But danger, wheresoe'er they fled,

Still seem'd impending o'er their head,
Now crouded in a grotto's gloom,

All hope extinct, they wait their doom.
Dire was the silence, till, at length,
Even from despair deriving strength,
With bloody eye, and furious look,
A daring youth arose, and spoke.
"O wretched race, the scorn of Fate,
"Whom ills of every sort await!

O, cursed with keenest sense to feel "The sharpest sting of every ill!

"Say ye, who fraught with mighty scheme, "Of liberty and vengeance dream,

"What now remains? To what recess

"Shall we our weary steps address, "Since fate is evermore pursuing

"All ways, and means to work our ruin? "Are we alone, of all beneath, "Condemn'd to misery worse than death! "Must we, with fruitless labour, strive "In misery worse than death to live!

།

"No. Be the smaller ill our choice: "So dictates Nature's powerful voice. "Death's pangs will in a moment cease; "And then, all hail, eternal peace!" Thus while he spoke, his words impart The dire resolve to every heart.

A distant lake in prospect lay,

That glittering in the solar ray,
Gleam'd through the dusky trees, and shot
A trembling light along the grot.
Thither with one consent they bend,
Their sorrows with their lives to end,
While each, in thought, already hears
The water hissing in his ears.

Fast by the margin of the lake,
Conceal'd within a thorny brake,
A Linnet sate, whose careless lay
Amused the solitary day.
Careless he sung, for on his breast
Sorrow no lasting trace impress'd;
When suddenly he heard a sound
Of swift feet traversing the ground.

H

Quick to the neighbouring tree he flies,
Thence trembling casts around his eyes;
No foe appear'd, his fears were vain ;
Pleased he renews the sprightly strain.
The hares, whose noise had caused his fright,
Saw with surprise the linnet's flight.

Is there on earth a wretch, they said,
Whom our approach can strike with dread?
An instantaneous change of thought

To tumult every bosom wrought.
So fares the system-building sage,
Who, plodding on from youth to age,
At last on some foundation-dream
Has rear'd aloft his goodly scheme,
And proved his predecessors fools,
And bound all nature by his rules;
So fares he in that dreadful hour,
When injured Truth exerts her power,
Some new phenomenon to raise ;
Which, bursting on his frighted gaze,
From its proud summit to the ground
Proves the whole edifice unsound.

"Children," thus spoke a hare sedate, Who oft had known th' extremes of fate,

"In slight events the docile mind

May hints of good instruction find. "That our condition is the worst,

"And we with such misfortunes cursed

"As all comparison defy,

"Was late the universal cry,

"When lo, an accident so slight

"As yonder little linnet's flight, "Has made your stubborn heart confess "(So your amazement bids me guess) "That all our load of woes and fears

"Is but a part of what he bears.

"Where can he rest secure from harms, "Whom even a helpless hare alarms?

"Yet he repines not at his lot,

"When past the danger is forgot:

"On yonder bough he trims his wings, "And with unsual rapture sings;

"While we, less wretched, sink beneath

"Our lighter ills, and rush to death.

"No more of this unmeaning rage,
"But hear, my friends, the words of age.
"When by the winds of autumn driven
"The scatter'd clouds fly cross the heaven,
"Oft have `we, from some mountain's head,
"Beheld th' alternate light and shade

"Sweep the long vale. Here hovering lowers
"The slowy cloud; there downwards pours,
"Streaming direct, a flood of day,
“Which from the view flies swift away:

"It flies, while other shades advance,
"And other streaks of sunshine glance.
"Thus chequer'd is the life below
"With gleams of joy, and clouds of wo.
"Then hope not, while we journey on,

"Still to be basking in the sun;

"Nor fear, though now in shades ye mourn, "That sunshine will no more return.

"If, by your terrors overcome,

"Ye fly before th' approaching gloom,
"The rapid clouds your flight pursue,
"And darkness still o'ercasts your view.