| 299 | 300 | 301 | 302 | 303 |
| 1 | 154 | 308 | 461 | 615 |
|
CHAPTER V.
SOME disorder had surely crept into the course of the elements, destroying
their benignant influence. The wind, prince of air, raged through his
kingdom, lashing the sea into fury, and subduing the rebel earth into some
sort of obedience.
The God sends down his angry plagues from high,
Famine and pestilence in heaps they die.
Again in vengeance of his wrath he falls
On their great hosts, and breaks their tottering walls;
Arrests their navies on the ocean's plain,
And whelms their strength with mountains of the main.
Their deadly power shook the flourishing countries of the south, and
during winter, even, we, in our northern retreat, began to quake under
their ill effects.
That fable is unjust, which gives the superiority to the sun over the wind.
Who has not seen the lightsome earth, the balmy atmosphere, and basking
nature become dark, cold and ungenial, when the sleeping wind has awoke in
the east? Or, when the dun clouds thickly veil the sky, while exhaustless
stores of rain are poured down, until, the dank earth refusing to imbibe
the superabundant moisture, it lies in pools on the surface; when the torch
of day seems like a meteor, to be quenched; who has not seen the
301
Page
Quick Jump
|