcending foars, on through the fluid fpace,
The buoyant atmofphere; whofe vivid breath,
Soul of all fublunary life, pervades
The realms of Nature, to her inmoft depths
Diffus'd with quickening energy. Now ftill,
From pole to pole th' aërial ocean fleeps,
One limpid vacancy: now rous'd to rage
By bluftering meteors, wind, hail, rain, or cloud
With thunderous fury charg'd, its billows rife,
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 ferene.
Glorious expanfion! by th' Almighty spread,
Whofe limits who hath feen! or who with him
Hath walk'd the fun-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, fhines out in all his ftrength,
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