She 'midst the light'ning's blaze, and thunder's found,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groth'd the ground,
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To Pow'r unfeen, and mightier far than they :
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft abodes:
Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjuft,
Whose attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride.
Then facred feem'd th'ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew Marble then, and reek'd with gore;
Then firft the Flamen tafted living food;
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
With heav'n's own thunders fhook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.
FOR Forms of Government let fools conteft
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft:
For Modes of Faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right;
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity :
All must be falfe that thwart this One great End:
And all of God, that blefs Mankind, or mend.
Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives;
The ftrength he gains is from th'embrace he gives.
On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the Sun;
So two confiftent motions act the Soul,
And one regards Itself, and one the Whole.
Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,. And bad Self-love and Social be the fame.
OH HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim! Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy
That fomething ftill which prompts th'eternal figh,.
For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool and wife:
Plant of celestial feed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvefts of the field?
Where grows where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil:
Fix'd to no fpot is happiness fincere,
"Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where;
'Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.
Ask of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind:
This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind;
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these ;
Some funk to Beafts, find Pleasure end in Pain;
Some fwell'd to Gods, confefs e'en Virtue vain ;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all..
Who thus define it, fay they more or less Than this, that Happiness is Happiness ?
Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Eafe.
Remember, Man, "the Univerfal Caufe "Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;?? And makes what Happiness we justly call. Subfift not in the good of one, but all.
ORDER is Heav'n's firft Law; and this confeft, Some are, and must be, greater than the reft, More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence That füch are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their Happiness:
But mutual wants this Happiness increase;
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumftance is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame in fubject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
One common bleffing, as one common foul.
But Fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, must not all conteft?
If then to all Men Happiness was meant,
God in Externals could not place Content,
IBID. p. 85.
THE TRUE REWARDS OF VIRTUE. "BUT fometimes Virtue ftarves, while Vice is
What then? Is the reward of Virtue bread ?
That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;
The knave deferves it, when he tills the foil;
The knave deferves it, when he tempts the main,.
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be ind,
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 "Pow'r?"
Add Health and Pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing, "Why bounded Pow'r? why private? why no
Nay, why external for internal giv'n?
Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heav'n?
Who afk and reafon thus, will scarce conceive
God gives enough, while he has more to give;
Immenfe the pow'r, immense were the demand;
Say, at what part of nature will they stand?
What nothing earthly gives, or can deftroy, The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy, Is Virtue's prize: a better would you fix? Then give Humility a coach and fix,
Justice a Conq'ror's fword, 'or Truth a gown,
'Or Public Spirit its great cure, a Crown.
Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward us there
With the fame trash mad mortals with for here ?
The Boy and Man an individual makes ;
Yet figh'ft 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 fuch trifles are affign'd,
As toys and empires, for a godlike mind.
IBID. p. 89.
THE VANITY OF HUMAN ACQUI SITIONS.
HONOUR and shame from no Condition rife; Act well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in Men has some small diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
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