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 *»««»—' ' ' 
 
 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
THE 
 
 JUDGMENT, 
 
 A VISION, 
 
 lif^/A 
 
 AUTHOR OF Percy's masque. 
 
 NEW-YORK, 
 
 PUBLISHED BT JAMES EASTBURN, 
 Literary Rooms, Broadway. 
 
 1821. 
 

 Southern District of New- York, ss ■■ 
 
 BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-fourth day of April, 
 in the forty-fifth year of the Independenceof the United States of America, 
 James Eastbl-rn, of the said district, hath deposited in ihis office the title 
 of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words follow- 
 ing, to wit : 
 
 " The Judgment, a Vision. By the Author of Percy's Masque." 
 
 In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled, "An 
 act for the encourap,ement or learning, hy securing the copies of maps, 
 charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during 
 the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitlecl, "An act 
 supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of learn- 
 ing, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and 
 proprietors of such copies, during the times tbei'e4n«ientioned, and extend- 
 ing the benefits thereof to the arts of d^^igjiiDg, engraving, and etching 
 historical and other prints " * '* ' ' 
 
 GILBERT LIVINGSTON THOMPSON, 
 
 -' Clerk of the Southern District of New- York. 
 
 /J/ 
 
 C. S. VAN WINKLE, PRINTEU. 
 
TO 
 
 THE HONOURABLE 
 
 JOHN TRUMBULL, 
 
 OF CONNECTICUT, 
 
 THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 Br HTS OBLIGED 
 
 AND GRATEFUL FRIEND, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
Beside its intrinsic difficulties, the subject labours under a disad- 
 vantage too obvious to have escaped notice. It has so generally 
 occupied the imaginations of believers in the Scriptures, that most 
 have adopted respecting it their own notions : whoever selects it as 
 a theme, therefore, exposes his work to criticism on account of its 
 theology, as well as its poetry ; and they who think the former ob- 
 jectionable, will not, easily, be pleased with the latter. The object, 
 however, was not to declare opinions ; but simply to present such 
 a view of the last grand spectacle as seemed the most susceptible of 
 poetical embellihsment. 
 
 JYew-York, ^pril, 1821. 
 
THE 
 
 JUDGMENT 
 
 I. 
 
 The rites were past of that auspicious day 
 When white-robed altars wreathed with Uving green 
 Adorn the temples ; when unnumbered tongues 
 Repeat the glorious anthem sung to harps 
 Of Angels when the star o'er Bethlehem stood ; 
 When grateful hearts bow low, and deeper joy 
 Breathes in the Christian than the Angel song 
 On the great birthday of our Priest and King. 
 That night, while musing on his wondrous life, 
 Precepts, and promises to be fulfilled, 
 
 2 
 
10 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 A trance-like sleep fell on me, and a dream 
 Of dreadful character appalled my soul. 
 Wild was the pageant : — face to face with Kings, 
 Heroes, and Sages of old note, I stood ; 
 Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles saw, 
 And venerable forms, ere round the globe 
 Shoreless and waste a weltering flood was rolled, 
 With Angels, compassing the radiant throne 
 Of Mary's Son, anew descended, crowned 
 With glory terrible, to judge the world. 
 
 II. 
 
 Methought I journeyed o'er a boundless plain 
 Unbroke by vale or hill, on all sides stretched, 
 Like circling ocean, to the low-brow'd sky ; 
 Save in the midst a verdant mount whose sides 
 Flowers of all hues and fragrant breath adorned. 
 Lightly I trod, as on some joyous quest, 
 Beneath the azure vault and early sun ; 
 But while my pleased eyes ranged the circuit green, 
 
THE JUDGMENT, II 
 
 New light shone round ; a murmur came, confused, 
 
 Like many voices and the rush of wings. 
 
 Upward I gazed, and mid the glittering skies, 
 
 Begirt by flying myriads, saw a throne 
 
 Whose thousand splendours blazed upon the earth 
 
 Refulgent as another sun. Through clouds 
 
 They came, and vapours coloured by Aurora, 
 
 Minghng in swell sublime, voices, and harps, 
 
 And sounding wings, and hallelujahs sweet. 
 
 Sudden, a Seraph that before them flew, 
 
 Pausing upon his wide-unfolded plumes, 
 
 Put to his mouth the likeness of a trump, 
 
 And toward the four winds four times fiercely breathed. 
 
 Rattling along the arch, the mighty peal 
 
 To Heaven resounded. Hell returned a groan, 
 
 And shuddering Earth a moment reeled, confounded. 
 
 From her fixed pathway as the staggering ship, 
 
 Stunn'd by some mountain billow, reels. The isles, 
 
 With heaving ocean, rocked : the mountains shook 
 
 Their ancient coronets : the avalanche 
 
 Thundered : silence succeeded through the nations. 
 
12 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Earth never listened to a sound like this. 
 It struck the general pulse of nature still, 
 And broke, forever, the dull sleep of death. 
 
 III. 
 
 Now, o'er the mount the radiant legions hung. 
 
 Like plumy travellers from climes remote 
 
 On some sequestered isle about to stoop. 
 
 Gently its flow'ry head received the throne, 
 
 Cherubs and Seraphs, by ten thousands, round 
 
 Skirting it far and wide, like a bright sea, 
 
 Fair forms and faces, crowns, and coronets, 
 
 And glistering wings furled white and numberless. 
 
 About their Lord were those Seven glorious Spirits 
 
 ^Vho in the Almighty's presence stand : Four held 
 
 The golden cords, whose fulgent knops appeared 
 
 Clusters of sardonyx and emerald. 
 
 That, by four rings, like those upon the ark. 
 
 Sustained the throne : One bore the dreadful Books, 
 
 The arbiters of life : Another waved 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 13 
 
 The blazing ensign terrible, of yore, 
 To rebel Angels in the wars of Heaven : 
 What seemed a trump the other Spirit grasped, 
 Of wondrous size, wreathed multiform and strange. 
 Illustrious stood the Seven, above the rest 
 Tow'ring, and like a constellation glowing. 
 What time the sphere-instructed Huntsman, taught 
 By Atlas, his star-studded belt displays 
 Aloft, bright-glittering, in the winter sky. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Then on the mount, amidst these glorious shapes, 
 
 Who reverent stood, with looks of sacred awe, 
 
 I saw Emmanuel seated on his throne. 
 
 His robe, methought, was whiter than the light ; 
 
 Upon his breast the Heavenly Urim glowed 
 
 Bright as the sun, and round such lightnings flashed. 
 
 No eye could meet the mystic symbol's blaze. 
 
 Irradiant the eternal sceptre shone 
 
 Which wont to glitter in his Father's hand : 
 
14 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Resplendent in his face the Godhead beamed, 
 Justice and rncrcy, majesty and grace, 
 Divinely mingling. Celestial glories played 
 Around with beamy lustre ; from his eye 
 Dominion looked ; upon his brow was stamped 
 Creative Power. Yet, over all the touch 
 Of gracious pity dwelt, which, erst, amidst 
 Dissolving nature's anguish breathed a prayer 
 For guilty man. Redundant down his neck 
 His locks rolled graceful, as they waved, of old. 
 Upon the mournful breeze of Calvary. 
 
 V. 
 
 His throne of heavenly substance seemed composed, 
 
 Whose pearly essence, like the Eastern shell, 
 
 Or changeful opal, shed a silvery light. 
 
 Clear as the moon it looked through ambient clouds 
 
 Of snowy lustre waving round its base. 
 
 That, like a zodiac, thick with emblems set, 
 
 Flashed wondrous beams, of unknown character, 
 
THE JUDGMENT. \5 
 
 From many a burning stone of lustre rare, 
 
 Stainedlike the bow whose mingling splendour streamed 
 
 Confusion bright upon the dazzled eye. 
 
 Above him hung a canopy whose skirts 
 
 The mount o'ershadowed like an evening cloud. 
 
 Clouds were his curtains : not like their dim types 
 
 Of blue and purple round the tabernacle, 
 
 That waving vision of the lonely wild. 
 
 By pious Israel wrought with cherubims ; 
 
 Veiling the mysteries of old renown, 
 
 Table, and altar, ark, and mercy-seat. 
 
 Where, 'twixt the shadow of cherubic wings. 
 
 In lustre visible Jehovah shone. 
 
 VI. 
 
 In honour chief, upon the Lord's right hand 
 His station Michael held : the dreadful sword 
 That from a starry baldric hung, proclaimed 
 The Hierarch. Terrible, on his brow 
 Blazed the Archangel crown, and from his eye 
 
16 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Thick sparkles flashed. Like regal banners, waved 
 
 Back from his giant shoulders his broad vans, 
 
 Bedropt with gold, and, turning to the sun, 
 
 Shone gorgeous as the multitudinous stars, 
 
 Or some illumined city seen by night, 
 
 When her wide streets pour noon, and echoing thro' 
 
 Her thronging thousands mirth and music ring. 
 
 Opposed to him, I saw an Angel stand 
 In sable vesture, with the Books of Life. 
 Black was his mantle, and his changeful wings 
 Glossed like the raven's ; thoughtful seemed his mien. 
 Sedate and calm, and deep upon his brow 
 Had Meditation set her seal : his eyes 
 Looked things unearthly, thoughts unutterable, 
 Or uttered only with an Angel's tongue. 
 Renowned was he among the Seraphim 
 For knowledge elevate, and Heavenly lore ; 
 Skilled in the mysteries of the Eternal, 
 Profoundly skilled in those old records where, 
 From everlasting ages, live God's deeds ; 
 He knew the hour when yonder shining worlds 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 17 
 
 That roll around us, into being sprang ; 
 Their system, laws, connexion ; all he knew 
 But the dread moment when they cease to be. 
 None judged like him the ways of God to man, 
 Or so had pondered ; his excursive thoughts 
 Had visited the depths of Night and Chaos, 
 Gathering the treasures of the hoary deep. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Like ocean^s billows seemed, ere this, the plain, 
 Confusedly heaving with a sumless host 
 From earth's and time's remotest bounds : a roar 
 Went up before the multitude, whose course 
 The unfurled banner guided, and the bow, 
 Zone of the universe, athwart the zenith 
 Sweeping its arch. In one vast conflux rolled, 
 Wave following wave, were men of every age, 
 Nation, and tongue ; all heard the warning blast, 
 And, led by wondrous impulse, hither came. 
 Mingled in wild confusion, now, those met 
 
18 THE JUDGMKNT. 
 
 In distant ages born. Gray forms, that lived 
 
 When Time himself was young, whose temples shook 
 
 The hoary honours of a thousand years, 
 
 Stood side by side with Roman Consuls : — here, 
 
 Mid Prophets old, and Heaven-inspired Bards, 
 
 Were Grecian heroes seen : — there, from a crowd 
 
 Of reverend Patriarchs, towered the nodding plumes, 
 
 Tiars, and helms, and sparkling diadems 
 
 Of Persia's, Egypt's, or Assyria's Kings ; 
 
 Clad as when forth the hundred gates of Thebes 
 
 On sounding cars her hundred Princes rushed ; 
 
 Or, when, at night, from off the terrace top 
 
 Of his aerial garden, touched to sooth 
 
 The troubled Monarch, came the solemn chime 
 
 Of sackbut, psaltery, and harp, adown 
 
 The Euphrates, floating in the moonlight wide 
 
 O'er sleeping Babylon. For all appeared 
 
 As in their days of earthly pride ; the clank 
 
 Of steel announced the Warrior, and the robe 
 
 Of Tyrian lustre spoke the blood of Kings. 
 
 Tho' on the Angels while I gazed, their names 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 19 
 
 Appeared not, jet amongst the mortal throng 
 (Capricious power of dreams !) familiar seemed 
 Each countenance, and every name well known. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Nearest the mount of that mixed phalanx first. 
 
 Our general Parent stood : not as he looked 
 
 Wandering, at eve, amid the shady howers, 
 
 And odorous groves of that delicious garden, 
 
 Or flow'ry banks of some soft-rolling stream, 
 
 Pausing to list its lulling murmur, hand 
 
 In hand with peerless Eve, the rose too sweet. 
 
 Fatal to Paradise, Fled from his cheek 
 
 The bloom of Eden ; his hyacinthine locks 
 
 Were changed to gray ; with years and sorrows bowed 
 
 He seemed, but through his ruined form still shone 
 
 The majesty of his Creator : round 
 
 Upon his sons a grieved and pitying look 
 
 He cast, and in his vesture hid his face. 
 
 In vain my wistful eyes sought hapless Eve. 
 
20 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Why from her lord, in this appalling hour, 
 Methought, why wanders she, and who sustains ? 
 
 IX. 
 
 Close at his side appeared a warlike form 
 
 Of port majestic, clad in massive arms, 
 
 Cow'ring above whose helm with outspread wings 
 
 The Roman eagle flew ; around its brim 
 
 Was charactered the name at which Earth's Queen 
 
 Bowed from her seven-fold throne and owned her lord. 
 
 In his dilated eye amazement stood ; 
 
 Terror, surprise, and blank astonishment 
 
 Blanched his firm cheek, as when, of old, close hemmed 
 
 Within the Capitol, amidst the crowd 
 
 Of traitors, fearless else, he caught the gleam 
 
 Of Brutus' steel. Daunted, yet on the pomp 
 
 Of tow'ring Seraphim, their wings, their crowns- 
 
 Their dazzling faces, and upon the Lord 
 
 He fixed a steadfast look of anxious note. 
 
 Like that Pharsalia's hurtling squadrons drew 
 
 Wlien all his glories hung upon the hour. 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 21 
 
 X. 
 
 Near him, for wisdom famous thro' the East, 
 
 Abraham rested on his staff; in guise 
 
 A Chaldee shepherd, simple in his raiment 
 
 As when at Mamre in his tent he sat. 
 
 The host of Angels. Snow-white were his locks 
 
 And silvery heard that to his girdle rolled. 
 
 Fondly his meek eye dwelt upon his Lord, 
 
 Like one, that, after long and troubled dreams, 
 
 A night of sorrows, dreary, wild, and sad, 
 
 Beholds, at last, the dawn of promised joys. 
 
 With kindred looks his great Descendant gazed. 
 Not in the poor array of shepherds he, 
 Nor in the many-coloured coat, fond gift 
 Of doting age, and cause of direful hate ; 
 But, stately as his native palm, his form 
 Was, like Egyptian Princes, proudly decked 
 In tissued purple sweeping to the ground. 
 Plumes from the desert waved above his head. 
 
22 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 And down his breast the golden collar hung 
 
 Bestowed bj Pharaoh when through Egypt word 
 
 Went forth to bow the knee as to her King. 
 
 Graced thus, his chariot with impetuous wheels 
 
 Bore him toward Goshen, where the fainting heart 
 
 Of Israel waited for his long lost son, 
 
 The son of Rachel. Ah! had she survived 
 
 To see him in his glory ! — As he rode 
 
 His boyhood, and his mother's tent arose, 
 
 Linked with a thousand recollections dear, 
 
 And Joseph's heart was in the tomb by Ephrath. 
 
 XL 
 
 At hand, a group of Sages marked the scene. 
 
 Plato and Socrates together stood, 
 
 With him who measured by their shades those piles 
 
 Gigantic, mid the desert seen, at eve, 
 
 By toiling caravans for Memphis bound, 
 
 Peering like specks above the horizon's verge. 
 
 Whose huge foundations vanish in the mist 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 23 
 
 Of earliest time. Transfixed they seemed with wonder. 
 
 Awe-struck, — amazement rapt their inmost souls. 
 
 Such glance of deep enquiry and suspense 
 
 They threw around them, as, in ages past, 
 
 Astronomers upon some dark eclipse, 
 
 Close counselling amidst the dubious light 
 
 If it portended Nature's death, or spoke 
 
 A change in Heaven. What thought they, then, of all 
 
 Their idle dreams, their proud Philosophy, 
 
 When on their wildered souls redemption, Christ, 
 
 And the Almighty broke ? But, though they erred 
 
 When all was dark, they reasoned for the Truth. 
 
 They sought in earth, in ocean, and the stars, 
 
 Their maker, arguing from his works toward God ; 
 
 And from his Word had nobly argued too 
 
 Had they beheld the Gospel sending forth 
 
 Its sun-bright glories o'er the farthest sea, 
 
 Lighting the idol mountain tops, and gilding 
 
 The banners of salvation there. These men 
 
 Ne'er slighted a Redeemer ; of his name 
 
 They never heard. Perchance their late-found harps 
 
24 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 May mix with Angel symphonies, and sound 
 In strains exalted things to them so new. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Nearer the mount stood Moses ; in his hand 
 
 The rod which blasted with strange plagues the realm 
 
 Of Misraim, and from its time-worn channels 
 
 Upturned the Arabian sea. Fair was his broad 
 
 High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye 
 
 Did Legislation look ; which full he fixed 
 
 Upon the blazing panoply, undazzled. 
 
 No terrors had the scene for him who, oft, 
 
 Upon the thunder-shaken hill top, veiled 
 
 With smoke and lightnings, with Jehovah talked, 
 
 And from his cloudy hand received the Law. 
 
 xin. 
 
 Beyond the Jewish Ruler, banded close, 
 A company full glorious, I saw 
 
THE JUDGMENT. ^4> 
 
 The twelve Apostles stand. O, with what looks 
 Of ravishment and joy, what rapturous tears, 
 What hearts of extasy, they gazed again 
 On their beloved Master ! what a tide 
 Of overwhelming thoughts pressed to their souls 
 When now, as he so frequent promised, throned, 
 And circled by the hosts of Heaven, they traced 
 The well-known lineaments of him who shared 
 Their wants and sufferings here ! Full many a day 
 Of fasting spent with him, and night of prayer 
 Rushed on their swelling hearts. Before the rest, 
 Close to the Angelic spears had Peter urged, 
 Tears in his eye, love throbbing at his breast, 
 As if to touch his vesture, or to catch 
 The murmur of his voice. On him and them 
 Jesus beamed down benignant looks of love. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 How diverse from the front sublime of Paul, 
 Or pale and placid dignity of him 
 
 4 
 
26 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Who in the lonely Isle saw Heaven unveiled, 
 
 Was his who in twelve summers won a world ! 
 
 Not such his countenance nor garb, as when 
 
 He foremost breasted the broad Granicus, 
 
 Dark-rushing through its steeps from lonely Ida, 
 
 His double-tufted plume conspicuous mark 
 
 Of every arrow ; cheering his bold steed 
 
 Through pikes, and spears, and threatening axes, up 
 
 The slippery bank through all their chivalry, 
 
 Princes and Satraps linked for Cyrus' throne. 
 
 With cuirass pierced, cleft helm, and plumeless head. 
 
 To glorious conquest : or, when, panic-struck, 
 
 Darius from his plunging chariot sprang, 
 
 Away the bow and mantle cast, and fled. 
 
 His robe, all splendid from the silk worm's loom, 
 
 Floated effeminate, and frorfi his neck 
 
 Hung chains of gold, and gems from Eastern mines. 
 
 Bedight with many-coloured plumage, flamed 
 
 His proud tiara, plumage which had spread 
 
 Its glittering dies of scarlet, green, and gold, 
 
 To evening suns by Indus' stream ; around 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 27 
 
 Twined careless, glowed the white and purple band, 
 The imperial sacred badge of Persia's kings. 
 Thus, his triumphal car in Babylon 
 Displayed him, drawn by snow-white elephants, 
 Whose feet crushed odours from the flowery wreaths 
 Boy-Cupids scattered, while soft music breathed 
 And incense fumed around. But dire his hue. 
 Bloated and bacchanal as on the night 
 When old Persepolis was wrapped in flame : 
 Fear, over all had flung a livid tinge. 
 A deeper awe subdued him than amazed 
 Parmenio and the rest when they beheld 
 The white-stoled Levites from Jerusalem, 
 Thrown open as on some high festival, 
 With hymns and solemn pomp, come down the hill 
 To meet the incensed King, and wondering saw. 
 As on the Pontiff's awful form he gazed. 
 Glistering in purple with his mystic gems, 
 Jove's vaunted son, at Jaddua's foot, adore. 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Turn, now, where stood the spotless Virgin : sweet 
 
 Her azure eye, and fair her golden ringlets ; 
 
 But changeful as the hues of infancy 
 
 Her face. As on her son, her God, she gazed, 
 
 Fixed was her look, — earnest, and breathless ; — now, 
 
 Suffused her glowing cheek ; — now, changed to pale ; — 
 
 First, round her lip a smile celestial played. 
 
 Then, fast, fast rained the tears. — Who can interpret ? — 
 
 Perhaps some thought maternal crossed her heart ; 
 
 That mused on days long passed, when on her breast 
 
 He helpless lay, and of his infant smile ; 
 
 Or, on those nights of terror when, from worse 
 
 Than wolves, she hasted with her babe to Egypt. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Girt by a crowd of Monarchs of whose fame 
 Scarce a memorial lives, who fought and reigned 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 29 
 
 While the historic lamp shed glimmering light 
 
 Above the rest one regal port aspired, 
 
 Crowned like Assyria's princes ; not a crest 
 
 O'ertopped him save the giant Seraphim. 
 
 His countenance, more piercing than the beam 
 
 Of the sun-gazing eagle, earthward bent 
 
 Its haught, fierce majesty tempered with awe. 
 
 Seven years with brutish herds had quelled his pride, 
 
 And taught him there's a mightier King in Heaven. 
 
 His powerful arm founded old Babylon, 
 
 Whose bulwarks like the eternal mountains heaved 
 
 Their adamantine heads, whose brazen gates 
 
 Beleaguering nations foiled, and bolts of war. 
 
 Unshaken, answered as the pelting hail. 
 
 House of the Kingdom ! glorious Babylon ! 
 
 Earth's marvel, and of unborn time the theme ! 
 
 Say where thou stood'st : — Or, can the fisherman 
 
 Plying his task on the Euphrates, now, 
 
 A silent, silver, unpolluted tide. 
 
 Point to thy grave, and answer ? From a sash 
 
 O'er his broad shoulder hung the ponderous sword 
 
 / 
 
30 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Fatal as sulphurous fires to Nineveh, 
 That levelled with her waves the walls of Tyrus 
 Queen of the Sea, to its foundations shook 
 Jerusalem, and reaped the fields of Egypt. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Endless the task to name the multitudes 
 
 Fi'om every land, from isles remote, in seas 
 
 Which no adventurous mariner has sailed : — 
 
 From desert-girdled cities, of whose pomp 
 
 Some solitary wanderer, by the stars 
 
 Conducted o'er the burning wilderness, 
 
 Has told a doubted tale ; as Europe's sons 
 
 Describing Mexic' and, in fair Peru, 
 
 The gorgeous Temple of the Sun, its Priests, 
 
 Its Virgin, and its fire forever bright. 
 
 Were fablers deemed, and, for beUef, met scorn. 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 31 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Sage faces, grave and firm, with war-worn locks. 
 Around a venerable Sire I saw, 
 WTiose hoary head, with patriot glory crown'd, 
 Eclipsed the lustre of the diadem. 
 On their bold brows appeared that settled soul 
 Racks cannot shake, nor fiercest thunderbolts 
 By Tyrants fulmined ; not for gold, nor spoil 
 Torn from an injured people, not to gloss 
 Some Monarch's purple with a bloodier die. 
 Their swords were sheathless : in the sacred cause 
 Of man's essential, inborn hberties, 
 Inherent, deathless as his soul, they drew. 
 They were the Watchmen by an Empire's cradle 
 Whose youthful sinews show like Rome's ; whose head 
 Tempestuous rears the ice-encrusted cap 
 Sparkling with Polar splendours, while her skirts 
 Catch perfumes from the Isles ; whose trident, yet. 
 Must awe in either ocean ; whose strong hand 
 
32 THE JUDGMENTi 
 
 Freedom's immortal banner grasps, and waves 
 Its spangled glories o'er the envying world. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Around while gazing thus, far in the sky 
 Appeared what looked, at first, a moving star ; 
 But onward, wheeling through the clouds it came, 
 With brightening splendour and increasing size, 
 Till witiiin ken a fiery chariot rushed, 
 By flaming horses drawn, whose heads shot forth 
 A twisted horn-like beam- O'er its fierce wheels 
 Two shining forms alighted on the mount, 
 Of mortal birth, but deathless rapt to Heaven. 
 Adown their breasts their loose beards floated, white 
 As mist by moonbeams silvered ; fair they seemed, 
 And bright as Angels ; fellowship with Heaven 
 Their mortal grossness so had purified. 
 Lucent their mantles ; other than the Seer 
 By Jordan caught ; and in the Prophet's face 
 A mystic lustre, like the Urim's, gleamed. 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 33 
 
 XX. 
 
 Now for the dread tribunal all prepared, 
 Before the throne the Angel with the Books 
 Ascending kneeled, and crossing on his breast 
 His sable pinions there the volumes spread. 
 A second summons echoed from the trump, 
 Thrice sounded, when the mighty work began. 
 Waved onward by a Seraph's wand, the sea 
 Of palpitating bosoms toward the mount 
 In silence rolled. No sooner had the first 
 Pale tremblers its mysterious circle touched 
 Than instantaneous, swift as fancy's flash, 
 As lightning darting from the summer cloud, 
 Its past existence rose before the soul. 
 With all its deeds, with all its secret store 
 Of embryo works, and dark imaginings. 
 Amidst the chaos, thoughts as numberless 
 As whirling leaves when autumn strips the woods, 
 Light and disjointed as the Sybil's, thoughts 
 
 5 
 
34 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Scattered upon the waste of long dim years, 
 Passed in a moment through the quickened soul. 
 Not with the glozing eye of earth heheld ; 
 They saw as with the glance of Deity, 
 Conscience, stern arbiter in every breast, 
 Decided. Self acquitted or condemned. 
 Through two broad glittering avenues of spears 
 They crossed the Angelic squadrons, right, or left 
 The Judgment-seat ; by power supernal led 
 To their allotted stations on the plain. 
 As onward, onward, numberless, they came, 
 And touched, appalled, the verge of Destiny, 
 The Heavenly Spirits inly sympathized : — 
 When youthful saints, or martyrs scarred and white, 
 With streaming faces, hands ecstatic clasped. 
 Sprang to the right, celestial beaming smiles 
 A ravishing beauty to their radiance gave j 
 But downcast looks of pity chilled the left. 
 What clenched hands, and frenzied steps were there ! 
 Yet, on my shuddering soul the stifled groan 
 Wrung from some proud Blasphemer as he rushed, 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 35 
 
 Constrained by conscience, down the path of death 
 
 Knells horrible. — On all the hurrying throng 
 
 The unerring pen stamped, as they passed, their fate. 
 
 Thus, in a day, amazing thought ! were judged 
 
 The millions since from the Almighty's hand, 
 
 Launched on her course, earth rolled rejoicing. Whose 
 
 The doom to penal fires, and whose to joy. 
 
 From man's presumption mir^^^s and darkness veil. 
 
 So passed the day ; divided stood the world, 
 
 An awful line of separation drawn, 
 
 And from his labours the Messiah ceased. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 By this, the sun his westering car drove low ; 
 Round his broad wheel full many a lucid cloud 
 Floated, like happy isles, in seas of gold : 
 Along the horizon castled shapes were piled, 
 Turrets and towers whose fronts embattled gleamed 
 With yellow light : smit by the slanting ray, 
 A ruddy beam the canopy reflected ; 
 
36 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 With deeper light the ruby blushed ; and thick 
 Upon the Seraphs' wings the glowing spots 
 Seemed drops of fire. Uncoiling from its staff 
 With fainter wave, the gorgeous ensign hung, 
 Or, swelling with the swelling breeze, by fits. 
 Cast off upon the dewy air huge flakes 
 Of golden lustre. Over all the hill, 
 The Heavenly legions, the assembled worldy 
 Evening her crimson tint forever drew. 
 
 XXIL 
 
 But while at gaze, in solemn silence, Men^ 
 And Angels stood, and many a quaking heart 
 With expectation throbbed ; about the throne 
 And glittering hill top slowly wreathed the clouds. 
 Erewhile like curtains for adornment hung, 
 Involving Shiloh and the Seraphim 
 Beneath a snowy tent. The bands around, 
 Eying the gonfalon that through the smoke 
 Towered into air, resembled hosts who watch 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 37 
 
 The King's pavilion where, ere battle hour, 
 
 A council sits. What their consult might be, 
 
 Those seven dread Spirits and their Lord, I mused, 
 
 I marvelled. Was it grace, and peace ? — or death '' 
 
 Was it of Man ?— Did pity for the Lost 
 
 His gentle nature wring who knew, who felt 
 
 How frail is this poor tenement of clay ?* — 
 
 Arose there from the misty tabernacle 
 
 A cry lili^hat upon Gethsemane ? — 
 
 What passed in Jesus' bosom none may know, 
 
 But close the cloudy dome invested him ; 
 
 And, weary with conjecture, round I gazed 
 
 Where in the purple west, no more to dawn, 
 
 Faded the glories of the dying day. 
 
 Mild twinkling through a crimson-skirted cloud 
 
 The solitary star of Evening shone. 
 
 While gazing wistful on that peerless light 
 
 Thereafter to be seen no more, (as, oft 
 
 * For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with, 
 the feeling of our infirmities. Hsb. 4. \6. 
 
38 ' THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 In dreams strange images will mix,) sad tlioughls 
 Passed o'er my soul. Sorrowing, I cried, Farewell, 
 Pale, beauteous Planet, that displayest so soft 
 Amid yon glowing streak thy transient beam, 
 A long, a last farewell ! Seasons have changed. 
 Ages, and empires rolled, like smoke, away, 
 But thou, unaltered, beamest as silver fair 
 As on thy birthnight ! Bright and watchful eyes, 
 From palaces and bowers, have hailed tl^gem 
 With secret transport ! Natal star of love. 
 And souls that love the shadowy hour of fancy, 
 How much I owe thee, how I bless thy ray ! 
 How oft thy rising o'er the hamlet green, 
 Signal of rest, and social converse sweet, 
 Beneath some patriarchal tree, has cheered 
 The peasant's heart, and drawn his benison! 
 Pride of the West ! beneath thy placid light 
 The tender tale shall never more be told, 
 Man's soul shall never wake to joy again : 
 Thou set'st forever, — lovely Orb, farewell? 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Low warbiings, now, and solitary harps 
 
 Were heard among the Angels, touched and tuned 
 
 As to an evening hymn, preluding soft 
 
 To Cherub voices ; louder as they swelled 
 
 Deep strings struck in, and hoarser instruments, 
 
 Mixed with clear silver sounds, till concord rose 
 
 Full as the harmony of winds to heaven ; 
 
 Yet sweet as nature's springtide melodies 
 
 To some worn Pilgrim first with glistening eyes 
 
 Greeting his native valley, whence the sounds 
 
 Of rural gladness, herds, and bleating flocks, 
 
 The chirp of birds, blithe voices, lowing kine, 
 
 The dash of waters, reed, or rustic pipe. 
 
 Blent with the dulcet distance-mellowed bell, 
 
 Come, like the echo of his early joys. 
 
 In every pause, from spirits in mid air. 
 
 Responsive still were golden viols heard. 
 
 And Heavenly symphonies stole faintly down. 
 
^^ THE judgment; 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Calm, deep, and silent was the tide of joy 
 That rolled o'er ail the Bless'd ; visions of bliss, 
 Rapture too mighty swelled their hearts to bursting 
 Prelude to Heaven it seemed, and in their sight 
 Celestial glories swam. How fared, alas ! 
 That other Band ? Sweet to their troubled minds 
 The solenin scene ; ah ! doubly sweet the breeze 
 Refreshing, and the purple light to eyes 
 But newly oped from that benumming sleep 
 Whose dark and drear abode no cheering dream 
 No bright-hued vision ever enters, souls 
 For ages pent, perhaps, in some dim world 
 Where guilty spectres stalk the twilight gloom. 
 For, like the spirit's last seraphic smile, 
 The Earth, anticipating now her tomb, 
 To rise, perhaps, as Heaven magnificent, 
 Appeared Hesperian : gales of gentlest wing 
 Came fragrance-laden, and such odours shed 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 41 
 
 As Yemen never knew, nor those blest Isles 
 In Indian seas where the voluptuous breeze 
 The peaceful Native breathes, at eventide, 
 From nutmeg groves and bowers of cinnamon. 
 How solemn on their ears the choral note 
 Swelled of the Angel hymn ! so late escaped 
 The cold embraces of the grave, whose damp 
 Silence no voice or stringed instrument 
 Has ever broke ! Yet with the murmuring breeze 
 Full sadly chimed the music and the song, 
 For with them came the memory of joys 
 Forever past, the stinging thought of what 
 They once had been, and of their future lot. 
 To their grieved view the passages of Earth 
 Delightful rise, their tender ligaments 
 So dear, they heeded not an after state 
 Though by a fearful Judgment ushered in. 
 A Bridegroom fond, who lavished all his heart 
 On his Beloved, forgetful of the Man 
 Of many sorrows who, for him, resigned 
 His meek and spotless spirit on the cross, 
 6 
 
42 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Has marked among the Blessed Bands, arrayed 
 Celestial in a spring of beauty doomed 
 No more to fade, the charmer of his soul, 
 Her cheek soft blooming like the dawn in Heaven. 
 He recollects the days when on his smile 
 She lived ; when, gently leaning on his breast, 
 Tears of intense affection dimmed her eyes, 
 Of dove-like lustre. — Thoughtless, now, of him 
 And earthly joys, eternity and Heaven 
 Engross her soul. — What more accursed pang 
 Can Hell inflict ? With her, in realms of light, 
 In never-dying bliss, he might have rolled 
 Eternity away ; but now, forever, 
 Torn from his Bride new-found, with cruel Fiends, 
 Or Men like Fiends, must waste and weep. Now, now, 
 He mourns with burning bitter drops his days 
 Mispent, probation lost, and Heaven despised. 
 Such thoughts from many a bursting heart drew forth 
 Groans, lamentations, and despairing shrieks 
 That on the silent air came from afar. 
 
THE JUDGMENT. 43 
 
 XXV. 
 
 As, when from some proud capital that crowns 
 
 Imperial Ganges, the reviving breeze 
 
 Sweeps the dank mist, or hoary river fog 
 
 Impervious mantled o'er her highest towers. 
 
 Bright on the eye rush Brahma's temples capped 
 
 With spiry tops, gay-trelliced minarets, 
 
 Pagods of gold, and mosques with burnished domes, 
 
 Gilded, and glistening in the morning sun, 
 
 So from the hill the cloudy curtains rolled, 
 
 And, in the lingering lustre of the eve, 
 
 Again the Saviour and his Seraphs shone. 
 
 Emitted sudden in his rising, flashed 
 
 Intenser light, as toward the right hand host 
 
 Mild turning with a look ineffable. 
 
 The invitation he proclaimed in accents 
 
 Which on their ravished ears poured thrilling like 
 
 The silver sound of many trumpets heard 
 
 Afar in sweetest jubilee 5 then, swift 
 
44 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 Stretching his dreadful sceptre to the left 
 
 That shot forth horrid lightnings, in a voice 
 
 Clothed but in half its terrors, yet to them 
 
 Seemed like the crush of Heaven, pronounced the doom. 
 
 The sentence uttered, as with life instinct, 
 
 The throne uprose majestically slow ; 
 
 Each Angel spread his wings ; in one dread swell 
 
 Of triumph mingling as they mounted, trumpets, 
 
 And harps, and golden lyres, and timbrels sweet, 
 
 And many a strange and deep-toned instrument 
 
 Of Heavenly minstrelsy unknown on Earth, 
 
 And Angela' voices, and the loud acclaim 
 
 Of all the ransomed, like a thunder-shout. 
 
 Far through the skies melodious echoes rolled, 
 
 And faint hosannahs distant climes returned. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Down from the less'ning multitude came faint 
 And fainter still the trumpet's dying peal, 
 
THE JUDGMEl^T. 45 
 
 All else in distance lost, when to receive 
 
 Their new inhabitants the heavens unfolded. 
 
 Up gazing, then, with streaming eyes, a glimpse 
 
 The Wicked caught of Paradise where streaks 
 
 Of splendour, golden gleamings, radiance shone, 
 
 Like the deep glories of declining day 
 
 When, washed by evening showers, the huge-orb'd sua 
 
 Breaks instantaneous o'er the illumined world. 
 
 Seen far within, fair forms moved graceful by, 
 
 Slow turning to the light their snowy wings. 
 
 A deep-drawn agonizing groan escaped 
 
 The hapless Outcasts, when upon the Lord 
 
 The glowing portals closed. Undone, they stood 
 
 Wistfully gazing on the cold gray heaven, 
 
 As if to catch, alas ! a hope not there. 
 
 But shades began to gather, night approached 
 
 Murky and low'ring : round with horror rolled 
 
 On one another their despairing eyes 
 
 That glared with anguish : starless, hopeless gloom 
 
 Fell on their souls never to know an end. 
 
 Though in the far horizon lingered yet 
 
46 THE JUDGMENT. 
 
 A lurid gleam, black clouds were mustering there : 
 Red flashes, followed by low muttering sounds, 
 Announced the fiery tempest doomed to hurl 
 The fragments of the Earth again to Chaos. 
 Wild gusts swept by upon whose hollow wing 
 Unearthly voices, yells, and ghastly peals 
 Of demon laughter came. Infernal shapes 
 Flitted along the sulphurous wreaths, or plunged 
 Their dark impure abyss, as sea-fowl dive 
 
 Their watery element. O'erwhelmed with sights 
 
 And sounds of horror, I awoke ; and found 
 For gathering storms, and signs of coming woe, 
 The midnight moon gleaming upon my bed 
 Serene and peaceful : Gladly I surveyed her 
 Walking in brightness through the stars of heaven, 
 And blessed the respite ere the day of doom. 
 
X3 
 
 LBJa'22