our carc.

Old Egeus only could revive his son,

With sober pace they march'd, and often staid, Whò various changes of the world had known: And through the inafter - ftreet the corpse And strange vicillitudes of human fate,

convey'd. Still alt'ring, never in a steady state;

The houses to their tops with black were sprvad,
Good after ill, and after pain delight;

And ev’n the paveinents were with mourning hid.
Alternate, like the scenes of day and night: The right side of the pall old Ægeus kept;
Sice ev'ry man who lives is born to die, And on the left the royal Theleus wept ;
And none can boast sincere felicity,

Each bore a golden bowl of work divine,
With equal inind what happens let us bear, With honey fill'd, and milk, and mix'd with
Nor joy nor grieve too much for things beyond ruddy wine.

Then Palamon, the kinsinan of the slain,
Like pilgrims to th’appointed place we tend ; And after him appear'd th’illustrious train.
The world's an inn, and death the journey's end. To grace the pomp, came Emily the bright,
Ev'n kings but play; and when their part is done, With cover'd fire, the fun’ral pile to light.
Some other, worse or better, mount the throne. With high devotion was the service made,
With words like these the crowd was fatisfy'd; And all the rights of Pagan honour paid:
And so they would have been had Theseus dy'd. So lofty was the pile, a Parthian bow,
But he, their king, was lab’ring in his mind, With vigour drawn, must send the shaft below.
A fitting place for fun’ral pomps to find, The bottom was full twenty fathom broad,
Which were in honour of the dead design'd. With crackling tiraw beneath in due proportion
And, after long dehate, at last he found

firow'd.
(As love itself had mark'd the spot of ground) Thc fecm'd a wood of rising green,
That grove for ever green, that conscious land, Il'ith sulphur and bitumen cast between,
Where he with Palamon fought hand to hand: To feed the flames: the trees were unétious fir,
That where he fed his amorous desires

And mountain ath, the mother of the spear;
With soft complaints, and felt his hottest fires, The mourner-yew, and buildcroak were there:
There other fames inight waste his earthly part, The beech, the fivimining alder, and the plane,
And burn his limbs, where love had burn’d his Hard box, and linden of a fofter grain,
heart.

And laurels, which the Gods for conqu’ring
This once resolv'd, the peasants were enjoin'd chiefs ordain.
Sere-wood, and firs, and dodder'd oaks to find. How they were rank’d thall rest untold by me,
With founding axes to the grove they go,

With naineless nymphs that liv?d in ev'ry tree;
Fell, split, and lay the fuel on a row,

Nor how the dryads, or the woodland train,
Vulcanian food: a bier is next prepar’d, Ditherited, ran howling o'er the plain:
On which the lifeless body should be rear'd, Nor how the birds to foreign scats repair'd,
Cover'd with cloth of gold, on which was laid Or beasts, that bolted out, and saw the forest bar'd :
The corpse of Arcite, in like robes array’d. Nor how the ground, now clear'd, with ghastly
White gloves were on his hands, and on his head fright,
A wreath of laurel, mix'd with myrtle spread. Beheld the sudden sun, a stranger to the light.
A sword keen-edg’d within his right he held, The straw, as first 'I said, was laid below:
The warlike emblem of the conquer'd field : Of chips and sere-wood was the second row;
Bare was his manly visage on the bier : The third of greene, and timber newly felld;
Menac'd his count’nance; ev’n in death severe. The fourth high stage the fragrant odours held,
Then to the palace-hall they bore the knight, And pearls, and precious stones, and rich array;
To lie in solemn state, a public fight.

In midst of which, embalm'd, the body lay.
Groans,crics,and howlings, fill the crowded place, The service sung, the maid with mourning eves
And unaffected sorrow fat on ev'ry face. The Itubble fir'd; the imould'ring flames arise ;
Sad Palamon above the reft appears,

This office done, the funk upon the ground;
In sable garments, dew'd with gushing tears; But what ihc Ipoke, recover'd from her lwoon,
His auburn locks on either shoulder flow'd, I want the wit in moving words to dress;
Which to the fun'ral of his friend he vow'd: But by theinselves the tender fex may guess.
But Emily, as chief, was next his side,

While the devouring fire was burning fast,
A virgin widow, and a mourning bride. Rich jewels in the flame the wealthy cast;
And, that the princely obsequies might be And some their fhields, and some their lances
Perform'd according to his high degree,

threw,
The steed that bore him living to the fight, And gave their warrior's ghost a warrior's due.
Was trapp'd with polish'd steed, all thining Full bowls of wine, of honey, milk, and blood,
bright,

[knight. Were pour'd upon the pile of burning wood, And cover'd' with th’atchievements of the And hilling fames receive, and, hungry, lick The riders rode abreatt, and one his field;

the food. His lance of cornel-wood another held;

Then thrice the mounted squadrons ride around Tim third his bow, and, glorious to behold, The fire, and Arcite's name thev tbrice resound; The costly quiver, all of burnish'd gold. Hail ! and Farewell! they shouted thrice amain; The noblest of the Grecians next appear, Thrice facing to the left, and thrice they turn'd and weeping, or their thoulders bore the bier ; again.

Sill as they turn'd, they beat their clatering This lawth'Omniscient Pow'r was pleas’d to give, Thields;

[the fields. That ev'ry kind thould by succeflion live: The women mix their cries ; and clamour fills That individuals die his will ordains; The warlike wakes continu'd all the night, The propagated species still remains. And fun’al gaines were play'd at new return. The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees, ing light.

Shoots rising up, and spreads by now degrees; Who naked wrestled best, besmear'd with oil, Three centuries he grows, and three he stays, Or who with gauntlets gave or took the foil, Supreme in itate, and in three more decays; I will not tell you, nor would you attend; So wears the paving pebble in the street, But briefly haite to my long story's end. And towns and tow'rs their fatal periods meet.

I pais the rest; the year was tully mourn’d, So rivers, rapid once, now naked lie, Ani Palamon long since to Thebes return’d: Forsaken of their springs, and leave their chanWhen, by the Grecians general consent,

nels dry. At Athens Theseus held his parliament: So man, at first a drop, dilates with heat, Among the laws that pats’d, it was decreed, Then, form’d, the little heart begins to beat; That conquerd Thebes from bondage Should Secret he feeds, unknowing in the cell; be freed,

At length, for hatching ripe, he breaks the shell, Reserving homage to th’Athenian throne; And struggles into breath, and cries for aid ;To which the fov'reign fummon'd Palamon. Then, helpless, in his mother's lap is laid. Unknowing of the cause, he took his way, He creeps, he walks, and, issuing into man, Mournful in mind, and still in black array. Grudges their life from whence his own began; The monarch mounts the throne, and, plac'd Reckless of laws, affects to rule alone, on high,

Anxious to reign, and restless on the throne; Commands into the court the beauteous Emily. First vegetive, then feels, and reafons last; So call'd, the came; the senate role, and paid Rich of three fouls, and lives all three to waste. Becoming rev'rence to the royal maid.

Somc thus; but thousands more in flow'r of

age ; And forft lost whispers thro’ th’assembly went ; For few arrive to run the latter stage. With filcnt wonder then they watch'd th’cvent. Sunk in the first, in battle fome are flain, All hushid, the king arose with awful grace ; And others whelm'd beneath the story main, Deep thought was in his brcast, and counsel in What makes all this, but Jupiter the king, his face.

At whole command we perith and we spring? Ac length he figh’d; and, having first prepar'd Then 'tis our best, since thus ordain'd to die, Th’attentive audience, thus his will declar'd: To make a virtue of necessity.

The cause and spriog of motion, from above, Take what he gives, since to rebel is vain; Hung down on carth the golden chain of love; The bad grows better, which we well sustain ; Great was th'effect, and high was his intent, And could we chuse the time, and chuse aright, When peace among the jarring seeds he fent. 'Tis best to dic, our honour at the height. Fire, food, and carth, and air, by this were bound, When we have done our ancestors no ihaine, And love, the common link, the new creation But ferv'd our friends, and well secur'd our fame, crown'd.

Then should we wilh our happy life to close, The chain still holds, for, tho' the forms decay, And Icare no more for fortune to dispose. Eternal matter never wears away:

So should we make our death a glad relief The same first Mover certain bounds has plac'd, From future shame, from sickness, and from griefi. How long those perishable forins shall last: Enjoying while we live the prefent hour, Nor can they last beyond the time aflign'd And dying in our excellence and Aow'r. By that all-feeing and all-making Mind : Then round our death-bed ev'ry friend should Shorten their hours they may; for will is free; And joyous of our conquest early won; [run, But never pass th’appointed destiny.

While the malicious world, with envious tears So men opprefs’d, when weary of their breath, Should grudge our happy end, and with it theirs. Throw out the burden, and suborn their death. Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, Then, since thofe forms begin, and have theirend, Why should we mourn, that he fo foon is freed, On some unalter'd cause they sure depend : Or call untimely what the Gods decreede Parts of the whole arc we; but God the whole, With grief as just a friend may be deplor'd, Who gives us life and animating foul ; From a foul prison to free air.restor'd. For nature cannot from a part derive

Ought he to thank his kintinen or his wife, That being which the whole can only give : Could tears recal him into wretched life? He perfect, stable; but imperfect we,

Their forrow hurts themselves; on hiin ’ris lost; Subject to change, and diff'rent in degree; And, worse than both, ofends his happy ghost.. Plants, beafts, and man; and, as our organs are, What then remains, but, after paft annoy, We more or lefs of his perfcction share. To take the good vicillitude of joy? But by a long descent, th’etherial fire

To thank the gracious Gods for what they giver" Corrupts; and forms, the mortal part, expire. Postess our fouls, and, while we live, to live? As he withdraws his virtue, so they pass ; Ordain we then, two sorrows to combine, And the same matter makes another mals. And in one point th’extreines of grief to join;

Thas

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That thence resulting joy may be renew'd, Or various atoms, interfering dance,
As jarring notes in harmony conclude.

Leap'd into form, the noble work of chance;
Then I propole that Palamon shall be

Or this Great All was from eternity;
In marriage join'd with beauteous Emily; Not ev'n the Stagirite himself could see ;
For which already I have gain'd th’allent And Epicurus guess'd as well as he ;
Of my free people in full parliament.

As blindly grop'd they for a future state;
Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, As rafhly judg’d of providence and fate.
And well dcterv'd, had fortune done him right. But least of all could their endeavours find
'Tis time to mnend her fault; lince Emily

What moft concern'd the good of human kind;
By Arcite's death from former vows is free. For happiness was never to be found,
If you, fair fifter, ratify th'accord,

But vanish'd from them like enchanted ground
And take him for your husband and your lord, One thought content the good to be enjoy'd :
'Tis no dishonour to confer your grace

This very little accident destroy'd:
On one descended from a royal race ;

The wiser madmen did for virtue toil:
And were he less, yet years of service paft A thorny, or at best a barren soil :
From grateful fouls exact reward at last. In pleasure some their glutton fouls would steep;
Pity is Heav'n's and yours; nor can the find But found their line too short, the well to deep;
A throne fo soft as in a woman's mind. And leaky vessels which no bliss could keep.
He said; she blush'd; and, as o'eraw'd by might, Thus anxious thoughts in endless circles roll,
Seem'd to give Theseus what she gave the knight. Without a centre where to fix the soul :
Then turning to the Theban, thus he faid; - In this wild maze their vain endeavours end :
Small arguments are ncedful tó persuade

How can the lets the greater comprehend ?
Your temper to comply with my command; Or finite reafon reach Infinity?
And speaking thus, he gave Emilia's hand.

For what could fathom God were more than He.
Smild Venus, to behold her own true knight

The Deift thinks he atands on firmer ground;
Obtain the conqueft, tho' he lost the fight; Cries sügsxa, the mighty fecret's found:
And blets'd with nuptial blifs the sweet labo- God is that spring of good ; supreme, and beft;
rious night.

We made to ferve, and in that service bleft.
Eros and Anteros on either side, [bride ; If so, fome rules of worship must be giv’n,
One fir'd the bridegroom, and one warm’d the Distributed alike to all by Heav'n :
And long attending Hymnen, from above, Elic God were partial, and to fome deny'd
Show'r'd on the bed the whole Idalian grove. The means his justice should for all provide.
All of a tenor was their after-life,

This gen’ral worship is to praise and pray.
No day discolour'd with domestic strife; One part to borrow blessings, one to pay:
No jealousy, but mutual truth believ'd, And when frail nature Nides into offence,
Secure report, and kindness undeceiv'd. The sacrifice for crimcs is penitence.
Thus Heav'n, beyond the compass of his thought, Yet, since th'effects of providence, we find,
Sent him the bleiting he so dearly bought. Are var'ously dispens’d to human kind :

So may the Queen of Love long duty bless, That vice triuinphs, and virtue suffers here,
And all true lovers find the fame fuccess. A brand that fov’reign justice cannot bear ,

Our reason prompts us to a future Itate:
The last appeal from fortune and from fare ;

Where God's all-righteous ways will be declar'd; § 28. Religio Laici. DRYDEN.

The bad meet punishment, the good reward.

Thus man by his own strength to heav'n would

And would not be oblig'd to God for more. [foar; DIM as the borrow'd beams of moon and stars Yain wretched creature, how art thou misled.

To lonely, weary, wand'ring travellers, To think thy wit these god-like notions bred !
Is reason to the foul; and as on high,

Thele truths are not the product of thy mind,
Those rolling fires discover but the sky, But dropt from heav'n, and of a noblér kind.
Not light us here, so reason's glimm’ring ray Reveal'd religion first inforın’d thy light,
Was lert, not to assure our doubtful way, And reason law not till faith sprung the light
But guide us upward to a better day.

Hence all thy nat'ral worship takes the fource;
And as those nightly tapers disappear

'Tis revelation, what thou think'st discourse.
When day's bright lord afcends our hemisphere, Else how com't thou to see thele truths foclear,
So pale grows reason at religion's fight; Which so obfcure to heathens did appear?
So dies, and so diffolves in fupernat'ral light, Not Plato thcte, nor Ariitotle found;
Some few, whose lamp thone brighter, have Nor he whole wisdom oracles renown'd.
been led,

Haft thou a wit so deep, or so sublime,
From caufe to cause, to nature's secret head, Or canst thou lower dive, or higher cliinb :
And found that one first principle must be ; Canst thou by reason more of godhead know
But what, or who, that univerlal He;

Than Plutarch, Sencca, or Cicero?
Whether some foul encompatling this ball, Those giant wits in happier ages born,
Vamade, unior'd; yet making, moving all; When arins and arts did Greece and Ro.ne adorn,

Kuci

AN EPISTLE.

plain,

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With Socrates may see their Maker's face, Which thus transmitted, if one mouth has fail'd, While thousand rubric nartyrs want a place. Immortal lyes on ages are intail d:

Nor does it baulk my charity, to find And that some such have been; is prov'd too Th’Egyptian bishop of another mind; For though his creed eternal truth contains, If we consider int'reft, church, and gain. 'Tis hard for man to doom to endless pains O but, says one, tradition set aside, All who believ'd not all his zeal requir'd, Where can we hope for an unerring guide ? Unless he first could prove he was inspird ! For since th’original scripture has been lost, Then let us either think he meant to say All copies disagreeing, maim'd the most, This faith, where publish'd, was the only way; Or christian faith can have no certain ground, Or else conclude that, Arius to confute,

Or truth in church-tradition mutt be found. The good old man, too eager in dispute,

Such an omniscient church we wish indeed : Flew highs and as his christian fury rose, 'Twere worth both Testaments; cast in the creed: Damn'd all for heretics who durft oppole. But if this mother be a guide fo fure,

Thus far my charity this path has try'd, As can all doubts resolve, all truth secure, A much unskilful, but well-meaning guide : Then her infallibility, as well Yet what they are, ev'n these crude thoughts Where copies are corrupt or lame, can tell ; were bred

Restore lost canon with as little pains, By reading that which better thou hast read. As truly explicate what still remains: Thy matchless author's work; which thou, my Whichyet no council dare pretend to do; By well translating better dost commend; [friend, Unless, like Efdras, they could write it new : Those youthful hours which of thy equals most Strange confidence still to interpret true, In toys have squander'd, or in vice have lost, Yet not be sure that all they have explain'd Thole hours halt thou to nobler use employ’d; Is in thc bleit original contain'd. And the severe delights of truth enjoy'd. More safe, and inuch more modest 'tis, to say Witness this weighty book, in which appears God would not leave mankind without a way The crabbed toil

of many thoughtful years, And that the scriptures tho' not ev'rywhere Spent by thy author, in the fifting care Free from corruption, or intire, or cicar, Of rabbins old sophisticated ware

Arc uncorrupt, fufficient, clear, intire, From gold divine; which he who well can fort In all things which our needful faith require. May afterwards make algebra a sport.

If others in the same glats better see, A treasure, which, if county-curates buy, 'Tis for themselves they look, but not for me i They Junius and Tremilius may defy;

For my falvation must its doom receive, Save pains in various readings, and translations, Not from what others, but what I believe. And, without Hebrew, make most learn'd quo- Must all tradition then be set aside : tations.

This to affirm were ignorance or pride. A work so full with various learning fraught, Are there not many points, some needful fure So nicely ponder’d, yet so strongly wrought, To faving faith, that fcripture leaves obscure ? As nature's height and art's last hand requir'd; Which ev'ry fect will wrest a sev'ral way; As much as man could compass, uninspir’d. For what one fect interprets, all fects may. Where we may see what errors have been made Wehold, and say we.prove from fcripture plain, Both in the copyers and translators trade ; That Christ is God; the bold Socinian How Jewish, Popish, int'rests have prevailid, From the same scripture urges he's but man. And where infallibility has fail'd.

Now what appeal can end th’important suit? For some who have his secret meaning guess’d, Both parts talk loudly, but the rule is iute. Have found our author not too much a priest : Shall I speak plain, and in a nation free For fashion's fake he seems to have recourse Asume an honest layman's liberty? To pope, and councils, and tradition's force: I think, according to my little skill, But he that old traditions could subdue, To my own mother church submitting still, Could not but find the weakness of the new : That many have been sav'd, and many may, If scripture, tho' deriv'd from heav'nly birth, Who never heard this question brought in play. Has been but carelessly preferv'd on carth; Th’unletter'd Christian, who believes in gross, If God's own people, who of God before Plods on to heav'n; and ne'er is at a loss : Know what we know, and bad been promis'd For the straight gate would be made straighter In fuller terms of Heav'n's assisting care, [inore, yet, And who did neither time nor study spare Were none admitted there but men of wit. To keep this book untainted, unperplext, The few by nature forin'd, with learning fraught, Let in gross errors to corrupt the text,

Born to instruct, as others to be taught, i Omitted paragraphs, embroil'd the sense, Must study well the sacred page, and lec

With vain traditions stopt the gaping tence, Which doctrine, this or that, does best agree
Which ev'ry.common hand pull'd up with ease, With the whole tenor of the work divine,
What safety from such brushwood-helps as thete? And plainliest points to Heav'n's reveald design;
If written words from time are not secur’d, Which expolition flows from genuine lente;
How can we think bave oral Counds endur'd? And which is forc'd by wit and cloquence.

Not

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