Page images
PDF
EPUB

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

Claims from the filial breaft 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 [eye.
Of jocund youth-the morrow knells us to the
tomb.

Who knows how foon in this fepulchral spot
Snall heav'n to me the drear abode affign?
How foon the paft 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! these vows perhaps unheard
The rude wind fcatters o'er the billowy main :
Thefe 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 decision-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 purfue Where glory, with her clear unfullied rays, The well-born fpirit lights to deeds of mightiest praife.

Than tug with fweating toil the flavish oar Of unredeem'd affliction, and fustain The fev'rous rage of fierce difeafes fore

Unnumber'd, that in fympathetic chain Hang ever thro' the thick circumfluous air, All from the drizzly verge of yonder starsphere.

Thick in the many-beaten road of life

A thousand maladies are posted round, With wretched man to wage eternal strife Unfeen,like ambuth'd Indians,till they wou There the fwoln hydrop ftands,the wat'ryrhet The northern fcurvy, blotch with lepro And moping ever in the cloifter'd gloom ffca Of learned floth, and bookish asthma pale And the fhunn'd hag unfightly, that (ordai On Europe's fons to wreak the faithlefs fw Of Cortez, with the blood of millions ftain O'er dog-eyed luft the tort'ring scou abhorr'd

Shakes threat'ning, fince the while the wing her flight

From Amazon's broad wave, and Andes' fno clad height.

Where the wan daughter of the yellow year,

The chatt'ring ague chill; the writhing ftor 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

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

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

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

"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 He, the dread delegate of wrath divine, [fire
With boihing fulphur fraught,and fmoulderir
[war. Ere while that flood o'er Taio's hundred spir
From the grim frowning brow of laurel'd Vindictive; thrice he wav'd th' earth-fhakin

fame

'Twas the that, on the morn of direful birth,
Bar'd thy young bofom to the fatal blow,
Lamented Armytage !-the bleeding youth!
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 leait 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.

[blocks in formation]

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

The

The negefunine there, and drunk with blood | No vain researches e'er difturb their rest, Stern; and the loath'd moniter whom of No fears of dark futurity moleft. The Nad of the Memphian flood [yore Man, only Man, folicitous to know Eat ng tothe bright-hair'dPhoebusbore, The fprings whence Nature's operations flow, Flence that on the wide-ftretch'd wings Piods thro' a dreary waite with toil and pain, commerce speeds from Cairo's fwarthy bay And reafons, hopes and thinks,and lives in vain; wetering fight, and thro' the fick air flings For fable Death ftill hov'ring o'er his he: d, sported contagion; at his heels difmay Cuts fhort his progrefs with his vital thread. Adolation urge their fire-wheel'd yoke Wherefore, fince Nature errs not, do we find Tie; as long of old, when from the height Thefe feeds of Science in the human mind, Cars came unwreath'd the mightieft, fhook If no congenial fruits are predefign'd Lim-fixt bafe tott ring; thro' the black For what avails to man this pow'r to roam [abroad Thro' ages paft, and ages yet to come,.

ht

Geath'd lightnings: heaven's rentroof
Terd, and univerfal nature felt its God.
Woon that fcene of terror, on that hour
Uross'd indignation fhall withitand
Tighty, when he meditates to show'r

L

I explore new worlds o'er all th' ethereal way,
Chain'd to a fpot, and living but a day?
Since all muft perish in one common grave,
Nor can thefe long laborious fearches fave,
Were it not wifer far, fupinely laid,
To fport with Phillis in the noontide fhade ?
Or at thy jovial feftivals appear,
Great Bacchus, who alone the foul can clear
Fromall that it has felt, and'all that it can fear?)

riting vengeance o'er a guilty land? ecure in reafon'svaunted pride, [gore -doubty mifcreant, who but now didft Wethan Hebrew rage the innocent fide ing mercy, bleeding foreCome on then, let us feaft; let Chloe fing i confront, with fedfait eye unaw'd, And foft Neæra touch the trembling ftring; worded judgment italking tar and near? Enjoy the prefent hour, nor feek to know Way it thou tremble, when an injur'd God What good or ill to-morrow may beltow. s thee-guilt is ever quick of fear-But thefe delights foon pall upon the taffe; Linds howl in zephyr's fofteft breath, Let's try then if more ferious cannot laft: Adry glancing meteor glaresimagin'd death. Wealth let us heap on wealth, or fame purfue, The good alone are fearless; they alone, Let power and glory be our points in view; Fand 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! The appy who, the blameless road along Alas! what vanity in human things! Of het praife, hath reach'dthevale of death! A like miniftrant cherubs, throng Hrations, to the parting breath

the beit requiems; he the while
Going on fore friendly breaft,
But his benifons; then with a fmile
O complacence lays him down to relt,
Cthe lumb ring infant: from the goal
Free and unbounded Hies the difembodied foul.
Whether fome delegated charge below, [claim;
Se much-lov'd friend its hovering care may
Whether it heavenward foars again to know
Ta long-forgotten country, whence it came,
Cure ever, the misfeatur'd child

Oetter'd arrogance, delights to run
Tepeculation's puzzling mazes wild,
And all to end at last where it begun.
would we trace with reafon's erring clue,
The dark fome paths of destiny aright;
Ian, the talk were eafier to purfue
The trackles wheelings of the (wallow's flight.
From mortal ken himself the Almighty throuds,
Prin'd in thick night and circumambient
clouds.

[blocks in formation]

What means then shall we try? where hope to
A friendly harbour for the reftlets mind? [find
Who ftill, you fee, impatient to obtain
Knowledge immenfe (fo Nature's laws ordain)
Ev'n now, tho' fetter'd in corporeal clay,
Climbs ftep by step the profpect to furvey,
And feeks, unwearied Truth's eternal ray.
No fleeting joys the afks which must depend
On the frail fenfes, and with them mutt end;
But fuch as fuit her own immortal fame,
Free from all change, eternally the fame.
Take courage, then, thefe joys we fhall attain ;
Almighty wifdom never acts in vain:

Nor fhall the foul, on which it has bestow'd
Such pow'rs, e'er perish like an earthly clod;
But purg'dat lengthfromfoulcorruption's itain,
Freed from her prifon, and unbound her chain,
She thall her native strength and native ikies
regain;

To heav'n an old inhabitant return,
And draw nectareous streams from truth's per-
petual urn.

Whilft life remains, (if life it can be call'd
T' exift in fleshly bondage thus enthrall'd),
Tir'd with the dull puriuit of worldly things,
The foul scarce wakes, or opes her gladiome
Yet ftill the godlike exile in difgrace [wings,
Retains fome marks of her celeftial race;
Ellewaence from mem'ry's store can fhe produce
such various thoughts, or range them fo for use
0 4
Can

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,
From woods and wilds collected rude mankind,
And cities, laws, and governments defign'd?
Whatcan this be, but fome bright rayfromheav'n,
Some emanation from Omnifcience giv'n?
When now the rapid ftream of eloquen.ce
Bears all before it, paffion, reafon, fenfe,
Can its dread thunder, or its lightning's force
Derive their effence from a mortal fource?
What think you of the bard's enchanting art,
Which, whether he attempts to warm the heart
With fabled fcenes, or charm the ear with rhyme,
Breathes all pathetic, lovely, and fublime?
Whilt things on earth rollround from age to age,
The fame dull farce repeated on the stage,
The poet gives us a creation new,
More pleafing and more perfect than the true;
The mind, who always to perfection haftes,
Perfection fuch as here the never tastes,
With gratitude accepts the kind deceit,
And thence forefees a fyftem more complete.
Of those what think you, who the circling race
Of funs and their revolving planets trace,
Andcomets journeyingthro unbounded space?
Say can you doubt, but that the all-searching foul,
That now can traverse heaven from pole to pole,
From thence defcending, vifits but this earth,
And shall once more regain the regions of her
birth?
[known,
Could the thus act unless fome power un-
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:
Her own internal strength her rexion guides;
By this the now compares things, now divides;
Truth's fcatter'd fragments piece by piece
Reicins, and thence her edifice erects; [lects,
Piles arts on arts, effects to caufes ties,
And rears the afpiring fabric to the skies;
From whence, as on a diftant plain below,
She fees from caufes confequences flow,
And the whole chain diftinétly comprehends,
Which from the Almighty's throne to earth
And lastly, turning inwardly her eyes, [icends:
Perceives how all her own ideas rife:
Contemplates what the is, and whence the came,
And almost comprehends herownamazingframe.
Can mere machines be with fuch pow'rs endu'd.!
Orconscious of thofe pow'rs, fuppofe theycou'd
For body is but a machine alone

Or Britain, well-deferving equal praise,
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 figi
Long loft in darknefs and afraid of light?
O'er all-fuperior, like the folar ray,
First Bacon ufher'd in the dawning day,
And drove the mifts of fophiftry away;
Pervaded nature with amazing force,
Following experience ftill throughout his co
And finithing at length his destin'd way,
To Newton he bequeath'd the radiant lam
Illuftrious fouls! if any tender cares [
Affect angelic breafts for Man's affairs;
If in your prefent happy heav'nly ftate,
You're not regardlefs quite of Britain's fat
Let this degenerate land again be blett
With that true vigour which the once poffe
Compel us to unfold our flumb'ring eyes,
And to our ancient dignity to rise.
Suchwond'rouspow'rs as thefe muftfare beg
For most important purposes by Heav'n;
Who bids thefe ftars as bright examples thin
Befprinkled thinly by the hand divine,
To form to virtue cach degenerate time,
And point out to the foul its origin fublim
That there's a felf which after death fhall
All are concern'd about, and all believe;
That fomething's ours, when we from life der
This all conceive, all feel it at the heart;
The wife of learn'd antiquity proclaim
This truth, the public voice declares the fa
No land fo rude but looks beyond the tom
For future profpects in a world to come.
Hence, without hopes to be in life repaid,
We plant flow oaks pofterity to fhade;
And bence valt pyramids atpiring high
Lift their proud heads aloft, and time defy.
Hence is our love of fame; a love to strong,
We think no dangers great, or labours long
by which we hope our beings to extend.
And to remotelt times in glory to defcend.

For fame the witch beneath the gallows
col-Difowning ev'ry cat for which he dies;
Of life profofe, tenacious of a name,
Fearless of death, and yet afraid of thame.
Nature has wove into the human mind
This anxious care for names we leave behin
T'extend our narrow views beyond the to
And give an carneft of a life to come
de-For if when dead we are but duft or clay,
Why think of what pofterity fhall fay?
Her praife or cenfure cannot us concern,
Nor ever penetrate the filent urn.

[ocr errors]

What mean the nodding plumes, the fan' train,

And marble monument that fpeaks in vain, With all thofe cares which ev'ry nation pays o their unfeeling dead in diffrent ways! Rate ust the extenfion of the human and Seremthe flow'r-fhewn, rave the corpíchave

Mov'd by external force,andimpulfe notitsown.

By the plebeian standard of mankind,

But by the fize of thofe girantic tow

Jeid,

And annual chéquies around it paid,

Whom Greece and Rome fill offer to our view, LAș it to plode the peor departed thade;

Other lazing piles the body burn,
and Eater ashes in the faithful urn;
2 more great principle agree,
Te a tancy'd immortality.

Pois I mention thofe, whofe oozy foil
Ir fertile by the o'erflowing Nile?

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 spread at length fo wide,
Beafts, birds, and onions too, were deify'd.
Th' Athenian fage, revolving in his mind
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 thefe clouds away.
Long fince has Time fulfill'd this great decree,
And brought us aid from this Divinity.

The dead they bury not, nor burn with fires,This weakness, blindness, madness of mankind,

gures they dig, erect no fun'ral pires; Batwing, firit th' erabowel'd body clean,

, and melted pitch they pour within;
The trong fillets bind it round and round,
Teach flaccid part compact and found;
A paint the varnish'd furface o'er
Watz me features which in life it wore:
Ag their prefage of a future ftate,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

carnobler part furvives the body's fate. behold, remote from Reason's beams, Inden Ganges rolls his fandy streams, tient rush into the fire,

- victims to their gods expire! dd the loos'd foul to regions flies, eternal fpring, and cloudlefs skies. fim'd the oriental wife it virtue, and contempt of life: cines mourn not with loud female cries tands loft, or with o'erflowing eyes; age to tell their funeral piles afcend, At the fame fad flames their forrows end; gs with them bencath the fhades to rove, And there renew their interrupted love. adres where Boreas breathes eternal cold, as nations, warlike, fierce, and bold, Te all unanimously run,

or word, nor inftant death they fhun. Wat's dildain of life in ev'ry breast,

notion on their minds imprest,

for their country die, are bleft? thefe the once-prevailing dreams yan groves, and Stygian ftreams; 4th what confent mankind agree i hope of Immortality. the inventions of the crafty-priest, aventions never could fubfift, gummerings of a future state 24 the mind coæval, and innate; fiction which can long perfuade, rut have its firit foundations laid. e we are unable to conceive embody'd fouls can act, and live, give them forms, and limbs, and faces, itions in peculiar places: reshers more refin'd, but not more wife, with the glare of fuch abfurdities,

[ocr errors]

Well worth our fearch difcoveries may be made
By Nature, void of this celestial 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 sickness 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,

le existence fabulous fufpect, ruth and faliehood in a lump reje&t; at to learn what may be known, proud that ignorance to own. hard's the talk the daubing to pervade and Fraud on Truth's fair form have laid: that task be ours; for great the prize; Truth's celeftial charms defpife, priests or poets may difguife. Tees God from Nature's voice is clear;

[ocr errors]

wat errors to this truth adhere!

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 breast?

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, must derive their fource,
From the wheel's rapid whirl, or pulley's force;
Tops whipp'd by school-boys fages must com

[blocks in formation]

Just as th' Almighty Universal Soul
Informs, directs, and animates the whole.

Cease then to wonder how th' immortal mind
Can live, when from the body quite disjoin'd;
But rather wonder, if the e'er could die,
So fram'd, fo fashion'd for eternity:
Self-mov'd, not form'd of parts together ty'd,
Which time can diffipate, and force divide;
For beings of this make can never die,
Whofe pow'rs within themselves and their own
effence lie.

If to conceive how any thing can be From shape extracted and locality Is hard; what think you of the Deity? His Being not the lealt relation bears, As far as to the human mind appears, To shape or fize, fimilitude or place, Cloth'd in no form, and bounded by no fpace. Such then is God, a Spirit pure, refin'd From all material drofs; and fuch the human

mind.

For in what part of effence can we fee
More certain marks of Immortality?
Ev'n from this dark confinement with delight
She looks abroad, and prunes herself for flight;
Like an unwilling inmate longs to roam
From this dull earth, and feek her native home.
Go then, forgetful of its toil and strife,
Purfue the joys of this fallacious life;
Like fome poor fly, who lives but for a day,
Sip the fresh dews, and in the funfhine play,
And into nothing then diffolve away.
Are thefe our great purfuits? Is this to live?
These all the hopes this much-lov'd world can
give?

How much more worthy envy is their fate,
Who fearch for truth in a fuperior state!
Not groping step by step, as we pursue,
And following Reafon's much entangled clue,
But with one great and inftantaneous view.

But how can fenfe remain, perhaps you'll fay,
Corporeal organs if we take away?
Since it from them proceeds, and with them
muft decay.

Why not? or why may not the foul receive
New organs, fince ev'n art can these retrieve?
The filver trumpet aids th' obftructed ear,
And optic glaffes the dim eye can clear;
Thefe in mankind new faculties create,
And lift him far above his native ftate,
Call down revolving planets from the sky,
Earth's fecret treasures open to his eye,
The whole minute creation make his own,
With all the wonders of a world unknown.
How could the mind, did the alone depend
On fenfe, the errors of those senses mend?
Yet oft, we fee, thofe fenfes the corrects,
And oft their information quite rejects,
In diftances of things, their thapes, and fize,
Our reafon judges better than our eyes.
Declares not this the foul's pre-eminence
Superior to, and quite diftinct from fenfe?
For fure 'tis likely, that, fince now fo high
Clogg'd and unfledg'd she dares her wings to try,

|Loos'd and mature the fhall her ftrength dis
And foar at length to Truth's refulgent ray
Inquire you how these pow'rs we fhall at
'Tis not for us to know; our fearch is vain
Can any now remember or relate
How he exifted in the embryo state!
Or one from birth infenfible of day
Conceive ideas of the folar ray?
That light 's deny'd to him, which others f
He knows, perhaps you'll fay,—and so do

The mind contemplative finds nothing h On earth that 's worthy of a with or fear: He whofe fublime purfuit is God and trut Burns, like fome abfent and impatient you To join the object of his warm defires; Thence to fequefter'd shades and streams ret And there delights his paffion to rehearse In Wifdom's facred voice, or in harmonious

To me mott happy therefore he appears, Who having once, unmov'd by ropes e Survey'd this tun, earth, ocean, clouds,an' Well fatisfy d returns from whence he ca Is life an hundred years, or e'er to few, 'Tis repetition all, and nothing new; A fair, where thousands meet, but none can An inn, where travellers bait, then poit away A fea, where man perpetually is toit, Now plung'd in outinefs, now in trifles loft: Who leave it first, the peaceful port first gain Hold then! nor farther launch into the ma Contract your fails; life nothing can beltow By long continuance, but continued woe; The wretched privilege daily to deplore The fun'rals of our friends, who go before Difeafes, pains, anxieties, and cares, And age furrounded with a thousand fnare

But whither, hurry'd by a gen'rous fcom Of this vain world, ah whither am I borne Let's not unbid th' Almighty's ftandard qu Howe'er fevere our poft, we muft fubmit.

Could I a firm perfuafion once attain, That after death no being would remain; To thofe dark fhades I'd willingly defcend, Where all must fleep, this drama at an end, Nor life accept, altho' renew'd by Fate Ev'n from its earlicft and its happiest state.

Might I from Fortune's bounteoushand rece Each boon, each bleffing in her pow'r to give Genius and science, morals and good fenie, Unenvy'd honours, wit, and eloquence; A num'rous offspring to the world well kno Both for paternal virtues, and their own; Ev'n at this mighty price f'd not be bound To tread the fame dull circle round and reun The foul requires enjoyments more fublime, By space unbounded, undestroy'd by time.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »