The prophet-years had rolled; the time, and Who lived deliciously, and merchants, rich
And half a time, were now fulfilled complete ;
The seven fierce vials of the wrath of God,
Poured by seven angels strong, were shed abroad
Upon the earth, and emptied to the dregs;
The prophecy for confirmation stood;
And all was ready for the sword of God.
The righteous saw, and fled without delay Into the chambers of Omnipotence :
The wicked mocked, and sought fc: erring
To satisfy the dismal state of things-
The public credit gone; the fear in time
Of peace; the starving want in time of wealth;
The insurrection muttering in the streets;
And pallid consternation spreading wide;
And leagues, though holy termed, first ratified
In hell, on purpose made to under-prop
Iniquity, and crush the sacred truth.
Meantime a mighty angel stood in heaven,
And cried aloud-Associate now yourselves,
Ye princes! potentates! and men of war!
And mitred heads! associate now yourselves,
And be dispersed: embattle, and be broken:
Gird on your armour, and be dashed to dust:
Take counsel, and it shall be brought to nought:
Speak, and it shall not stand.-And suddenly
The armies of the saints, imbannered, stood
On Zion hill; and with them angels stood,
In squadron bright, and chariots of fire;
And with them stood the Lord, clad like a man
Of war, and, to the sound of thunder, led
The battle on. Earth shook; the kingdoms
shook;
The Beast, the lying Seer, dominions, fell;
Thrones, tyrants fell, confounded in the dust,
Scattered and driven before the breath of God,
As chaff of summer threshing-floor before
The wind. Three days the battle wasting slew.
The sword was full, the arrow drunk with blood;
And to the supper of Almighty God,
Spread in Hamonah's vale, the fowls of heaven,
And every beast, invited, came-and fec
On captains' flesh, and drank the blood of kings.
And lo! another angel stood in heaven, Crying aloud with mighty voice: Fallen, fallen, Is Babylon the Great-to rise no more! Rejoice, ye prophets! over her rejoice, Apostles! holy men, all saints, rejoice! And glory give to God, and to the Lamb.And all the armies of disburdened earth, As voice of many waters, and as voice Of thunderings, and voice of multitudes, Answered, Amen. And every hill and rock, And sea, and every beast, answered, Amen. Europa answered, and the farthest bounds Of woody Chili, Asia's fertile coasts, And Afric's burning wastes, answered, Amen. And Heaven, rejoicing, answered back, Amen.
Not so the wicked: they afar were heard Lamenting; kings who drank her cup of whore doms,
Captains and admirals, and mighty men,
VOL. III.-9
With merchandise of gold, and wine, and oil;
And those who traded in the souls of men-
Known by their gaudy robes of priestly pomp ;
All these afar off stood, crying, Alas!
Alas! and wept, and gnashed their teeth, and
groaned :
And with the owl, that on her ruins sat,
Made dolorous concert in the ear of Night.
And over her again the heavens rejoiced.
And earth returned again the loud response.
Thrice happy days! thrice blest the man who
Their dawn! the Church and State, that long had held
Unholy intercourse, were now divorced;
Princes were righteous men; judges upright:
And first in general now-for in the worst
Of times there were some honest seers-the priest
Sought other than the fleece among his flocks-
Best paid when God was honoured most. And
like
A cedar, nourished well, Jerusalem grew,
And towered on high, and spread, and flourished
fair;
And underneath her boughs the nations lodged; All nations lodged, and sung the song of peace. From the four winds, the Jews, eased of the curse, Returned, and dwelt with God in Jacob's land, And drank of Sharon and of Carmel's vine. Satan was bound; though bound, not banished
But lurked about the timorous skirts of things,
Ill lodged, and thinking whiles to leave the earth;
And with the wicked, for some wicked were,
Held midnight meetings, as the saints were wont ;
Fearful of day, who once was as the sun,
And worshipped more. The bad, but few, became
A taunt, and hissing now, as heretofore
The good; and, blushing, hasted out of sight.
Disease was none: the voice of war, forgot:
The sword, a share: a pruning-hook, the spear.
Men grew and multiplied upon the earth,
And filled the city, and the waste: and Death
Stood waiting for the lapse of tardy age,
That mocked him long. Men grew and multiplied,
But lacked not bread; for God his promise
brought
To mind, and blessed the land with plenteous rain;
And made it blest, for dews, and precious things
Of heaven, and blessings of the deep beneath;
And blessings of the sun, and moon; and fruits
Of day and night; and blessings of the vale;
And precious things of the eternal hills;
And all the fulness of perpetual spring.
The prison-house, where chained felons pined, Threw open his ponderous doors; let in the light Of heaven; and grew into a church, where God Was worshipped: none were ignorant; selfish
Love took the place of law; where'er you met
A man, you met a friend, sincere and true.
Kind looks foretold as kind a heart within;
Words as they sounded, meant; and promises
Were made to be performed. Thrice happy days!
Philosophy was sanctified, and saw
Perfection, which she thought a fable long.
Revenge his dagger dropped, and kissed the hand
Of Mercy: Anger cleared his cloudy brow,
And sat with Peace: Envy grew red, and smiled
On Worth: Pride stooped, and kissed Humility:
Lust washed his miry hands, and, wedded, leaned
On chaste Desire: and Falsehood laid aside
His many-folded cloak, and bowed to Truth:
And Treachery up from his mining came,
And walked above the ground with righteous
Faith:
And Covetousness unclenched his sinewy hand,
And opened his door to Charity, the fair:
Hatred was lost in Love: and Vanity,
That swept the insect from their path, and lived
On herbs and fruits; and those who peaceful
dwelt
Along the shady avenue that stretched
From Agra to Lahore: and all the hosts
That cwned the Crescent late, deluded long.
The Tartar hordes that roamed from Oby's
bank,
Ungoverned, southward to the wonderous Wall.
The tribes of Europe came; the Greek, redeemed
From Turkish thrall; the Spaniard came, and
Gaul,
And Britain with her ships; and on his sledge,
The Laplander, that nightly watched the bear
With a good conscience pleased, her feathers Circling the Pole; and those who saw the flames
Sloth in the morning rose with Industry:
To Wisdom, Folly turned: and Fashion turned
Deception off, in act as good as word.
The hand that held a whip was lifted up
To bless; slave was a word in ancient books
Met only; every man was free: and all
Feared God, and served him day and night in love.
How fair the daughter of Jerusalem then!
How gloriously from Zion Hill she looked!
Clothed with the sun; and in her train the moon;
And on her head a coronet of stars;
And girding round her waist, with heavenly grace,
The bow of Mercy bright; and in her hand,
Immanuel's cross-her sceptre, and her hope.
Of Hecla burn the drifted snow: the Russ,
Long whiskered, and equestrian Pole; and those
Who drank the Rhine, or lost the evening sun
Behind the Alpine towers; and she that sat
By Arno, classic stream; Venice; and Rome,
Head quarters long of sin! first guileless now,
And meaning as she seemed, stretched forth her
hands.
And all the isles of ocean rose and came,
Whether they heard the roll of banished tides,
Antipodes to Albion's wave; or watched
The moon ascending chalky Teneriffe,
And with Atlanta holding nightly love.
The Sun, the Moon, the Constellations came:
Thrice twelve and ten that watched the Antarctic
sleep;
Twice six that near the Ecliptic dwelt; thrice
twelve
And one, that with the Streamers danced, and
Desire of every land! The nations came,
And worshipped at her feet; all nations came,
Flocking like doves. Columba's painted tribes,
That from Magellan to the Frozen Bay,
Beneath the Arctic dwelt, and drank the tides
Of Amazona, prince of earthly streams;
Or slept at noon beneath the giant shade
Of Andes' mount; or roving northward, heard
Niagara sing, from Erie's billow down,
To Frontenac, and hunted thence the fur
To Labrador. And Afric's dusky swarms,
That from Morocco to Angola dwelt,
And drank the Niger from his native wells,
Or roused the lion in Numidia's groves;
The tribes that sat among the fabled cliffs
Of Atlas, looking to Atlanta's wave,
With joy and melody arose and came;
Zara awoke, and came; and Egypt came,
Casting her idol gods into the Nile.
Black Ethiopia, that shadowless,
Beneath the Torrid burned, arose and came;
Dauma and Medra, and the pirate tribes
Of Algeri, with incense came, and pure
Offerings, annoying now the seas no more.
The silken tribes of Asia flocking came,
Innumerous; Ishmael's wandering race, that Hasted the deer, and waved its woody head:
The Hyperborean ice, guarding the Pole.
The East, the West, the South, and snowy North,
Rejoicing met, and worshipped reverently
Before the Lord, in Zion's holy hill;
And all the places round about were blest.
The animals, as once in Eden, lived
On camels o'er the spicy tract that lay
From Persia, to the Red Sea coast: the king
Of broad Cathay, with numbers infinite,
Of many lettered casts; and all the tribes
That dwelt from Tigris to the Ganges' wave;
And worshipped fire, or Brahma, fabled god!
Cashmeres, Circassians, Banyans, tender race!
In peace: the wolf dwelt with the lamb; the bear
And leopard with the ox; with looks of love,
The tiger, and the scaly crocodile,
Togther met, at Gambia's palmy wave:
Perched on the eagle's wing, the bird of song,
Singing, arose and visited the sun;
And with the falcon sat the gentle lark.
The little child leaped from his mother's arms,
And stroked the crested snake, and rolled unhurt
Among his speckled waves-and wished hiro
home:
And sauntering school-boys, slow returning
played
At eve about the lion's den, and wove
Into his shaggy mane, fantastic flowers:
To meet the husbandman, early abroad,
And round its dewy steps, the hare, unscared,
Sported, and toyed familiar with his dog:
The flocks and herds, o'er hill and valley spread
Exulting, cropped the ever-budding herb:
The desert blossomed, and the barren sung:
Justice and Mercy, Holiness and Love,
Among the people walked: Messiah reigned:
And Earth kept Jubilee a thousand years
Impiety and ungodliness abounded. Active ambition, and indolent sloth regained a general ascendency, and sin in every form, as had existed before the millennium, was renewed, and new forms were invented. The universal contempt of God was wholly wilful, for the age was polished and enlightened. Wondrous sights and strange forbodings gave presage of the earth's approaching dissolution. "Perplexed, but not reformed," the race of men inquired the explanation of the prodigies; all warnings were soon forgotten, men continued following their guilty pleasures, and the earth filled up the measure of her wickedness. A pause in the narrative; as the numerous hosts of heaven look towards the unveiled Godhead, and join in the evening hymn of praise. The prophet Isaiah takes the harp, and before the throne, sings the holy song. At its close, thousands of thousands, infinite, devoutly respond,
RESUME thy tone of woe, immortal harp!
The song of mirth is past; the Jubilee
Is ended; and the sun begins to fade.
Soon past: for Happiness counts not the hours:
To her a thousand years seem as a day :
A day a thousand years to misery.
Satan is loose, and Violence is heard,
And Riot in the street, and Revelry
Intoxicate, and Murder and Revenge.
Put on your armour now, ye righteous! put
The helmet of salvation on, and gird
Your loins about with truth; add righteousness,
And add the shield of faith; and take the sword
Of God: awake! and watch: the day is near:
Great day of God Almighty, and the Lamb.
The harvest of the earth is fully ripe :
Vengeance begins to tread the great wine-press
Of fierceness and of wrath; and Mercy pleads,
Mercy that pleaded long-she pleads no more.
Whence comes that darkness? whence those
yells of woe?
What thunderings are these, that shake the world?
Why fall the lamps from heaven as blasted figs?
Why tremble righteous men? why angels pale?
Why is all fear? what has become of hope?
God comes! God in his car of vengeance comes!
Hark! louder on the blast, come hollow shrieks
Of dissolution; in the fitful scowl
Of night, near and more near, angels of death
Incessant flap their deadly wings, and roar
Through all the fevered air; the mountains rock;
The moon is sick; and all the stars of heaven
Burn feebly; oft and sudden gleams the fire,
Revcaling awfully the brow of wrath.
The Thunder, long and loud, utters his voice,
Responsive to the ocean's troubled growl.
Night comes, last night; the long dark, dark,
dark night,
That has no morn beyond it, and no star.
No eye of man hath seen a night like this!
Heaven's trampled justice girds itself for fight:
Earth to thy knees, and cry for mercy! cry
With earnest heart; for thou art growing old
And hoary, unrepented, unforgiven :
And all thy glory mourns: thy vintage mourns;
Bashan and Carmel! mourn and weep and
Thou Lebanon! with all thy cedars mourn.
Sun! glorying in thy strength from age to age,
So long observant of thy hour, put on
Thy weeds of woe, and tell the moon to weep;
Utter thy grief at mid-day, morn, and even;
Tell all the nations, tell the clouds that sit
About the portals of the east and west,
And wanton with thy golden locks, to wait
Thee not to-morrow; for no morrow comes,
Tell men and women, tell the new-born child,
And every eye that sees, to come, and see
Thee set behind Eternity; for thou
Shalt go to bed to-night, and ne'er awake.
Stars! walking on the pavement of the sky,
Out sentinels of heaven! watching the earth,
Cease dancing now: your lamps are growing
dim;
Your graves are dug among the dismal clouds;
And angels are assembling round your bier.
Orion! mourn: and Mazzaroth: and thou,
Arcturus! mourn, with all thy northern sons.
Daughters of Pleiades! that nightly shed
Sweet influence: and thou, fairest of the stars!
Eye of the morning, weep-and weep at eve;
Weep setting, now to rise no more, "and flame
On forehead of the dawn"-as sung the bard:
Great bard! who used on Earth a seraph's lyre,
Whose numbers wandered through eternity,
And gave sweet foretaste of the heavenly harps.
Minstrel of sorrow! native of the dark!
Shrub-loving Philomel! that wooed the dews
At midnight from their starry beds, and, charmed,
Held them around thy song till dawn awoke-
Sad bird! pour through the gloom thy wecring
Pour all thy dying melody of grief,
And with the turtle spread the wave of woe-Spare not thy reed, for thou shalt sing no more.
Ye holy bards! if yet a holy bard Remain, what chord shall serve you now? what harp!
What harp shall sing the dying sun asleep,
And mourn behind the funeral of the moon!
What harp of boundless, deep, exhaustless woe,
Shall utter forth the groanings of the damned;
And sing the obsequies of wicked souls;
And wail their plunge in the eternal fire!
Hold, hold your hands; hold angels; God la-
And draws a cloud of mourning round his throne The Organ of eternity is mute;
And there is silence in the heaven of heavens ! Daughters of beauty! choice of beings made! Much praised, much blamed, much loved; but fairer far
T'han aught beheld; than aught imagined else
Fairest; and dearer than all else most dear;
Light of the darksome wilderness! to Time
As stars to night-whose eyes were spells tnat
held
The passenger forgetful of his way;
Whose steps were majesty; whose words were
Whose smiles were hope; whose actions, perfect
Whose love the solace, glory, and delight
Of man, his boast, his riches, his renown:
When found, sufficient bliss; when lost, despair:
Stars of creation! images of love!
Break up the fountains of your tears; your tears
More eloquent than learned tongue, or lyre
Of purest note; your sunny raiment stain;
Put dust upon your heads; lament and weep;
And utter all your minstrelsy of woe.
Go to, ye wicked, weep and howl; for all That God hath written against you is at hand. The cry of violence hath reached his ear; Hell is prepared; and Justice whets his sword. Weep all of every name: begin the woe, Ye woods, and tell it to the doleful winds; And doleful winds, wail to the howling hills; And howling hills, mourn to the dismal vales; And dismal vales, sigh to the sorrowing brooks; And sorrowing brooks, weep to the weeping
And weeping stream, awake the groaning deep;
And let the instrument take up the song,
Responsive to the voice-harmonious woe!
Ye heavens, great archway of the universe!
Put sackcloth on; and Ocean clothe thyself
In garb of widowhood, and gather all
Thy waves into a groan, and utter it-
Long, loud, deep, piercing, dolorous, immense:
The occasion asks it; Nature dies; and God,
And angels, come to lay her in the grave!
But we have overleaped our theme: behind,
A little season waits a verse or two:
The years that followed the millennial rest.
Bad years they were; and first, as signal sure,
That at the core religion was diseased,
The sons of Levi strove again for place,
And eminence, and names of swelling pomp,
Setting their feet upon the people's neck,
And slumbering in the lap of civil power;
Of civil power again tyrannical.
And second sign, sure sign, whenever seen,
That holiness was dying in a land,
The Sabbath was profaned, and set at nought:
The honest seer, who spoke the truth of God
Plainly, was left with empty walls; and round
The frothy orator, who busked his tales
In quackish pomp of noisy words, the ear
Tickling, but leaving still the heart unprobed,
The judgment uninformed,-numbers immense
Flocked, gaping wide, with passions high in-
flamed;
And on the way returning, heated, home,
Of eloquence, and not of truth, conversed-
Mean cloquence that wanted sacred truth.
Two principles from the beginning strove
In human nature, still dividing man-
Sloth and activity, the lust of praise,
And indolence, that rather wished to sleep.
And not unfrequently in the same mind,
They dubious contest held: one gaining now,
And now the other crowned, and both again
Keeping the field, with equal combat fought.
Much different was their voice: Ambition caller
To action; Sloth invited to repose.
Ambition early rose, and, being up,
Toiled ardently, and late retired to rest;
Sloth lay till mid-day, turning on his couch,
Like ponderous door upon its weary hinge,
And having rolled him out with much ado,
And many a dismal sigh, and vain attempt,
He sauntered out accoutred carelessly-
With half-oped, misty, unobservant eye,
Somniferous, that weighed the object down
On which its burden fell-an hour or two,
Then with a groan retired to rest again.
The one, whatever deed had been achieved,
Thought it too little, and too small the praise:
The other tried to think-for thinking so
Answered his purpose best-that what of great
Mankind could do, had been already done;
And therefore laid him calmly down to sleep.
Different in mode-destructive both alike;
Destructive always indolence; and love
Of fame destructive always too, if less
Than praise of God it sought-content with less,
Even then not current, if it sought his praise
From other motive than resistless love :
Though base, main-spring of action in the world;
And under name of vanity and pride,
Was greatly practised on by cunning men.
It opened the niggard's purse; clothed nakedness;
Gave beggars food; and threw the Pharisee
Upon his knees, and kept him long in act
Of prayer; it spread the lace upon the fop,
His language trimmed, and planned his curious
gait;
It stuck the feather on the gay coquette,
And on her finger laid the heavy load
Of jewelry; it did-what did it not?
The gospel preached, the gospel paid, and scut
The gospel; conquered nations; cities built;
Measured the furrow of the field with nice
Directed share; shaped bulls, and cows, and
And threw the ponderous stone; and pitiful,
Indeed, and much against the grain, it dragged
The stagnant, dull, predestinated fool,
Through learning's halls, and made him labou!
much
Abortively; though sometimes not unpraised
He left the sage's chair, and home returned,
Making his simple mother think that she
Had borne a man. In schools, designed to root
Sin up, and plant the seeds of holiness
In youthful minds, it held a signal place.
The little infant man, by nature proud,
Was taught the Scriptures by the love of praise,
And grew religious as he grew in fame.
And thus the principle, which out of heaven
The devil threw, and threw him down to hell.
And keeps him there, was made an instrument.
To moralize, and sanctify mankind:
And in their hearts beget humility:
With what success it needs not now to say.
Destructive both we said, activity,
And sloth-behold the last exemplified,
In literary man. Not all at once,
He yielded to the soothing voice of sleep;
But having seen a bough of laurel wave,
He effort made to climb; and friends, and even
Himself, talked of his greatness, as at hand,
And prophesying drew his future life.
Vain prophecy! his fancy, taught by sloth,
Saw in the very threshold of pursuit,
A thousand obstacles; he halted first,
And while he halted, saw his burning hopes,
Grow dim and dimmer still: ambition's self,
The advocate of loudest tongue, decayed;
His purposes, made daily, daily broken,
Like plant uprooted oft, and set again,
More sickly grew, and daily wavered more:
Till at the last, decision, quite worn out,
Decision, fulcrum of the mental powers,
Resigned the blasted soul to staggering chance;
Sleep gathered fast, and weighed him downward
still;
His eye fell heavy from the mount of fame;
His young resolves to benefit the world,
Perished, and were forgotten; he shut his ear
Against the painful news of rising worth;
And drank with desperate thirst the poppy's juice;
A deep and mortal slumber settled down
Upon his weary faculties oppressed;
He rolled from side to side, and rolled again;
And snored, and groaned, and withered, and
expired,
And rotted on the spot, leaving no name.
The hero best example gives of toil
Unsanctified. One word his history writes:
He was a murderer above the laws,
And greatly praised for doing murderous deeds:
And now he grew, and reached his perfect growth.
And also now the sluggard soundly slept,
And by him lay the uninterred corpse.
Of every order, sin and wickedness,
Deliberate, cool, malicious villany,
This age, attained maturity, unknown
Before: and seemed in travail to bring forth
From broken promises, that might have ne'er
Been made, or being made, might have been kept.
Justice and mercy too were rare, obscured
In cottage garb before the palace door,
The beggar rotted, starving in his rags :
And on the threshold of luxurious domes,
The orphan child laid down his head, and died;
Nor unamusing was his piteous cry
To women, who had now laid tenderness
Aside, best p.eased with sights of cruelty;
Flocking, when fouler lusts would give them time,
To horrid spectacles of blood; where men,
Or guiltless beasts, that seemed to look to heaven,
With eye imploring vengeance on the earth,
Were tortured for the merriment of kings.
The advocate for him who offered most
Pleaded; the scribe, according to the hire,
Worded the lie, adding for every piece,
An oath of confirmation; judges raised
One hand to intimate the sentence, death,
Imprisonment, or fine, or loss of goods,
And in the other held a lusty bribe,
Which they had taken to give the sentence wrong;
So managing the scale of justice still,
That he was wanting found who poorest seemed.
But laymen, most renowned for devilish deeds,
Laboured at distance still behind the priest :
He shore his sheep, and having packed the wool,
Sent them unguarded to the hill of wolves;
And to the bowl deliberately sat down,
And with his mistress mocked at sacred things.
The theatre was from the very first
The favourite haunt of sin; though honest men,
Some very honest, wise, and worthy men,
Maintained it might be turned to good account;
And so perhaps it might; but never was.
From first to last it was an evil place :
And now such things were acted there, as made
The devils blush: and from the neighbourhood,
Angels and holy men, trembling, retired.
And what with dreadful aggravation crowned
This dreary time, was sin against the light;
All men knew God, and, knowing, disobeyed;
And gloried to insult him to his face.
Another feature only we shall mark.—
It was withal a highly polished age,
And scrupulous in ceremonious rite.
Some last, enormous, monstrous deed of guilt-When stranger stranger met upon
Original, unprecedented guilt,
That might obliterate the memory
Of what had hitherto been done most vile.
Inventive men were paid, at public cost,
To plan new modes of sin: the holy word
Of God was burned, with acclamations loud;
New tortures were invented for the good:
For still some good remained, as whiles through
sky
Of thickest clouds, a wandering star appeared:
New oaths of blasphemy were framed, and sworn:
And men in reputation grew, as grew
The stature of their crimes: Faith was not found;
Truth was not found; truth always scarce; so
That half the misery which groaned on earth,
In ordinary times, was progeny
Of disappointment daily coming forth
the
First each to each bowed most respectfully,
And large profession made of humble service,
And then the stronger took the other's purse.
And he that stabbed his neighbour to the heart,
Stabbed him politely, and returned the blade
Reeking into its sheath, with graceful air.
Meantime the earth gave symptoms of her end;
And all the scenery above proclaimed,
That the great last catastrophe was near.
The sun at rising staggered and fell back,
As one too early up, after a night
Of late debauch; then rose, and shone again,
Brighter than wont; and sickened again, and
paused
In zenith altitude, as one fatigued;
And shed a feeble twilight ray at noon,
Rousing the wolf before his time, to chase
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