REDEMPTION. 301
To these, cannot, nor cool their parched tongues,
So much as with one drop from limpid stream.
Diverse it rolls ; on that side night, without
One star to cheer, or ray of light, save what,
From its own lurid flames, may serve to make
Darkness more visible. There anguish dwells,
With those imperfect souls to penance doom'd,
Till He who comes shall come ; but on this side,
Less drear, with green fields spread and living streams,
Some trace of rest and sweet repose may yield,
Some bland refreshment, requiescent glean' d,
With light, for souls adjudg'd, approved, just.
Here Abraham and Lazarus abode;
Here all the Patriarchs found rest and joy,
With Moses, Josue, David, all who kept
The law of justice, and the coming hoped
Of that great Prophet, promised in the first,
Whom Moses preach' d, and righteous Job foresaw,
Should rise Redeemer in the latter day.
So, darkly limn'd, adjudge this desert land,
From hence afar ; not, as some think, the moon,
Nor yet the calid texture of the sun,
Though these might well their arid plains afford,
For purgatorial flames, perpetual fused ;
Still less interior earth, as others dream,
Where fiery oceans seethe, whether asphalt,
Viscid bitume, with res' nous pitch inforin'd ;
Or porph'ry, granite, in soft fusion blent,
Grand chemic, where from plastic fire enwrought,
Each fusile mold metallurgic takes form,
And bubbling up terrene, transudes the soil,
As silver, gold, and that dull ore despised,
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