Net w poffeft can raise it; worlds deftroy'd Till ftumbling at a straw, in their career, Lure; which hold on its glorious courfe, Headlong they plunge, where end both dance ene, O nature, ends; too bleft to mourn and fong? ma'subiequies. What treasure, this! Tarch is a beggar to the man.
§ 242 immortality. TAL! ages paft, yet nothing gone! adut evej a race without a goal! by progreffion infinite! never future! life
rail, where computation ends! ription of a Deity! #cription of the meanest flave.
what can frike the fenfe fo ftrong, heiul? it thunders to the thought; zes; gratitude o'erwhelms; ure we dumber on the brink of fate; the found, th' exulting foul afcends, thes her native air; an air that feeds ig, and fans ethereal fires; *kres all that is divine within us;
ne loitering thought beneath the was but one immortal, how [ftars.] esenvy! Low would thrones adore! common, is the bleffing loft?
Are there on earth (let me not call them men) Who lodge a foul immortal in their breasts; Unconscious as the mountain of its ore, Or rock, of its ineftimable gem? [thefe When rocks fhali melt, and mountains vanish, Shall know their treasure; treasure, then, no
§ 244. Disbelief of a Future State. ARE there (ftill more amazing!) who refift The rifing thought? who mother in its
The glorious truth? who ftruggle to be brutes? Who thro' this bofom-barrier burst their way, Wholabour downwards thro'th'oppofingpow'rs, And, with rever'd ambition, strive to fink? Of instinct, reason, and the world against them, To difmal hopes, and fhelter in the fhock Who fight the proofs of immortality? Of endless night? night darker than the grave's?
To contradict them fee all nature rife! What object, what event, the moon beneath, But argues, or endears, an after-scene?
up the bounteous hand of Heaven!To reafon proves, or weds it to defire?
, vain all elfe: eternity! , and a needful refuge that, onment in abject views. ty, 'tis that alone,
spas, abafements, emptiness, An comfort, elevate, and fill. ending covers all;
dance, cafts her into fhades; butions; abrogates her pow'rs; vity, joyous, and fevere, frowns, and fafcinating fmiles, No one proticuous, and neglected heap, beh, if I may call him man,
lity's full force infpires. trial touches his high thought; Lenteen, and thunders roll unheard, gute confcious of their high defcent, at province, and their future prize; carting upward every wish, the wing, in glorious abfence lost. you this truth? why labours your be-
whole orb by fome due distanc'd eye ce, her tow ring alps would fink, Atlas leave an even sphere. and all that earthly minds admire, din eternity's vaft round.
ndous view when fouls awake, ate, fo mountainous to man,
Tubfide; and equal all below.
243. Yo ignorant of his real Greatness. are of the truths the mufe has fung, wrap the world fo clofe about Strofarther than the clouds; and dance es vanity's fantastic toe,
All things proclaim it needful; fome advance One precious ftep beyond, and prove it fure. A thousand arguments fwarm round my pen, From heaven, and earth, and man. Indulge a By nature, as her common habit worn. [few,
Thou! whofe all-providential eye furveys, Whofe hand directs, whofe Spirit fills, and warms Eternity's inhabitant auguft! Creation, and holds empire far beyond!
One paft, ere man's, or angel's, had begun; Of two eternities amazing Lord! Aid, while I refcue from the foe's afïault Thy glorious immortality in man.
§ 245 Man's Immortality proved by Nature. NATURE, thy daughter, ever-changing birth Of thee the great Immutable, to man Speaks wifdom; is his oracle fupreme; And he who moft confults her, is moft wife. Look nature through, 'tis revolution all. [night All change, no death. Day follows night; and The dying day; ftars rife, and fet, and rife; Earth takes th' example. See the fummer gay, With her green chaplet, and ambrofial flow'rs, Droops into pallid autumn, winter grey, Horrid with froft, and turbulent with ftorm, Blows autumn, and his golden fruits away, Then melts into the spring; foft fpring, with breath
Favonian, from warm chambers of the fouth, Recalls the firft. All, to re-fourish, fades: As in a wheel, all finks, to re-afcend: Emblems of man, who paffes, not expires.
With this minute distinction, emblems juft, Nature revolves, but man advances; both Eternal, that a circle, this a line.
No fault, but in defect: bleft Heav'n! a A bounded ardour for unbounded blifs. O for a blifs unbounded! far beneath A foul immortal, is a mortal joy. deathNor are our powers to perish immature; But, after feeble effort here beneath, A brighter fun, and in a nobler foil, Tranfplanted from this fublunary bed, Shall fourth fair, and put forth all their bl
That gravitates, this foars. Th' afpiring foul Ardent, and tremulous, like flame afcends; Zeal, and humility, her wings to heaven. The world of matter, with its various forms, All dies into new life. Life born from Rolls the vaft mafs, and fhall for ever roll. No fingle atom, once in being, lost, With change of counfel charges the Moft High. Matter, immortal? and fhail fpirit die? Above the nobler, fhall lefs noble rife? Shall man alone, for whom all elfe revives, No refurrection know? thall man alone, Imperial man! he fown in barren ground,
$247. Reafon and Infint.
REASON progreffive, inftin&t is complete;
Leis privileg'd than grain, on which he feeds? | Swift inftinct leaps; flow reafon
Is man, in whom alone is power to prize The blifs of being, or with previous pain Deplore its period, by the fpleen of fate Severely doom'd death's fingle unredeem'd?
Brutes foon their zenith reach; their litt Flows in at once; in ages they no more Could know, or do, or covet, or enjoy. Was man to live coëval with the fun, The patriarch-pupil would be learning ftil Yet, dying, leave his leffon half unlearnt. Men perith in advance, as if the fun Should fet ere noon, in eaftern oceans drov To man, why, ftepdame nature, so fevere? Whythrownafide thymatter-piece half-wro While meaner efforts thy laft hand enjoy Or, if abortively poor man muft die, Ed Nor reach, what reach he might, why d Why curft with forefight? wife to mitery Why of his proud prerogative the prey Why lefs pre-eminent in rank than pain- His immortality alone can tell, eafe,Full ample fund to balance all amifs, And turn the fcale in favour of the juft.
§ 246. NIGHT VII. Dijcontent. WHY difcontent for ever harbour'd there? Incurable confumption of our peace! Refolve me, why, the cottager, and king, He whom fea-fever'd realms obey, and he Who fteals his whole dominion from the wafte, Repelling winter's blaft, with mud and itraw, Difquieted alike, draw tigh for figh, In fate fo diftant, in complaint fo near.
Is it, that things terreftrial can't content? Deep in rich pafture, will thy flocks complain? Not fo; but to their matter is deny`d
To fhare their fweet forene. Man, ill at In this, not his own place, this foreign field, Where nature fodders him with other food Than was ordain'd his cravings to fuffice, Poor in abundance, famith'd at a fealt, Sighs on for foraething more, when molt enjoy 'd. Is heaven then kinder to thy flocks, than thee? Not fo; thy pafture richer, but remote; In part, remote; for that remoter part Man bleats from inftinét,tho',perhaps,debauch'd By fenfe, his reafon fleeps, nor dreams the caufe. The caufe how obvious, when his reafon wakes! His grief is but his grandeur in difguife; And difcontent is immortality.
Shall fons of ather, fhall the blood of heav'n, Set up their hopes on earth, and stable here, With brutal acquiefcence in the mire? No, no, my friend: they shall be nobly pain'd; The glorious foreigners diftreft, fhall figh On thrones, and thou congratulate the figh: Man's mifery declares him born for blifs; His anxious heart afferts the truth I fing. Our heads, our hearts, our paffions, and our pow'rs,
Speak the fame language; call us to the skies. Unripen'd thefe in this inclement clime, Scarce rife above conje&ture, and mistake; And for this land of trifles, those too strong, Tumultuous rife, and tempeft human life; What prize on earth can pay us for the ftorm? Meet objets for our paffions Heav'n ordain'd, Objects that challenge all their fire, and leave
His immortality alone can solve That darkest of enigmas, human hope; Of all the darkeft if at death we die. Hope, eager hope, th' afaffin of our joy, All prefent blefings treading under foot, Is fcarce a milder tyrant than defpair. With no paft toils content, ftill planning ne Hope turns us o'er to death alone for ea1e. Poffeffion, why more taiteiefs than purfurt? Why is a with far dearer than a crown? That with accomplish'd, why the grave of bl Because in the great future bury'd deep, Beyond our plans of empire, and renown, Lies all that man with ardour thould purine And he who made him, bent him to the rig
Man's heart th Almighty to the future! By fecret and inviolable iprings; And makes his hope his fublunary joy. Man's heart eats all things, and is hungry "More, more, the glutton cries:" for fometh So rages appetite, if man can't mount, He will defcend. He ftarves on the poffet Hence the world's mafter, from ambition's In Caprea plung'd; and div'd beneath the br In that rank fly why wallow'd empire's fon Supreme. Because he could.no higher fly; His riot was ambition in defpair.
See reies hope, for ever on the wing! pedo'er ev'ry thought that falcon fits, The that rifes in her fight;
ver tooping, but to mount again! Ker moment, the betrays her aim's mistake, was her quarry lodg'd beyond the grave. Trefold it fail us (it muft fail us there, g) more mournful riddles rise, te vies with hope in mystery. Where its praise, its being, fled? Ve felf-intereft purfu'd; White felf-int`ret of quite mortal man 3 with all that makes him happy here, fometimes) is our friend on earth, That is virtue, 'tis our fov'reign good. Tegid guardian of a blameless heart, a reverd, fo long reputed wife,
with rank knight-errantries o'errun. tes thy bofom with illuftrious dreams at enterprize, and glorious death? y country?-thou romantic fool! the plank thyself; and let her fink! what to thee? (I fpeak with awe) wed, what? tho' he should bid thee bod, thy final hope is split,[bleed? Cipotence reward the blow, ve thy being; disobey.
The Madness of Infidelity. recompente is doubtful, here, eshly, well may we demand,
fed to be good in vain? be good in vain, is man enjoin'd? ed in vain, is man betray'd? rators lodged in his own breaft, Ancies from virtue felt? ure lies on virtue's part? (which affumes the name ace) plays the fool in man, me accomplice in the cheat? wie, loudeft in her praise? Crain's beam be led aftray? , imitate his God? temetimes ruins us on earth,
, or man furvives the grave, rvives the grave, or own, Lorenzo, preme, a wild abfurdity.
pirit, cowards are thy scorn. taortal, and thy scorn is just. tal, rationally brave, Cha death, because he cannot die. ball, when life is lost,
As (and fuch there are, comple, lucre, rage, revenge, Cal defect of thought), Cadmen, most deserves a chain.
And strenuous to transcribe, in human life, The mind almighty? could it be, that fate, Juft when the lineaments began to fhine, [ever? Should fnatch the draught, and blot it out for Shall we, this moment, gaze on God in man? The next, lofe man for ever in the duft? From duft we difengage, or man mistakes; And there, where leaft his judgment fears a flaw. Wifdom, and worth, how boldly he commends! Wifdom and worth are facred names; rever'd; Where not embrac'd; applauded! deify'd! Why not compaflion'd too? If fpirits die, Both are calamities, inflicted both,
To make us but more wretched, wisdom's eye Acute, for what? To fpy more miferies; And worth, fo recompens'd, new points their ftings:
Or man the grave furmounts, or gain is lofs, And worth exalted humbles us the more. Were then capacities divine conferr'd, As a mock-diadem, in falvage-sport, Rank infult of our pompous poverty, [fair? Which reaps but pain, from feeming claims fo In future age lies no redrefs? and fhuts Eternity the door on our complaint? If fo, for what strange ends were mortals made? The Worft to wallow, aud the best to weep. Can we conceive a difregard in heaven, What the worst perpetrate, or beft endure?
This cannot be. To love, and know, in man Is boundless appetite, and boundless pow'r; And thefe demonftrate boundlefs objects too. Objects, pow'rs, appetites, heav'n fuits in all; Nor, nature thro', e'er violates this sweet, Eternal concord, on her tuneful ftring. Is man the fole exception from her laws? Eternity ftruck off from human hope, Man is a monster, the reproach of heav'n, A ftain, a dark impenetrable cloud On nature's beauteous afpect; and deforms, (Amazing blot!) deforms her with her lord.
Or own the foul immortal, or invert All order. Go, mock-majefty! go, man, And bow to thy fuperiors of the itall; Thro' ev'ry fcene of fenfe fuperior far: [stream They graze the turf untill'd; they drink the Unbrew'd, and ever full, and unimbitter'd With doubts, fears, fruitless hopes, regrets, de- fpairs,
Mankind's peculiar! reafon's precious dow'r! No foreign clime they ranfack for their robes, Nor brothers cite to the litigious bar: Their good is good entire, unmixt, unmarr`d; They find a paradife in ev'ry field,
On boughs forbidden, where no curfes hang; Their ill no more than strikes the sense, un-
We grave, we follow the renown'd By previous dread or murmur in the rear; ,, fcience, all we love, [beam When the worst comes, it comes unfear'd; on
we pae; for worth, whofe noontide ours of ethereal pow'rs;
Get in teach, and rottennefs the close?
that luftre of the moral world
Begins and ends their woe: they die but once; Bleft, incommunicable privilege!
For which who rules the globe, and reads the
wife to know, and warm to praise, Philofopher, or here, sighs in vain.
Account for this prerogative in brutes: No day, no glimpfe of day to folve the knot, But what beams on it from eternity. O fole and fweet folution! that unites The difficult, and foftens the fevere; The cloud on nature's beauteous face difpels; Reftores bright order; cafts the brute beneath; And re-inthrones us in fupremacy Of joy, ev'n here, admit immortal life, And virtue is knight-errantry no more: Each virtne brings in hand a golden dow'r, Far richer in reverfion: hope exults; And, tho' much bitter in our cup is thrown, Predominates, and gives the taste of heav'n. O wherefore is the Deity fo kind? Heav'n our reward-for heav'n enjoy'd below. Still unfubdu'd thy stubborn heart? For there The traitor lurks, who doubts the truth I fing: Reafon is guiltlefs; will alone rebels. What, in that ftubborn heart, if I fhould find New, unexpected witnesses against thee? Ambition, and the fatelefs love of gain! [foul Canft thou fufpect that thefe, which make the The flave of earth, fhould own her heir of heav'n?
Canft thou fufpect, what makes us disbelieve Our immorality, fhould prove it fure?
$250. Ambition and Fame. FIRST, then, ambition fummon to the bar: Ambition's fhame, extravagance, difguft, And inextinguishable nature, fpeak: Each much depofes; hear them in their turn. Thy foul how paffionately fond of fame! How anxious that fond pailion to conceal! We blush detected in designs on praise, Tho' for belt deeds, and from the best of men And why? because immortal. Art divine Has made the body tutor to the foul: Heav'n kindly gives our blood a moral flow; Bids its afcend the glowing cheek, and there Upbraid that little heart's inglorious aim, Which ftoops to court a character from man; While o'er us, in tremendous judgment, fit Far more than man, with endless praife, and
Ambition's boundless appetite out-fpeaks The verdict of its fhame. When fouls take fire At high prefumptions of their own defert, One age is poor applaufe; the mighty fhout, The thunder by the living few begun,
Of immortality. The firft in fame, Obferve him near, your envy will abates Sham'd at the difproportion vaft between The paffion, and the purchase, he will fig At fuch fuccefs, and blush at his renow And why? becaufe far richer prize invit His heart; far more illuftrious glory cal
And can ambition a fourth proof fupp It can, and stronger than the former thr Tho' ditappointments in ambition pain, And tho fuccefs difgufts, yet ftill we In vain to pluck it from us: man must ( An obftinate activity within,
An infuppreffive fpring will tofs him up In fpite of fortune's load. Not kings al Each villager has his ambition too: No Sultan prouder than his fetter'd fave Slaves build their little Babylons of strav Echo the proud Affyrian, in their hearts And cry,-" Behold the wonders of my m And why? because immortal as their lo And fouls immortal muit for ever heave At something great; the glitter, or the The praise of mortals, or the praife of he
§ 251. Avarice. THUS far ambition. What fays avarice This her chief maxim, which has long thine,
"The wife and wealthy are the fame." I To ftore up treasure, with inceffant toll, This is man's province, this his highe To this great end keen inttinet ftings To guide that instinct, reafon! is thy ck 'Tis thine to tell us where true treasure But reafon failing to discharge her truit, A blunder follows, and blind industry, O'erloading, with the cares of diftant ag The jaded fpirits of the prefent hour, Providing for eternity below.
Whence inextinguishable thirst of g From inextinguithable life in man: Man, if not meant by worth to reach the Had wanted wing to fly fo far in guilt. Sour grapes I grant ambition, avarice; Yet fil their root is immortality. Refine, exalt, throw down their pois ne Thefe its wild growths religion can reck And make them fparkle in the bowl of
Late time muft echo! worlds unborn refound: 252. Address to Unbelievers. We with our names eternally to live: [thought." KNOW all; know infidels, unapt to k Wild dream! which ne'er had haunted human Tis immortality your nature folves; Had not our natures been eternal 100. 'Tis immortality decyphers man, Inftinct points out an int'reft in hereafter; And opens all the myft'ries of his make But our blind reafon fees not where it lies; Without it half his inftinéts are a riddle Or, feeing, gives the substance for the shade. Without it, all his virtues are a dream Fame is the fhade of immortality, His very crimes atteft his dignity; And in itself a fhdew; foon as caught, His fatelefs appetite of gold, and fame, Contemn'd; it finks to nothing in the grafp. Declares him born for blettings infinite. Confult the ambitious; 'tis ambition's cure. What, lefs than infinite, makes unablur "And is this all?" cry'd Cefar at his height,Paflions, which all-on earth but more in Difgulted. This third proof ambition bringsFierce pathons to mifmeafur'd to this i
Confcience of guilt, is prophecy of pain, And bofom-counfel to decline the blow. Reafon with inclination ne'er had jarr'd, If nothing future paid forbearance here. Thus on-thefe, and a thoufand pleas uncall'd, All promife, fome infure, a fecond scene; Which, was it doubtful, would be dearer far Than all things elfe most certain; was it falfe, What truth on earth fo precious as the lie? This world it gives, in that high cordial, hope; This world it gives us, let what will enfue; The future of the prefent is the foul: How this life groans, when fever'd from the next! Poor, mutilated wretch, that difbelieves! By dark diftruft his being cut in two, In both part perithes; life void of joy, Sad prelude of eternity in pain!
endlefs questions be distrest, le, if earth is all. Ale, a moment; infinite, defire? nity; our home, the grave? ife dormant lies in human hope, e life immortal, proves it too. pine's purfu'd, tho' never found? of happiness declares it is, Lever gravitates to nought;) Vnquencht declares it is not here, friendhip rivetted so deep, pierce at firt, at parting, rend, friendship vanith in an hour? ment in the mask of joy? rfection marr'd the joys of fenfe! ad future, preying on our hearts, all our prefent joys to death? reafon inftinét were as well; Setter; what can choose, can err; le the thoughtless brute! inclination why at war? galt? whyconfcience up in arms?"
To night! to nothing! darker ftill than night. If 'twas a dream, why wake me, my worst foe? O for delufion! O for error still! [plant Could vengeance strike much stronger than to A thinking being in a world like this, Not over rich before, now beggar'd quite; More curft than at the Fall? The fun goes out! The thorns fhoot up! what thorns in ev'ry thought!
Why fenfe of better? it imbitters worse: Why fenfe? why life? if but to figh, then fink To what I was? twice nothing! and much woe! Woe, from heaven's bounties! woe, from what
To flatter molt, high intellectual pow'rs.
"Thought, virtue, knowledge! bleffings, by thy fcheme,
All poifon'd into pains. First, knowledge, once My foul's ambition, now her greatest dread. To know myfelf, true wifdom?-no, to fhun That fhocking fcience, parent of despair! Avert thy mirror; if I fee, I die.
"Know my Creator? Climb his bleft abode By painful fpeculation, pierce the veil, Dive in his nature, read his attributes, And gaze in admiration-on a foe, Obtruding life, withholding happiness? From the full rivers that furround his throne, Not letting fall one drop of joy on man; Man gafping for one drop, that he might ceife To-curte his birth, nor envy reptiles inste
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