Ocean: an Ode, occasioned by his Majesty's royal En- 143 THE LAST DAY. IN THREE BOOKS. Venit summa dies.-VIRG. BOOK I. Ipse pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca VIRG. WHILE others sing the fortune of the great; And gasping nature's last tremendous groan; VOL. II. *The Duke of Marlborough. 1 And ask my anxious heart, if it be mine. But chiefly thou, great Ruler! Lord of all! Man, bear thy brow aloft, view every grace In God's great offspring, beauteous nature's face : See spring's gay bloom; see golden autumn's store; See how earth smiles, and hear old ocean roar. Leviathans but heave their cumbrous mail, It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies sail. Here, forests rise, the mountains awful pride; Here, rivers measure climes, and worlds divide; There, valleys fraught with gold's resplendent seeds, Hold kings, and kingdoms' fortunes, in their beds: There, to the skies, aspiring hills ascend, And into distant lands their shades extend. Then let the firmament thy wonder raise; How great, how firm, how sacred, all appears! How worthy an immortal round of years ! Yet all must drop, as autumn's sickliest grain, And earth and firmament be sought in vain: The tract forgot where constellations shone, Or where the Stuarts fill'd an awful throne: Time shall be slain, all nature be destroy'd, Nor leave an atom in the mighty void. Sooner, or later, in some future date, (A dreadful secret in the book of fate !) This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows, |