She claims my best, my loftiest song, She leads a brighter maid along-- DIVINE PHILOSOPHY, Who bids the mounting soul assume Immortal Wisdom's eagle plume, And penetrating eye, Above Delusion's dusky maze, Above deceitful Fancy's ways, With roses clad to rise; To view a gleam of purest light Bursting through Nature's misty night,-- The radiance of the skies. D.--1796. THE TEMPEST. The Tempest has darken'd the face of the skies, The winds whistle wildly across the waste plain, The Fiends of the whirlwind terrific arise, And mingle the clouds with the white-foaming main. All dark is the night, and all gloomy the shore, Save when the red lightnings the ether divide, Then follows the thunder with loud-sounding roar, And echoes in concert the billowy tide. But though now all is murky and shaded with gloom, Hope, the soother, soft whispers the tempests shall cease; Then Nature again in her beauty shall bloom, And enamour'd embrace the fair sweet-smiling Peace; For the bright-blushing morning, all rosy with light, Shall convey on her wings the Creator of day; He shall drive all the tempests and terrors of night, And Nature enliven'd, again shall be gay. Then the warblers of Spring shall attune the soft lay, And again the bright flow'ret shall blush in the vale; On the breast of the Ocean the Zephyr shall play, And the sunbeam shall sleep on the hill and the dale. If the tempests of Nature so soon sink to rest-- If her once-faded beauties so soon glow again, Shall Man be for ever by tempests oppress'd, By the tempests of passion, of sorrow, and pain? Ah, no! for his passions and sorrow shall cease When the troublesome fever of life shall be o'er; In the night of the grave he shall slumber in peace, And passion and sorrow shall vex him no more. And shall not this night and its long dismal gloom, Like the night of the tempest, again pass away? Yes! the dust of the earth in bright beauty shall bloom, And rise to the morning of heavenly day! D.--1796. EXTRACT FROM AN UNFINISHED POEM ON MOUNT'S BAY.