And now a Moment’s Pause, Fate’s Heralds lend,
A dreadful Pause like that when Time shall end.
Lo what a sudden Change! On Ruin’s Brink,
The Proud turn humble, and the Thoughtless think. 65
Dark gloomy Sadness overclouds the Gay,
And Hypocrites for once sincerely pray.
In their own proper Shapes now Crimes appear,
For Danger touching like Ithuriel’s Spear,
Does by its Power the fatal Magic end; 70
Down falls the Vizor, and upstarts the Fiend!
Atheists no longer can themselves deceive,
And now too late they tremble and believe.
But the good Man looks boldly on his Fate,
Alone unshaken in a shaking State. 75
Again the Storm with double Fury rolls,
And from the dreadful Deeps the Tempest howls.
With thicker Throws now groans the lab’ring Earth,
The sure Fore-runners of the fatal Birth. 80
The City loosen’d with repeated Shocks,
Now to and fro from her Foundations rocks.
Amaz’d, confounded, of all Sense bereft,
The shipwreck’d Souls behold their Vessels cleft.
Down from on high the shatter’d Tacklings rush, 85
And big with rattling Ruin Thousands crush.
There gapes the vast Abyss with hideous Roar,
And in its Entrails swallows Thousands more.
Where should they run for Help? the gushing Tide
Breaks in above, below, on every Side: 90
From Danger unto Danger they retreat,
And while they shun one Death, another meet.
So Mariners, Charybdis’ Rock to shun,
Have into Sylla’s Whirlpools headlong run.
But they between those Rocks and Pools might steer; 95
Ten Thousand Rocks and Whirlpools threaten here.
For those that ’scap’d the Caverns gaping wide,
In endless Night the falling Ruins hide;
And those the Ruins had denied a Tomb,
The Fires on Funeral Piles alive consume. 100
Lo! where the Gulphs wide yawning round the Town,
In swiftest Eddies drink the River down,
With it the Navy down impetuous flies,
And to the Centre a new Passage tries.
Horror and Desolation you’d no more!
And now that once fair Town with all her Store, 105
And ev’ry Soul that hail’d the rising Day,
Heaving in Death like one vast Body lay.
The Fires, that glimm’ring still with pale’y Red,
Like Burial Tapers, nodded o’er the Dead, 110
Performing the last Office, as they wave,
Add Dust and Ashes to the gen’ral Grave.
Lo! the good King from out the ruin’d Heaps,
By Providence divine, like Lot, escapes; 115
But Lot’s Command, while yet the City burn’d,
The weeping King had disobey’d and turn’d:
There in Salt Tears congeal’d, he fix’d had staid,
And, like the Woman, a new Pillar made:
Forbid his dear Eurydice to view,
Like Orpheus he had look’d and perish’d too. 120
Viewing the dreadful Havock, sore he griev’d,
And his sad Heart within his Bosom heav’d:
Tow’rs, Houses, Palaces, all sunk to Ground,
Ev’n God’s own Fanes in the dry Deluge drown’d!
Like Noah plac’d on Ararat he stood, 125
And wail’d Mankind, while round him roll’d the Flood.
But yet resign’d to that all pow’rful Sway,
That kills and saves, that gives and takes away,
Like Job he griev’d, like Job he kiss’d the Rod,
And own’d the Justice of his angry God. 130
Slowly retiring thus with mournful Eye,
Anchises’ Son beheld his burning Troy:
By their own horrid Light while Temples shone,
When Dwellings, Friends, and Treasures all were gone,
The pious Prince resign’d, the Loss endures, 135
And safe within his Breast his Gods secures.