Must I then forward only look for Death?

Backward I turn mine eye, and find him there.

710

Mar. is a self-survivor every year.

Man, like a stream, is in perpetual flow.
Death's a destroyer cf quotidian prey :
My youth, my noontide, his; my yesterday:
The bold invader shares the present hour:
Each moment on the former shuts the grave.
While man is growing, life is in decrease,
Ard cradles rock us nearer to the tomb,
Our birth is nothing but our death begun :
As tapers waste that instant they take fire.

715

720

Shall we then fear lest that should come to pass, Which comes to pass each moment of our lives? If fear we must, let that Death turn us pule Which murders strength and ardour; what remains Should rather call on Death, thar. dread his call. 725 Ye partners of my fault, and my decline! Thoughtless of death, but when your neighbour's knell (Rude visitant!) knocks hard at your dull sense, And with its thunder scarce obtains your car! Be death your theme, in every place and hour;

Nor longer want, ye monumental sirus!

A brother tomb to tell you-you shall die.
That death you dread, (so great is Nature's skill!)
Know you shall court, before you shall enjoy.

730

But you are learn'd: in volumes deep you sit, 735 In wisdom shallow. Pompous ignorance! Would you be still more learned than the learn'd? Learn well to know how much need not be known,

And what that knowledge which impairs your sense. Our needful knowledge, like our needfu! food, Unhedged, lies open in Life's common field,

740

And bids all welcome to the vital feast.

You scorn what lies before you in the page

Of Nature and Experience, moral truth;

Of indispensable, eternal fruit;

745

Fruit, or which mortals feeding, turn to gods,.

And dive in science for distinguish'd names,
Dishonest fomentation of your pride,

Sinking in virtue as you rise in fame.

Your learning, like the lunar beam, affords
Light, but not heat; it leaves you undevout,
Frozen at heart, while speculation shines.
Awake, ye curious indagators! fond
Of knowing all, but what avails you known.
If you would learn Death's character, attend.

750

755

All casts of conduct, all degrees of health,
All dies of fortune, and all dates of age,
Together shook in his impartial urn,

Come forth at random; or, if choice is made,

The choice is quite sarcastic, and insults

760

All bold conjecture and fond hopes of man,
What countless muititudes not only leave,
But deeply disappoint us, by their deaths!
Though great our sorrow, greater our surprise.
Like other tyrants, Death delights to smite

What, smitten, most proclaims the pride of power
And arbitrary nod. His joy supreme,

To bid the wretch survive the fortunate;

The feeble wrap the' athletic in his shroud;

765

And weeping fathers build their children's tomb: 770

Me thine, Narcissa!-What, though short thy date?
Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures.
That life is long which answers life's great end.
The time that bears no fruit deserves no name.
The man of wisdom is the man of years.

In hoary youth Methusalems may dic;
O how misdated on their flattering tombs!
Narcissa's youth has lectured me thus far :

And can her gaiety give counsel too?
That, like the Jews' famed oracle of gems,
Sparkles instruction; such as throws new light,
And opens more the character of Death,
Ill known to thee, Lorenzo! this thy vaunt!-
Give Death his due, the wretched and the old;

775

730

E'en let him sweep his rubbish to the grave;
Let him not violate kind Nature's laws,

But own man born to live as well as die.—

785

Wretched and old thou givest him; young and gay

He takes; and plunder is a tyrant's joy.

What if I prove, the farthest from the fear

Are often nearest to the stroke of Fate "

All, more than common, menaces an end.

A blaze betokens brevity of life:

790

As if bright embers should emit a flame,

Glad spirits sparkled from Narcissa's eye,

And made Youth younger, and taught Life to live.
As Nature's opposites wage endless war,

For this offence, as treason to the deep
Inviolable stupor of his reign,

Where lust and turbulent ambition sleep,
Death took swift vengeance.

As he life detests,

More life is still more odious; and, reduced

By conquest, aggrandizes more his power.

But wherefore aggrandized By Heaven's decree
To plant the soul on her eternal guard,

In awful expectation of our end.

795

800

805

Thus runs Death's dread commission: Strike, but so As most alarms the living by the dead.'

Hence stratagem delights him, and surprise,

And cruel sport with man's securities.

810

Not simple conquest, triumph is his aim;

And where least fear'd, there conquest triumphs most.
This proves my bold assertion not too bold.

What are his arts to lay our fears asleep?
Tiberian arts his purposes wrap up
In deep Dissimulation's darkest night.

815

Like princes unconfess'd in foreign courts,

Who travel under cover, Death assumes

The name and look of Life, and dwells among us :

He takes all shapes that serve his black designs: 820

Though master of a wider empire far

Than that o'er which the Roman Eagle flew,

Like Nero, he's a fiddler, charioteer :
Or drives his phaëton in female guise;

Quite unsuspected, till, the wheel beneath,

His disarray'd oblation he devours.

825

He most affects the forms least like himself,
His slender self: hence burly corpulence
Is his familiar wear, and sleek disguise.
Behind the rosy bloom he loves to lurk,
Or ambush in a smile; or, wanton, dive
In dimples deep; Love's eddies, which draw in
Unwary hearts, and sink them in despair.
Such on Narcissa's couch he loiter'd long
Unknown, and when detected, still was seen
To smile such peace has Innocence in death!
Most happy they, whom least his arts deceive '
One eye on Death, and one full fix'd on Heaven,
Becomes a mortal and immortal man.
Long on his wiles a piqued and jealous spy,
I've seen, or dream'd I saw, the tyrant dress,

830

835

840

Lay by his horrors, and put on his smiles.
Say, Muse! for thou remember'st, call it back,
And show Lorenzo the surprising scene;

If 'twas a dream, his genius can explain.

845

'Twas in a circle of the gay I stood:

Death would have enter'd; Nature push'd him back.

Supported by a doctor of renown,

His point he gain'd; then artfully dismiss'd

The sage; for Death design'd to be conceal'd:

850

He gave an old vivacious usurer

His meagre aspect, and his naked bones,
In gratitude for plumping up his prey,
A pamper'd spendthrift, whose fantastic air,
Well fashion'd figure, and cockaded brow,
He took in change, and underneath the pride
Of costly linen tuck'd his filthy shroud.
His crooked bow he straightened to a cane,
And hid his deadly shafts in Myra's eye.
The dreadful masquerader thus equipp'd,

855

860

Outsallies on adventures. Ask you where?
Where is he not? For his peculiar haunts
Let this suffice; sure as night follows day,

Death treads in Pleasure's footsteps round the world,

When Pleasure treads the paths which Reason shuns.

When against Reason, Riot shuts the door,

866

And Gaiety supplies the place of Sense,

Then, foremost at the banquet and the ball,

Death leads the dance, or stamps the deadly die,

Nor ever fails the midnight bowl to crown.

870

Gaily carousing to his gay compeers,

Inly he laughs to see them laugh at him,

As absent far; and when the revel burns,

When Fear is banish'd, and triumphant Thought,

875

Calling for all the joys beneath the inoon,
Against him turns the key, and bids him sup
With their progenitors-he drops his mask,
Frowns out at full: they start, despair, expire.
Scarce with more sudden terror and surprise,
From his black mask of nitre, touch'd by fire,
He bursts, expands, roars, blazes, and devours.
And is not this triumphant treachery,
And more than simple conquest, in the fiend?

And now, Lorenzo, dost thou wrap thy soul

880

Rouse, stand in arms, nor lean against thy spear,

Lest slumber steal (ne moment o'er thy soul

And Fate surprise thec nodding. Watch, be strong; Thus give each day the merit and renown

Of dying well, though doom`d but once to die; 895
Nor let life's period, hidden, (as from most)
lide, too, from thee the precious use of life
Early, not sudden, was Narcissa's fate: