Whatever shocks, or gives the least offence The baby seems to smile with added charms. And daily more enamour'd of the cheat, Such was Sir Isaac, and such Boyle and Locke: 9 Till, sinking in the quicksand he defends, Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill, Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, None sends his arrow to the mark in view, With caution taste the sweet Cireean cup; E Then laugh at all you trembled at before, Be damnable, then damn'd without excuse. --- Some dream that they can silence, when they will, The storm of passion, and say, " Peace, be still;" But "Thus far, and no farther," when address'd To the wild wave, or wilder human breast, Implies authority that never can, That never ought to be the lot of man. But, Muse, forbear; long flights forebode a fall: Strike on the deep-toned chord the sum of all. Hear the just law- -the judgment of the skies! He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies: And he that will be cheated to the last, Delusions strong as hell shall bind him fast. But if the wand'rer his mistake discern, Judge his own ways, and sigh for a return, Bewilder'd once, must he bewail his loss For ever and for ever? No-the Cross! There and there only, (though the deist rave, And atheist, if earth bear so base a slave,) There, and there only, is the power to save. There no delusive hope invites despair; No mockery meets you, no deception there. The spells and charms, that blinded you before, All vanish there, and fascinate no more. I am no preacher, let this hint suffice, TRUTH. THIS poem was partly composed while the Progress of Error still occupied the author's attention, being the second in order of his more extended productions. Its object is so clearly explained in the following extract, that, though from one of the letters already before the reader, it may be here repeated.* "I wrote that poem (Truth) on purpose to inculcate the eleemosynary character of the Gospel, as a dispensation of mercy, in the most absolute sense of the word, to the exclusion of all claims of merit on the part of the receiver; consequently to set the brand of invalidity upon the plea of works, and to discover, upon scriptural ground, the absurdity of that notion, which includes a solecism in the very terms of it, that man, by repentance and good works, may deserve the mercy of his Maker: I call it a solecism, because mercy deserved ceases to be mercy, and must take the name of justice. This is the opinion which I said in my last the world would not acquiesce in; but except this, I do not recollect that I have introduced a syllable into any of my pieces that they can possibly object to; and even this I have endeavoured to deliver from doctrinal dryness, by as many pretty things, in the way of trinket and plaything, as I could muster upon the subject." This obstinacy of a large proportion of mankind, who prefer trusting in their own most imperfect services to confiding, in humble faith, on the full and all-prevailing merits of a Saviour, Cowper farther endeavoured to conciliate by a means which did temporary injury to the cause. His fears on this point gave origin to Newton's preface-the general tone of which, by raising apprehensions of a rude attack upon themselves and their tenets, was calculated to deter such men from the volume altogether. "With respect," writes he, in a private letter, " to the poem * See Letter 80, Vol. I. page 104. called Truth, it is so true, that it can hardly fail of giving offence to an unenlightened reader. I think, therefore, that in order to obviate in some measure those prejudices that will naturally erect their bristles against it, an explanatory preface, such as you (and nobody so well as you) can furnish me with, will have every grace of propriety to recommend it." Cowper's fears were here, perhaps, too sensitive; but they seem to have been just. The poem is beautiful, yet has hitherto failed in obtaining the general approbation of critics, who pretend that the title raises expectations which are not fulfilled. This, we apprehend, arises from their having mistaken the object; which is not truth in the abstract, but truth as exemplified in à particular Christian doctrine- the insufficiency of works to man's salvation. In this the proper view, the poem is not only complete in its plan, but actually overflows in varied and happy illustration. The Popish anchorite-the Eastern fanatic-the sanctimonious prude-the philosopher and the lace-worker-the "heathen worthies". - the self-righteous and the humble believer before the judgment seat—the efficacy of the Cross,-all tend to enforce the main argument, and all are most finished, some sublime, sketches, considered in themselves, apart from their general propriety of sentiment and place. The poem has farther this high merit, that though treating of a subject decidedly controversial, it is so free from acrimony or partial Christianity, that the pious of either Protestant communion, Lutheran or Calvinist, may peruse it with edification and delight. |