Thick cloud and storm and ruin on his wing,
The raging South, and headlong o'er the deep
Fell horrible, with broad-descending blast.

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Aloft, and safe beneath a sheltering cliff,
Whose moss-grown summit on the distant flood

Projected frowns, Aurelius stood appall'd:
His stunn'd ear smote with all the thundering main!
His eye with mountains furging to the stars!

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Commotion infinite. Where yon last wave
Blends with the sky its foam, a ship in view
Shoots fudden forth, steep-falling from the clouds:
Yet distant seen and dim, till, onward borne

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Before the blast, each growing fail expands,
Each mast aspires, and all th' advancing frame
Bounds on his eye distinct. With sharpen'd ken
Its course he watches, and in awful thought
That power invokes, whose voice the wild winds hear,
Whose nod the furge reveres, to look from heaven, 210
And fave, who else muft perish, wretehed men,
In this dark hour, amid the dread abyss,
With fears amaz'd, by horrors compass'd round.
But O, ill-omen'd, death-devoted heads!
For death bestrides the billow, nor your own,
Nor others' offer'd vows can stay the flight
Of instant fate. And, lo! his fecret feat,
Where never fun-beam glimmer'd, deep amidst

A cavern's jaws voraginous and vast,

1.

The stormy Genius of the deep forsakes:
And o'er the waves, that roar beneath his frown,
Afcending baleful, bids the tempest spread,

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Turbid and terrible with hail and rain,

Its blackest pinion, pour its loudening blasts
In whirlwind forth, and from their lowest depth 225
Upturn the world of waters. Round and round

The tortur'd ship, at his imperious call,
Is wheel'd in dizzy whirl: her guiding helm
Breaks short; her masts in crashing ruin fall;
And each rent fail flies loose in diftant air.
Now, fearful moment! o'er the foundering hull,
Half ocean heav'd, in one broad billowy curve,
Steep from the clouds with horrid shade impends-
Ah! save them, heaven! it bursts in deluge down
With boundless undulation. Shore and sky
Rebellow to the roar. At once engulph'd,
Vessel and crew beneath its torrent sweep
Are funk, to rife no more. Aurelius wept:
The tear unbidden dew'd his hoary cheek.
He turn'd his step; he fled the fatal scene,
And brooding, in sad filence, o'er the fight
To him alone disclos'd, his wounded heart
Pour'd out to heaven in fighs: Thy will be done,
Not mine, fupreme Disposer of Events!
But death demands a tear, and man must feel
For human woes: the rest submission checks.
Not distant far, where this receding bay*
Looks northward on the pole, a rocky arch
Expands its felf-pois'd concave; as the gate,
Ample, and broad, and pillar'd massy-proof,

* See Martin's voyage to St. Kilda, p. 20.

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Of

Of fome unfolding temple. On its height
Is heard the tread of daily-climbing flocks,
That, o'er the green roof spread, their fragrant food
Untended crop. As through this cavern'd path,
Involv'd in pensive thought Aurelius past,
Struck with fad echoes from the founding vault
Remurmur'd shrill, he stopt, he rais'd his head;
And faw th' assembled natives in a ring,
With wonder and with pity bending o'er
A shipwreck'd man. All-motionless on earth
He lay. The living luftre from his eye,
The vermil hue extinguish'd from his cheek:
And in their place, on each chill feature spread,
The shadowy cloud and ghastliness of death
With pale fuffufion fat. So looks the moon,
So faintly wan, through hovering mists at eve,
Grey autumn's train. Fast from his hairs distill'd
The briny wave: and close within his grasp

Was clench'd a broken oar, as one who long
Had stem'd the flood with agonizing breast,
And struggled strong for life. Of youthful prime
He feem'd, and built by Nature's nobleft hand;
Where bold proportion, and where softening grace,
Mix'd in each limb, and harmoniz'd his frame.

Aurelius, from the breathless clay, his eye
To heaven imploring rais'd: then, for he knew
That life, within her central cell retir'd,
May lurk unseen, diminish'd but not quench'd,
He bid transport it speedy through the vale,

To his poor cell that lonely stood and low,

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280 Safe

Safe from the north beneath a floping hill:
An antique frame, orbicular, and rais'd
On columns rude; its roof with reverend moss

Light-shaded o'er; its front in ivy hid,
That mantling crept aloft. With pious hand
They turn'd, they chaf'd his frozen limbs, and fum'd

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The vapoury air with aromatic smells :

Then, drops of fovereign efficacy, drawn

From mountain plants, within his lips infus'd.

Slow, from the mortal trance, as men from dreams 290

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Of direful vision, shuddering he awakes:
While life, to scarce-felt motion, faintly lifts
His fluttering pulse, and gradual o'er his cheek
The rosy current wins its refluent way.
Recovering to new pain, his eyes he turn'd
Severe on heaven, on the furrounding hills
With twilight dim, and on the croud unknown
Dissolv'd in tears around: then clos'd again,
As loathing light and life. At length, in sounds
Broken and eager, from his heaving breaft
Distraction spoke-Down, down with every fail.
Mercy, sweet heaven!-Ha! now whole ocean sweeps
In tempest o'er our heads-My foul's last hope!
We will not part-Help help! yon wave, behold!
That swells hetwixt, has borne her from my fight. 305
O, for a fun to light this black abyss!

300

Gone-loft-for ever loft! He ceas'd. Amaze

And trembling on the pale assistants fell :

Whom now, with greeting and the words of peace,

Aurelius bid depart. A pause ensued,

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Mute,

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Mute, mournful, folemn. On the stranger's face
Observant, anxious, hung his fix'd regard :
Watchful his ear, each murmur, every breath,
Attentive seiz'd; now eager to begin
Confoling speech; now doubtful to invade
The facred filence due to grief fupreme.
Then thus at laft: O from devouring seas,
By miracle escap'd! if, with thy life,
Thy sense return'd, can yet difcern the Hand
All-wonderful, that through yon raging sea,
Yon whirling west of tempeft, led thee safe;
That Hand divine with grateful awe confefs,
With proftrate thanks adore. When thou, alas!
Wast number'd with the dead, and clos'd within
'Th' unfathom'd gulph; when human hope was fled,325

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And human help in vain-th' Almighty Voice,

Then bade destruction spare, and bade the deep

Yield up its prey: that, by his mercy sav'd,

Some fecret anguish, some tranfcendent woe,
Sits heavy on his heart, and from his eyes,
Through the clos'd lids, now rolls in bitter stream!
Yet, speak thy foul, afflicted as thou art!
For know, by mournful privilege 'tis mine,
Myself most wretched and in forrow's ways

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