"E'en where unmix'd the breed, in sexual tribes Parental taints the nascent babe imbibes; Eternal war the Gout and Mania wage With fierce uncheck'd hereditary rage; 180 Sad Beauty's form foul Scrofula surrounds With bones distorted, and putrescent wounds; And, fell Consumption! thy unerring dart Wets its broad wing in Youth's reluctant heart. [Footnote: _And, fell Consumption_, l. 183. ... Haeret lateri lethalis arundo. VIRGIL.] "With pausing step, at night's refulgent noon, Beneath the sparkling stars, and lucid moon, Plung'd in the shade of some religious tower, The slow bell counting the departed hour, O'er gaping tombs where shed umbrageous Yews On mouldering bones their cold unwholesome dews; 190 While low aerial voices whisper round, And moondrawn spectres dance upon the ground; Poetic MELANCHOLY loves to tread, And bend in silence o'er the countless Dead; Marks with loud sobs infantine Sorrows rave, And wring their pale hands o'er their Mother's grave; Hears on the new-turn'd sod with gestures wild The kneeling Beauty call her buried child; Upbraid with timorous accents Heaven's decrees, And with sad sighs augment the passing breeze. 200 'Stern Time,' She cries, 'receives from Nature's womb Her beauteous births, and bears them to the tomb; Calls all her sons from earth's remotest bourn, And from the closing portals none return!' V. URANIA paused,--upturn'd her streaming eyes, And her white bosom heaved with silent sighs; With her the MUSE laments the sum of things, And hides her sorrows with her meeting wings; Long o'er the wrecks of lovely Life they weep, Then pleased reflect, "to die is but to sleep;" 210 From Nature's coffins to her cradles turn, Smile with young joy, with new affection burn. And now the Muse, with mortal woes impress'd, Thus the fair Hierophant again address'd. --"Ah me! celestial Guide, thy words impart Ills undeserved, that rend the nascent heart! O, Goddess, say, if brighter scenes improve Air-breathing tribes, and births of sexual love?"-- The smiling Fair obeys the inquiring Muse, And in sweet tones her grateful task pursues. 220