188

ELEGANT
The hair in curls huxuriant now
Around their temples spread;
The tail, that whilom hung below,
Now dangled from the head.
The head remains unchang'd within,
Nor alter'd much the face;
It still retains its native grin,

And all its old grimace.

Thus half transform'd, and half the fame,
Jove bade them take their place
(Reftoring them their ancient claim)
Among the human race.

Man with contempt the brute furvey'd,
Nor would a name beftow;
But woman lik'd the motiey breed,
And call'd the thing a beau.

§ 334. Know Thyself. Arbuthnot. WHAT am I? how produc'd? and for what end?

Whence drew I being to what period tend?
Am I th' abandon'd orphan of blind chance,
Dropp'd by wild atoms in diforder'd dance?
Or from an endless chain of caufes wrought,
And of unthinkingfubitance,born withthought?
By motion which began without a cause,
Supremely wife, without defign or laws?
Am I but what I feem, mere flesh and blood?
A branching channel, with a mazy flood?
The purple ftream that through my veffelsglides,
Dull'and unconfcious flows, like common tides;
The pipes through whichthecircling juices ftray,
Are not that thinking I, no more than they:
This frame, compacted with tranfcendent fkill
Of moving joints obedient to my will,
Nurs'd from the fruitful glebe, like yonder tree,
Waxes and waftes; I call it mine, not me.
New matter ftill the mould'ring mass fuftains:
The manfion chang'd, the tenant ftill remains,
And from the fleeting stream repair'd by food,
Dutinct, as is the fwimmer from the flood.

What am I then? fure of a noble birth;
By parent's right, I own as mother, Earth;
But claim fuperior lineage by my fire,
Who warm'd th' unthinking clod with heavenly
Effence divine, with lifelefs clay allay'd, [fire;
By double nature, double inftinct (way'd:
With look erect, I dart my longing eye,
Seem wing'd to part, and gain my native sky;
I ftrive to mount, out strive, alas! in vain,
Tied to this maily globe with magic chain.
Now with fwift thought I range from pole to pole,
View worlds around their flaming centres roll:
What fteady pow'rs their endless motions guide
Through the fame tracklefs paths of boundless
I trace the blazing comet's fiery tail,
And weigh the whirling planets in a scale;
[void!
Thefe godlike thoughts while eager I pursue,
Some glitt ring trifle offer'd to my view,
A gnat, an infect of the meanest kind,
Erate the new-born image from my mind:
Some beaftly want, craving, importunate,
Vile as the grinning mastiff at my gate,

EXTRACTS,

Book
Calls off from heavenly truth this reas'ning
And tells me I'm a brute as much as he.
If, on fublimer wings of love and praife,
My foul above the ftarry vault I raise,
Lur'd by fome vain conceit, or shameful h
I flag, I drop, and flutter in the duft.
The tow'ring lark thus, from her lofty ftra
Stoops to an emmet, or a barley grain.
By adverfe guits of jarring instincts toft,
I rove to one, now to the other coaft;
To blifs unknown my lofty foul afpires,
My lot unequal to my vaft defires.
As 'mongst the hinds a child of royal birtl
Finds his high pedigree by confcious wort
So man, amongit his fellow brutes expos'd
See he's a king, but 'tis a king depos'd.
Pity him beafls! you by no law confin'd,
And barr'd from devious paths by being bl
Whilft man, through op'ning views of var

ways

Confounded, by the aid of knowledge stra
Too weak to choofe, yet choofing still in hal
One moment gives the pleature and diftate
Bilk'd by past minutes, while the prefent
Not happy, but amus'd upon the road,
The hatt'ring future ftill must give the joy:
And (like you) thoughtless of his last abod
To endlefs nothing, happiness, or pain.
Whether next fun his being fhall restrain
Around me, lo! the thinking thoughtless c
(Bewider'd each) their diff rent paths pur
Of them I atk the way; the first replies,
Thou art a god; and fends me to the skies:
Down on the turf, the next, two two-legg'd be
There fix thy lot, thy blifs and endless reft:-
Between thefe wide extremes the length is fu
I find I know too little or too much.
Almighty Pow'r, by whofe moft wife c
mand,

།

Helple!s, forlorn, uncertain here I ftand;
Take this faint glimmering of thyfelt away
Or break into my foul with perfect day!"
This faid, expanded lay the facred text,
The balm, the light, the guide of fouls perplex
Through doubtful paths, enjoys the morni
Thus the benighted traveller, that trays

rays:

The nightly mift, and thick defcending dews
Parting, unfold the fields and vaulted blue.
O Truth divine! enlighten'd by thy ray,

I

grope and guess no more, but fee my way
And toldft me what thofe myftic tokens mean
Thou clear'dit the fecret of my high defcent
Too hard for worldly fages to explain.
Marks of my birth, which I had worn in vai
Zeno's were vain, vain Epicurus fchemes,
Their fyftems falfe, delufive were their dream
Unfkill'd my two-fold nature to divide, [prid
One nurs'd my pleasure, and one nurs'd m
Thofe jarring truths which human art beguile
Thy facred page thus bids me reconcile.
Offspring of God, no lefs thy pedigree, [be,
What thou once wert, art now, and still may
Thy God alone can tell, alone decree;

Faultless

"rities to dropp'dft from his unerring skill, | Our narrow luxuries would foon be stale.
atthe pow'r to fin, fince free of will:
hot with thy guilt his bounteous love,
who has pow'r to walk has pow'r to rove:
by force impell'd can nought deferve;
cara fhort of infinite may fwerve.
tay new-imp'd wings, thou took 'ft thy
Letry Creator, and the realms of light; [flight,
I had is gentle precept to fulfil,
And rug to grow a god by doing ill:
The by guilt thy heav'nly form defac'd,
Instag'd, from happy mansions chas'd,
Tamtomin ft fome fparks of heavenly fire,
Iets mount, yet restless to aspire;
Anough to feek thy blifs again,

Were thefe exhauftlefs, Nature would grow fick,
And, cloy'd with pleasure, fqueamishly complain
That all was vanity, and life a dream.
Let nature reft: be busy for yourself,
And for your friend; be bufy even in vain,
Rather than teafe her fated appetites.
Who never fafts, no banquet e'er enjoys;
Who never toils or watches, never fleeps.
Let nature reft: and when the taste of joy
Grows keen, indulge; but fhun fatiety.

A cough to make thy fearch in vain.
Tecures now withdraw their kindly ufe,
thee, fome torment, and fome feduce;
But fuited to fuch different guests,

thy fenfe defires, thy foul diftaftes:
tay curiofity, thy pride,
for indulgd, or baulk'd or gratified,
and make thee equally unblefs'd [fefs'd,
ou want it, and what thou haft pof-
I hop it for blifs on this poor clod;
Ad feck thy Father and thy God;
Yet to regain thy native sky,
Burus the wings of vain philosophy!
My page! hid from human eyes:
So yea fink, and finking you will rife:
Leave thoughts thy weary footsteps guide;
per by meekneis what you loft by pride.

'Tis not for mortals always to be blest.
But him the least the dull or painful hours
Of life opprefs, whom fober Senfe conducts,
Aud Virtue, thro' this labyrinth we tread.
Virtue and Senfe I mean not to disjoin;
Virtue and Senfe are one: and, trust me, he
Who has not virtue, is not truly wife.
Virtue (for mere Good-nature is a fool)
Is fenfe and fpirit, with humanity:

note Tho' old, he still retain d may kafe, and energy of mind. Ts and wife he was, but not fevere; remember'd that he once was young; Hay prefence check'd no decent joy. eve the diffolute admir'd, for he Apful loofenefs when he pleas'd put on, ng could inftruct. Much had he read, More bad feen; he studied from the life, ath original perus'd mankind.

'Tis fometimes angry, and its frown confounds;
'Tis e'en vindictive, but in vengeance just.
Knaves fain would laugh at it; fome great ones
But at his heart the moit undaunted fon [dare;
Of fortune dreads its name and awful charms.
To nobleft ufes this determines wealth;
This is the folid pomp of profperous days,
The peace and fhelter of adverfity,
And if you pant for glory, build your fame
On this foundation, which the fecret shock
Defies of Envy and all-fapping Time.
The gaudy glofs of Fortune only strikes
The vulgar eye: the fuffrage of the wife,
The praife that's worth ambition, is attain'd
By fenfe alone and dignity of mind.

in the woes and vanities of life, man; and much he pitied thofe ely-fmiling fate has curs'd with means Tate their days in quest of joy.

is happiness: tis yours, 'tis mine,
bad, 'tis the purfuit of all that live;
attain it, if 'twas e'er attain'd.
by the wideft wander from the mark,
thro' the flow`ry paths of faunt'ring Joy
this coy goddess; that from stage to stage
stil, but thifts as we purfue.
Fy, not to name the pains that pleasure brings
counterpoife itself, relentless Fate

Feds that we thro' gay voluptuous wilds
oid eper roam; and were the Fates more kind,

Virtue, the ftrength and beauty of the soul,
Is the best gift of Heaven: a happiness
That even above the fimiles and frowns of fate
Exalts great Nature's favourites: a wealth
That ne'er encumbers, nor to baser hands
Can be transferr'd: it is the only good
Man justly boasts of, or can call his own.
Riches are oft by guilt and bafenefs earn'd;
Or dealt by chance to fhield a lucky knave,
Or throw a cruel funfhine on a fool.
But for one end, one much neglected use,
Are riches worth your care (for nature's wants
Are few, and without opulence fupplied)
This noble end is, to produce the Soul,
To fhew the virtues in their fairest light;
To make humanity the minister

Of bounteous Providence; and teach the breaft
That generous luxury the gods enjoy.
Thus, in his graver vein, the friendly Sage
Sometimes declaim'd. Of right and wrong he
Truths as refin'd as ever Athens heard; [taught
And(ftrangetotel!!)hepractis'dwhat hepreach'd.

That Virtue's awful steps, howe'er pursued
By vexing Fortune and intrusive Pain,
Should never be divided from her chaste,
Her fair attendant, Pleafure. Need I urge
Thy tardy thought through all the various round
Of this existence, that thy foft'ning foul
At length may learn what energy the hand
Of virtue mingles in the bitter tide
Of paffion fwelling with diftrefs and pain,
To mitigate the fharp with gracious drops
Of cordial Pleafure? Ask the faithful youth,
Why the cold urn of her whom long he lov'd
So often fills his arms; fo often draws
His lonely footsteps, at the filent hour,
To pay the mournful tribute of his tears?
O! he will tell thee, that the wealth of worlds
Should ne'er feduce his bofom to forego
That facred hour, when, ftealing from the noife
Of care and envy, fweet remembrance fooths
With virtue's kindeft looks his aching breaft,
And turns his tears to rapture.-Afk the crowd
Which flies impatient from the village-walk
To climb the neighb`ring cliff's, when far below
The cruel winds have hurl'd upon the coaft
Some hapless bark; while facred pity melts
The gen'ral eye, or terrors icy hand
Sinites their diftorted limbs and horrent hair;
While every mother closer to her breaft
Catches her child, and, pointing where the waves
Foam through the fhatter'd vefiel, fhrieks aloud,
As one poor wretch, that spreads his piteous arms
For fuccour, fwallow'd by the roaring furge,
As now another, dash'd against the rock,
Drops lifeless down. O deemeft thou indeed
No kind endearment here by nature given
To mutual terror and compaffion's tears?
No fweetly-melting foftnefs which attracts,
O'er all that edge of pain, the focial pow'rs,
To this their proper action and their end ?—
Aik thy own heart; when at the midnight hour,
Slow through that ftudious gloom thy paufing eye
Led by the glimm'ring taper moves around
The facred volumes of the dead, the fongs
Of Grecian bards, and records writ by Fame
For Grecian heroes, where the present pow'r
Of heaven and earth furveys th' immortal page,
E'en as a father bleffing, while he reads
The praifes of his fon; if then thy foul,
Spurning the yoke of these inglorious days,
Mix in their deeds and kindle with their flame:
Say, when the profpe&t blackens on thy view;
When, rooted from the bafe, heroic states
Mourn in the duft and tremble at the frown
Of curs'd Ambition;--when the pious band
Of youths that fought for freedom and their fires,
Lie fide by fide in gore ;--when ruffian pride
Ufurps the throne of juftice, turns the pomp
Of public pow'r, the majefty of rule,
The fword, the laurel, and the purple robe,
To flavith empty pageants, to adorn
A tyrant's walk, and glitter in the eyes
Of fuch as bow the knee-when honour'd
Of patriots and of chiefs, the awful bust
And storied arch, to glut the coward race

2

urns

Of regal envy, ftrew the public way
With hallow'd ruins!-when the mufe's ha
The marble porch where wildom, wont to t
With Socrates or Tully, hears no more,
Save the hoarfe jargon of contentious monk a
Or female fuperftition's midnight pray`r;-
When ruthlefs rapine from the hand of Tit
Tears the deftroying fcythe, with furer blo
To fweep the works of glory from their ba
Till defolation o'er the grafs-grown street
Expands his raven-wings, and up the wall,
Where fenatesoncetheprideof monarchs doo
Hiffes the gliding fnake thro' hoary weeds
Thatclafpthe mould'ring column;-thusdefa
Thy beating bofom, when the patriot's tea
Thus widely mournful when the profpect th
Starts from thine eye, and thy extended arm
In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jove
To fire the impious wreath on Philip's bro
Or dafh Octavius from the trophied car;-
say, does thy fecret foul repine to talte
The big diftrefs? Or would it thou then excha
Thofe heart-ennobling forrows, for the lot
Of him who fits amid the gaudy herd
Of mute barbarians bending to his nod,
And bears aloft his gold-invefted front,
And fays within himfelf "I am a king, ["
"And wherefore fhould the clam'rous voice
"Intrude upon mine ear?" The bakeful dre
Of thefe late ages, this inglorious draught
of fervitude and folly, have not yet,
Blefs'd be th' Eternal Ruler of the world!
Defil'd to fuch a depth of fordid shame
The native honours of the human foul,
Nor fo effac'd the image of its fire.

337. A Paraphrafe on Pfalm Ixxiv. 16, 1
Mifs William-
"The day is thine, the night alfo is thine; the u
prepared the light and the fun.
"Thou haft fet all the borders of the earth; thou
"made fummer and winter."

66

My God! all nature.owns thy fway,
Thou giv'ft the night, and thou the day!
When morning, rich in lustre, breaks,
When all thy lov'd creation wakes,
And bathes in dew the op'ning flower,
To thee we owe her flagrant hour;
Her melodies to thee belong!
And when the pours her choral fong,
Or when, in paler tints array'd,
The evening flowly fpreads her fhade;
That foothing fhade, that grateful gloom,
Still ev'ry fond and vain defire,
Can more than day's enliv'ning bloom
And calmer, purer thoughts in fpire;
From earth the penfive fpirit free,
And lead the foften'd heart to Thee.

In ev'ry fcene thy hands have drefs'd,
In ev'ry form by thee imprefs'd,
Or where the fhelt ring woods are fpreads
Upon the mountain's awful head,
In ev'ry note that fwells the gale,

Or tuneful fiream that cheers the vale,

|When wild,destructive flames fhall wrap theskies,
When Chaos triumphs, and when Nature dies;
Man fhall alone the wreck of worlds furvive,
Midit falling fpheres, immortal man shall live!
The voice which bade the laft dread thunders roll,
Shall whifper to the good, and cheer their foul.
God fhall himself his favour'd creature guide
Where living waters pour their blifsful tide,
Where the enlarg'd, exulting, wond'ring mind
Shall foar, from weakness and from guilt refin'd;
Where perfect knowledge, bright with cloudless
Shall gild eternity's unmeafur'd days; [rays,
Where friendship, unembitter'd by distrust,
Shall in immortal bands unite the juft;
Devotion, rais'd to rapture, breathe her strain,
And love in his eternal triumph reign!

Momma forget her fucking child, that the set have compaision on the fon of her womb? amy forget, yet will I not forget thee." BE peaks On Nature, liften and rejoice! diroma pole to pole this gracious voice!! every treat of human frame, that proves des force with which a parent loves;" Trother from her yearning heart tutt innge of her child depart? [bear an trong inftinct arms with ftrength to zofi, to thield that deareft care;

anguihitung, wirh madneis wild,
death to fave her threaten'd child,
tangs banish'd from her breast,
Atem to make another's bleft-

vex'd infant to her bofom clings,
arg her neck his eager arms he flings;
Merit ning foul his melting figh,
it'd with tears, his afking eye!
ter all ambition can attain,
auf pleasure, or the lures of gain,
Nature's feelings? will the prove
lains of duty, and of love?

mother from her yearning heart
tage of her child depart;
infant to her bofom clings,
Writer neck his eager arms he Hings;
ALT mov'd the tear that fills his eye;
anpitying hear his melting figh,
de, for all ambition can attain,

Es of pleasure, or the lures of gain,
Frong Nature's feeling-fhould the

prove

C) the claims of duty and of love!
tever will the God, whofe word gave birth
Tarmin'd orbs, and this fair earth;

What foever ye would that men fhould do to you,
"do ye even fo to them."

PRECEPT divine! to earth in mercy given;
O facred rule of action, worthy heaven!
Whofe pitying love ordain'd the blest command
To bind our nature in a firmer band;
Enforce each human fuff'rer's strong appeal,
And teach the fciffh breaft what others feel;
Wert thou the guide of life, mankind might know
A foft exemption from the worst of woe;
No more the powerful would the weak opprefs,
But tyrants learn the luxury to blefs;
No more would flavery bind a hopeless train
Of human victims in her galling chain:
Mercy the hard, the cruel heart would move
To foften mis'ry by the deeds of love;
And av'rice froin his hoarded treasures give,
Unak'd, the liberal boon, that want might live!
The impious tongue of falfehood then wouldceafe
To blaft, with dark fuggeftions, virtue's peace;
No more would spleen or paffion banish reit,
And plant a pang in fond affection's breaft;
By one harth word, one alter'd look, destroy
Her peace, and wither ev'ry op'ning joy;
Scarce canher tongue the captious wrongexplain,
The flight offence which gives fo deep a pain!
Th' affected eafe that flights her starting tear,
Thewordswhofe coldnefskills from lips fodear;-
The hand the loves, alone can point the dart,
Whofe hiddenftingcould wound no other heart-
Thefe, of all pains the fharpeft we endure,
The breaft which now inflicts, would fpring to
No more deferted genius then would fly (cure.-
To breathe in folitude his hopeless figh;
No more would fortune's partial fmile debafe
The fpirit, rich in intellectual grace; [bloom,
Who views unmov'd from fcenes where pleasures
The flame of genius funk in mis'ry's gloom;
The foul heaven form'd to foar, by want depreft,
Nor heeds the wrongs that pierce akindred breast.
Thou righteous Law, whofe clear and ufeful light
Sheds on the mind a ray divinely bright;
Condenting in one rule whate'er the fage
Has proudly taught, in many a labour'd page;
Bid every heart thy hallow'd voice revere,
To juftice facred, and to nature dear!

the boundless depths of tracklefs fpace wak'd beauty fpread each perfect grace; en he torm'd the vaft ftupendous whole, het bounties on the human foul; a resion's light illumes, which friendship

chrity foftens, and which virtue charms; the pure affections' gen'rous glow, others joy, and bleeds for others' woeteer will the gen'ral Father prove man forgetful, man the child of love!" Meu ad the planets in their ample spheres wing'd their courie, and roll'd their d.find years:

When the valt fun fhall veil his golden light p the gloom of everlasting night;

§ 340.