—­Then yawns the bursting ground!—­two imps obscene
        Rise on broad wings, and hail the baleful queen;
        Each with dire grin salutes the potent wand,
        And leads the sorceress with his sooty hand;
        Onward they glide, where sheds the sickly yew
20 O’er many a mouldering bone its nightly dew;
        The ponderous portals of the church unbar,—­
        Hoarse on their hinge the ponderous portals jar;
        As through the colour’d glass the moon-beam falls,
        Huge shapeless spectres quiver on the walls;
25 Low murmurs creep along the hollow ground,
        And to each step the pealing ailes resound;
        By glimmering lamps, protecting saints among,
        The shrines all tremble as they pass along,
        O’er the still choir with hideous laugh they move,
30 (Fiends yell below, and angels weep above!)
        Their impious march to God’s high altar bend,
        With feet impure the sacred steps ascend;
        With wine unbless’d the holy chalice stain,
        Assume the mitre, and the cope profane;
35 To heaven their eyes in mock devotion throw,
        And to the cross with horrid mummery bow;
        Adjure by mimic rites the powers above,
        And plite alternate their Satanic love.

        Avaunt, ye Vulgar! from her sacred groves
40 With maniac step the Pythian LAURA moves;
        Full of the God her labouring bosom sighs,
        Foam on her lips, and fury in her eyes,
        Strong writhe her limbs, her wild dishevell’d hair
        Starts from her laurel-wreath, and swims in air.—­
45 While twenty Priests the gorgeous shrine surround
        Cinctur’d with ephods, and with garlands crown’d,

[Laura. l. 40.  Prunus.  Lauro-cerasus.  Twenty males, one female.  The Pythian priestess is supposed to have been made drunk with infusion of laurel-leaves when she delivered her oracles.  The intoxication or inspiration is finely described by Virgil.  AEn.  L. vi.  The distilled water from laurel-leaves is, perhaps, the most sudden poison we are acquainted with in this country.  I have seen about two spoonfuls of it destroy a large pointer dog in less than ten minutes.  In a smaller dose it is said to produce intoxication:  on this account there is reason to believe it acts in the same manner as opium and vinous spirit; but that the dose is not so well ascertained.  See note on Tremella.  It is used in the Ratafie of the distillers, by which some dram-drinkers have been suddenly killed.  One pint of water, distilled from fourteen pounds of black cherry stones bruised, has the same deleterious effect, destroying as suddenly as laurel-water.  It is probable Apricot-kernels, Peach-leaves, Walnut-leaves, and whatever possesses the kernel-flavour, may have similar qualities.]

        Contending hosts and trembling nations wait
        The firm immutable behests of Fate;
        —­She speaks in thunder from her golden throne
50 With words unwill’d, and wisdom not her own.