She waits his dire approach, and undismay'd
Receives him as a welcome guest, prepar'd
Against the churlish winter's fiercest blow.
For when, as yet the favourable sun
Gives to the genial earth the' enlivening ray,
Not the poor suffering slave, that hourly toils
To rive the groaning earth for ill-sought gold,
Endures such trouble, such fatigue, as she;
While all her subterraneous avenues,
And storm-proof cells with management most meet,
And unexampled housewifery, she forms;
Then to the field she hies, and on her back,
Burden immense! she bears the cumbrous corn.
Then many a weary step, and many a strain,
And many a grievous groan subdued, at length
Up the huge hill she hardly heaves it home.
Nor rests she here her providence, but nips
With subtle tooth the grain, lest from her garner
In mischievous fertility it steal,
And back to day-light vegetate its way.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard, learn to live,
And by her wary ways reform thine own.
But if thy deaden'd sense and listless thought
More glaring evidence demand; behold,
Where yon pellucid populous hive presents
A yet uncopied model to the world!
There Machiavel in the reflecting glass
May read himself a fool. The chemist there
May with astonishment invidious view
His toils outdone by each plebeian bee,
Who, at the royal mandate, on the wing
From various herbs and from discordant flow'rs
A perfect harmony of sweets compounds.
Avaunt conceit, ambition take thy flight
Back to the prince of vanity and air!
Oh 'tis a thought of energy most piercing,
Form'd to make pride grow humble; form'd to force
Its weight on the reluctant mind, and give her
A true but irksome image of herself.
Woful vicissitude! when man, fall'n man,
Who first from heaven, from gracious God himself, Learn'd knowledge of the brutes, must know, by brutes
Instructed and reproach'd, the scale of being
By slow degrees from lowly steps ascends,
And trace omniscience upwards to its spring!
Yet murmur not, but praise-for though we stand
Of many a godlike privilege amerc'd
By Adam's dire transgression, though no more
Is Paradise our home, but o'er the portal
Hangs in terrific pomp the burning blade;
Still with ten thousand beauties blooms the earth,
With pleasures populous, and with riches crown'd:
Still is there scope for wonder and for love
Ev'n to their last exertion-showers of blessings
Far more than human virtue can deserve,
Or hope expect, or gratitude return.
Then, O ye people! O ye sons of men!
Whatever be the colour of your lives,
Whatever portion of itself his wisdom
Shall deign to allow, still patiently abide,
And praise him more and more; nor cease to chant
All glory to the Omniscient, and praise,
And power, and domination in the height!
And thou, cherubic gratitude, whose voice
To pious ears sounds silverly so sweet,
Come with thy precious incense, bring thy gifts,
And with thy choicest stores the altar crown.
POWER OF THE SUPREME BEING.
"TREMBLE, thou earth! (the' anointed poet said)
At God's bright presence, tremble, all ye mountains,
And all ye hillocks on the surface bound."
Then once again, ye glorious thunders, roll,
The muse with transport hears ye once again
Convulse the solid continent, and shake
(Grand music of Omnipotence) the isles.
'Tis thy terrific voice; thou God of power,
'Tis thy terrific voice; all nature hears it
Awaken'd and alarm'd; she feels its force,
In every spring she feels it, every wheel,
And every movement of her vast machine.
Behold! quakes Appenine, behold! recoils
Athos, and all the hoary-headed Alps
Leap from their bases at the godlike sound.
But what is this, celestial though the note,
And proclamation of the reign supreme,
Compar'd with such as, for a mortal ear
Too great, amaze the incorporeal worlds?
Should ocean to his congregated waves
Call in each river, cataract, and lake,
And with the watry world down a huge rock
Fall headlong in one horrible cascade,
"Tware but the echo of the parting breeze,
When zephyr faints upon the lily's breast,
"Twere but the ceasing of some instrument,
When the last lingering undulation
Dies on the doubting ear, if nam'd with sounds
So mighty! so stupendous! so divine!
But not alone in the aërial vault
Does he the dread theocracy maintain;
For oft, enrag'd with his intestine thunders,
He harrows up the bowels of the earth,
And shocks the central magnet.-Cities then
Totter on their foundations, stately columns,
Magnific walls, and heaven-assaulting spires.
What though in haughty eminence erect
Stands the strong citadel, and frowns defiance
On adverse hosts, though many a bastion jut
Forth from the ramparts' elevated mound,
Vain the poor providence of human heart,
And mortal strength how vain! while underneath
Triumphs his mining vengeance in the' uproar
Of shatter'd towers, riven rocks, and mountains,
With clamour inconceivable uptorn,
And hurl'd adown the' abyss. Sulphureous pyrites
Bursting abrupt from darkness into day,
With din outrageous and destructive ire
Augment the hideous tumult, while it wounds
The' afflicted ear, and terrifies the eye,
And rends the heart in twain. 'Twice have we felt,
Within Augusta's walls, twice have we felt
Thy threaten'd indignation; but ev'n thou,
Incens'd Omnipotent, art gracious ever:
Thy goodness infinite but mildly warn'd us
With mercy-blended wrath: O spare us still,
Nor send more dire conviction: we confess
That thou art he, the' Almighty: we believe;
For at thy righteous power whole systems quake,
For at thy nod tremble ten thousand worlds.
Hark! on the winged whirlwind's rapid rage,
Which is, and is not, in a moment-hark!
On the' hurricane's tempestuous sweep he rides
Invincible, and oaks and pines and cedars
And forests are no more. For conflict dreadful!
The west encounters east, and Notus meets
In his career the Hyperborean blast.
The lordly lions shuddering seek their dens,
And fly like timorous deer; the king of birds,
Who dar'd the solar ray, is weak of wing,
And faints and falls and dies ;--while he supreme
Stands stedfast in the centre of the storm.
Wherefore, ye objects terrible and great,
Ye thunders, earthquakes,and ye fire-fraught wombs
Of fell volcanoes, whirlwinds, hurricanes,
And boiling billows, hail! in chorus join
To celebrate and magnify your Maker,
Who yet in works of a minuter mould
Is not less manifest, is not less mighty.
Survey the magnet's sympathetic love,
That wooes the yielding needle; contemplate
The' attractive amber's power invisible
Ev'n to the mental eye; or when the blow
Sent from the' electric sphere assaults thy frame,
Show me the hand that dealt it !-baffled here
By his omnipotence, philosophy
Slowly her thoughts inadequate revolves,
And stands, with all his circling wonders round her,
Like heavy Saturn in the' ethereal space,
Begirt with an inexplicable ring.
If such the operations of his power,
Which at all seasons and in every place
(Rul'd by establish'd laws and current nature)
Arrest the' attention! who? O who shall tell
His acts miraculous, when his own decrees
Repeals he, or suspends; when by the hand
Of Moses or of Joshua, or the mouths
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