Scarcely an ill to human life belongs,
But what our follies cause, or mutual wrongs;
Or if some stripes from Providence we feel,
He strikes with pity, and but wounds to heal;
Kindly perhaps sometimes afflicts us here,
To guide our views to a sublimer sphere,
In more exalted joys to fix our taste,
And wean us from delights that cannot last.
Our present good the easy task is made,
To earn superior bliss, when this shall fade;
For, soon as e'er these mortal pleasures cloy,
His hand shall lead us to sublimer joy;
Snatch us from all our little sorrows here,
Calm ev'ry grief, and dry each childish tear;
Waft us to regions of eternal peace,
Where bliss and virtue grow with like increase;
From strength to strength our souls for ever guide
Thro' wond'rous scenes of Being yet untry'd,
Where in each stage we shall more perfect grow,
And new perfections, new delights bestow.
Oh! would mankind but make these truths their guide, And force the helm from prejudice and pride;
Were once these maxims fix'd, that God's our friend, Virtue our good, and happiness our end,
How soon must reason o'er the world prevail,
And error, fraud, and superstition fail!
None wou'd hereafter then with groundless fear
Describe th' Almighty cruel and severe,
Predestinating some without pretence
To Heav'n, and some to Hell for no offence;
Inflicting endless pains for transient crimes,
And favoring sects or nations, men or times.
To please him none would foolishly forbear
Or food, or rest, or itch in shirts of hair,
Or deem it merit to believe or teach
What reason contradicts, or cannot reach
None would fierce zeal for piety mistake,
Or malice for whatever tenets' sake,
Or think salvation to one sect confin'd,
And heaven too narrow to contain mankind.
• All this may apply to Stewart's transmutations.]
No more then nymphs, by long neglect grow nice, Would in one female frailty sum up vice, And censure those, who, nearer to the right, Think virtue is but to dispense delight."
No servile tenets would admittance find,
Destructive of the rights of human kind;
Of power divine, hereditary right,
And non-resistance to a tyrant's might:
For sure that all should thus for one be curs'd,
Is but great Nature's edict just revers'd.
No moralists then, righteous to excess,
Would show fair Virtue in so black a dress,
That they, like boys, who some feign'd spright array,
First from the spectre fly themselves away;
No preachers in the terrible delight,
But chose to win by reason, not affright;
Not, conjurers like, in fire and brimstone dwell,
And draw each moving argument from hell.
No more our sage interpreters of laws
Wou'd fatten on obscurities and flaws,
But rather, nobly careful of their trust,
Strive to wipe off the long contracted dust,
And be, like Hardwicke, guardians of the just.
No more applause would on ambition wait,
And laying waste the world be counted great,
But one good natur'd act more praises gain
Than armies overthrown, and thousands slain;
No more would brutal rage disturb our peace,
But envy, hatred, war, and discord cease;
Our own and others good each hour employ,
And all things smile with universal joy;
Virtue with Happiness her comfort join'd,
Wou'd regulate and bless each human mind,
And man be what his Maker first design'd.
Yet true it is, survey we life around,
Whole hosts of ills on ev'ry side are found;
Who wound not here and there by chance a foe,
But at the species meditate the blow.
These lines mean only, that censoriousness is a vice more odious than unchastity; this always proceeding from malevolence; that sometimes from too much good nature and compliance.
What millions perish by each other's hands
In War's fierce rage? or by the dread commands
Of tyrants languish out their lives in chains,
Or lose them in variety of pains?
What numbers pinch'd by want and hunger die,
In spite of Nature's liberality?
(Those, still more num'rous, I to name disdain,
By lewdness and intemperance justly slain)
What numbers guiltless of their own disease
Are snatch'd by sudden death, or waste by slow degrees?
Virtue enables man, let us confess,
To bear those evils which she can't redress,
Gives hope, and conscious peace, and can assuage
Th' impetuous tempests both of lust and rage;
Yet she's a guard so far from being sure,
That oft her friends peculiar ills endure:
Where vice prevails severest is their fate,
Tyrants pursue them with a three-fold hate;
How many struggling in their country's cause,
And from their country meriting applause,
Have fall'n by wretches fond to be enslav'd,
And perish'd by the hands themselves had sav'd?
Soon as superior worth appears in view,
See knaves and fools united to pursue!
The man so form'd they all conspire to blame,
And envy's pois'nous tooth attacks his fame:
Shou'd he at length, so truly good and great,
Prevail, and rule with honest views the state,
Then must he toil for an ungrateful race,
Submit to clamor, libels, and disgrace,
Threaten'd, oppos'd, defeated in his ends,
By foes seditious, and aspiring friends,
We say not that these ills from Virtue flow;
Did her wise precepts rule the world, we know
The golden ages would again begin ;
But 'tis our lot in this to suffer, and to sing
The laws of life, why need I call to mind,
Obey'd by birds and beasts of ev'ry kind?
By all the sandy desert's savage brood,
And all the num'rous offspring of the flood;
Of these none uncontroll'd, and lawless rove,
But to some destin'd end spontaneous move:
Led by that instinct Heav'n itself inspires,
Or so much reason as their state requires :
See all with skill acquire their daily food,
All use those arms, which Nature has bestow'd ;
Produce their tender progeny, and feed
With care parental, whilst that care they need;
In these lov'd offices completely blest,
No hopes beyond them, nor vain fears molest,
Man o'er a wider field extends his views :
God thro' the wonders of his works pursues;
Exploring thence his attributes, and laws,
Adores, loves, imitates th' Eternal Cause;
For sure in nothing we approach so nigh
The great example of Divinity,
As in benevolence: the patriot's soul
Knows not self-center'd for itself to roll,
But warms, enlightens, animates the whole :
Its mighty orb embraces first his friends,
His country next, then man; nor here it ends,
But to the meanest animal descends.
Wise Nature has this social law confirm'd
By forming man so helpless, and unarm'd ;
His want of others' aid, and pow'r of speech
T'implore that aid, this lesson daily teach;
Mankind' with other animals compare,
Single, how weak and impotent they are!
But view them in their complicated state,
Their pow'rs how wond'rous, and their strength how
When social virtue individuals joins,
And in one solid mass, like gravity, combines !
This then 's the first great law by Nature giv'n,
Stamp'd on our souls, and ratify'd by Heav'n;
All from utility this law approve,
As ev'ry private bliss must spring from social love.
Why deviate then so many from this law?
See passions, custom, vice and folly draw!
Survey the rolling globe from east to west
How few, alas! how very few are blest!
Beneath the frozen Poles, and burning Line,
What poverty and indolence combine
To cloud with Error's mists the human mind?
No trace of man, but in the form we find.
Nor know I not how much a conscious mind
Avails to punish, or reward mankind;
Ev'n in this life thou, impious wretch, must feel
The Fury's scourges, and th' infernal wheel;
From man's tribunal tho' thou hop'st to run,
Thyself thou can'st not, nor thy conscience shun·
What must thou suffer when each dire disease,
The progeny of Vice, thy fabric seize ?
Consumption, fever, and the racking pain
Of spasms, and gout, and stone, a frightful train!
When life new tortures can alone supply,
Life thy sole hope thou'lt hate, yet dread to die.
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