And find, or hope, a luxury in tears :
For her, guilt, thame, toil, danger, we defy,
And, with an aim voluptuous, rush on death:
Thus univerfal her defpotic pow'r.

Patron of pleasure! I thy rival am;
Pleasure, the purpofe of my gloomy fong.
Pleafure is nought but virtue's gayer name-
I wrong her ftill, I rate her worth too low:
Virtue the root, and pleafure is the flow'r.

The love of pleasure is man's eldest-born, Born in his cradle, living to his tomb; Wisdom, her younger fifter, tho' more grave, Was meant to minister, and not to mar Imperial pleasure, queen of human hearts.

$270. Rife of Pleasure.

FIRST, pleasure's birth, rife, ftrength, and
grandeur fee,

Brought forth by wisdom, nurs'd by difcipline,
By patience taught, by perfeverence crown'd,
She rears her head majeftic; round her throne,
Erected in the bofom of the just,

Each virtue, lifted, forms her manly guard :
For what are virtues? (formidable name !)
What, but the fountain, or defence of joy?
Great legiflator fcarce fo great as kind!
If men are rational, and love delight,
Thy gracious law but flatters human choice:
In the tranfgreffion lies the penalty;
And they the most indulge, who most obey.

§ 271. The End of Pleasure.

OF pleasure, next, the final cauíe explore;
Its mighty purpofe, its important end.
Not to turn human brutal, but to build
Divine on human, pleasure came from heay'n:
In aid to reafon was the goddefs fent,
To call up all its ftrength by fuch a charm.
Pleasure first fuccours virtue; in return,
Virtue gives pleasure an eternal reign.
What, but the pleature of food, friendship, faith,
Supports life natural, civil, and divine?
It ferves ourselves, our fpecies, and our God;
Glide then for ever, pleafure's facred ftream!
Through Eden as Euphrates ran, it runs,
And folters ev'ry growth of happy life;
Makes a new Eden where it flows.

§ 272. Virtue aud Piety.
"Is virtue, then, and piety the fame ?"
No-piety is more; 'tis virtue's fource;
Mother of ev'ry worth, as that of joy,
With piety begins all good on earth;
Confcience, her firft law broken, wounded lies;
Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good,

A feign'd affection bounds her utmost power.
Some we can't love, but for the Almighty's fake;
A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man.
On piety, humanity is built;
And, on humanity much happiness;
And yet ftill more on piety ittelf.
A Deity believ'd, is joy begun;

A Deity ador'd, is joy advanc'd;
Each branch of piety delight infpires:
A Deity belov'd, is joy matur'd.
Faith builds a bridge from this world to the n
O'er death's dark gulph, and all its horror hi
Praife, the fweet exhalation of our joy,
That joy exalts, and makes it fweeter ftill; n
Pray'r ardent opens heaven, lets down a ftre
Of glory, on the confecrated hour
Of man, in audience with the Deity.
Who worships the great God, that inftanti
The first in heav'n, and fets his foot on hel

273. Refources of a Dejected Mind.
ART thou dejected? is thy mind o'ercaft?
Thy gloom to chafe, go, fix fome weig
truth;

Teach ignorance to fee; or grief to fmile;
Chain down fome paffion; do fome gen
[go
Or, with warm heart, and confidence divin
Correct thy friend; befriend thy greatest fo
Spring up, and lay ftrong hold on him who m
thee-

Thy gloom is fcatter'd, fprightly fpirits flow
Tho' wither'd is thy vine, and harp unftru

Doit call the bowl, the viol, and the danc
Loud mirth,mad laughter? wretched comfort
Phyficians! more than half of thy disease,
Laughter, tho' never cenfur'd yet as fin,
Is half-immoral. Is it much indulg'd?
By venting fpleen, or diffipating thought,
It fhews a fcorner, or it makes a fool;
And fins, as hurting others, or ourselves.
The houfe of laughter makes a houfe of we
What cause for triumph where fuch ills abou
Who call'd us into being to be blefs'd?
What for dejection, where prefides a pow'r,
So grieve, as confcious grief may rife to joy
So joy, as confcious joy to grief may fall:
Most true; a wife man never will be fad;
A fhallow ftream of happinefs betray;
But neither will fonorous, bubbling mirth
Too happy to be fportive, he's ferene.

There truths abound of fov reign aid to pea
Retire, and read thy bible, to be gay.
Ah! do not prize them lefs, because inipir'
If not infpir'd, that pregnant page had flood
Time's treafure! and the wonder of the wi

But thefe, thou think'st are gloomy paths
joy,

True joy in funfhine ne'er was found at firft
They,firft,themselves offend, who greatly plea
And travel only gives us found repose.
Heaven fells all pleasure; effort is the price
The joys of conqueft are the joys of man;
And glory the victorious laurels spreads
O'er pleasure's pure, perpetual, placid stream

$274. A Man of Pleasure is a Man of Pains.
THERE is a time, when toil must be preferr
Or joy, by miftim'd fondness is undone.
A man of pleafure is a man of pains.
Thou wilt not take the trouble to be bless'd.

Fal

Fejleed,are born from want of thought; They stand collecting ev'ry beam of thought, Faraghts full bent, and energy, the true; Till their hearts kindle with divine delight; Amands a mind in equal poife, For all their thoughts, like angels feen of old In gloomy grief, and glaring joy. In Ifrael's dream, come from and go to heav'n: Xey not only peaks mall happiness, Hence are they ftudious of fequefter'd scenes, While noife and diffipation comfort thee.

pinets that fhortly muit expire: Ly, unbottom'd in reflection, ftand? And a tempest can reflection live? Lake thine fecure itlelf an hour? Cake thine meet accident unfhock'd, Or a door to honest poverty? Crthreat'ning death, and not turn pale? orld, and fuch a nature, these 4 fundamentais of delight: tamentals give delight indeed; are, delicate, and durable;

haken, mafculine, divine; A, and a found, but ferious joy. by the daughter of severity? ivet for my doctrine from fevere: e-forever," it becomes a man;

d sets him nearer to the gods; for ever." Nature cries, "Rejoice;" Araks tɔ man, in her nectareous cup, 1.5. of delicates for ev'ry sense;

Founder of the bounteous feaft , gratitude, eternal praife; at will not pledge her, is a churl. support, good fully tafte, wae kcience of felicity. 1g pledge; her bowl is not the best Mankad can beaft: A rational repaft;

I

a glance, a mind in arms, apline of thought,

Ta

tion in the doubtful field;
gardour for the right,
ve, then guard a cheerful heart.
nght, think little; well aware,
b, God bids: by his command,
d the fmalieft thing wo do!
sinfipid to the wife;

did all, but what is mad;

§ 276. Joy.

VAIN are all fudden fallies of delight;
Convulfions of a weak, distemper'd joy.
Joy's a fix'd state; a tenor, not a start;
Blifs there is none, but unprecarious blifs:
That is the gem; fell all, and purchase that.
Reafon perpetuates joy that reafon gives,
And makes it as immortal as herself:
To mortals, nought immortal, but their worth.

$277. Follies of Imagination.
IN this is feen imagination's guilt; [thee,
But who can count her follies? She betrays
To think in grandeur there is fomething great.
For works of curious art, and ancient fanie,
Thy genius hungers, elegantly pain'd;
And foreign climes muft cater for thy taste.
Hence what difafter!-Tho' the price was paid,
That perfecuting priest, the Turk of Rome
Detain'd thy dinner on the Latian shore;
And poor magnificence is ftary'd to death.
Hence, juft refentment, indignation, ire!-

§ 278. Pleasure confifts in Goodrefs. PLEASURE, we both agree, is man's chief good;

Our only conteft, what deferves the name?[pass'd
Give pleafure's name to nought, but what has
Th' authentic feal of reafon, which defies
The tooth of time, when paft a pleasure still;
Dearer on trial, lovelier for its age,
And doubly to be priz'd, as it promotes
Our future, while it forms our prefent joy.
Some jovs the future overcaft; and fome
Throw all their beams that way, and gild the

& high, and rafting itrong of guilt. Some joys endear eternity: fome give [toinb:

$275. Earthly Happiness. GTTEST wildom ever wills the fame; ke wifa is ever on the wing. faerief is folly's character;

's is a modest felf applaufe. of evils is thy good fupreme; motion, can't thou find thy reft. K. get itrength is fhewn in ftanding still: fymptom of a mind in health, art, and pleasure felt at home. Far from abroad her joys imports; within, and felf-fuftain'd, the true: Thir'd, and solid, as a rock; Slfe, and toffing, as the wave: Towing makes an angel here;

al, entitled to repofe

governs fate. Tho' tempeft frowns, Bakes, how foft to lean on heav'n! ca Him on whom archangel's lean! ve and eyes, and filent as the grave,

Abhorr'd annihilation dreadful charms.
Are rival joys contending for thy choice?
Confult thy whole existence, and be safe;
That oracle will put all doubt to flight:
Be good,and let heav'n anfwer for the reft,
Yet, with a figh o'er all mankind, I grant,
In this our day of proof, our land of liope,
The good man has his clouds that intervene;
Clouds that obfcure his fublunary day,
But never conquer. Ev'n the beit must own,
Patience, and retignation, are the pillars
Of human peace on earth: remote from thee;
Till this heroic leflon thou haft learn'd;
To frown at pleasure, and to fmile in pain,
Fir'd at the profpect of unclouded blifs.
Heav'n in reverfion, like the fun as yet
Beneath the th' horizon, cheers as in this world;
It fheds, on fouls fufceptible of light,
The glorious dawn of our eternal day.

Now fee the man immortal, him, I mean,
Who lives as fuch; whofe heart, full bent on
heav'n,
Leans

Falfe Gairty ends in Despair.
Tm but wherefore? and how long
Cugh?

F.

their mirth; and half, a lie: won the world, and cheat themselves, they Lie.

the tf! The most abandon'd own,
, it abandon'd, are undone:
mielves, the moment reason wakes,
tions is their gaiety!

I can müfter patience for the farce;
dughter, till the curtain falls:
I fay? Some cannot fit it out;
ewn daring hands the curtain draw,
as what their joy, by their defpair.
Tecond hair! gor'd breaft! blafpheming
fory till alive in death! [eye!
The hockingfcene. But heav'n denies
et such guilt; and fo fhould man.
Lorenzo fee the reeking blade;
w'd phial, and the fatal ball;
ng cord, and fuffocating ftream;
are rottennefs and foul decays
grit (flower fuicides!),

a thefe, more execrable ftill!-
A to thought!-But horrors, thefe,
the truth, and aid my feeble fong.

And is the ceiling of her fleeping fons:
O'er devaftation we blind revels keep;
Whole buried towns fupport the dancer's heel;
The moift of human frame the fun exhales;
Winds fcatter, thro' the mighty void, the dry;
Earth re-poffeffes part of what the
gave,
And the freed fpirit mounts on wings of fire;
Each element partakes our scatter'd ipoils;
As nature wide, our ruins fpread : man's death
Inhabits all things, but the thought of man.

$285. The Triumphs of Death.
NOR man alone; his breathing but expires;
His tomb is mortal; erapires die; Where now
The Roman? Greek? They stalk, an empty name!
Yet few regard them in this ufeful light;
Tho' halfour learning is their epitaph.[thought,
When down thy vaic, unlock'd by midnight
That loves to wander in thy funlefs realms,
O Death! I ftretch my view; what vifions rife!
What triumphs! toits imperial! arts divine!
In wither'd laurels, glide before my fight!
What lengths of far-fam'd ages, billow'd high
With human agitation, roll along
In unfubftantial images of air!
The melancholy ghoits of dead renown,
Whip'ring faint echoes of the world's applaufe
With penitential afpect, as they pass,
All point at earth, and hifs at human pride.

SIGHT IX. Reflections on Death.
the prime aftors of the laft year's
[plume? $285. Delige and Conflagration.
proud, their bufkin, and their PUT, O Lorenzo! far the reft above,
, who kept the world awake Of ghaftly nature, and enormous fize,
ith noife? Has Deathproclaim'd One form affaults my fight, and chills my blood,
ng his fated lance on high? And fhakes my frame: of one departed world
a; nor fhall the prefent year I fee the mighty fhadow; oozy wreath
is of her human leaf,
And difmal fea-weed crown her; o'er her urn
tele life a thinner fall.
Reclin'd, the weeps her defolated realms,
numents to wake the thought; And bloated fons; and, weeping, prophefies
Stats freak man's mortality, Another's diffolution, foon, in flames.
more florid, full as plain,
as, pyramids, and tombs.
ablett ornaments, but deaths

Deluge and Conflagration, dreadful pow`rs!
Prime minifters of vengeance! chain'd in caves
Diftinct, apart the giant-furies roar;

ment of life, in paint, or marble,Apart; or, fuch their horrid rage for ruin,

d canvas, or the featur'd tone? grace, or rather haunt, the scene; er pavilion from the dead. diverCons! cannot thefe efcape?" there prefent us with a fhroud, fath, like garlands o'er the grave. dplanderers, for buried wealth, tombs for paftime; from the duft Leeping hero; bid him tread for our amusement: how like gods ind, wrapt in immortality,

as tears on wretches born to die; e deploring, to forget our own!

In mutual conflict would they rife, and wage
Eternal war, till one was quite devour'd:
But not for this ordain'd their boundless rage;
When heaven's inferior inftruments of wrath,
War, famine, peftilence, are found too weak
To fcourge a world for her enormous crimes;
Thefe are let loofe, alternate: down they ruth,
Swift and tempeftuous, from th' eternal throne,
With irrefiible commiffion arm'd,
The world, in vain corrected, to destroy,
And eafe creation of the fhocking feene.

$287. The Last Day.
SEEST thou, Lorenzo! what depends on man?
The fate of nature; as, for man, her birth:
Earth's actors change earth's tranfitory fcenes,
And make creation groan with human guilt:
How muft it groan, in a new deluge whelm`d;
But not of waters? at the deftin'd hour,
By the loud trumpet fummon'd to the charge,
See, all the formidable fons of fire,
Eruptions,

Eruptions, earthquakes, comets,lightnings, play
Their various engines, all at once difgorge
Their blazing magazines; and take by form
This poor terrestrial citadel of man.

What hero, like the man who ftands him
Who dares to meet his naked heart alone
Wao hears intrepid the full charge it bri
Refolv'd to filence future murmurs there
The coward flies; and, flying, is undone.

Amazing period; when each mountain-height
Out-burns Vefuvius; rocks eternal pour
Shall all, but man, look out with arden
Their melted mafs, as rivers once they pour'd; For that great day, which was ordain'd for
Stars rush; and final Ruin fiercely drives O day of consummation! mark fupreme
Her ploughfhare o'er creation!while aloft (If men are wife) of human thought! not
More than aftonishment! if more can be! Or in the fight of angels, or their King!
Far other firmument than e'er was feen, Angels,whofe radiant circles, height o'er he
Than e'er was thought by man! for other ftars! As in a theatre furround this fcene.
Stars animate, that govern theie of fire: Intent on man and anxious for his fate,
Far other fun! A fun, O how unlike
Angels look out for thee; for thee, their
The babe at Bethlem! How unlike the man To vindicate his glory; and for thee,
That groan'd on Calvary!-Yet, He it is;
Creation univeriai calls aloud,
That man of forrows! Ó how chang'd! What To diinvolve the moral world, and give t
In grandeur terrible, all heav'n descend![pomp! To nature's renovation brighter charms.
A iwift archangel, with his golden wing, Shall man alone, whofe fate, whofe finan
As blots and clouds, that darken and difgraceHangs on that hour,exclude it from his the
The scene divine, fweeps ftars and funs afide: I think of nothing elfe; I fee! I feel it!
And now,all drofs remov'd,heav'n'sownpureday, All nature, like an earthquake, trembling r
Full on the confines of our ether, flames.
While (dreadful contrait?) fir, how far be eath!
Hell burting, belches forth her blazing feas,
And ftorms iulphureous: her voracious jaws
Expanding wide, and roaring for her prey [peace,
At midnight, when mankind is wrapp'd in
And worldly fancy feeds on golden dreams,
Man, ftarting from his couch, fhall fleep no more,
Above, around, beneath, amazement all!
Terror and glory join'd in their extremes!
Our God in grandeur, and our world on fire!
All nature struggling in the pings of death!
Doit thou nor her her? dost thou not deplore
Her ftrong convulfions, and her final groan?
Where are we now? Ah me! the ground is gone,
On which we flood! Lorenzo! while thou mayit,
Provide more firm fupport, or ink for ever!
Where? how? from whence? Vain hope! it is
too late!

Where, where, for shelter, fhall the guilty fly,
When conifernation turns the good man pale?
Great day! for which all other days were made;
For which earth rofe from chaos; man from earth,
And an Eternity, the date of Gods,
Defcended on poor-earth created man!
Great day of dread, decition, and despair!
At thought of thee, each fublunary with
Lets go its eager grafp, and drops the world;
And catches at each reed of hope in heav'n.
Already is begun the grand aflize,
In us, in all: deputed confcience scales
The dread tribunal, and forestalls our doom;
Foreftalls; and by foreftalling, proves it fure.
Why on himfelf fhould man void judgment pafs?
Is idle nature laughing at her fons?
Who confcience fent, her fentence will fupport,
And God above affert that God in man.

288. Thoughtlessness of the laft Day. THRICE happy they, that enter now the court Heav'n opens in their bofoms: but, how rare? Ah me! that magnanimity, how rare!

I fee the Judge enthron'd! the flaming g
The volume open'd! open'd ev'ry heart
A fun-beam pointing out each fecret thot
No patron! interceffor none! now paft
The fweet, the clement, mediatorial hour
For guilt no piea! to pain no paufe! no bor
Inexorable, all! and all extreme!
Nor man alone; the foe of God and man,
From his dark den, blafpheming, drags hisch
And rears his brazen front, with thunderi
Like meteors in a ftormy fky, how roll
His baleful eyes! he curfes whom he drea
And deems it the first moment of his fall,

§ 289 Eternity and Time. prefent to my thought!And, where is it?

[T

Say, Thou great clofe of human hopes and f
Great key of hearts! great finisher of faten
Great end! and great beginning! tay, whe
Art thou in time, or in eternity?
Nor in eternity, nor time, I find thee!
Thefe, as two monarchs, on their borders t
(Monarchs of all elaps'd, or un-arriv`d!)
As in debate, how beft their pow'rs ally'd,
May fwell the grandeur, or discharge the wi
Of him, whom both their monarchies obey

Time,this vaft fabric forhimbuilt (and doo
With him to fall) now burtting o'er his he
His lamp, the fun, extinguish'd, calls his for
From their long flumber; from earth's heav

womb

To fecond birth; upftarting from one bed
He turns them o'er, eternity! to thee:
Then (as a king depos'd difdains to live
He falls on his own fcythe, nor falls alone
His greateft foe falls with him; time, and
Who murder'd all time's offspring, death,exp

Time was! eternity now reigns alone!
Andlo! hertwice tenthoufandgatesthrown w
With banners, streaming as the comets bla
And clarions, louder than the deep in ftorn
Pour forth their myriads,potentates, and pow