Diversified the scene: that scene was wild,

Magnificent, deform'd, or beautiful,

As framed expressly for all kinds of life,
With all life's labours, sufferings, and enjoyments;
Untouch'd as yet by any meaner hand

Than His who made it, and pronounced it good.

And good it was; free as light, air, fire, water,

To every thing that breathed upon its surface, From the small worm that crept abroad at midnight To sip cool dews and feed on sleeping flowers, Then slunk into its hole, the little vampire! Through every species which I yet had seen

To animals, of tribes and forms unknown

In the lost islands;- beasts that ranged the forests, Grazed in the valleys, bounded o'er the hills,

Reposed in rich savannahs, from grey rocks

Pick'd the thin herbage sprouting through their fis

sures;

Or in waste howling deserts found oases,

And fountains pouring sweeter streams than nectar,

And more melodious than the nightingale,
-So to the faint and perishing they seem'd.

I gazed on ruminating herds of kine,

And sheep for ever wandering; goats that swung
Like spiders on the crags, so slight their hold;
Deer, playful as their fawns, in peace, but fell
As battling bulls in wars of jealousy:

Through flowery champaigns roam'd the fleet gazelles,

Of many a colour, size, and shape, -- all graceful ; In every look, step, attitude prepared,

Even at the shadow of a cloud, to vanish,

And leave a solitude where thousands stood,
With heads declined, and nibbling eagerly
As locusts when they light on some new soil,
And move no more till they have shorn it bare.

On these, with famine unappeasable,

Lithe, muscular, huge-boned, and limb'd for leaping,

The brindled tyrants of brute nature prey'd:

The weak and timid bow'd before the strong,
The many by the few were hourly slaughter'd,
Where power was right, and violence was law.

Here couch'd the panting tiger, on the watch; Impatient but unmoved, his fire-ball eyes Made horrid twilight in the sunless jungle, Till on the heedless buffalo he sprang, Dragg'd the low-bellowing monster to his lair, Crash'd through the ribs at once into its heart, Quaff'd the hot blood, and gorged the quivering flesh, Till drunk he lay as powerless as the carcass.

There, to the solitary lion's roar

So many echoes answer'd, that there seem'd
Ten in the field for one;- where'er they turn’d,

The flying animals, from cave to cave,

Heard his voice issuing; and recoil'd aghast,

Only to meet it nearer than before,

Or, ere they saw his shadow or his face,
Fall dead beneath his thunder-striking paw.

Calm amidst scenes of havoc, in his own
Huge strength impregnable, the elephant
Offended none, but led his quiet life
Among his old contemporary trees,

Till Nature laid him gently down to rest
Beneath the palm, which he was wont to make
His prop in slumber; there his relics lay
Longer than life itself had dwelt within them.
Bees in the ample hollow of his scull
Piled their wax-citadels, and stored their honey;
Thence sallied forth to forage through the fields,
And swarm'd in emigrating legions thence:
There, little burrowing animals threw up
Hillocks beneath the overarching ribs ;

While birds, within the spinal labyrinth,

Contrived their nests:-so wandering Arabs pitch

Their tents amidst Palmyra's palaces;

So Greek and Roman peasants build their huts

Beneath the shadow of the Parthenon,

Or on the ruins of the Capitol.

But unintelligent creation soon

Fail'd to delight; the novelty departed,

And all look'd desolate; my eye grew weary
Of seeing that which it might see for ever
Without a new idea or emotion;

The mind within me panted after mind,
The spirit sigh'd to meet a kindred spirit,
And in
my human heart there was a void,

Which nothing but humanity could fill.

At length, as though a prison door were open'd,
Chains had fall'n off, and by an angel-guide

Conducted, I escaped that desert-bourne ;
And instantaneously I travell'd on,

Yet knew not how, for wings nor feet I plied,
But with a motion, like the lapse of thought,
O'er many a vale and mountain I was carried,
Till in the east, above the ocean's brim,