FOR THE USE OF THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AT OLNEY [Written Aug., 1789. Published 1808.]
HEAR, LORD, the song of praise and pray'r,
In Heav'n, thy dwelling place,
From infants made the public care,
And taught to seek thy face!
Thanks for thy word, and for thy day;
And grant us, we implore,
Never to waste in sinful play
Thy holy sabbaths more.
Thanks that we hear,—but Oh, impart
To each desires sincere,
That we may listen with our heart,
And learn, as well as hear.
For if vain thoughts the minds engage
What hope that, at our heedless age,
Our minds should e'er be free?
Much hope, if thou our spirits take
Under thy gracious sway,
Who canst the wisest wiser make,
And babes as wise as they.
Wisdom and bliss thy word bestows,
A sun that ne'er declines,
And be thy mercies show'r'd on those
Who plac'd us where it shines.
5 thy day] this day 1808.
[Title-page and dedication of Bull's edition.]
Translated from the French
MADAME DE LA MOTHE GUION,
NOT INSERTED IN HIS WORKS.
NEWPORT-PAGNEL,
Printed and Sold by J. Wakefield;
sold also by
T. WILLIAMS, 10, STATIONERS' COURT, LONDON.
THE NATIVITY
POEME HEROIQUE.-VOL. 4, § 4.
[The translations from Madame Guion were written during the first six months of 1782, at the request of William Bull. They were first published by Bull in 1801, from a fair copy presented to him by Cowper (see notes at the end of the volume for Bull's preface). The Ash MSS. contain copies of all the translations except Living Water, and Acquiescence of Pure Love; but the readings of the 1801 edition, except where misprinted, must almost always be preferred to those of the MSS., which are all earlier drafts, many being full of interlineations and erasures. The most interesting verbal variants are given in the footnotes. A MS. of Scenes Favourable to Meditation, enclosed in a letter to Unwin, is in the British Museum.]
"TIS Folly all—let me no more be told
Of Parian porticos, and roofs of gold;
Delightful views of Nature dress'd by Art,
Enchant no longer this indiff'rent heart;
The Lord of all things, in his humble birth,
Makes mean the proud magnificence of Earth;
The straw, the manger, and the mould'ring wall,
Eclipse its lustre; and I scorn it all.
Canals, and fountains, and delicious vales,
Green slopes, and plains whose plenty never fails;
Deep-rooted groves, whose heads sublimely rise, 11
Earth-born, and yet ambitious of the skies;
Th' abundant foliage of whose gloomy shades,
Vainly the sun in all its pow'r invades ;
Where warbled airs of sprightly birds resound;
Whose verdure lives while winter scowls around;
Rocks, lofty mountains, caverns dark and deep,
And torrents raving down the rugged steep;
Smooth downs, whose fragrant herbs the spirits
Meads, crown'd with flow'rs; streams musical and 20
Whose silver waters, and whose murmurs, join
Their artless charms, to make the scene divine;
The fruitful vineyard, and the furrow'd plain,
That seems a rolling sea of golden grain;
All, all have lost the charms they once possess'd;
An infant God reigns sov'reign in my breast;
From Bethl'em's bosom I no more will rove;
There dwells the Saviour, and there rests my love.
Ye mightier rivers, that with sounding force
Urge down the valleys your impetuous course! 30
3 views... Art] scenes where nature vies with Art A. 6 proud] vain A. 12 Affect the clouds, and push into the skies A. 14 The sun, in all his pow'r, in vain
13 The plenteous A. invades A.
Winds, clouds, and lightnings! and ye waves, whose heads
Curl'd into monstrous forms, the seaman dreads !
Horrid abyss, where all experience fails,
Spread with the wreck of planks and shatter'd sails ;
On whose broad back grim Death triumphant rides,
While havock floats on all thy swelling tides,
Thy shores a scene of ruin, strew'd around
With vessels bulged, and bodies of the drown'd!
Ye Fish, that sport beneath the boundless waves,
And rest, secure from man, in rocky caves; 40
Swift darting sharks, and whales of hideous size,
Whom all th' aquatic world with terror eyes!
Had I but Faith immoveable and true,
I might defy the fiercest storm, like you:
The world, a more disturb'd and boist'rous sea,
When Jesus shows a smile, affrights not me;
He hides me, and in vain the billows roar,
Break harmless at my feet, and leave the shore.
Thou azure vault, where, through the gloom of
night,
Thick sown, we see such countless worlds of light!
Thou Moon, whose car, encompassing the skies, 51
Restores lost nature to our wondring eyes;
Again retiring, when the brighter Sun
Begins the course he seems in haste to run!
Behold him where he shines! His rapid rays,
Themselves unmeasur'd, measure all our days;
Nothing impedes the race he would pursue,
Nothing escapes his penetrating view,
A thousand lands confess his quick'ning heat,
And all he cheers, are fruitful, fair, and sweet.
Far from enjoying what these scenes disclose,
I feel the thorn, alas! but miss the rose;
Too well I know this aching heart requires
More solid good to fill its vast desires;
In vain they represent his matchless might
Who call'd them out of deep primaeval night;
Their form and beauty but augment my woe:
I seek the Giver of those charms they show ;
Nor, him beside, throughout the world he made,
Lives there, in whom I trust for cure or aid.
Infinite God, thou great unrivall❜d ONE! Whose glory makes a blot of yonder sun; Compar'd with thine, how dim his beauty seems, How quench'd the radiance of his golden beams! 59 quick'ning] 66 out of deep] forth from black A.
44 I might defy] My soul would brave A.
Thou art my bliss, the light by which I move;
In thee alone dwells all that I can love;
All darkness flies when thou art pleas'd t' appear,
A sudden spring renews the fading year;
Where e'er I turn, I see thy power and grace
The watchful guardians of our heedless race;
Thy various creatures in one strain agree,
All, in all times and places, speak of thee;
Ev'n I, with trembling heart and stammering
tongue,
Attempt thy praise, and join the gen'ral song.
Almighty Former of this wondrous plan,
Faintly reflected in thine image, Man,
Holy and just, the greatness of whose name
Fills and supports this universal frame,
Diffus'd throughout th' infinitude of space,
Who art thyself thine own vast dwelling-place; 90
Soul of our soul, whom yet no sense of ours
Discerns, eluding our most active pow'rs;
Encircling shades attend thine awful throne,
That veil thy face, and keep thee still unknown;
Unknown, though dwelling in our inmost part,
Lord of the thoughts, and Sov'reign of the heart!
Repeat the charming truth that never tires,
No God is like the God my soul desires;
He at whose voice heav'n trembles, even He,
Great as he is, knows how to stoop to me;
Lo! there He lies,—that smiling Infant said,
“Heav'n, Earth, and Sea, exist!”—and they obey'd.
Ev'n He whose Being swells beyond the skies,
Is born of woman, lives, and mourns, and dies;
Eternal and Immortal, seems to cast
That glory from his brows, and breathes his last.
Trivial and vain the works that man has wrought,
How do they shrink and vanish at the thought!
Sweet Solitude, and scene of my repose!
This rustic sight assuages all my woes.-
That crib contains the Lord whom I adore;
And Earth's a shade, that I pursue no more.
He is my firm support, my rock, my tow'r,
I dwell secure beneath his shelt'ring pow'r,
And hold this mean retreat for ever dear,
For all I love, my soul's delight, is here.
I see th' Almighty swath'd in infant bands,
Tied helpless down, the Thunder-bearer's hands!
And in this shed that mystery discern,
Which Faith and Love, and they alone, can learn. 84 Attempt] Aim at A.
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