Hath now shock'd you! Go, coward soldiers, seek your captain out,660. Mayhap he'll medicate your heart's disease: And, doctor'd, ye may be brave soldiers yet! And now the army from the field withdraw, Shrunken and pale, with drooping hearts and heads, Poor breathing corpses without shroud or grave! Noah sacrifices to the God of heav'n, And chants high praise for preservation's boon! ARGUMENT ΤΟ BOOK THE THIRD. REFLECTIONS arising from the retrospect of the late earthquake. Odin discovers Mirandah in a grove-speaks to her, and thus commences a long dialogue of a theological, political, and hymeneal complexion, which terminates in a matrimonial alliance between the pair.—Odin, nine days after marriage, remembers the depression of his ragged army, so recently unnerved by the earthquake, and sends for one, Muddiduck, a popular geologist, to come and dispel their fears-the geologist answers the invitation in a very flattering epistle.-A brief comment on the evil associations of evil men is made an introduction to that awful epoch when God said, "I will destroy man from off the face of the earth."-Thunder is heard, and God gives to Noah directions for the building of an ark.-Noah sacrifices-is apprised by letter of the connubial union between Odin and Mirandah-various conjectures are made by the Patriarch and several members of his family as to the truth of the story, after which they go forth (Mirandah only missing) to the duties of the day.—A panygeric on employment prepares the way for Odin's gang, who now come hastening to the geological lecture.-Here follows a description of Muddiduck and his apparatus, and a full report of his lectureits effects apparent in political violence, drunkenness, and debauch.-The whole concludes with an apostrophe. NOAH. BOOK THE THIRD. WHILE nature throbs, man trembles and is sad; But when convulsions are no longer felt, goes the farmer to his farm, and then In right eye stuck, perceives ought drear or dread! The lover woos his mistress in the grove! 10. And birds, full plumag'd, carol thro' the air! In such a grove walks Odin, and espies The young Mirandah 'neath an elm-tree's shad Odin, arrested by the sight, stands still;Anon he speaketh to the girl, and saith, "Hail, fairest damsel!-'tis a pleasant thing T'enjoy the shade at such a sultry hour! "Tis pleasant sometimes to avoid the sun!" 20. So saying, he sits down the lass beside: She gazes fondly, and thus answer makes: Our's are enlighten'd days, and he who dares 28.-Our's are enlighten'd days." We live in an enlightened age" is ever on the tongue of those who are the most pitiably be. nighted. There is in the moral aspect of the present time much that is indicative of a vain desire for independence, and vain |