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awful moments of ſuſpence, and when almoſt ſunk by deſpair, we prayed for more frequent lightning to gild the walls, for more heavy thunder to out-roar the blaſt, in the philoſophic conſolation that they might purge the atmoſphere, and diſperſe the ſtorm: but alas! they were but ſeldom ſeen, or feebly heard, as if afraid of combining the influence of light with the deſtruction of found, and of raiſing upon the ground of terror, the ſuperſtructure of deſpair!
When the night was past, and our minds hung ſuſpended between the danger we had eſcaped, and the anticipation of what we might expect to enſue; when the dawn appeared as if unwilling to diſcloſe the devaſtation that the night had cauſed; when the ſun beams peeped above the hills, and illuminated the ſcene around-juſt God! what a contraſt was there exhibited between that morning and the day before! a day which ſeemed to ſmile upon Nature, and to take delight in the proſpects of plenty that waved around, and which produced, wherever the eye could gaze, the charms of cultivation, and the promiſe of abundance; but which fallacious appearances, alas! were to be at once annihilated by that extenſive and melancholy view of deſolation and deſpair, in which the expectations of the moderate, and the wiſhes of the ſanguine, were to be ſo ſoon ingulphed. The horrors of the day were much augmented by the melancholy exclamation of every voice, and the energetic expreſſion every hand: ſome of which were uplifted in acts of execration; ſome wiped the tears that were flowing from the eye: while ſome, conſidering from whence the viſitation came, were ſeen to ſtrike their breaſts, as if to chide the groans which it was impoſſible to reſtrain An uncommon ſilence reigned around: ⟨it⟩ was the pauſe of conſternation: it was a dumb
