From a foul spring can limpid waters run ?
Lives there a man from failings pure ? not oné.
His date is shorten'd, and his term assign'd,
The bond unpassable by thee defin'd:
Yield him some respite; turn, O turn away,
And leave this hireling to enjoy his day.
A tree which falls beneath the wounding steel,
Hopes a new growth the cruel wound to heal:
Yea, though its sapless bole with age decay,
The roots half mould'ring in the unwater'd clay;
Touch'd by the vital stream its buds around,
Like a young plant, with flow'rs and fruitage crown'd.
But man expir'd, what latent powers restore?
Man disappears, and who beholds him more ?
The pool its water loses, and the stream
Dries to a desert, in the scorching beam;
So man is lost in dust supine he lies,

Nor, till the spheres forget to wheel, shall rise:
While day and night their beauteous order keep,
Death binds him fast in ever-during sleep.
The sun doth set the sun doth rise again,
The day doth close; the day doth break again;
Once sit our sun, again it riseth never,
Once close our day of life, it's night for ever.
O hide me, screen me, in sepulchral shade,
Till this fierce tempest of thy wrath be laid:
Set me a season, when with accent mild,
Thy voice shall waken thy remember'd child.
But shall a carcass rotted in the tomb,
Quicken and flourish with a second bloom?
Patient of life, throughout my suff'ring state,
I would that blissful renovation wait.
O haste, arraign me, my warm pleading hear;
And with a father's heart incline thy ear.

Ah! too severe, observant of my ways,
Thy mem'ry numbers every step that strays:
All annall'd in thy rolls, beneath thy seal,
My sins are treasur'd and thy frown I feel.

CHAP. XI.

Contains speeches collected principally from Bildad, representing in a lofty strain, the terrible Majesty, supreme dominion, and infinite perfections of the Deity, &c.

BILDAD again replies: To dictate law
High on a throne supreme, to hold in awe
Superior worlds, and order to maintain
Through boundless regions of etherial reign,
Belongs to God. What numbers can define
His winged armies which around him shine
Does not his glory fill the realms of day,
And each bright seraph glitter with his ray?
To this grand Being shall a mortal tongue
Audacious say, "thy providence is wrong,

My ways are equal ?” shall a thing of dust
Assume the lofty attribute of just ?
Before his blaze the moon abash'd retires;
Before his blaze fade all the starry fires:
He reigns supreme above the lofty sky,
Where is the sov'reign who with him may vie?
Who gave the sceptre, and his steps o'ersees ?
Who dares pronounce, "uujust are thy decrees ?*
Sapience and pow'r to God alone belong;

Wise are his counsels, and his arm is strong :
He overturns; what hand erects again?

He binds; who bursts his adamantine chain ?

He checks the waters; all is desert round,
He sends them out; they desolate the ground.
Refined by him the wat'ry atoms rise,

Run into clouds, and flow along the skies:
And thence distilling in benignant rain,
Swell the brown harvest of the shouting swain.
What lofty genius can the scene unfold,
When his dark tent of vapours is unroll'd ?
About their king aerial elangors sound,
Thick bursting flames spread terribly around.
Tempestuous winds th' affrighted ocean sweep,
And from its bed upheave the roaring deep.
These are his servants these for wiser ends,
To feast the nations, or afflict, he sends ;
These meteors his judicial will perform,
Bless in the show'r, and punish in the storm.
God holds a flaming dart within his hands,
Forbids its flight where'er a suppliant stands:
But hurls the forked vengeance at the proud,
And deep-mouth'd thunder speaks his wrath aloud.
Ev'n while I paint this dreadful scene, I start;
My bosom can scarce hold its panting heart.
Hark! tremble; murmurs in the distant air,
Whisper of God, his awful way prepare

:

He fires the heav'ns earth to ber utmost shores
Feels the broad flashes, now his thunder roars;
His voice exalted with majestic sound,
Augment its terror through the vaulted ground:
We hear, we shudder, but in vain inquire
How form'd his voice, and how inflam'd his fire.
Great is the thund'ring God, and great his deeds,
Nor less his work our loftiest thought exceeds.
When he commands; "descend my fleecy snow,
"On the sown fields thy rich manure bestow :

"Heav'n, ope thy sluices; ye impetuous rains,
"Pour down my strength upon the autumnal plains,”
Seal'd in each rural hand, restrain'd from toil,
That man may own the sov'reign of the soil :
Then beasts of rapine to the mountains scud,
Couch'd in their dens, and fast awhile from blood.
Sharp wind, no longer in its cells controll'd,
Scatters abroad his all-subduing cold:

Keen blows the breath of God, the floods congeal
To solid pavement like refulgent steel:
The burnish'd ether sheds a smarter day,
And not a cloud endures the vivid ray.
The Lord of nature at her helm presides,
Her seasons turn, her circling meteor guides;
While these and those his high behests obey,
And through earth's peopled climes assert his sway;
Whether as scourges of a rebel race,
Or sent as tokens of paternal grace,

CHAP. XII.

SEC. 1.-Herein Job continues to display, in a magnificent description, God's almighty power and universal dominion, &c. SEC. II. contains similar observations from Elihu, addressed to Job, of God's displaying his wondrous works, thereby infers the ignorance of man, and concludes that the doings of the Supreme Being are right, and ought to be adored.

GOD reigns above, beneath; yea, far below
The deep abyss, in dark abodes of woe:
Hades and regions of perdition lie
Unveil'd and naked, to his flaming eye:
There the old giants feel his wrath, and there
All wicked ghosts are trembling with despair.

He o'er the void heaven's lofty arch extends,
His arm the earth's unwieldly mass suspends,
Self-pois'd, on nothing. High in liquid air,
His floating aqueducts their burthen bear;
So firm sustain'd with such strong pressure bound,
Their pendant waters burst not on the ground.
When empty fountains, and the with'ring plains,
Ask the full bev'rage of nutritious rains;
The splendours of his sapphire throne he shrouds
With wat❜ry vapours, and a veil of clouds,
Old ocean, bounded by his circling line,
Reveres the limits which his laws define :
And shall revere them, till the rolling light
Fulfil its periods and is lost in night.
Yet, when his anger bids the thunder roar,
And his fierce light'nings flash from shore to shore,
Heav'n's column'd frame with vast amazement quakes,
Wild horror the tumultuous ocean shakes:
Through his great power, with huge commotion rise,
The mountain billows, foaming to the skies.
His drying gale refines heaven's troubled scene,
Renew'd in beauty smiles the blue serene ;
The billows meekly at his voice subside,
And wrecks of monsters float along the tide.
These are his ways; in these exterior lines
What wonders open! and what glory shines!
Far beyond these, what endless wonders grow!
For who the thunder of his might can know?

SEC. II.

O JOB, these wonders weigh; erect thy mind; More wonders rise in boundless view behind: Knows thy weak reason how he stains his bow, When among clouds its seven-fold colours glow ?