40

With heads declin'd, ye cedars homage pay ; 35
Be smooth ye rocks, ye rapid floods give way!
The Saviour comes ! by ancient bards foretold:
Hear * him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the fightless eye-ball pour the day:
'Tis he th’ obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb shall fing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No figh, no murmur the wide world shall hear, 45
From ev'ry face he wipes off ev'ry tear.
In + adamantine chains shall Death be bound,
And Hell's grim Tyrant feel th' eternal wound.
As the good I shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air,

50
Explores the loft, the wand'ring sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects,
The tender lambs he raises in his

arms, Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms; Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage, 55 The promis'd || father of the future age. No more shall & nation against nation rise, Nor ardent warriours meet with hateful eyes, Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er, The bražen trumpets

kindle

rage no more; 60 But useless lances into fcythes shall bend, And the broad faulchion in a plow-share end.

Then

* Ch. xliii. v. 18. Ch. XXXV. V. 5, 6. + Ch. XXV. v. 8. Ch. xl. v. 11. || Ch. ix. v. 6. § Ch.ii. v. 4.

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Then palaces shall rise ; the joyful * Son
Shall finish what his short-liv'd Sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race fhall yield,

65
And the fame hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.
The swain in barren + desarts with furprize
See lillies spring, and sudden verdure rife;
And starts, amidft the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear,

70 On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes, The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods. Waste sandy | valleys, once perplex'd with thorn, The spiry fir and Napely box adorn: To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms succeed, 75 And od'rous myrtle to the noisom weed. The || lambs' with wolves shall graze the verdant

mead, And boys in flow'ry bands the tyger lead ;

The IMITATIONS. Ver.67. The fwain in barren desarts] Virg. E. iv. v. 28.

Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista, Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva, Er duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella. The fields shall grow yellow with ripen'd ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard aak mall dislill honey like dew.

IsATAH, Ch. xxxv. v. 7. The parched ground fall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water : In the babitations where dragons lay, shall be grass, and reeds, and rushes. Ch.lv. V. 13. Instead of the thorn shall come, up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar fall come up

the myrtle tree. P. VER.77. The lambs ruith wolves, etc.] Virg. E. iv. V. 21. Ipiæ lacte domum referent distenta capella

Ubera,

* Ch. lxv. V. 21, 22. + Ch. XXXV. v. 1, 7. Ch. xli. v. 19. andCh. lv. v. 13. Ch. xi. v. 6, 7, 8.

*

The steer and lion at one crib shall meet;
And harmless * serpents lick the pilgrim's feet. 80
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleas'd the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial + Salem, rise! 85
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes !
See, a long I race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future fons, and daughters yet unborn,

In

.

IMITATIONS.
Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones
Occidet et ferpens, et fallax herba veneni

Occidet. The goats shall bear to the fold their udders diftended with milk:

: nor shall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The serpent fhall die, and the kerb that conceals poijon shall die,

ISAIAH, Ch. xi. v. 16, etc. The wolf ball dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatlıng together; and a little child shall lead them.-- And the lion mall eat firaw like the ox. And the fucking child fall play on the hole of the app, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the cockatrice. P.

Ver. 85. Rile, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rife!] The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest paris of his Pollio.

Magnus ab integro fæclorum nascitur ordo!
- toto surget gens aurea mundo!
- incipient magni procedere menses !

Aspice, venturo latentur ut omnia sæclo! etc. The reader needs only to turn to the passages of Isaiah, here cited, P.

Ch. Ixv. v. 25. + Ch. lx. v. 1. I Ch. lx. V. 4,

In crouding ranks on ev'ry side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies !

90
See barb'rous * nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings
And heap'd with products of + Sabæan springs !
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

9 And seeds of gold in Ophyr's mountains, glow. See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display, And break upon thee in a food of day! No more the rising Sun shall gild the morn, Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her silver horn; But loft, dissolv’d in thy superior rays, One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze O'erflows thy courts: the Light himself shall shine Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine! The || seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, 105 Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away; But fix'd his word, his faving pow'r remains; Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns!

a

IO

* Ch.1x. v. 3. of Ch 1x. v. 6. I Ch. Ix. v. 19. 20° | Ch. li. v. 6. and Ch liv. v. 10.