494 
Caught in the stream of a 
High in mid-air, swift on 
Northward he shoots, and 
Long fiery track behind, s 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1792. 
n impetuous gust, 
the level wing 
, like a comet, leaves 
peeding his course 
Strait to the realms of Chaos and old Night, 
Hell-bound, and to Tartar 
The dreadful doctrine of eternal punishment is described 
horrors. 
Of that obscure, a pillary cloud arose 
_Of sulph’rous smoke, that 
ean darkness doom’d. 
in all its. 
At farthest end 
from hell’s crater steam’d ; 
Whence here and there by intermittent gleams 
Blue flashing fires burst forth, that sparkling blaz’d 
Up to the iron roof, whos 
e echoing vault - 
Resounded ever with the dolorous groans 
Of the sad crew beneath. 
The wailing suicide’s rem 
Thence might be heard 
orseful plaint ; 
The murd’rer's yelling scream, and the loud cry 
Of tyrants in that fiery furnace hurl'd. 
Vain cry! th’ unmitigated furies urge 
Their rutbless task, and to the cauldron’s edge 
With ceaseless toil huge blocks of sulphur roll, 
Pil’d mountains high, to feed the greedy flames : 
All these, th’ accursed brood of Sin, were once 
The guilty pleasures, the false joys, that lur’d 
Their sensual vot'rists to t 
Them their fell mother, w 
With eye that sleep ne’er 
h? infernal pit : 
atchful o’er the work, 
clos’d, and snaky scourge 
Stillwwaving o’er their heads, for ever plies 
To keep the fiery deluge at its height, 
And stops her ears against the clam’rous din 
Of those tormented, who for mercy call, 
Age after age implor'd, an 
These wretched beings are visited 
a sigh of natural pity: but soon his 
d still deny’d. 
by Christ ; and they draw from him: 
human sympathy gives place 
To judgment better weigh’d, and riper thoughts 
Congenial with the Godhead reassum’d. 
Such rigorous justice, triumphing 
over misery, cannot be easily recon- 
ciled with rational ideas of the Su- 
preme Being, nor with the mild and 
gentle character of Christ :—but 
whatever may be thought of the 
doctrine itself, it must, we think, be 
admitted, that such subjects are ill - 
adapted to poetry. We cannot bet- 
ter express our ideas on this head, 
than in the words of Dr. Johnson, in 
his life of Milton : 
“‘ Of the ideas suggested by these 
awful scenes, from some we ioe 
wi 
