535

With low, terreftrial appetite, to graze
On trah, on toys, dethron'd from high deûre?
Yet ftill, though their difgrace, no feeble ray
Of greatness thines, and tells us, whence they fell:
But thefe (like that fall'n monarch when reclaim'd)
When reafon moderates the rein aright, 540
Shall re-afcend, remount their former fphere,
Where once they foar'd illuftrious, ere fcduc'd
By wanton Eve's debauch, to ftroil, on earth,
And fet the fublunary world on fire.

But grant, their phirenfy lafts; their phrenfy
fails

To difappoint one providential end,

545

for which heaven blew up ardour in our hearts: Were reaf filent, boundless paffion speaks

A future fcene of boundles objects too,

And brings glad tidings of eternal day.
Eternal day! 'Tis that enlightens All;

And All, by that enlighten'd, proves it fure..
Consider man as an immortal being,
Intelligible All; and All is great;

493

A crystalline tranfparency prevails,

500

The witneffes are heard; the caule is o'er;
Let confcience file the fentence in her court.
Dearer than deeds that half a realm convey,
Thus leal'd by truth, th' authentic record runs.
"Know, All; know, infidels,unapt to know!

550

555

And ftrikes full luftre through the human fphere :
Confider man as mortal. All is dark,

And wretched; reafon weeps at the furvey.

The learn'd Lorenzo cries, "And let her weep, "Weak modern realon: Antient times were wife.

Authority, that venerable guide,

560

565

Stands on my part; the lam'd Athenian porch
(And who for wisdom to renown'd as they?)
Deny'd this immortality to man."
grant it; but affirm, they prov'd it too.
A riddle this rave patience; I'll explain.
What noble vanities, what moral flights,
Glittering through their romantic wildom's page,
Make us, at once, defpife them, and admire?
Fable is flat to thefe high-scafon'd fires;
They leave th' extravagance of fong below.
Flefh fhall not feel; or, feeling, thall enjoy
"The dagger or the rack; to them, alike
A bed of rofes, or the burning bull."
In men exploding all beyond the grave, 575
Strange doctrine, This! As doctrine, it was
ftrange;

570

Put not, as prophecy; for fuch it prov'd,
And, to their own amazement, was fulfill'd:
They feign'd a firmness Chriftians need not

feign.

The Christian truly triumph'd in the flame : 580
The Stoic faw, in double wonder loft,
Wonder at them, and wonder at Himfelf,
To find the bold adventurers of his thought,
Not bold, and that he trove to lye in vain.
Whence, then, thofe thoughts? Thofe tower-
ing thoughts, that flew

585 Such monitrous heights? From infinct, and from pride.

The glorious infind of a deathlefs foul,
Confas'dly confcious of her dignity,
Suggested truths they could not understand.
In luft's dominion, and in paffion's form,
Truth's fyftem broken, fcatter'd fragments lay,
As light in chaos, glimmering through the

Pleas'd pride proclaim'd, what reafon disbeliev’d.
Pride, like the Delphic prieftefs, with a fwell, 595
Rav'd nonfenfe, destin'd to be future sense,
When life immo tal, in full day, fhould fhine;
And death's dark foadores fly the gospel fun..
They fpoke, what nothing but immortal fouls
Could speak; and thus the truth they question'd,
prov'd.
600

"The future vani'd! and the prefent pain't?" Strange import of unprecedented ill!

ર

Fall, how profound! Like Lucifer's, the fall!
Unequal fate! His fall, without his guilt!
From where fand bope built her pavilion High,
"The gods among, hurl'd headlong, hurt dat once
To night! To nothing, darker still than night!
660
"If't was a dream, why wake me, my word For,
"Lorenza! boaftful of the name of Friend!

Can then abfurdities, as well as crimes,
Speak man immortal? All things fpeak him fo.
Much has been urg'd: and doft thou call for O for delusion! O for error still!

more?

"Could vengeance ftrike much stronger than to

66

plant

A thinking being in a world like This, 665 "Not over-rich before, now beggar'd quite; "More curft than at the full? The fun goes out!, "The thorns fhoot up! What thorns m every "thought b

Why life, a moment; infinite, defire? "Our wish, Eternity? our home, the Grave? "Heaven's promife dormant lies in human bope; "Who wifes life immortal, proves it too. Why happiness pursued, though never found?" 610

"Man's thirft of happiness declares. It is,

615

1

Why fenfe of better? It imbitters worse. "Why fenfe? why life? If but to figh, 'then fink 070

(For Nature never gravitates to nought); "That thirst unquench'd declares It is not Here. My Lucia, Thy Clariffa, call to thought; "Why cordial friendship rivetted fo deep, "As hearts to pierce at firft, at parting rend, "If friend, and friendship, vanish in an hour? "Is not This torment in the mask of joy? 26 Why by reflection marr'd the joys of fenfe? Why paft, and future, preying on our hearts, 620" "And putting all our present joys to death?

6251

up

To what I was! treice nothing! and much woe!
Woe, from heaven's bounties! woe from what

To flatter molt, high intellectual powers. Thought, virtue, knowledge bleflings, by thy "fcheme,

"All poifon'd into pains. First, knowledge, once 675 "My foul's ambition, now her greatest dread."

To know myself, true wifdom? No, to fhun "That fhocking science, parent of despair! Avert thy mirror, if I fee, I die.

"Know my Creator? Clime His bleft abode 680 By painful fpeculation, pierce the veil, "Dive in His nature, read His attributes, "And gaze in admiration-on a foe, in" Obtruding life, with-holding happiness! "From the full rivers that farround his throne,685 Not leuing fall one drop of joy on man; "Man gasping for one drop, that he might cease "To curfe his birth, nor envy reptiles more! "Ye fable clouds! ye darkest fhades of night! [690 "Hide Him, for ever hide Him, from my thought, "Once all my comfort; fource, and foul of joy! "Now leagu'd with furies, and with Thee, against me.

630

Confcience of guilt, is prophecy of pain,
And bofom-council to decline the blow.
Reafon with inclination ne'er had jarr'd,
If nothing future paid forbearance Here :
Thus on-Thefe, and a thousand pleas uncall'd,
All promife, fome enfure, a second scene;
Which, were it doubtful, would be dearer far
Than all things elfe moft certain; were it falfe. 635
What truth on earth fo precious as the lye?
This world it gives us, let what will enfue;
This world it gives, in that high cordial, bope:
The future of the prefent is the foul :

"Know His c'ievements? Study His renown? "Contemplate this amazing universe, "Dropt from His hand, with miracles replete! 695 "For what? 'Mid miracles of nobler name, "To find one miracle of mifery? "To find the Being, which alone can know "And praife His works, a blemish on His praife? "Through nature's ample range, in thought to "ftroll.

700 "And start at man, the fingle mourner There, Breathing high hope! chain'd down to pangs, " and death?

Could't thou perfuade me, the next life could"

"Ye towering hopes, abortive energies!
"That tofs and struggle, in my lying breaft,
"To fcale the fkies, and build prefumptions There,"
"As I were heir of an Eternity.
"Vain, vain ambitions! trouble me no more. 725
"Why travel far in quest of sure defeat?
"As bounded as my being, be my wish.
All is inverted, ruiflam is a fool.
"Senfe! take the rein; blind passion! drive us

on;

"And, ignorance! befriend us on our way; 730
"Ye new, but trueft patrons of our peace!
"Yes; give the pulfe full empire; live the brute,
"Since, as the brute, we die. The fun of man,
"Of Godlike man! to revel, and to rot.

"Come to my bosom, thou best gift of heaven! 780
"Beft friend of man! fince man is man no more.
Why in this thorny wilderness fo long,
"Since there's no promis'd land's ambrofial bower,
"To pay me with its honey for my ftings?
"If needful to the selfish schemes of heaven 785
"To fting us fore, why mockt our mifery?
"Why this fo fumptuous infult o'er our heads?
"Why this illuftrious canopy difplay'd?
"Why fo magnificently lodg'd defpair?
"At ftated periods, fure returning, roll
"Thefe glorious orbs, that mortals may compute
"Their length of labours, and of pains; nor lofe
"Their mifery's full measure? Smiles with

"flowers,

790

"But not on equal terms with other brutes: 735" And fruits, promifcuous, ever-teeming earth, "Their revels a more poignant relish yield, "That man may languish in luxurious fcenes, 795 "And fafer too; they never poisons choose. "And in an Eden mourn his wither'd joys?

"Inflinct, than reafon, makes more wholefome" Claim earth and fkies man's admiration, due

"meals,

740

"For Juch delights! Bleft animals! too wife "To wonder; and too happy to complain! [800 "Our doom decreed demands a mournful fcene: "Why not a dungeon dark, for the condemn'd? "Why not the dragon's fubterranean den, "For man to howl in? Why not his abode "Of the fame difmal colour with his fate? 745" A Thebes, a Babylon, at vaft expence

“And sends all-marring murmur far away.
For fenfual life they beft philofophize;
"Theirs, that ferene, the fages fought in vain:
"'Tis man alone expoftulates with heaven;
"His, all the power, and all the caufe, to mourn.
"Shall buman eyes alone diffolve in tears?
"And bleed, in anguish, none but buman hearts?
"The wide-ftretch'd realm of intellectual woe,
Surpaffing fenfual far, is All our Own,
In life fo fatally diftinguifh'd, why
"Caft in one lot, confounded, lump'd, in death?
"Ere yet in being, was mankind in guilt? 750
"Why thunder'd this peculiar claufe against us,
"All-mortal, and All-wretched!-Have the skies
"Reasons of state, their fubjects may not fcan,
"Nor bumbly reafon, when they forely figh?
"All-mortal, and All-wretched!-'Tis too much:

805

"Of time, toil, treasure, art, for owls and adders,
"As congruous, as, for man, this lofty dome,
"Which prompts proud thought, and kindles high
"defire;

"If, from her humble chamber in the dust,
"While proud thought fwells, and high defire
inflames,

"The poor worm calls us for her inmates there; 810
"And, round us, deatb's inexorable hand

Draws the dark curtain clofe; undrawn no

"more.

"Undrawn no more!-Behind the cloud of death, "Once, I beheld the fun; a fun which gilt 815 "That fable cloud, and turn'd it all to gold: How the grave's alter'd! Fathomiefs, as hell! A real hell to thofe who dreamt of heaven.

toil,"

"Then make our bed in darkness, needs no " Annihilation! How it yawns before me!

"thought.

760" Next moment I may drop from thought, from

"fenfe,

"What fuperfluities are reafoning fouls
"O give Eternity! or Thought deftroy.
"But without thought or curfe were half unfelt;
"Its blunted edge would fpare the throbbing heart;
"And, therefore, 'tis beftow'd, I thank thee, Reafon!" This particle of energy divine,

"The privilege of angels, and of worms,
" An out-cast from existence! and this fpirit,
"This all-pervading, this all-conscious foul,

"For aiding life's too fmall calamities,

766

And giving being to the dread of death. "Such are thy bounties!Was it then too much "For me, to trefpafs on the brutal rights? VOL. VIII.

829

"Which travels nature, flies from star to far, 825.
"And vifits gods, and emulates their powers,
"For ever is extinguifht. Horror! death!
"Death of that death I fearles, once survey'd!—

X X

880 Will the fwarm fettle? When the trumpet's

By wonders facred nature flood control'd; 980, The living were tranflated; dead were rais'd; Angels, and more than angels, came from heaven: And, oh! for this, defcended lower fill: Guilt was hell's gloom; aftonih'd at his guest, For one fhort moment Lucifer ador'd: Lorenzo and wilt thou do lefs?--For this, That baller'd page, fools fcoff at, was infpir'd, Of all thefe truths thrice venerable code! Deifs! perform your quarantine; and then Fall proftrate, ere you touch it, left you die.