Retired, and, stooping o'er the wilderness,
Talked of humility, and peace, and love.
The dews came down unseen at evening-tide,
And silently their bounties shed, to teach
Mankind unostentatious charity.

With arm in arm the forest rose on high,
And lesson gave of brotherly regard.
And on the rugged mountain-brow exposed,
Bearing the blast alone, the ancient oak
Stood, lifting high his mighty arm, and still
To courage in distress exhorted loud.

The flocks, the herds, the birds, the streams, the breeze,
Attuned the heart to melody and love.

Mercy stood in the cloud, with eye that wept
Essential love! and from her glorious bow,
Bending to kiss the Earth in token of peace,
With her own lips, her gracious lips, which God
Of sweetest accent made, she whispered still,
She whispered to Revenge, Forgive, forgive.
The Sun, rejoicing round the earth, announced
Daily the wisdom, power, and love of God.
The Moon awoke, and from her maiden face,
Shedding her cloudy locks, looked meekly forth,
And with her virgin stars walked in the heavens,
Walked nightly there, conversing, as she walked,
Of purity, and holiness, and God.

In dreams and visions, sleep instructed much.
Day uttered speech to day, and night to night
Taught knowledge. Silence had a tongue; the grave,
The darkness, and the lonely waste had each

A tongue, that ever said, Man! think of God!

Think of thyself, think of eternity!—

Fear God, the thunder said; Fear God, the waves.

Fear God, the lightning of the storm replied.

Fear God, deep loudly answered back to deep.
And in the temples of the Holy One,
Messiah's messengers, the faithful few,
Faithful 'mong many false, the Bible opened,
And cried, Repent! repent, ye sons of men!
Believe, be saved; and reasoned awfully

R

Of temperance, righteousness, and judgment soon.
To come, of ever-during life and death:
And chosen bards from age to age awoke
The sacred lyre, and full on folly's ear
Numbers of righteous indignation poured:
And God omnipotent, when mercy failed,
Made bare His holy arm, and with the stroke
Of vengeance smote; the fountains of the deep

Broke up, heaven's windows opened, and sent on men

A flood of wrath, sent plague and famine forth;

With earthquake rocked the world beneath, with storms
Above laid cities waste, and turned fat lands

To barrenness; and with the sword of war

In fury marched, and gave them blood to drink.

Angels remonstrated, Mercy beseeched,

Heaven smiled and frowned, Hell groaned, Time fled, Death

shook

His dart, and threatened to make repentance vain,—

Incredible assertion! men rushed on

Determinedly to ruin; shut their ears,

Their eyes, to all advice, to all reproof;

O'er mercy and o'er judgment, downward rushed.

To misery; and, most incredible

Of all to misery rushed along the way

Of disappointment and remorse, where still,

At every step, adders, in Pleasure's form,

Stung mortally; and Joys-whose bloomy cheeks
Seemed glowing high with immortality,
Whose bosoms prophesied superfluous bliss-
While in the arms received, and locked in close
And riotous embrace, turned pale and cold,
And died, and smelled of putrefaction rank;
Turned, in the very moment of delight,

A loathsome heavy corpse, that, with the clear
And hollow eyes of death, stared horribly.

All tribes, all generations of the earth,
Thus wantonly to ruin drove alike.
We heard, indeed, of golden and silver days,
And of primeval innocence unstained;
A Pagan tale! but by baptiséd bards,
Philosophers, and statesmen, who were still
Held wise and cunning men, talked of so much,
That most believed it so, and asked not why.

ALLAN RAMSAY was born October 15th, 1686, at Leadhills in Lanarkshire, where his father was employed as manager of Lord Hopetoun's lead mines. There was good blood in Allan's veins, however; for, as he boasted, he was of the "auld descent" of the Ramsays of Dalhousie, and also collaterally "sprung from a Douglas loin." He had the misfortune to lose his father while he was in his infancy; and his mother, who was of an English family, married for her second husband a small landowner of the district. Allan was educated at the village school, which he attended till he reached his fifteenth year. On leaving school in 1701 he was apprenticed by his stepfather to a periwig-maker in Edinburgh, and continued to follow this occupation with industry and success till 1716, when he adopted that of a bookseller, which must have been much more congenial to his taste. His poetical talent did not display itself at an early age, and he did not commence writing till 1712. when he had reached his twenty-sixth year. His earliest production is an epistle to the Easy Club," a convivial society composed of young men entertaining Jacobite opinions, with which the poet himself sympathised. He then wrote various pieces, chiefly of a local and humorous description, which were sold in some instances by hawkers at a penny each, and became exceedingly popular. A more important production was a continuation of King James's "Christ's Kirk on the Green," which displayed genuine humour and fancy, and attracted no small attention. In 1719 he published his well known