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"His divination foil'd; the slaughtering blade "Scarce quits its paly hue, and the light sand "Scarce blushes with the thin and meagre blood. "Hence o'er the pasture rich and plenteous stalls "The tender herd in fragrant sighs expire;

"Fell madness seizes the domestic dog ;

"The pursy swine heave with repeated groans,
"A rattling cough inflames their swelling throats:
"No toils secure, no palm the victor-horse
"Availeth, now no more the wholesome spring
"Delights, no longer now the once-lov'd mead;

The fatal ill prevails; with anguish stung "Raging he stamps, his ears hang down relax'd; "Sometimes an intermitting sweat breaks forth, "Cold ever at th' approach of death; again "The dry and staring hide grows stiff and hard, "Scorch'd and impasted with the feverish heat. "Such the first signs of ruin, but at length "When the accomplish'd and mature disease "With its collected and full vigour works, "The red'ning eye-balls glow with baneful fire, "The deep and hollow breath with frequent groans, "Piteous variety-! is sorely mix'd,

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"And long-drawn sighs distend the labouring sides: "Then forth the porches of the nose descends,

"As from a conduit, blood defil'd and black, "And 'twixt the glew'd and unresolved jaws

"The rough and clammy tongue sticks fast-at first "With generous wine they drench'd the closing throat

"Sole antidote, worse bane at last-for then

"Dire madness-such as the just Gods to none

"Save to the bad consign!-at the last pang
"Arose, whereat their teeth with fatal gripe,
"Like pale and ghastly executioners,
"Their fair and sightly limbs all mangled o'er.

"The lab'ring ox, while o'er the furrow'd land
"He trails the tardy plough, down drops at once,
"Forth issues bloody foam, till the last groan
"Gives a long close to his labours: The sad hind
"Unyokes his widow'd and complainful mate,
“ Leaving the blasted and imperfect work

"Where the fix'd ploughshare points the luckless spot. "The shady covert, where the lofty trees

"Form cool retreat, the lawns, whose springing herb "Yields food ambrosial, the transparent stream,

"Which o'er the jutting stones to th' neighb'ring mead "Takes its fantastic course, these now no more

"Delight, as they were wont, rather afflict,

"With him they cheer'd, with him their joys expir'd,

"Joys only in participation dear:

"Famine instead stares in his hollow sides,

"His leaden eye-balls, motionless and fix'd, "Sleep in their sockets, his unnerved neck

"Hangs drooping down, death lays his load upon him, "And bows him to the ground-what now avail "His useful toils, his life of service past?

"What though full oft he turn'd the stubborn glebe,
"It boots not now-yet have these never felt

"The ills of riot and intemperate draughts,
"Where the full goblet crowns the luscious feast:
"Their only feast to graze the springing herb,
"O'er the fresh lawn, or from the pendant bough

"To crop the savoury leaf, from the clear spring,
"Or active stream refined in its course,

"They slake their sober thirst, their sweet repose
"Nor cares forbid, nor soothing arts invite,
"But pure digestion breeds and light repast.

'Twas then great Juno's altar ceas'd to smoke
"With blood of bullocks, and the votive car
"With huge misshapen buffaloes was drawn
"To the high temples. Each one till'd his field,
"Each sow'd his acres with their owner's hand,
"Or, bending to the yoke with straining neck,
"Up the high steep dragg'd the slow load along.
"No more the wolf with crafty siege infests
"The nightly fold; more pressing cares than these
"Engage the sly contriver and subdue.
"The fearful deer league with the hostile hound,
"And ply about the charitable door
"Familiar, unannoy'd. The mighty deep
"At every mouth disgorg'd the scaly tribe,
"And on the naked shore expos'd to view

"The various wreck: the farthest rivers felt

"The vast discharge and swarm'd with monstrous shapes.

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"In vain the viper builds his mazy cell;

"Death follows him through all his wiles: in vain
"The snake involves him deep beneath the flood,
"Wond'ring he starts, erects his scales and dies.
"The birds themselves confess the tainted air,
"Drop while on wing, and as they soar expire.
"Nought now avails the pasture fresh and new ;
"Each art applied turns opposite; e'en they,
"Sage Chiron, sage Melampus, they despair,

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"Whilst pale Tisiphone, come fresh from hell,
"Driving before her Pestilence and Fear,
"Her ministers of vengeance to fulfil

Her dread commission, rages all abroad, "And lifts herself on ruin day by day

"More and more high. The hollow banks resound, "The winding streams and hanging hills repeat

"Loud groans from ev'ry herd, from ev'ry fold
"Complaintive murmurs; heaps on heaps they fall,
"There where they fall they lie, corrupt and rot
"Within the lothsome stalls, fill'd and dam'd up
"With impure carcases, till they perform
"The necessary office and confine

"Deep under ground the foul offensive stench:
"For neither might you dress the putrid hide,
"Nor could the purifying stream remove,
"The vigorous all-subduing flame expel
"The close incorporate poison: none essay'd
"To shear the tainted fleece, or bind the wool,
"For who e'er dar'd to cloath his desp'rate limbs
With that Nessean garment, a foul sweat,

"A vile and lep'rous tetter bark'd about
"All his smooth body, nor long he endur'd,

"But in the sacred fire consum'd and died."

A great and heavy affliction now befel my parents and myself. A short time before my holidays in autumn my father and mother came to town, and brought my eldest sister Joanna with them, a very lovely girl then in her se

venteenth year. She caught the small pox, and died in the house of the Reverend Doctor Cutts Barton, Rector of Saint Andrew's Holborn, who kindly permitted my father to remove thither, when she sickened with that cruel disease. She was truly most engaging in her person, and, though much admired, her manners were extremely modest, and her temper mild and gentle. When I first visited her, after the symptoms of the disease were upon her, she told me she was persuaded she had caught the small pox, and that it would be fatal to her. Her augury was too true; it was confluent, and assistance was in vain; the regimen then followed was exactly contrary to the present improved method of treating that disease, which, when it had kept her in torments for eleven days, having effectually destroyed her beauty, finally put an end to her life. My father, who tenderly loved her, submitted to the afflicting dispensation in silent sadness, never venting a complaint; my mother's sorrows were not under such controul, and as to me, devoted to her as I had been from my cradle, the shock appeared to threaten me with such consequences, that my father resolved upon

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