The dikes are fill'd, no bounds the torrents keep;
And with the breathing furges boils the deep:
Amidft a night of clouds, bis glitt'ring fire,
And rattling thunder, burls th' eternal Sire :
Far fbakes the earth: beafts fly, and mortal bearts
Pale fear dejects: He with refulgent darts,
Or Rhodope, or Atho's lofty crown,

Or Steep Ceraunia's cliffs ftrikes beadlong down:
The rains condenfe, more furious Aufter roars;
Now with vaft winds the woods, now lashes be the

[fhores.

Mr. DRYDEN's tranflation is more diffused: but the reader will perceive how much he thought fome of David's ideas would adorn it.

And oft whole feets defcend of flucy rain,
Suck'd by the spongy clouds from off the main:
The lofty skies at once come pouring down,
The promis'd crop, and golden labours, drown.-
The dikes are fill'd, and with a roaring found
The rifing rivers float the nether ground; [bound.
And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas re-
The father of the gods his glory shrouds,
Involv'd in tempefts, and a night of clouds;
And from the middle darkness, flashing out
By fits, he deals his fiery bolts about.
Earth feels the motions of her angry god,
Her intrails tremble, and her mountains nod;
And flying beafts in forests feek abode :

G4

}

Deep

Deep horror feizes ev'ry human breaft;
Their pride is humbled, and their fear confess'd:
While He from high his rolling thunder throws,
And fires the mountains with repeated blows :
The rocks are from their old foundations rent ;
The winds redouble, and the rains augment:
The waves on heaps are dash'd against the shore,
And now the woods, and now the billows roar.

THE learned reader hath now both defcriptions fairly before him, and will supply, from his own better judgment, what is defective in each translation. I fhall beg leave to point out the beauties of both; and when I have done fo, the reader will determine for himfelf:

Ver. 6. He heard my voice out of his temple, Can there be a nobler idea, than to confider the heavens as the temple of GOD! This temple incompaffes the universe, and there the whole creation are in the prefence of their Maker.

Ver. 7, &c. He was wroth, and the earth trembled and hook. He bowed the bea

vens, and came down.

He rode upon

He flew upon the wings of the He made darkness his pavilion. ·

-

At

At the brightness before him his clouds passed

away.

THE grandeur of these idea's is much eafier conceived than explained.

WHAT poetry ever equalled the magnificence of this ftile! What idea's of the Divinity does it inspire! What must we think of that mighty Being, at whose wrath the earth trembles, and the heavens are humbled at his feet! Angels and winds his vehicles! His voice is thunder; and lightnings the kindling of his breath! His Majefty veiled in darkness; and yet even fo, the clouds paffing away, at the glory that went before

bim!

IN Virgil, Jupiter, in the dark centre of his showers, deals about his thunders with his flaming right-hand : earth trembles at the mighty motion; the beasts of the forest fly; and humble fear proftrates the haughty heart of man.

NOTHING can be more nobly terrible, than the former part of this description, nor more affecting and touching than the last! For my own part, I never read it but my blood was curdled, and my pride quelled.

HE

Hɛ goes on : --

"He (that is, Jupiter) "beats down Atho, or Rhodope, or the lofty "Ceraunian promontory, with his red-hot "bolts: The winds double, and the "fhowers thicken; the forefts and the shores "refound.

You fee the lightnings fly, in this description. You hear the rattling of the thunder, in that noble line (and the beginning of the next);

Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo
Dejicit.

You hear the crash of the falling mountains ; the thickening shower patters in your ears, and the tempeft roars.

ALL this is unquestionably noble : --- but the reader will observe this effential and truly poetick difference between the two defcriptions; that in Virgil, every thing but the thunder is natural action, and even that is acted and wielded with dreadful force; the effect of which motion is an earthquake.

IN David, the whole univerfe is animated at the presence of GOD, affrighted at his wrath, and obedient to his beck! God is angry; and the earth trembles; and coals kindle at his breath; and bail-ftones fly before bim.

VIR

VIRGIL'S Jupiter wields his thunders : JEHOVAH Commands his, and they obey. Jupiter deals about his bolts in the attitude of an heated hero; or, to speak more properly, a giant of refistless strength! Jehovah but fends out his arrows; they know what to do: they tear and difperfe, and his lightning confounds.

JUPITER is angry, and he beats down a mountain! JEHOVAH is Wroth, and the earth feels it; and the foundations of the mountains are tossed to and fro, tremble and shake like the joints of an affrighted man! At one blast of his breath the ocean opens to her deepest channels; and the foundations of the earth are bared before him.

In a word: Virgil's defcription is truly noble; but David's beyond all expreffion grand !

:

To all this may be added, that David wrote first and if Ovid read Mofes, poffibly Virgil read David. I believe he read David, because I am sure he read Isaiah.

THIS, at leaft, must be allowed, that earthquakes are not the natural effects of thunder. They are united in David's defcription, and fo they are in Virgil's:

They