In vain may death in various shapes invade, His pastimes like a cauldron boil the flood, And distant sailors point where death has been. and admirers of the writings of Moses, whom I suppose the author of this poem. I have observed already that three or four of the creatures here described are Egyptian; the two last are notoriously so, they are the river-horse and the crocodile, those celebrated inhabitants of the Nile; and on these two it is that our author chiefly dwells. It would have been expected from an author more remote from that river than Moses, in a catalogue of creatures produced to magnify their Creator, to have dwelt on the two largest works of his hand, viz. the elephant and the whale. This is so natural an expectation, that some commentators have rendered behemoth and leviathan, the elephant and whale, though the descriptions in our author will not admit of it; but Moses being, as we may well suppose, under an immediate terror of the hippopotamus and crocodile, from their daily mischiefs and ravages around him, it is very accountable why he should permit them to take place. Alone in nature stands his dauntless race, In wrath he rolls his baleful eye around: Then the Chaldæan eas'd his lab'ring breast, With full conviction of his crime opprest. "Thou canst accomplish all things, Lord of And every thought is naked to thy sight. [might: But, oh! thy ways are wonderful, and lie Beyond the deepest reach of mortal eye. Oft have I heard of thine Almighty power; But never saw thee till this dreadful hour. O'erwhelm'd with shame, the Lord of life I see, Abhor myself, and give my soul to thee. Nor shall my weakness tempt thine anger more: Man is not made to question, but adore." ON MICHAEL ANGELO'S FAMOUS PIECE OF THE CRUCIFIXION; WHO IS SAID TO HAVE STABBED A PERSON THAT HE MIGHT DRAW IT MORE NATURALLY.1 WHILST his Redeemer on his canvass dies, Views the pale cheek and the distorted mien; Though the report was propagated without the least truth, it may be sufficient ground to justify a poetical fancy's enlarging on it. In vain may death in various shapes invade, His pastimes like a cauldron boil the flood, And distant sailors point where death has been. and admirers of the writings of Moses, whom I suppose the author of this poem. I have observed already that three or four of the creatures here described are Egyptian; the two last are notoriously so, they are the river-horse and the crocodile, those celebrated inhabitants of the Nile; and on these two it is that our author chiefly dwells. It would have been expected from an author more remote from that river than Moses, in a catalogue of creatures produced to magnify their Creator, to have dwelt on the two largest works of his hand, viz. the elephant and the whale. This is so natural an expectation, that some commentators have rendered behemoth and leviathan, the elephant and whale, though the descriptions in our author will not admit of it; but Moses being, as we may well suppose, under an immediate terror of the hippopotamus and crocodile, from their daily mischiefs and ravages around him, it is very accountable why he should permit them to take place. 191 HISTORICAL EPILOGUE TO THE BROTHERS. A TRAGEDY. AN Epilogue, through custom, is your right, e; Perseus surviv'd, indeed, and fill'd the throne, But ceaseless cares in conquest made him groan: Nor reign'd he long; from Rome swift thunder flew, And headlong from his throne the tyrant threw : And their rais'd arms in early sorrow wrung ; 192 EPITAPH ON LORD AUBREY BEAUCLERK. He sicken'd soon to death; and, what is worse, Far, far from home, and in a vassal's power: EPITAPH ON LORD AUBREY BEAUCLERK,1 IN WESTMINSTERABBEY, 1740. WHILST Britain boasts her empire o'er the deep, 1 Lord Aubrey Beauclerk was the eighth son of the Duke of St. Albans, who was one of the sons of King Charles the Second. He was born in the year 1711; and, being regularly bred to the sea service, in 1731 he was appointed to the command of his majesty's ship the |