Nature, thy daughter, ever-changing birth
Of thee the great Immutable, to man
Speaks wisdom; is his oracle supreme;
And he who most consults her is most wise.
Lorenzo! to this heavenly Delphos haste,
And come back all immortal, all divine.
Look Nature through, 'tis revolution all;

All change, no death: day follows night, and night The dying day: stars rise, and set, and rise:

676

Earth takes the' example. See, the Summer gay, 680
With her green chaplet and ambrosial flowers,
Droops into pallid Autumn: Winter gray,
Horrid with frost, and turbulent with storm,
Blows Autumn and his golden fruits away,

Then melts into the Spring: soft Spring, with breath
Favonian, from warm chambers of the south,
Recals the first. All, to reflourish, fades:

686

As in a wheel, all sinks to reascend:

Emblems of man, who passes, not expires.

With this minute distinction, emblems just,

690

Nature revolves, but man advances; both

Eternal: that a circle, this a line :

That gravitates, this soars. The' aspiring soul,
Ardent and tremulous, like flame, ascends,
Zeal and humility her wings, to Heaven.
The world of matter, with its various forms,
All dies into new life. Life born from Death
Rolls the vast mass, and shall for ever roll.

695

No single atom, once in being, lost,

With change of counsel charges the Most High. 700 What hence infers Lorenzo? Can it be?

Matter immortal? and shall spirit die?

Above the nobler shall less noble rise?

Shall man alone, for whom all else revives,
No resurrection know? shall man alone,
Imperial man! be sown in barren ground,
Less privileged than grain on which he feeds!
Is man, in whom alone is power to prize
The bliss of being, or, with previous pain,

705

Deplore its period, by the spleen of Fate,
Severely doom'd Death's single unredeem'd?
If Nature's revolution speaks aloud
In her gradation, hear her louder still.
Look Nature through, 'tis neat gradation all.
By what minute degrees her scale ascends!
Each middle nature join'd at each extreme;
To that above it join'd, to that beneath.
Parts into parts reciprocally shot,

710

715

Abhor divorce. What love of union reigns!
Here dormant matter waits a call to life;

720

Half-life, half-death, join there : here life and sense,

There sense from reason steals a glimmering ray;
Reason shines out in man. But how preserved
The chain unbroken upward, to the realms
Of incorporeal life? those realms of bliss,

725

And part ethereal grant the soul of man

Where Death hath no dominion? Grant a make
Half-mortal, half immortal; earthy part,

:

Eternal, or in man the series ends.

Wide yawns the gap; connexion is no more;

730

Check'd Reason halts; her next step wants support;

Striving to climb, she tumbles from her scheme,

A scheme Analogy pronounced so true;

Analogy! man's surest guide below.

Thus far all Nature calls on thy belief; And will Lorenzo, careless of the call, False attestation on all Nature charge,

735

Rather than violate his league with Death?

Renounce his reason, rather than renounce

The dust beloved, and run the risk of Heaven?

740

O what indignity to deathless souls!

What treason to the majesty of man!

Of man immortal! hear the lofty style:

'If so decreed, the' Almighty Will be done.

Let earth dissolve, yon ponderous orbs descend,

745

And grind us into dust. The soul is safe;
The man emerges; mounts above the wreck

As towering flame from Nature's funeral pyre:
O'er devastation, as a gainer, smiles;
His charter his inviolable rights,

Well pleased to learn from Thunder's impotence,
Death's pointless darts, and Hell's defeated storms.
But these chimeras touch not thee, Lorenzo!
The glories of the world thy sevenfold shield.
Other ambition than of crowns in air,

And superlunary felicities,

Thy bosom warms. I'll cool it, if I can;

And turn those glories that enchant, against thee.
What ties thee to this life proclaims the next.

750

755

If wise, the cause that wounds thee is thy cure.
Come, my Ambitious! let us mount together,

760

(To mount Lorenzo never can refuse!)

And from the clouds, where Pride delights to dwell, Look down on earth.-What seest thou? wondrous

things!

Terrestrial wonders, that eclipse the skies.

What lengths of labour'd lands; what loaded seas!
Loaded by man for pleasure, wealth, or war!
Seas, winds, and planets, into service brought,
His art acknowledge, and promote his ends.
Nor can the' eternal rocks his will withstand:
What level'd mountains! and what lifted vales!
O'er vales and mountains sumptuous cities swell,
And gild our landscape with their glittering spires.
Some mid the wondering waves majestic rise,
And Neptune holds a mirror to their charms.
Far greater still! (what cannot mortal might?)
See wide dominions ravish'd from the deep!
The narrow'd deep with indignation foams
Or southward turn, to delicate and grand,
'The finer arts there ripen in the Sun.
How the tall temples, as to meet their gods,
Ascend the skies! the proud triumphal arch
Shows us half heaven beneath its ample bend.

765

770

775

780

High through mid air, here streams are taught to flow

785

790

Whole rivers there, laid by in basons, sleep.
Here plains turn oceans; there vast oceans join,
Through kingdoms channel'd deep from shore to shore.
And changed Creation takes its face from man.
Beats thy brave breast for formidable scenes,
Where fame and empire wait upon the sword?
See fields in blood; hear naval thunders rise;
Britannia's voice! that awes the world to peace.
How yon enormous mole projecting breaks
The mid-sea, furious waves! their roar amidst
Outspeaks the Deity, and says, ' O Main!
Thus far, nor farther; new restraints obey.'
Earth's disembowel'd! measured are the skies!
Stars are detected in their deep recess !
Creation widens! vanquish'd Nature yields !
Her secrets are extorted! Art prevails!
What monument of genius, spirit, power!

795

800

And now, Lorenzo! raptured at this scene, Whose glories render heaven superfluous! say, Whose footsteps these ?-Immortals have been here Could less than souls immortal this have done? Earth's cover'd o'er with proofs of souls immortal, And proofs of Inmortality forgot.

To flatter thy grand foible, I confess

These are Ambition's works; and these are great:
But this, the least immortal souls can do,

805

81C

Transcends them all.-But what can these transcend'
Dost ask me what?-one sigh for the distress'd.
What then for Infidels? a deeper sigh.

/ "Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty man!

815

How little they, who think aught great below!
All our ambitions Death defeats but one,
And that it crowns.-Here cease we; but ere long,
More powerful proof shal! take the field against thee,
Stronger than death, and smiling at the tomb.

PART II.

THE INFIDEL RECLAIMED.

CONTAINING THE

NATURE, PROOF, AND IMPORTANCE OF IMMORTALITY

:

PREFACE.

As we are at war with the power, it were well if we were at war with the manners of France. A land of levity is a land of gui.t. A serious mind is the native soil of every virtue, and the single character that does true honour to mankind. The soul's immortality has been the favourite theme with the serious of all ages. Nor is it strange it is a subject by far the most interesting and important that can enter the mind of man. Of highest moment this subject always was, and always will be yet this its highest moment seems to admit of increase at this day; a sort of occasional importance is super.. added to the natural weight of it, if that opinion which is advanced in the Preface to the preceding Night be just. It is there supposed that all our Infidels (whatever scheme, for argument's sake, and to keep themselves in countenance, they patronize) are betrayed into their deplorable error by some doubt of their immortality at the bottom: and the more I consider this point, the more I am persuaded of the truth of that opinion. Though the distrust of a futurity is a strange error, yet it is an error into which bad men may naturally be distressed; for it is impossible to bid defiance to final ruin, without some refuge in imagination, some presumption of escape. And what presumption is there? there are but two in Nature; but two within the compass of human thought; and these are, -That either God will not or cannot punish. Considering the divine attributes, the first is too gross to be digested by our strongest wishes; and, since Omnipotence is as much a divine attribute as Holiness, that God cannot punish is as absurd a supposition as the former. God certainly can punish, as long as wicked men exist. In nonexistence, therefore, is their only refuge; and, consequently, nonexistence is their strongest wish; and strong wishes have a strange influence on our opinions; they bias the judgment in a manner almost incredible. And since, on this member of their alternative there are some very small appearances in their favour, and none at all