58 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO n. 



Sad Beauty's form foul Scrofula surrounds 

 With bones distorted, and putrescent wounds; 

 And, fell Consumption! thy unerring dart 

 Wets its broad wing in Youth's reluctant heart. 



" With pausing step, at night's refulgent noon, 

 Beneath the sparkling stars, and lucid moon, 

 Plung'd in the shade of some religious tower, 

 The slow bell counting the departed hour, 

 O'er gaping tombs where shed umbrageous Yews 

 On mouldering bones their cold unwholesome dews ; 1 QO 

 While low aerial voices whisper round, 

 And moondrawn spectres dance upon the ground; 

 Poetic MELANCHOLY loves to tread, 

 And bend in silence o'er the countless Dead; 

 Marks with loud sobs infantine Sorrows rave, 

 And wring their pale hands o'er their Mother's grave; 



And, fell Consumption, 1. 183. 



. Hseret lateri lethalis arundo. VIRGIL. 



