And thou, O curfed land!

Which wilt not fee the precipice where thou doft stand (Though thou ftand'st just upon the brink)

Thou of this poifon'd bowl the bitter dregs shalt drink. Thy rivers and thy lakes shall fo

With human blood o'erflow,

That they fhall fetch the flaughter'd corpfe away,
Which in the fields around unburied lay,

And rob the beafts and birds to give the fish their prey:
The rotting corpfe fhall fo infect the air,

Beget fuch plagues and putrid venoms there,
That by thine own dead shall be flain
All thy few living that remain.

As one who buys, furveys, a ground,
So the deftroying-angel measures it around ;
So careful and fo ftrict he is,

Left

any

nook or corner he fhould mifs:

He walks about the perifhing nation,

Ruin behind him ftalks and empty Defolation.

Then shall the market and the pleading-place
Be choak'd with brambles and o'ergrown with grafs :
The ferpents through thy ftreets fhall roll,
And in thy lower rooms the wolves fhall howl,
And thy gilt chambers lodge the raven and the owl,
And all the wing'd ill-omens of the air,
Though no new ills can be foreboded there :
The lion then shall to the leopard fay,

"Brother leopard, come away;

"Behold a land which God has given us in prey!

"Behold a land from whence we fee

"Mankind expuls'd, his and our common enemy!” The brother leopard fhakes himself, and does not stay. The glutted vultures fhall expect in vain

New armies to be flain;

Shall find at laft the bufinefs done,
Leave their confumed quarters, and be gone :
Th' unburied ghosts shall sadly moan,
The fatyrs laugh to hear them groan :
The evil spirits, that delight

To dance and revel in the mask of night,

The moon and ftars, their fole fpectators, fhall affright:

And, if of loft mankind

Aught happen to be left behind;

If any relics but remain;

They in the dens shall lurk, beasts in the palaces shall reign.

THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT.

S this thy bravery, Man, is this thy pride?

Is

Rebel to God, and slave to all befide!

Captiv'd by every thing! and only free

To fly from thine own liberty!

All creatures, the Creator faid, were thine;

No creature but might fince fay, " Man is mine.”

In black Egyptian slavery we lie;

And sweat and toil in the vile drudgery

of

Of tyrant Sin;

To which we trophies raife, and wear out all our breath

In building up the monuments of Death;

We, the choice race, to God and angels kin!

In vain the prophets and apostles come
To call us home,

Home to the promis'd Canaan above,

Which does with nourishing milk and pleafant honey

flow;

And even i' th' way to which we should be fed

With angels' tasteful bread :

But we,

alas! the fleth-pots love,

We love the very leeks and fordid roots below.

In vain we judgments feel, and wonders fee!
In vain did God to defcend hither deign;
He was his own ambassador in vain,

Our Mofes and our guide himself to be!

We will not let ourselves to go,

And with worfe harden'd hearts do our own Pharaohs Ah! left at laft we perish fo,

[grow.

Think, stubborn Man, think of th' Egyptian Prince
(Hard of belief and will, but not so hard as thou);
Think with what dreadful proofs God did convince
The feeble arguments that human power could fhow;
Think what plagues attend on thee,

Who Mofes' God doft now refufe, more oft than.

"If from fome god you come" (faid the proud king With half a smile and half a frown;

"But what god can to Egypt be unknown ?)
"What fign, what powers, what credence, do you bring ?”
"Behold his feal! behold his hand!"

Cries Mofes, and casts down th' all-mighty wand.
Th' all-mighty wand scarce touch'd the earth,
When, with an undifcerned birth,

Th' all-mighty wand a ferpent grew,

And his long half in painted folds behind him drew:
Upwards his threatening tail he threw ;
Upwards he caft his threatening head:

He gap'd and hiss'd aloud,

With flaming eyes furvey'd the trembling crowd,
And, like a bafilisk, almost look'd th' affembly dead
Swift fled th' amazed king, the guards before him fled.

Jannes and Jambres stopp'd their flight,
And with proud words allay'd th' affright.
"The God of flaves,” said they," how can he be
"More powerful than their mafters' deity?"

And down they caft their rods,

And mutter'd fecret founds that charm the fervile gods.
The evil spirits their charms obey,

And in a fubtle cloud they fnatch the rods away,
And ferpents in their place the airy jugglers lay.
Serpents in Egypt's monftrous land

Were ready ftill at hand,

And all at the Old Serpent's first command.

And

And they too gap'd, and they too hifs'd,
And they their threatening tails did twist;
But ftrait on both the Hebrew-ferpent flew,
Broke both their active backs, and both it flew,
And both almost at once devour'd ;

So much was over-power'd,

By God's miraculous creation,

His fervant's, Nature's, lightly-wrought and feeble generation !

On the fam❜d bank the prophets stood,

Touch'd with their rod, and wounded, all the flood;
Flood now no more, but a long vein of putrid blood.
The helpless fish were found

In their strange current drown'd:
The herbs and trees wash'd by the mortal tide
About it blush'd and dy'd :

Th' amazed crocodiles made hafte to ground;
From their vast trunks the dropping gore they spied,
Thought it their own, and dreadfully aloud they cried.

Nor all thy priests, nor thou

Oh king! could'ft ever thow

From whence thy wandering Nile begins his course→ Of this new Nile thou feeft the facred fource;

And, as thy land that does o'erflow,

Take heed left this do fo!

What plague more juft could on thy waters fall?
The Hebrew infants' murder stains them all :

The kind, inftructing punishment enjoy ;

[ftroy.

Whom the red river cannot mend, the Red-fea fhall de

The