No more shall5 nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be cover'd o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-liv'd sire begun ;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sow'd shall reap the field:
The swain in barren7 deserts with surprise
See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise ;8
And start, amidst the thirsty wilds, to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.

IMITATIONS.

6 Ch. lxv. ver. 21, 22.

5 Isaiah, ch. ii. ver. 4.

7 Ch. xxxv. ver. 1. 7.

Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 28.

Molli paulatim flavescet campus arista,
Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva,
Et duræ quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

The fields shall grow yellow with ripened ears, and the red grape shall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oaks shall distil honey like dew.'

Isaiah, chap. xxxv. ver. 7. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty lands springs of water: in the habitation where dragons lay, shall be grass, and reeds, and rushes.'-Chap. lv. ver. 13. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree.'

On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste9 sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn;

To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.
The lambs1 with wolves shall graze the verdant
mead,

And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead ; 2
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents3 lick the pilgrim's feet;

IMITATIONS.

9 Isaiah, ch. xli. ver. 19. and ch. Iv. ver. 13.

1 Ch. xi. ver. 6, 7, 8.

2 Virg. Ecl. iv. ver. 21.

Ipsæ lacte domum referent distenta capellæ
Ubera, nec magnos metuent armenta leones-
Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni

Occidet.

The goats shall bear to the fold their udders distended with milk: nor shall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The serpent shall die, and the herb that conceals poison shall die.'

Isaiah, chap. xi. ver. 16, &c. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.-And the lion shall eat straw like And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the cockatrice.'

the ox.

3 Ch. lxv. ver. 25.

The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleas'd, the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise! 5

4

Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend !
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of SabæanR springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,

And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.

IMITATIONS.

4 Isaiah, ch. lx. ver. 1.

5 The thoughts of Isaiah, which compose the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated, and much above those general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftiest parts of his Pollio.

Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo!
-toto surget gens aurea mundo!

-incipient magni procedere menses!

Aspice, venturo lætentur ut omnia sæclo! &c.

The reader needs only to turn to the passages of Isaiah here cited.

6 Ch. lx. ver. 4.

Ch. lx. ver. 6.

7 Ch. lx. ver. 3.

See Heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rising sun9 shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, dissolv'd in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the light himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The seas1 shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd his word, his saving power remains ;—
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns!

9 Isaiah, ch. Ix. ver. 19, 20.

1 Ch. li. ver. 6. and ch. liv. ver. 10.

WINDSOR FOREST.

TO THE

RIGHT HON. GEORGE LORD LANSDOWN.

Non injussa cano: te nostræ, Vare, myricæ,
Te Nemus omne canet: nec Phoebo gratior ulla est,
Quam sibi quæ Vari præscripsit pagina nomen.

VIRG.