2l6 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



diffufed a night of horror in the very midft of day. 

 In vain did he turn an eager eye toward that quar- 

 ter of the Heavens where Aurora was to have ap- 

 peared : he perceives nothing in the whole circuit 

 of the Horizon but piles of dark clouds heaped 

 upon each other ; a pale glare here and there fur- 

 rows their gloomy and endlefs battalions ; and the 

 Orb of Day, veiled by their lurid corufcations, 

 emits fcarcely light fufficient to afford a glimpfe, 

 in the firmament, of his bloody difk, wading 

 through new Conftellations. 



To the dlforder reigning in the Heavens, Man, 

 in defpair, yields up the fafety of the Earth. Un- 

 able to find in himfelf the laft confolation of Vir- 

 tue, that of perifhing free from the remorfe of a 

 guilty confcience, he feeks, at leaft, to conclude 

 his laft moments in the bofom of Love, or of 

 Friendflîip. But in that age of criminality, when 

 all the fentiments of Nature were ftifled, friend 

 repelled friend, the mother her child, the hufband 

 the wife of his bofom. Every thing was fvvallowed 

 up of the waters : cities, palaces, majeflic pyra- 

 mids, triumphal arches, embelliQied with the tro- 

 phies of Kings : and ye, alfo, which ought to have 

 furvived the ruin even of a World, ye peaceful grot- 

 tos, tranquil bowers, humble cottages, the retreats 

 of innocence ! There remained on the Earth no 

 trace of the glory and felicity of the Human Race, 



in 



