THE RENOVATION OF THE WORLD,

AND

FUTURE RETRIBUTION.

The Gods meet on the Top of Mount Inda, and sing the following prophetic Song.

Now the spirits plastic might,
Brooding o'er the formless deep,
O'er the dusk abysm of night,
Bids creation cease to sleep!

Instant from the riven main
Starts the renovated earth;
Pine-clad mountain, shaded plain,
See, 'tis nature's second birth.

Now the waters glide along,
Murm'ring fountain, rapid flood;
Fagles soar on pinion strong,
Tyrants of the finny brood.

Gods on Inda spread the board;
Such was the supreme decree:
Swell the strains in full accord,
Strains of holiest harmony!

"Pour the sparkling beverage high;

Be the song with horror fraught; "Lab'ring earth, and ruin'd sky, "Fill the soul and fix the thought.

"Odin next inspire the verse,
"Gor'd by the relentless fang;
Æther felt the conflict fierce,
"Dying groan, and parting pang,

"Where is now his vaunted might? "Where the terror of his eye? "Fled for aye from scenes of light: "Pour the sparkling beverage high,

"Lo! they fleet in radiant round, "Years of plenty, years of joy: Sorrows place no more is found, "Cares that vex, or sweets that clay;

"From the kindly teeming soil,

"Ripen'd harvests wave unsown; Wherefore need the peasants toil? "Nature works, and works alone,

Ask you whose the scepter'd sway?
"'Tis to lordly Balder giv'n:
Mark him there in bright array,

Stalking thro' the halls of heav'n

"Hoder holds united reign;

"Latest times their strength shall prove; Monarchs of the bleak domain.

"Know'st thou now what's done above?.

Is it blest delusion's hour?

"Rolls mine eye in frenzied trance? "Beams of glory round me show'r; "Troops of radiant forms advance.

Founded on that firm-set rock, "Rising view the dome of gold, "Fix'd secure from wint'ry shock: "There the good, and there the bold,

High in tracts of troubled air,
"Justice waves her awful sword:
Vice appall'd, with hideous stare,
"Shrinks ere spoke the dooming word,

"Conscience comes, a tort'ring fiend,
Bids his minions round him roll;
"Fell remorse, the breast to rend,
"Agony, to storm the soul.

In Nastronda's northern plain,
"Hark, th' invenom'd portals ope;
Respite there is none of pain,

Ray of Sun, or beam of hope.

"Dog-ey'd lust, adult'ry foul,

"Murder red with many a stain, "At the fatal entrance scowl,

"Bound in adamantine chain.

"Mark the house; if right we deem,
"'Tis of scales serpentine built;
"Round it brawls a turbid stream:
"Mortal, such th' abode of guilt.

"Know'st thou now what's done above?
"Know'st thou now the deeds of night?"
They spoke: the feast of joy and love
Glow'd on Inda's glist'ring height.*

It is a circumstance singularly curious, and highly worthy of observation, that the passage I have taken from Seneca, the Tragic Poet, as a motto for this paper, contains a doctrine exactly similar to the mythology of the Scandinavians, on the destruction of the globe." When the laws of nature," says Seneca, "shall be buried in ruin, and the last day of the world shall come, the southern pole shall crush, as it falls, all the regions of Africa. The north pole shall overwhelm all the countries beneath its axis. The affrighted

* Vide Runic Odes, imitated from the Norse Tongue. By Thomas James Mathias, London, 1781, 4to.

Sun shall be deprived of its light; the palace of heaven, falling to decay, shall produce, at once, both life and death, and some KIND OF DISSOLUTION SHALL, IN LIKE MANNER,

SEIZE ALL THE DEITIES, and they shall return into their original chaos, &c."

The writings of Seneca, the Philosopher, likewise, a rigid disciple of the Stoics, include, not only an account of the conflagration of the world, but describe, in striking terms, its renovation and consequent beauty. "The world," observes the Roman Sage, being melted and re-entered into the bosom of Jupiter, this God continues, for some time, totally concentered in himself, and remains concealed, as it were, wholly immersed in the contemplation of his own ideas: Afterwards we see a new world spring from him, perfect in all its parts; animals are produced anew; an innocent race of men are formed under more favourable auspices, in order to people this earth, the worthy abode of virtue, In short, the whole face of Nature becomes more pleasing and lovely."*

*Senec. Epist. 9. et Quæst. Nat. L. 3. c. ult.Percy's Mallet, Vol. ii. page 173.