0V WOLF. 



it tears and destroys with wanton barbarity ; and neither 

 men nor animals are secure from its attacks. 



By wintry famine rous'd, from all the tract 



Of horrid mountains, which the shining Alps, 



And wavy Apennine, and Pyrenees, 



Branch out stupendous into distant lands ; 



Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave j 



Burning for blood ; bony, and gaunt, and grim ; 



Assembling WOLVES in raging troops descend, 



And, pouring o'er the country, bear along, 



Keen as the north- wind sweeps the glossy snow. 



All is their prize. They fasten on the steed, 



Press him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart. 



Nor can the bull his awful front defend, 



Or shake the murdering savages away. 



Kapacious, at the mother's throat they fly, 



And tear the screaming infant from her breast. 



The godlike face of man avails him nought. 



Even beauty (force divine ! at whose bright glance 



The gen'rous lion stands in soften'd gaze) 



Here bleeds, a hapless undistinguish'd prey. 



But if, appriz'd of the severe attack, 



The country be shut up lur'd by the scent, 



On church -yards drear (inhuman to relate !) 



The disappointed prowlers fall, and dig 



The shrouded body from the grave ; o'er which, 



Mix'd with foul shades, and frighted ghosts, they howl. 



THOMSON. 



Wolves have sometimes been seen following armies ; 

 and repairing in numbers to the field of battle when quit- 1 

 ted by the combatants, where they devour all the bodies 

 which they find exposed or negligently buried. When 

 once accustomed to human flesh, they ever afterwards 

 ahow a particular predilection for it ; and thus they have 

 been known to prefer the shepherd to his flock. 



Hunting the wolf is a favourite diversion among the 

 great in some countries ; and it is a species of the chace 

 at which reason need not blush, nor humanity drop a 

 tear. To rid the world of a common pest is meritorious, 



