Oh, blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe!

Who sees and follows that great scheme the best,
Best knows the blessing, and will most be bless'd,
But fools the good alone unhappy call,

For ills or accidents that chance to all.

See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust!
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife!
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?
Say, was it virtue, more though Heaven ne'er gave,
Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if virtue made the son expire,

Why, full of days and honors, lives the sire?
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath,
When nature sickened, and each gale was death?
Or why so long (in life if long can be)
Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me?
What makes all physical or moral ill?

There deviates nature, and here wanders will.
God sends not ill, if rightly understood,

Or partial ill is universal good,

Or change admits, or nature lets it fall,
Short, and but rare, till man improved it all.
We just as wisely might of Heaven complain,
That righteous Abel was destroy'd by Cain,
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease

When the lewd father gave the dire disease.
Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause
Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws!
IV. Shall burning Ætna, if a sage requires,

Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?

On air or sea new motions be impress'd,
Oh, blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?
When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease if you go by?

Or some old temple, nodding to its fall,

For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall?

V. But still this world (so fitted for the knave)
Contents us not. A better shall we have?

A kingdom of the just then let it be :
But first consider how those just agree.
The good must merit God's peculiar care!
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?

One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own spirit fell;
Another deems him instrument of hell:
If Calvin feel Heaven's blessing, or its rod,
This cries, there is, and that, there is no God.
What shocks one part, will edify the rest,
Nor with one system can they all be bless'd.*
The very best will variously incline,

And what rewards your virtue, punish mine.
WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.-This world, 'tis true,
Was made for Cæsar, but for Titus too;

And which more bless'd? who chain'd his country, say,
Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day?

VI. "But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed."
What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?

* When it is known and realized that no two persons are organized precisely alike -that we differ in size, shape, height, breadth, quality, capacity, and complexion, the reason why we do not agree in belief, in tastes, in accountability, and in religious opinions becomes at once apparent. It must be clear to all, that though we may resemble each other very closely in general appearance, yet a marked difference between us exists, and a knowledge of Phrenology and Physiognomy makes those differences most palpable. Then, how can it be expected that we who differ in degree of knowledge, in powers of comprehension, in modes of education and development, shall be perfectly agreed with regard to religious opinions? One is born and educated in a Roman Catholic country,another in a Protestant country, another among the heathen-one among Christians, and another among Jews; and is it not natural to infer that each will accept and act according to the teachings of their kin and country? May not the differences of opinion in regard to religious matters be accounted for on these grounds? Do not "birds of a feather flock together?" Why is one a Roman Catholic, and another a Protestant? Why one Presbyterian, and another Baptist? Why one Episcopalian, and another Methodist? Why one Unitarian, and another Universalist? Is the God of the Calvinist a God of rigid justice and severe punishment? [Conscientiousness and Destructiveness] and is Benevolence or unbounded mercy the chief attribute in the God of the Universalist? Is blind belief more common to the Catholic than to the Protestant? Does the Episcopalian manifest more taste and refinement, more Ideality and Sublimity in his church edifices, in his music, in his decorations, in his personal dress, equipage, and surroundings than the plain Methodist? Who is it builds the finest churches, and enriches them with painted windows, etc.? How is it with the Swedenborgians? Have they more of the spiritual element in their phrenological composition?

If we admit an organic difference in the nature of different persons; if each looks at subjects through colored glasses-faculties-peculiar to himself; and if each is sincere, let us at least be tolerant, and not persecute each other on account of honest differences. It is not probable that all the world will come to be perfectly agreed on all points; but it is probable that we may be agreed on general principles. All will agree that each is accountable for the right use of every power of body and mind with which he has been blessed, and that he is to cultivate among other virtues, "the great commandment in the law:" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."-Matt. xxii. 37.

That, vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;
The knave deserves it when he tills the soil;
The knave deserves it when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be indolent;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.

But grant him riches, your demand is o'er ?

"No-shall the good want health, the good want power ?" Add health and power and every earthly thing—

"Why bounded power? why private? why no king?
Nay, why external for internal given?

Why is not man a god, and earth a heaven ?”
Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive
God gives enough while he has more to give ;
Immense the power, immense were the demand;
Say, at what part of nature will they stand?
What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is virtue's prize: a better would you fix?
Then give humility a coach and six,
Justice a conqueror's sword, or truth a gown,
Or public spirit its great cure—a crown.

Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us there,
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here?
The boy and man an individual makes,

Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes?
Go, like the Indian, in another life,

Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife,
As well as dream such trifles are assign'd,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind.
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring
No joy, or be destructive of the thing;
How oft by these at sixty are undone
The virtues of a saint at twenty-one!
To whom can riches give repute or trust,
Content or pleasure, but the good and just?
Judges and senates have been bought for gold;
Esteem and love were never to be sold.

Oh, fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human-kind,
Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear,
Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.

Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.

Fortune in men has some small difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;

The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
"What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl ?"
I'll tell you, friend! a wise man and a fool.

You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk;
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;

The rest is all but leather or prunello.

Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings,
That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings.
Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :

But by your fathers' worth, if yours you rate,
Count me those only who were good and great.

Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;

Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.*

Look next on greatness: say where greatness lies:
"Where, but among the heroes and the wise?"
Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find,
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!

Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.
No less alike the politic and wise;

All sly slow things with circumspective eyes;
Men in their loose ungarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat;
'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great;
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.

What's fame? a fancied life in other's breath,
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.

Just what you hear you have; and what's unknown,
The same (my lord) if Tully's, or your own.

All that we feel of it begins and ends

In the small circle of our foes or friends;

To all beside as much an empty shade

A Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead;

Alike or when or where they shone or shine,

Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.

*In some countries men are estimated by their ancestry. In republican America the question is not, "Who was your grandfather or grandmother?" but "What have you done? Have you achieved by your own studies, investigations, or labors success?" If so, you will be appreciated accordingly; but that which your forefathers may have achieved counts nothing to you. Here, men are judged by their merits; there, by their lineage.

"Honor and shame from no condition rise;

Act well your part --there all the honor lies."

This is eminently democratic in its true sense, as may be seen by the elevation of men of humble sphere to posts of the highest honor and responsibility, who are supposed to be intellectually and morally competent to fill those high positions. In America, every mother is supposed to teach her son that any of the offices in the gift of the people, from corporal to commander, or from path-master to President, are rightfully within the possibility of his reach.