Of Britain's peers conven'd, fhall pafs befide
Thofe hallow'd fpires, whole gloomy vaults in-
clade,

Shrouded in fleep, pale rows of fceptred kings,
Oft to his fenfe the fweet paternal voice
And long remember'd features fhall return;
Then fhall his generous breaft be new inflam'd
To acts of highest worth, and higheft fame.
Thefe plaintive ftrains, from Albion far away,
I lonely meditate at even tide;

Nor fkill'd nor ftudions of the raptur'd lay;
But ftill remenb'ring oft the magic founds,
Well-meafar'd to the chime of Dorian lute,
Or paft'ral top, which erft I lov'd to hear
On Ifis' border'd mead, where dips by fits
The ftooping ofer in ber halty ftream. [fam'd
Hail, Wolfey's fpacious Dome! hail, ever
Fer faithful nurture, and truth's facred lore,
Much honour'd parent! You my duteous zeal
Accept, if haply in thy laureat wreath
You deign to interweave this humble fong.

5345. Death. Emily.

The five roar of laughter, the warm glow
Of brik-eyed joy, and friendship's genial

bowl,

Some parent breaft may heave the answering
To the flow paufes of the funeral knoll;[figh
E'en now black Atropos, with fcowling eye,

Roars in the laugh, and revels o'er the bowl;
E'en now in rofy-crowned pleafure's wreath
Entwines in adder folds all-unfufpected Death.
Know, on the stealing wing of time fhall flee

A future bard thefe awful domes may fee, [paft,
Some few, fome fhort-liv'd years, and all is

Mufe o'er the prefent age, as I the laft;
Who mouldering in thegrave, yet once like you
The various maze of life were feen to tread,
Each bent their own peculiar to purfue,

As cuftom urg'd, or wilful nature led:
Mix'd with the various crowd's inglorious clay,
No more to melt with beauty's heaven-born ray,
The nobler virtues undiftinguith'd lie;

Catch from the poet raptures not their own,
No more to wet compation's tearful eye,
And feel the thrilling melody of fweet renown.
Where is the mafter-hand, whofe femblant art

And ye, the young, the giddy, and the gay,
That fatle from the fleepful lid of light
The comin'd reft, and with the diffonant bray
Of Bacchus, and loud jollity, affright

You radiant goddefs, that now fhoots among
Thefe many-window'd aifles her glimmering

Chifel'd the marble into life, or taught
From the well-pencil'd portraiture to itart
The nerve that beat with foul, the brow that
thought?

Cold are the fingers that in ftone-fixt trance
The mute attention riveting, to the lyre
Struck language: dimm'd the poet's quick
eyed glance,

All in wild raptures flashing heaven's own
Shrunk is the finew'd energy, that ftrung [fire:
The warrior arm. Where fleeps the patriot
breaft

Wit's featon'd converfe, and the liberal flow
Of unfufpicious youth, profufe of foul,
Delight not ever; from the boisterous fcene

Of riot far, and Comus' wild uproar,
From folly's crowd, whofe vacant brow ferene
Was never knit to wifdom's frowning lore,
Fert me, ye time-hallow'd domes, ye piles
Of rede magnificence, your folemn reft,
Amid your fretted vaults and length'ning aifles
Lonely to wander; no unholy guest
That means to break, with facrilegious tread,
The marble fumbers of your monumented dead.
Promit ne, with fad mufings, that infpire
Clabour'd numbers apt, your filence drear
Blameless to wake, and with the Orphean lyre,
Fly attemper'd, footh the merciless ear
Of Hades, and ftern death, whofe iron fway
Great nature owns thro' ali her wide domain;)
A with oary fa cleave their smooth way
Though the green bofom of the fpawny main;

that to the ftreaming æther fpread,
y a wheeling glide, their feathery fail,
And those that creep, and thofe thatftatelier tread,
That ram o'er foreft, hill, or browsy dale;
The victims each of ruthless fate must fall;
In God's own image, man, high paramount

of all.

Whilom that heav'd impaffion'd? where the
tongue

That lanc'd its lightning on the tow'ring
[creft
Giant
Oppreflion, leagued with all her earth-
Of fceptred infolence, and overthrew

born crew!

Thefe now are paft; long, long, ye fleeting years,

Ere from the womb of time unwelcome peers
Purfue, with glory wing'd your fated way,

The dawn of that inevitable day, [friend
When wrapt in fhrouded clay, their warmest

When o'er his urn in pious grief fhall bend
The widow'd virtues fhall again deplore,

For foon mult thou, too foon! who spread'
His Britain, and bewail one patriot more;
Doom'd like fome better angel fent of God
Thy beaming emanations unconfin'd, [abroad.

To fcatter bleffings over human kind,
And tread thefe dreadful paths a Faulkland
Thou too muft fall, O Pitt! to fhine no more,

trod before.

Faft to the driving winds the marshall'd clouds
Sweep difcontinuous o'er th' ethereal plain!
Another ftill upon another crowds;

All haftening downward to their native main. Thus paffes o'er, thro' varied life's career,

Man's fleeting age; the Seafons, as they fly, Snatch from us in their courfe, year after year, Sme fweet connection, fome endearing tie. 03 The

beam; Raw, that or ere its ftarr'd career along [team The hall have roi'd her filver-wheeled!

The parent, ever-honour'd; ever-dear,

Claims from the filial breast the pious figh;
A brother's urn demands the kindred tear,
And gentle forrows gufh from friendship's
To-day we frolic in the rofy bloom
Of jocund youth-the morrow knells us to the
[eye.
tomb.

Who knows how foon in this fepulchral spot
Snall heav'n to me the drear abode affign?
How foon the past irrevocable lot

Of these that reft beneath me fhall be mine?
Haply when Zephyr to thy native bourn [wave,
Shall waft thee o'er the ftorm'd Hibernian)
Thy gentle breaft, my Tavistock, shall mourn
To find me fleeping in the fenfeless grave.
No more the focial leisure to divide,

In the fweet intercourfe of foul and foul,
Blithe, or of graver brow: no more to chide

The ling'ring years impatient as they roll,
Till all thy cultur'd virtues fhall difplay,
Full-bloffom'd, their bright honours to the
gazing day.

Ah, dearest youth! thefe vows perhaps unheard
The rude wind fcatters o'er the billowy main :
These prayers at friendship's holy fhrine preferr'd
May rife to grafp their father's knees in vain.
Soon, foon may nod the fad funereal plume
With folemn horror o'er thy timeless hearfe,
And I furvive to grave upon thy tomb

The mournful tribute of memorial verse.
That leave to heaven's decifion-be it thine,
Higher than yet a parent's wishes flew,
To foar in bright pre-eminence, and shine
With felf-earn'd honours, eager to pursue
Where glory, with her clear unfullied
The well-born fpirit lights to deeds of mightiest
rays,
praisę.

"Twas the thy godlike Ruffel's bofom steel'd
With confidence untam'd, in his last breath
Stern-fmiling. She with calm compofure, held
The patriot axe of Sidney, edg'd with death.
Smit with the warmth of her impulfive flame,
Wolfe's gallant virtue flies to worlds afar,
Emulous to pluck fresh wreaths of well-earn'd

fame

Book]

Than tug with fweating toil the flavifh oar

Of unredeem'd affliction, and fuftain
Unnumber'd, that in fympathetic chain
The fev'rous rage of fierce difeafes fore
All from the drizzly verge of yonder ftar-g
Hang ever thro` the thick circumfluous air,
fphere.

Thick in the many-beaten road of life

A thousand maladies are posted round, an
With wretched man to wage eternal ftrife
There the fwoln hydrop ftands,the wat 'ryrhet
Unseen,like ambush'd Indians,till they wou
The northern fcurvy, blotch with lepre
And moping ever in the cloifter'd gloom [fca.
Of learned floth, and bookish afthma pale.
And the fhunn'd hag unfightly, that (ordan
On Europe's fons to wreak the faithless fw
Of Cortez, with the blood of millions ftain
Shakes threat'ning, fince the while the wing
O'er dog-eyed luft the tort'ring fcou
abhorr'd
From Amazon's broad wave, and Andes' fro
her flight
clad height.

Where the wan daughter of the yellow year r

The chatt'ring ague chill; the writhing fto And he of ghaftly feature, on whose ear Unheeded croaks the death-bird's warni

moan,

Marafmus; knotty gout; and the dead life

Of nerveless palfy; there, on purpose fell Dark brooding, whets his interdicted knife

Grim fuicide, the damned fiend of hell.
There too is the ftunn'd apoplexy pight*, [for

Self-wafting melancholy, black as night (ho
The bloated child of gorg'd intemperan

Low`ring; and foaming fierce with hideo
Scar'd madness, with her moon-struck eyeba
The dog hydrophoby; and near allied
ftaring wide.

There, ftretch'd one huge, beneath the roc mine t,

He, the dread delegate of wrath divine, (fire With boiling fulphur fraught,and fmoulderin From the grim frowning brow of laurel'd Vindictive; thrice he wav'd th' earth-fhakim [war. 'Twas the that, on the morn of direful birth, Ere while that flood o'er Taio's hundred spi Bar'd thy young bofom to the fatal blow, Lamented Armytage !-the bleeding youth! wand, O bathe him in the pearly caves below, Ye Nereids! and ye Nymphs of Camus hoar, Weep-for ye oft have feen him on your haunted fhore.

Better to die with glory than recline

On the foft lap of ignominious peace,
Than yawn out the dull droning life fupine
In monkih apathy and gowned eafe.
Better employ'd in honour's bright career
The lealt divifion on the dial's round,
Than thrice to compafs Saturn's live-long year,
Grown old in floth, the burthen of the ground,

• Placed.

Powerful as that the fon of Amram bore, And thrice he rais'd, and thrice he check'd l hand.

He struck-the rocking ground, with thu derous roar,

Yawn'd! Here from street to street hurries, a there

Now runs, now ftops, then fhrieks and fcou Staring diftraction: many a palace fair [ama With millions finks ingulph'd, and pilla.

fane.

Even Albion trembled conscious on his sted Old ocean's fartheft waves confefs the shock rock.

Alluding to the Earthquake at Lisbon, November 1, 1755.

Come on then, let us feaft; let Chloe fing
And foft Negra touch the trembling ftring;

Of rous'd indignation fhall withstand
The Almighty, when he meditates to show'r
The buriting vengeance o'er a guilty land?
Cant thou,fecure in reafon'svaunted pride,[gore
Tongue-doubty mifcreant, who but now didft
With more than Hebrew rage the innocent fide
Of agonizing mercy, bleeding fore-
Cand then confront, with ftedfait eye unaw'd,
The wooded judgment italking far and near? Enjoy the prefent hour, nor feek to know
Well may't thou tremble, when an injur'd God What good or ill to-morrow may bestow.
Diclaims thee-guilt is ever quick of fear-But thefe delights foon pall upon the tafte;
Loud whindwinds howl in zephyr's fofteft breath, Let's try then if more ferious cannot laft:
Andeveryglancing meteor glaresimagin'd death. Wealth let us heap on wealth, or fame purfue,
The good alone are fearlefs; they alone,
Let power and glory be our points in view;
Firm and collected in their virtue, brave
In courts, in camps, in fenates let us live:
The wreck of worlds,and look unfhrinking down Our levees crowded like the buzzing hive:
On the dread yawnings of the rav'nous grave:
Each weak attempt the fame fad leffon brings!
Thrice happy who, the blameless road along
Alas! what vanity in human things!
Of honest praife, hath reach dthevale of death!
Arvard him, like miniftrant cherubs, throng
His betterations, to the parting breath
Singing their belt requiems; he the while
Gently repofing on fome friendly breaft,
Breathes out his benifons; then with a smile
Or foft complacence lays him down to rett,
Calin as the fumb'ring infant: from the goal
Free and unbounded Hies the difembodied foul.
Whether fome delegated charge below, [claim;
Some much-lov'd friend its hovering care may
Whether it heavenward foars again to know
That long-forgotten country, whence it came,
Cajetture ever, the misfeatur'd child

Of letter'd arrogance, delights to run
The fpeculation's puzzling mazes wild,
And all to end at last where it begun.
Fan would we trace with reafon's erring clue,
The darkfome paths of deftiny aright;
vin; the talk were eafier to purfue
The tracklefs wheelings of the fwallow's flight.
From mortal ken himself the Almighty throuds,
Pavilon'd in thick night and circumambient

clouds.

Can matter thefe contain, difpofe, apply?
Can in her cell fuch mighty treatures lie?
Or can her native force produce themto the eye?
Whence is this pow'r,this foundrefs of all arts,
Serving, adorning life, thro' all its parts;
Which names impos'd, by letters mark'd thofe

names,

Adjusted properly by legal claims,

Or Britain, well-deferving equal praife, Parent of heroes too in better days. Why fhould I try her numerous fons to na By verfe, law, eloquence, confign'd to fame Or who have forc'd fair Science into fight, Long loft in darkness and afraid of light? O'er all-fuperior, like the folar ray, First Bacon ufher'd in the dawning day, From woods and wilds collected rude mankind, And drove the mifts of fophiftry away; And cities, laws, and governments defign'd Pervaded nature with amazing force, Whatcan this be,but fome bright rayfromheav'n, Following experience ftill throughout his co Some emanation from Omnifcience giv'n? And finithing at length his deftin'd way, When now the rapid ftream of eloquen.ce To Newton he bequeath'd the radiant lam Bears all before it, paffion, reafon, fenfe, Illuftrious fouls! if any tender cares [ Can its dread thunder, or its lightning's force Affect angelic breafts for Man's affairs; Derive their effence from a mortal fource? If in your prefent happy heav'nly itate, What think you of the bard's enchanting art, You're not regardiefs quite of Britain's fat Which, whether he attempts to warm the heart Let this degenerate land again be bleft With fabled fcenes, or charm the ear with rhyme, With that true vigour which the once poffe Breathes all pathetic, lovely, and fublime? Compel us to unfold our flumb'ring eyes, Whilft things on earth rollround from age to age, And to our ancient dignity to rife. The fame dull farce repcated on the stage, Suchwond'rouspow'rs as the fe muftfure beg The poet gives us a creation new, For most important purposes by Heav'n; More pleafing and more perfect than the true; Who bids thefe ftars as bright examples thin The mind, who always to perfection haftes, Befprinkled thinly by the hand divine, Perfection fuch as here the never tastes, To form to virtue cach degenerate time, With gratitude accepts the kind deceit, And point out to the foul its origin fublim And thence forefees a system more complete. That there's a felf which after death fhall Of those what think you, who the circling race All are concern'd about, and all believe; Offens and their revolving planets trace, That fomething's ours, when we from life der Andcomets journeyingthro unbounded space? This all conceive, all feel it at the heart; Say can you doubt, but that the all-fearching foul, The wife of learn'd antiquity proclaim That now can traverse heaven from pole to pole, This truth, the public voice declares the fa From thence defcending, vifits but this earth, No land fo rude but looks beyond the tom And shall once more regain the regions of her For future prospects in a world to come. birth? [known, Hence, without hopes to be in life repaid, Could the thus act unless fome power un-We plant flow oaks pofterity to fhade; From matter quite diftinct, and all her own, Supported and impell'd her? She app.oves Self-conscious,andcondemns, the hatesand loves, Mourns and rejoices, hopes and is afraid, Without the body's unrequested aid:

And bence vat pyramids atpiring high
Lift their proud leads aloft, and time defy.
Hence is our love of fame; a love lo stro..
We think no dangers great, or labours long
By which we hope our beings to extend.
And to remoteit times in giory to defcens.

Her own internal ftrength her reaíon guides;
By this the now compares things, now divides; For fine the wretch beneath the gallows
Truth's fcatter'd fragments piece by piece col-¦ Dir wning ev'ry cine for which he dies;
Reicins, and thence her edifice erects; [les, Of life profofe, tenacious of a nome,
Piles arts on arts, effects to caufes ties,
Fearless of death, and yet afraid of hame.
And rears the afpiring fabric to the skies; Nature has wove into the humaa mind
This anxious care for names we leave behi
From whence, as on a diftant plain below,
She fees from caules confequences flow, I'extend our narrow views beyond the to
And the whole chain diftinétly comprehends, And give an carneft of a life to come:
Which from the Almighty's throne to earth de-For if when dead we are but duft or clay,
And ltly, turning inwardly her eyes, [fcends:
Perceives how all her own ideas tife:
Contemplates what the is, and whence the came,
And almoft comprehends herownamazingframe.
Can mere machines be with fuch pow'rs endu du
Orconscious of thofe pow'rs, fuppofe theycow'd
For body is but a machine alone

Mov'd by external force,andin pole notitrown.
Rate ust the extenfion of the buman and
By the plebeian standard of mankind,
But by the fize of thofe girantic few

Why think of what pofterity fhall fay?
Her praise or cenfure cannot us concern,
Nor ever penetrate the filent urn.

What mean the nodding plumes, the fu

train,

And marble monument that fpeaks in vain.
With all thofe cares which ev'ry nation pa
In their unfeeling dead in dia 'rent ways!
Serein the flow'r-itewn move the corpica
Jeid,

And annual cheques around it paid,

Whom Greece and Rome fill offer to our view, LAs it to ple de thé peor departed thade;

Others on blazing piles the body burn,
And for their athes in the faithful urn;
But all in one great principle agree,
To give a fancy'd immortality.
Why should I mention thee, whofe oozy foil
Is render'd fertile by the c'erilowing Nile?
Their dead they bury not, nor burn with fires,
No graves they dig, erect no fun'ral pires;
Bat, wathing, firit th' embowel'd body clean,
Gums, fpice, and melted pitch they pour within;
Then with trong fillets bind it round and round,
To make each flaccid part compact and found;
And laftly paint the varnish'd furface o'er
With the fime features which in life it wore:
So ftrong their prefage of a future ftate,
And that our nobler part furvives the body's fate.
Nations behold, remote from Reafon's beams,
Where Indian Ganges rolls his fandy ftreams,
Of life impatient rush into the fire,
And willing victims to their gods expire!
Ferfuaded the loos'd foul to regions flies,
Blest with eternal fpring, and cloudless skies.
Nor is lefs fam'd the oriental wife
For fedfat virtue, and contempt of life:
Thefe heroines mourn not with loud female cries
Their bubands Joft, or with o'erflowing eyes;
But, frange to tell their funeral piles afcend,
And in the fame fad flames their forrows end;
In hopes with them beneath the fhades to rove,
And there renew their interrupted love.
In climes where Boreas breathes eternal cold,
See num rous nations, warlike, fierce, and bold,
To battle all unanimously run,
Nor fire, nor fword, nor inftant death they fhun.
Whence this difdain of life in ev'ry breaft,
But from a notion on their minds impreft,
That all who for their country die, are bleft?
Add too to thefe the once-prevailing dreams
Of fweet Elyfan groves, and Stygian ftreams;
All hew with what confent mankind agree
In the 5'm hope of Immortality.
Grant thefe inventions of the crafty-priest,
Yet fuch inventions never could fubfift,
Wales fome glimmerings of a future ftate
Were with the mind coæval, and innate;
For ev'ry fiction which can long perfuade,
In truth must have its firit foundations laid.
Because we are unable to conceive
Flow embody'd fouls can act, and live,
The valgar give them forms, and limbs, and faces,

And

stations in peculiar places:
Hence reas'ners more refin'd, but not more wife,
Struck with the glare of fuch abfurdities,
Their whole exiltence fabulous fufpect,
And truth and falsehood in a lump reject;
Too indolent to learn what may be known,
For hard's the task the daubing to pervade
Or the too proud that ignorance to own.
Folly and Fraud on Truth's fair form have laid:
Yet let that tafk be ours; for great the prize;
let us Truth's celeftial charms defpife,
priests or poets may difguife.
That there's aGod, from Nature's voice is clear;
And yet what errors to this truth adhere!

How have the fears and follies of mankind
Now multiply'd their gods, and now fubjoin'd
To each the frailties of the human mind!
Nay, fuperftition fpread at length fo wide,
Beafts, birds, and onions too, were deify'd.

Th' Athenian fage, revolving in his mind
This weaknefs, blindnefs, madness of mankind,
Foretold, that in maturer days, tho' late,
When Time fhould ripen the decrees of Fate,
Some God would light us, like the rifing day,
Thro' error's maze, and chafe these clouds away.
Long fince has Time fulfill'd this great decree,
And brought us aid from this Divinity.

Well worth our fearch difcoveries may be made
By Nature, void of this celeftial aid:"
Let's try what her conjectures then can reach,
Nor fcorn plain Reafon, when the deigns to teach.
That mind and body often fympathize,
Is plain; fuch is this union Nature ties:
But then as often too they difagree,
Which proves the foul's fuperior progeny.
Sometimes the body in full ftrength we find,
Whilft various ails debilitate the mind;
At others, whilft the mind its force retains,
The body finks with ficknefs and with pains:
Now did one common fate their beings end,
Alike they'd ficken, and alike they'd mend.
But fure experience, on the flightest view,
Shews us, that the reverfe of this is true;
For when the body oft expiring lies,
Its limbs quite fenfelefs, and half clos'd its eyes,
The mind new force and eloquence acquires,
And with prophetic voice the dying lips infpires,

Of like materials were they both compos d,
How comes it that the mind, when fleep has clos'd
Each avenue of fenfe, expatiates wide,
Her liberty reftor'd, her bonds unty'd;
And like fome bird who from its prifon flies,
Claps her exulting wings, and mounts the kies?

Grant that corporeal is the human mind,
It must have parts in infinitum join'd;
And each of thefe mult will, perceive, defign,
And draw confus'dly in a diff'rent line;
Which then can claim dominion o'er the reft,
Or ftamp the ruling paffion in the breaft?

Perhaps the mind is form'd by various arts
Of modelling and figuring thefe parts;
Juft as if circles wiler were than fquares:
But furely common fenfe aloud declares
That fite and figure are as foreign quite
From mental pow'rs, as colours black or white.
Allow that motion is the cause of thought,
With what ftrange pow'rs must motion then be
fraught!

Reafon, fenfe, fcience, muft derive their fource,
From the wheel's rapid whirl, or pulley's force;
Tops whipp'd by fchool-boys fages must com
mence,

Their hoops, like them, be cudgel'd into sense,
And boiling pots o'erflow with eloquence.
Whence can this very motion take its birth?
Not fure from matter, from dull clods of earth;
But from a living fpirit lodg'd within,
Which governs all the bodily machine;