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Fafe leed,are born from want of thought;
Farahts full bent, and energy, the true;
Amands a mind in equal poife,
Iron gloomy grief, and glaring joy.
Xey not only peaks tmall happiness,

princis that shortly muit expire:
Ly, unbottom'd in reflection, ftand?
And in a tempert can reflection live?
Caprake thine tecure ittelf an hour?
Lake thine meet accident unshock'd,
Or the door to honeft poverty?

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threat'ning death, and not turn pale? world, and fuch a nature, these fundamentals of delight: mentals give delight indeed; Intre, delicate, and durable;

Ex.

faken, mafculine, divine;

A, and a found, but ferious joy.
the daughter of severity ?
vet ter my doctrine from severe:
forever," it becomes a man;
3 sets him nearer to the gods;
for ever." Nature cries, "Rejoice;"
reks to man, in her nectareous cup,
af delicates for ev'ry sense;
Top Founder of the bounteous feaft
D- , gratitude, eternal praife;
Adat will not pledge her, is a churl.
I support, good fully tafte,
Lae fcience of felicity.
1g pidge, her bowl is not the best
Maak al carboast: A rational repaft;
2 glance, a mind in arms,
pline of thought,

tion in the doubtful field;
gardour for the right,

They ftand collecting ev'ry beam of thought,
Till their hearts kindle with divine delight;
For all their thoughts, like angels feen of old
In Ifrael's dream, come from and go to heav'n:
Hence are they ftudious of fequefter'd scenes,
While noise and diffipation comfort thee.

§ 276. Joy.

VAIN are all fudden fallies of delight;
Convulfions of a weak, distemper'd joy.
Joy's a fix'd ftate; 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 fame,
Thy genius hungers, elegantly pain'd;
And foreign climes muft cater for thy taste.
Hence what difafter!-Tho' the price was paid,
That perfecuting pricft, the Turk of Rome
Detain'd thy dinner on the Latian shore;
And poor magnificence is ftarv'd to death.
Hence, juft refentment, indignation, ire!—

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

Our only conteft, what deserves the name? [pass'd
Give pleafure's name to nought, but what has
Th' authentic feal of reason, 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 [tonb:

ve, then guard a cheerful heart.
nght, think little; well aware,
, God bids: by his command,
d the fmalleft thing wo do!
sinipid to the wife;
ail, but what is iad;

275. Earthly Happiness. CarST wildom ever wills the fame; ke wifa is ever on the wing. Brief is folly's character; As is a modest felf applaufe. Aof evils is thy good fupreme; motion, canft thou find thy rest.

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 answer for the rest.
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;

Yz.trength is fhewn in standing till: Clouds that obfcure his fublunary day,

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: Tir'd, and folid, as a rock; Slfe, and toffing, as the wave: Towing makes an angel here; fagal, entitled to repofe

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

But never conquer. Ev'n the best muft 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 bliss.
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

Leans all that way his bias to the stars.
The world's dark fhades, in contrast set, shall

raife

His luftre more; tho' bright, without a foil.
Obferve his awful portrait, and admire:
Nor stop at wonder; imitate and live.

$279. Picture of a Good Man. WITH afpect mild, and elevated eye, Behold him feated on a mount ferene, Above the fogs of fenfe, and paffion's ftorm; All the black cares and tumults of this life, Like harmless thunders, breaking at his feet; Earth's genuine fons, the fceptred and the flave, A mingled mob! a wand'ring herd! he fees Bewilder'd in the vale; in all unlike! His full reverfe in all; what higher praife? What stronger demonftration of the right? The prefent all their care; the future, his: When public welfare calls, or private want, They give to fame; his bounty he conceals: Their virtues varnish nature; his exalt: Theirs, the wild chace of falfe felicities; His, the compos'd poffeffion of the true : Alike throughout is his content peace, All of one colour, and an even thread; While party-colour'd threds of happiness, With hideous gaps between, patch up for them A madman's robe; each puff of fortune blows The tatters by, and thews their nakedness.

He fees with other eyes than theirs; where they
Behold a fun, he fpics a Deity;
What makes them only finile, makes him adore;
Where they fee mountains, he but atoms fees;
An empire, in his balance, weighs a grain:
They things terreftrial worthip, as divine;
His hopes immortal blow them by, as duft,
That dims his fight, and fhortens his furvey,
Which longs, in infinite, to lofe all bound:
Titics and honours (if they prove his fate)
He lays aide, to find his dignity:
They triumph in externals (which conceal
Man's real glory) proud of an eclipfe;

He nothing thinks fo great in man, as man;
Too dear he holds his intereft, to neglect,
Another's welfare, or his right invade;
Their int'reft, like a lion's, lives on prey:
They kindle at the fhadow of a wrong;
Wron,, be fuftains with temper,looks on heav'n,
Nor ftoop, to think his injurer his foe;
Nought, but what wounds his virtue, wounds his

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$280. The Fall of the Good Man

BUT nothing charms, Lorenzo, like t Undaunted breaft:-And whofe is th praife?

They yield to pleasure, tho' they dange And fhew no fortitude, but in the field; If there they fhew it, 'tis for glory fhow Nor will that cordial always man their A cordial his fuftains, that cannot fail: By pleasure unfubdu'd, unbroke by pai He thares in that omnipotence he traits All-bearing, all-attempting, till he falls, And, when he falls, writes VICI on his f From magnanimity, all fear above: From nobler recompenfe, above applau

§ 281. Wit and Wisdom.

WIT, how delicious to man's dainty taf
'Tis precious, as the vehicle of fenfe;
But, as its fubftitute, a dire difeafe:
Pernicious talent! flatter'd by mankind,
Yet hated too; they think the talent rare
Wisdom is rare, Lorenzo! wit abounds;
Paffion can give it; fometimes wine inf
The lucky fafh; and madnefs rarely fa
Whatever caufe the fpirit ftrongly itirs,
Confers the bays, and rivals thy renown
Chance often hits it; and, to pique thee
See dullnets blund'ring on vivacities.
But wifdom, awful wifdom! which inf
Difcerns, compares, weighs, feparates, in
Seizes the right, and holds it to the laft;
How rare! In fenates, fynods, fought in
Or, if there found, 'tis facred to the few.
While a loud proftitute to multitudes,
Frequent as fatal, wit. In civil life,
Wit makes an enterpriser; fenfe, a man:
Senfe is our helmet, wit is but the plume:
The plume expofes, 'tis our helmet faves:
Senfe is the diamond, weighty, folid, four
When cut by wit, it cafts a brighter bean
Yet, wit apart, it is a diamond itill:
Wit, widow'd of good fenfe, is worfe
It hoifts more fail to run against a rock. [no

How ruinous the rock I warn thee shun
Where fyrens fit, to fing thee to thy fate!
Let not the cooings of the world allure
Which of her lovers ever found her true?
Happy! of this bad world who little know
She gives but little; nor that little, long.
There is, I grant, a triumph of the pule
A dance of Ipirits, a mere froth of joy,
That mantles high, that sparkles and exp
Leaving the foul more vapid then before,
An animal ovation! fuch as holds
No commerce with our reafon, but subẩ
On juices thro'thewell-ton'dtubes, well-tra
A nice machine! fearce ever tun'd aright.
But when it jars, the fyrens fiag no more,
The demi-god is thrown beneath the in
In coward gloom immers 'd, or fell despair,

$

Fale Gaiety ends in Defpair.
but wherefore? and how long
laugh?

ance, their mirth; and half, a lie :
the world, and cheat themfelves, they

! The most abandon'd own, 1.2, it abandon'd, are undone: Ternielves, the moment reason wakes, is is their gaiety!

I can mufter patience for the farce;
hughter, till the curtain falls:
1 fay? Some cannot fit it out;
an daring hands the curtain draw,
as what their joy, by their defpair.
This end uairt gor'd breaft! blafpheming
fory itill alive in death! [eye!
e hockingfcene.—But heav'n denies
ach guilt; and fo fhould man.
Lorenzo fee the reeking blade;
omid phial, and the fatal ball;
ng cord, and fuffocating ftream;
Le rottennefs and foul decays
grist (flower fuicides!),

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 fcatter'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 talk, 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! teils 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 unsubstantial images of air!
The melancholy ghoits of dead renown,
Whip'ring fant echoes of the world's applaufe
With penitential afpect, as they país,
All point at earth, and hifs at human pride.

thefe, more execrable ftill!—
to thought!-But horrors, thefe,
the truth, and aid my feeble fong.
NIGHT IX. Reflections on Death.
he prime actors of the laft year's
[plume?
$285. Deluge and Conflagration.
proud, their buskin, and their Pur, O Lorenzo! far the reft above,
, who kept the world awake Of ghaftly nature, and enormous fize,
thnoife? Has Deathproclaim'd One form affaults my fight, and chills my blood,
ng his fated lance on high? And fakes my frame of one departed world
; nor fhall the prefent year I fee the mighty fhadow; oozy wreath
is of her human leaf,

e life a thinner fall.
numents to wake the thought;
Cats peak man's mortality,
4 more florid, full as plain,
as, pyramids, and tombs.

acblet ornaments, but deaths
er of life, in paint, or marble,
ad canvas, or the featur'd tone?
zace, or rather haunt, the scene;
er pavilion from the dead.
verons! cannot these escape?"
t. there prefent us with a fhroud,
* fenta, like garlands o'er the grave.
d plunderers, for buried wealth,
ktoros for paftime; from the duft
Leeping hero; bid him tread
for our amusement: how like gods
* it, and, wrapt in immortality,

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ras tears on wretches born to die; ** te deploring, to forget our own!

4. The World a Grave.

is the world itfelf? thy world?-a grave?

:

And difmal fea-weed crown her; o'er her urn
Reclin'd, the weeps her defolated realms,
And bloated fons; and, weeping, prophefies
Another's diffolution, soon, in flames.

Deluge and Conflagration, dreadful pow`rs!
Prime minifters of vengeance! chain'd in caves
Diftinct, apart the giant-furies roar;
Apart; or, fuch their horrid rage for ruin,
In mutual conflict would they rife, and wage
Eternal war, till one was quite devour'd:
But not for this ordain'd their boundlefs 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 tempestuous, from th' eternal throne,
With irrefiftible 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: ta duft that has not been alive? How muft it groan, in a new deluge whelm'd; alt, the plough, difturb our ancestors; But not of waters? at the deftin'd hour, mould we reap our daily bread : By the loud trumpet fummon'd to the charge, *2; we wound earth's hollow surface shakes, | 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 florm
This poor terrestrial citadel of man.

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

Shall all, but man, look out with arde:
For that great day, which was ordain'd for
O day of consummation! mark fupreme
(If men are wife) of human thought! no
Or in the fight of angels, or their King!
Angels,whole radiant circles, height o'er h
As in a theatre furround this fcene.
Intent on man and anxious for his fate,
Angels look out for thee; for thee, their
To vindicate his glory; and for thee,
Creation univerial calls aloud,
To difinvolve the moral world, and give
To nature's renovation brighter charms.

Shall man alone, whose fate, whose fina
Hangs on that hour,exclude it from his the
I think of nothing elfe; I fee! I feel it!
All nature, like an earthquake, trembling r
I fee the Judge enthron'd! the flaming g
The volume open'd open'd ev'ry heart
A fun-beam pointing out each secret thot
No patron! interceffor none! now palt
The fweet, the clement, mediatorial hour
For guilt no piea! to pain no pause! no bo
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 thunderic
Like meteors in a ftormy fky, how roll
His baleful eyes! he curfes whom he drea
And deems it the firit moment of his fall,

Amazing period; when each mountain-height Out-burns Vefuvius; rocks cternal pour Their melted mafs, as rivers once they pour'd; Stars rush; and final Ruin fiercely drives Her ploughfhare o'er creation!while aloft More than aftonifhment! if more can be! Far other firmament than e'er was feen, Than e'er was thought by man! fer other stars! Stars animate, that govern thefe of fire: Far other fun! A fun, O how unlike The babe at Bethlem! How unlike the man That groan'd on Calvary!-Yet, He it is; That man of forrows! Ó how chang'd! What In grandeurterrible, all heav'n descend![pomp! A fwift archangel, with his golden wing, As blots and clouds, that darken and difgrace The fcene divine, fweeps ftars and funs afide: And now,all drofs remov'd,heav'n'sownpureday, Full on the confines of our ether, flames. While (dreadful contrait?) far, how far beneath! 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 hear 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, 'Tis Provide more firm fupport, or fink for ever! Where? how? from whence? Vain hope! it is Say, Thou great clofe of human hopes and f too late! Great key of hearts! great finither of tate Where, where, for shelter, fhall the guilty fly,Great end! and great beginning! fay, whe When confternation 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 affize, 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 last Day. THRICE happy they, that enter now the court Heav'n opens in their bofoms: but, how rare? Ah me! that magnanimity, how rare!

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

Art thou in time, or in eternity?
[T
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 wa
Of him, whom both their monarchies obey

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

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 greatest foe fails 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, ftreaming as the comets blaz
And clarions, louder than the deep in torn
Pour forth their myriads, potentates, and pow

light, of darknefs; in a middle field, acation! there to mark th' event at drama, whofe preceding fcenes dm clofe fpectators, thro' a length ning to this grand refult; a yet unnumber'd but by God; ,, prenouncing entence, vindicates bran of virtue, and his own renown. Pan, the various fentence past,

she ever d throng diftin&t abodes, cantar ambrofial: What enfues? Teps, with determin'd afpect, turns dane ket's enormous fize

's inextricable wards,

ev'ry bolt; on both their fates; the crvited battlements of heav'n, wn the hurls it thro' the dark profound, there and thousand fathom; there to ruft, er unlock her refolution more. Toretounds, and hell,thro' all her glooms, le, in groans, the melancholy roar.

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Amidst applauding worlds, celeftial, is there found on earth, A penerant, rebellious string,

the grand chorus, and complains? Aa, by God ordain'd, or done; what God,refum'd the friends he gave? Grave I been complaining, then, fo long?

of his favours; pain, and death? *tain's advice would e'er be good? ***eath, but would be good in vain? from pain! all punishment, Ts and death to fave from death! to guard immortal life; s, the presumptuous awe, art of fouls another way; renderness divine ordain'd, Eten, and high-bloom'd for man, Esca, eadlefs in the skies.

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And fated to furvive the tranfient fun!
A ftarry crowd thy raven-brow adorns, [loom
An azure zone, thy waift; clouds, in heav'n's
Wrought thro' varieties of fhape and fhade,
In ample folds of drapery divine, [out,
Thy flowing mantle form, and, heav'n through-
Voluminoully pour thy pompous train:
Thy gloomy grandeurs claim a grateful verse,
And, like a table curtain ftarr'd with gold,
Drawn o'er my labours paft, fhall close the scene.

$293. Regularity of the Heavenly Bodies.
NOR think thou feeft a wild diforder here;
Thro' this illuftrious chaos, to the fight,
Arrangement neat, and chaiteft order, reign.
The path prefcrib'd, inviolably kept,
Upbraids the lawless fallies of mankind:
Worlds, ever thwarting, never interfere;
They rove for ever, without error rove:
Confufion u.confus'd! nor lefs admire
This tumult untumultuous: all on wing,'
In motion, all! yet what profound repofe !
What fervid action, yet no noife! as aw'd
To filence by the prefence of their Lord;
Or hufh'd, by his command, in love to man,
And bid let fall foft beams on human reft,
Reftlefs themfelves. On yon cerulean plain,
In exultation to their God and thine,
They dance, they fing eternal jubilee,
Eternal celebration of his praise :
But, fince their fong arrives not at our ear,
Their dance perplex'd exhibits to the fight
Fair hieroglyphic of his peerless power:
Mark, how, the labyrinthian turns they take
The circles intricate, and mystic maze,
Weave the grand cypher of Omnipotence;
To Gods, how great! how legible to man

4291. Grief and Joy.
gief be banish'd, joy indulg'd,
en, when grief puts in her claim:
vous, frequently betrays,
unty, and dies in woe i
- corroborates, exalts;
aqueft; joy, and virtue too:
made in ills, delights
ourfelves; 'tis duty, glory, peace.
te good man's fhining scene;
Meals his brightest ray:

ars, woe luftre gives to man: wie, pilots in the storm, Acalamities, admire.

manhood is a winter joy;

a that ftands the northern blast, the rigour of our fate.

292. Night. MASTIC Night! At's great ancestor! day's elder-born

§ 294: Miracles.

AND yet Lorenzo calls for miracles,
To give his tott'ring faith a solid base:
Why call for lefs than is already thine?
Say, which imports more plentitude of powers
Or nature's laws to fix, or to repeal?
To make a fun, or ftop his mid-career?
To countermand his orders, and fend back
The flaming courier to the frighted east,
Or bid the moon, as with her journey tir'd,
In Ajalon's foft, flow'ry vale repose ?

Great things are these, still greater, to create.
From Adam's bow'r look down thro' the whole
Of miracles;-resistless is their pow'r? [train
They do not, cannot, more amaze the mind,
Than this, call'd un-miraculous furvey.
Say 'ft thou, "The course of nature governs all?"
The course of nature is the art of God:
The miracles thou call'ft for, this atteft;
For, fay, could nature nature's courfe controul?

$295. Nature the Foe of Scepticism.
OPEN thy bofom, fet thy withes wide,
And let in manhood; et in happiness;
Admit the boundless theatre of thought
From nothing up to God, which makes a man:
Take God from nature, nothing great is left:

Man's

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