Nor yet more comfort brought the gloomy night; In her thick shades was burning heat up roll’d, Her sable mantle was embroider’d bright, With blazing stars and gliding fires for gold. Nor to refresh (sad earth’s) thy thirsty sprite The niggard Moon let fall her May-dews cold, And dried up the vital moisture was In trees, in plants, in herbs, in flowers, in grass. And little Silve, that his store bestows Of purest crystal on the Christian hands, The pebbles naked in his channel shows, And scanty glides above the scorched sands. * * * * * The sturdy bodies of the warriors strong, Whom neither marching far, nor tedious way, Nor weighty arms which on their shoulders hung, Could weary make, nor death itself dismay, Now weak and feeble cast their limbs along, Unwieldy burthens on the burning clay; And in each vein a smouldering fire there dwelt, Which dried their flesh, and solid bones did melt. Languish’d the steed, late fierce, and proffer’d grass His fodder erst despised and from him kest; Each step he stumbled, and which lofty was And high advanced before now fell his crest; His conquest gotten, all forgotten pass, Nor with desire of glory swell’d his breast; The spoils won from his foe, his late rewards, He now neglects, despises, nought regards. Languish’d the faithful dog, and wonted care Of his dear lord and cabin both forgot; Panting he laid, and gather’d fresher air To cool the burning in his entrails hot; But breathing (which wise nature did prepare To ‘suage the stomach’s heat) now booted not, For little ease, (alas!) small help they win, That breathe forth air, and scalding fire suck in.” The learned prelate Eusebius gives a very philosophical description of the impure state of the atmosphere during a great pestilence which ravaged the Roman empire. He writes thus: “The air was so noxious, every where deranged with corrupt vapours, fumes from the earth so putrid, winds from the sea, exhalations from marshes and rivers so injurious, that a certain poisonous liquor, as it were from putrid carcases, was brought by the elements, and covered the subjacent seats or benches, walls, and sides of houses, and the dew appeared like the sanies of dead bodies.” (See edit. Paris. 1628.) Tacitus, in his description of Rome, notes the occurrence, every third or fourth year, of what they termed “tempus grave aut annus pestilens,” and he gives the following tetrastichon-- “Rome voracious of men subdues the lofty necks of heroes; Rome full of fevers is frightful with the seeds of death; Roman fevers are faithful by their lasting course, When they once invade, seldom quit the living man.”