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Teach me, like thee, in various Nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to fevere;
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reafon, or polite to please..

Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;

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Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,
Purfue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When ftatefmen, heroes, kings, in duft repofe,
Whofe fons fhall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend?
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's falfe mirror held up Nature's light;
Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;

3. A certain elegant Formation and Ordonnance of Figures:
Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;

Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,
Purfue the triumph, and partake the gale?

4. A fplendid Diction:

When statesmen, heroes, kings, in duft repofe,
Whose fons fhall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend?
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's falfe mirror held up Nature's light;

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5. And fifthly, which includes in itself all the rest, a Weight and Dignity in the Compofition:

Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That REASON, PASSION, answer one great AIM;
That true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the SAME;
That VIRTUE only makes our BLISS below;
And all our Knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW,

That REASON, PASSION, anfwer one great aim; 395
That true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the same;
That VIRTUE only makes our Bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

VARIATION S.

VER. 397. That Virtue only, etc.] In the MS. thus,

That just to find a God is all we can,

And all the Study of Mankind is Man.

THE

UNIVERSAL

PRA Y E R.

DEO OPT. MAX.

THE

UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

FATHER of All! in ev'ry Age,
In ev'ry Clime ador'd,

By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Caufe, leaft understood;
Who all my Senfe confin'd

To know but this, that Thou art Good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark Eftate,
To fee the Good from Ill;.

And binding Nature faft in Fate,
Left free the Human Will.

Univerfal Prayer.] It may be proper to obferve, that fome paf fages in the preceding Elay, having been unjuftiy fufpected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author compofed this Prayer as the fum of all, to fhew that his fyftem was founded in free will, and terminated in piety: That the firft caufe was as well the Lord and Governor of the Univerfe as the Creator of it; and that, by fubmiffion to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Effay) was not meant the fuffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but the refting in a religious acquiefcence, and confidence full of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the Poet chofe for his model the LORD'S PRAYER, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to his Paraphrafe.

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