Ye fable clouds! ye darkest fhades of night! Hide him, for ever hide him, from my thought, Once all my comfort; fource and foul of joy! "Know his achievements! ftudy his renown! Contemplate this amazing universe, Dropt from his hand, with miracles replete For what? 'Mid miracles of nobler naire, To find one miracle of mifery!
To find the being, which alone can know, And praise his works, a blemish on his praife? Thro'nature's ample range, in thought to ftray And start at man, the fingle mourner there, Breathing high hope! chain'd down to pangs, and death!
"Knowing is fuff'ring: and shall virtue fhare The figh of knowledge? virtue thares the figh. By training up the fleep of excellent, By battles fought, and from temptation won, What gains the, but the pang of feeing worth, Angelic worth, foon, fhuttled in the dark With ev'ry vice, and swept to brutal duft? "Duty; Religion! thefe, our duty done, Imply reward. Religion is mistake: Duty? there's none, but to repel the cheat. Ye cheats! away; ye daughters of my pride! Who feign yourfelves the fav'rites of the skies: Ye tow'ring hopes! abortive energies! That tofs and struggle in my lying breaft, To scale the skies, and build prefumption there, As I were heir of eternity;
Vain, vain ambitions! trouble me no more. As bounded as my being, be my wish. All is inverted, wifdom is a fool: Senfe! take the rein; blind passion! drive us on; And, ignorance! befriend us on our way; Yes; give the pulfe full empire; live the brute, Since, as the brute, we die: the sum of man, Of godlike man! to revel, and to rot.
"But not on equal terms with other brutes: Their revels a more poignant relish yield, And fafer too, they never poifons choofe. [meals, Inftinct, than reafon, makes more wholfoine] And fends all-marring murmur far away. For fenfual life they beft philofophize; Theirs, that ferene, the fages fought in vain: 'Tis man alone expoftulates with heav'n, - His, all the pow'r, and all the caufe to mourn. Shall human eyes alone diffolve in tears? And bleed, in anguish, none but human hearts? The wide-ftretcht realm of intellectual woe, Surpaffing fenfual far, is all our own. In life fo fatally diftinguish'd, why Caft in one lot, confounded, lumpt, in death? "And why then have we thought? Totoil and eat, [thought. Then make our bed in darknefs, needs no What fuperfluities are reas'ning fouls! Oh give eternity! or thought deftroy.- But without thought our curfe were half unfelt! Its blunted edge wouldfpare the throbbingheart; And therefore tis beftow'd. I thank thee, reafon, For aiding life's too fmall calaraities, 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? Too much for heav'n to make one emmet m Too much for chaos to permit my mass A longer stay with effences unwrought, Unfafhion'd, untormented into man? Wretched preferment to this round of pain Wretched capacity of phrenfy, thought! Wretched capacity of dying, life! Life,thought,worth,wisdom,all (oh foul revo Once friends to peace, gone over to the foe "Death then has chang'd its nature too
Come to my bofom, thou best gift of heav Bett friend of man! fince man is man no m Why in this thorny wilderness fo long, Since there's no promis'd land's ambrofial bo But why this fumptuous infult o'er our hea Why this illuftrious canopy difplay'd? Why to magnificently lodg'd defpair? At itated periods fure returning, roll, Thefe glorious orbs, that mortals may com; Their length of labours, and of pains; nor Theirmifery's full meafure?--fmiles with flow And fruits promifcuous, ever-teeming earth That man may languish in luxurious fcenes And in an Eden mourn his with'ring joys Claim earth and skies man's admiration, du For fuch delights! blest animals! too wife To wonder; and too happy to complain!
"Our doom decreed demands amournfullce Why not a dungeon dark for the condemn'di Why not the dragon's fubterranean den, For man to howl in? why not his abode Of the fame difmal colour with his fate? A Thebes, a Babylon, at vaft expence Of time, toil, treature, art, for owls and add As congruous, as, for man, this lofty dome Which prompts proud thought,and kindles defire,
If from her humble chamber in the duft, [fan While proud thought fwells, and high defire The poor worm calls us for her inmates the And round us death's inexorable hand Draws the dark curtain clofe; undrawn no m
"Undrawn no more? behind the cloud Once I beheld a fun; a fun which gilt [dea That fable cloud, and turn'd it all to gold: How the grave's alter'd! fathomlefs as hell! Annihilation! how it yawns before me! Next moment I may drop from thought, fr The privilege of angels, and of worms, An outcast from existence and this fpirit, This all-pervading, this all-confcious foul, This particle of energy divine, Which travels nature, flies from star to ftar, And vifits gods, and emulates their pow'rs, For ever is extinguifh'd. Horror! death! Death of that death I fearless once furvey'd, When horror univerfal thall defcend, And heaven's dark concave urn all human ra On that enormous, unrefunding tomb, How juft this verfe! this monumental figh! Beneath the lumber of demolish`d worlds, Of matter, never dignify'd with life,
Brad rationals; the fons of heav'n! Think of earth! the property of worms! in gelerday, and not to-morrow ! Fu ev'd in terror, and in pangs expir’d.” And at thou then a shadow?less than fhadow? Antag? leis than nothing? To have been,
Asi not to be, is lower than unborn.
ambitious? why then make the worm Tequal? runs thy talte of pleasure high? Wize ture death of every joy? Cares? why choose begg'ry in the grave, Obe a bankrupt! and for ever ? Paperaft? Andis there nought on earth La train of tranitory forms, Lad breaking, millions in an hour? Lot a fantastic lord, blown up
, and then in cruelty destroy'd? what crime, unmerciful Lorenzo, by fcheme the whole of human race? Latafell Lucifer compar'd to thee:
this waste of being half divine; A th' œconomy of heav'n,
The Annihilation of Men, incombe with the Goodness of God. Bad love; all joy in giving joy; had created, but to blefs; And it then strike off the lift of life, Age, or worthy fo to be?
farts at an annihilating God.
The Guilty alone wish for Annihilation. nature ftarts at, thy defire? sadaftɔ with thyfelfail clay? Wdreadful with the dying groan d by the blackest guilt: Warion has thy nature drank? Tedebauch'd no fhock fo great; Keith is endless happiness;
is an after-thought,
A with, unborn, till virtue dies. what depth of horror lies inclos'd! ence no man ever wifh'd, with'd the Deity destroy'd.
[ No spiritual Substance annihilated. ta omnipotence a naked root, a fair of Deity destroy'd ? dead; nay, nothing fleeps; each foul animated human clay,
; is on the wing: and when the call d trump collects us round heav'n's we balk in everlafting day. [throne, At this profpect fhines! how gloomy
A world! and a devouring God!
Where nought fubftantial, but our misery? A world, where dark, myfterious vanity Of good and ill the diftant colours blends, Confounds all reason, and all hope destroys; A world fo far from great (and yet how great It hines to thee!) there's nothing real in it, Being, a fhadow! confcioufnefs, a dream! A dream how dreadful! univerfal blank
Before it, and behind! poor man a spark From non-exiftence ftruck by wrath divine, Midft upper, nether, and surrounding night, Glitt'ring a moment, nor that moment fure, His fad, fure, fudden, and eternal tomb,
§ 259. The World a System of Theology. The fkies above proclaim immortal man, And man immortal all below refounds. The world's a fystem of theology, Read by the greateft ftrangers to the schools, If honeft, learn'd; and fages o'er a plough. What then is unbelief? 'tis an exploit: A ftrenuous enterprife: to gain it, man Must burst thro' ev'ry bar of common sense, Of common fhame, magnanimously wrong; And what rewards the turdy combatant? His prize, repentance; infamy, his crown.
§ 260. Virtue the Fruit of Immortality, THE virtues grow on immortality; That root deitroy'd, they wither and expire, A Deity believ'd will nought avail;
Rewards and punishments make God ador'd; And hopes and fears give confcience all her As in the dying parent dies the child, [pow'r, Virtue with immortality expires.
Who tells me he denies his foul immortal, Whate'er his boat, has told me, he's a knave. His duty, 'tis to love himself alone,
Nor care, tho' mankind perish, if he fmiles. [are
And are there fuch?-Such candidates there For more than death; for utter lofs of being; Is it in words to paint you? O ye fall'n! Fall'n from the wings of reason, and of hope! Erect in ftature, prone in appetite! Patrons of pleasure, pofting into pain! Boatters of liberty, falt-bound in chains! More fenfelefs than th' irrationals you scorn! Far more undone! O ye most infamous Of beings, from fuperior dignity! And are you, too, convinc'd, your fouls fly off In exhalation foft, and die in air, From the full flood of evidence against you? In the courfe drudgeries, and finks of fenfe, Your fouls have quite worn out the make of heav'n
By vice new-caft, and creatures of your own.
he fhambles of omnipotence! Bove stare all ftain'd with caufelefs maflacres ses millions, born to feel the pang THIS is free-thinking, unconfin'd to parts, f. Lorenzo, can it be! To fend the foul, on curious travel bent, dus fhudder at the thoughts of life. Thro' all the r rovinces of human thought, Was would be born to fuch a phantom world. To dart her fight,thro' the whole sphere of man;
To look on truth unbroken, and entire; Truth in the fyftem, the full orb; where truths By truths enlighten'd, and fuitain'd, afford An arch-like, ftrong foundation, to fupport Th' incumbent weight of abfolute, complete Conviction; here, the more we prefs, we ftand More firm; who moft examine, moft believe. Parts, like half fentences, confound; the whole Conveys the fenfe, and God is understood; Who not in fragments writes to human race; Read his whole volume, fceptic! then, reply. This, this is thinking free, a thought that grafps
Beyond a grain, and looks beyond an hour. Turn up thine eyes, furvey this midnight fcene; What are earth's kingdoms te yon boundless orbs Of human fouls, one day, the destin'd range? And what yon boundlefs orbs to godlike man? Thofenumerousworldsthat throngthe firmament. And atk more space in heaven, can roll at large In man's capacious thought, and still leave room For ampler orbs, for new creations, there. Can fuch a foul contract itself, to gripe A point of no dimenfion, of no weight? It can; it does: the world is fuch a point, And of that point how fmall a part enflaves. How fmall a part-of nothing, thall I fay ? Why not?-friends, our chief treasure? how they drop?
How the world falls to pieces round about us, And leaves us in a ruin of our joy! What fays this tranfportation of my friends? It bids me love the place where now they dwell, And fcorn this wretched fpot, they leave fo poor. Eternity's vait ocean lies before thee; Gave thy mind fea-room; keep it wide of earth, That rock of fouls inmortal; cut thy cord; Weigh anchor; fpread thy fails; call ev'ry wind; Eye thy great Pole-star: make the land of life."
$262. Rational and Animal Life. Two kinds of life has double-natur'd man, And two of death; the laft far more fevere. Life animal is nurtur'd by the fun; Thrives on its bounties, triumphs in its beams. Life rational fubfifts on higher food, Triumphant in his beams who made the day. When we leave that fun, and are left by this, (The fate of all who die in ftubborn guilt) 'Tis utter darknefs; ftrictly, double death. We fink by no judicial ftroke of heav'n, But nature's courfe; as fure as plummets fall. If then that double death fhould prove thy lot, Blame not the bowels of the Deity: Man fhall be bleft, as far as man permits. Not man alone, all rationals heav'n arms With an illuftrious, but tremendous, pow'r, To counteract its own moft gracious ends: And this, of ftrict neceflity, not choice. That pow'r deny'd, men, angels, were no more But pallive engines, void of praife, or blame. A nature rational implies the pow'r Of being bleft, or wretched, as we pleafe; Elfe idle reafon would have nought to do;
And he that would be barr'd capacity Of pain, courts incapacity of bliss. Heav'n wills our happinefs, allows our doc Invites us ardently, but not compels; Man falls by man, if finally he falls; And fall he muft, who learns from death a The dreadful fecret,-that he lives for ever
Why this to thee? thee yet perhaps in do Of fecond life: but wherefore doubtful it Eternal life is nature's ardent with: What ardently we wish, we foon believe: Thy tardy faith declares that with destroy' What has deftroy'd it ?—shall I tell thee, w When fear'd the future, 'tis no longer wi And when unwith'd, we ftrive to difbelieve
INSTEAD of racking fancy, to refute, $263. The Gospel. Reform thy manners, and the truth enjoy.- From purer manners, to fublimer faith, Is nature's unavoidable afcent;
An honeft deift, where the gofpel fhines, Matur'd to nobler, in the Chriftian ends. When that bleft change arrives; e'en caft. This fong fuperfluous; life immortal strik. Conviction, in a flood of light divine. A Chriftian dwells, like Uriel in the fun:
Meridian evidence puts doubt to flight; Read, and revere the facred page; a page And ardent hope anticipates the fkies. Where triumphs immortality; a page which not the conflagration fhall destroy; Which not the whole creation could produ In nature's ruins not one letter loit: "Tis printed in the minds of gods for ever.
264. The Mystery of a Future State, Argument against it. STILL feems it ftrange, that thou should for ever?
Is it lefs ftrange, that thou shouldst live at This is a miracle; and that no more. Who gave beginning, can exclude an end; Deny thou art, then, doubt if thou shalt be A miracle, with miracles inclos'd, What lefs than wonders from the wonderfu Is man! and ftarts his faith at what is ftren What lefs than miracles from God can flow Admit a God,-that mystery fupreme! That caufe uncaus'd! all other wonders ce
Nothing is marvellous for him to do: We nothing know, but what is marvellous Deny him-all is mystery befides. Yet what is marvellous, we can't believe. So weak our reafon, and fo great our God, What moft furprifes in the facred page, Or full as ftrange, or ftranger, must be true. Faith is not reafon's labour, but repose.
, at eternal war with man!
where most be domineers, chofen terrors frowning round, y feafted high at Albion's coft, 3, and loud roaring ftill for more! mirror! how dost thou reflect choly face of human life! emblance tempts me farther ftill: Britain may be deeper ftruck B, in fuch a mirror feen,
ve holds for ever at her eye. , unexperienc'd, high in hope, With fanguine cheer and streamers rable, launch into the world, [gay, dreameach wind and ftar our friend; darling enterprife embark'd: Bhe can fathom its event? damaltitude of artless hands, e perquilte! her lawful prize Sight: but the black blaft blows hard, Ps them wide of hope: with hearts of
They ftill are men ; and when is man secure? As fatal time as ftorm! the rush of years Beats down their ftrength: their numberless efcapes
In ruin end: and now their proud fuccefs But plants new terrors on the victor's brow: What pain to quit the world just made their own, Their neft fo deeply down'd, and built fo high! Too low they build, who build beneath the ftars.
§ 268. The Love of Diftinction. AMBITION ! pleasure! let us talk of thefe: Doft grafp at greatness? first know what it is: Think it thou thy greatnefs in diftinction lies? Not in the feather, wave it e'er fo high, Is glory lodg'd: 'tis lodg'd in the reverse; In that which joins, in that which equals all, The monarch, and his flave-"A deathlefs foul, Unbounded profpect, and immortal kin, A father God, and brothers in the skies!"
We wifely trip the fteed we mean to buy: Judge we, in their caparifons, of men? It nought avails thee, where, but what thou art; All the diftinctions of this little life
Are quite cutaneous, foreign to the man: [creep, Whenthro'death'sftreight searth'sfubtile ferpents Which wriggle into wealth, or climb renown, They leave their party-colour'd robe behind, All that now glitters, while they rear aloft Their brazen crefts, and hifs at us below: How mean that fnuff of glory fortune lights, And death puts out! doft thou demand a teft. A teft at once infallible and short,
Of real greatnefs? that man greatly lives, Whate'er his fate or fame, who greatly dies: High flush'd w'th hope, where heroes hall defpair.
§ 269. Pleasure. THOUGH fomewhat difconcerted, steady still To the world's cause, with half a face of joy, Lorenzo cries, "Be, then, ambition caft; Ambition's dearer far ftands unimpeach'd, Gay pleafure! proud ambition is her flave: Who can refift her charms ?"-Or, should? Lorenzo!
What mortal fhall refift, where angels yield? Pleafure's the miftrefs of etherial pow'rs; Plexure's the miftrefs of the world below: How would all ftagnate, but for pleasure's ray? What is the pulfe of this fo bufy world? The love of pleafure: that, through ev'ry vein, Throws motion, warmth; and huts out death from life.
Tho' various are the tempers of mankind, Pleafure's gay family holds all in chains. Some moft affect the black; and fome the fair : Whate'er the motive, pleafure is the mark: For her the black aflaflin draws his fword; Forher,dark itatefmen trim their midnight-lamp, To which no fingle facrifice may fall; The Stoic proud, for pleafure, pleasure scorn'd; For her, affliction's daughters grief indulge, L 4
And find, or hope, a luxury in tears : For her, guilt, thame, toil, danger, we defy, And, with an aim voluptuous, rush on death: Thus univerfal her defpotic pow'r.
Patron of pleature! I thy rival am; Pleafure, the purpofe of my gloomy fong. Pleasure is nought but virtue's gayer name- I wrong her ftill, I rate her worth too low : Virtue the root, and pleafure is the flow'r.
The love of pleasure is man's eldest-born, Born in his cradle, living to his tomb; Wisdom, her younger fifter, tho' more grave, Was meant to minifter, and not to mar Imperial pleasure, queen of human hearts.
$270. Rife of Pleasure. FIRST, pleasure's birth, rife, ftrength, grandeur fee, Brought forth by wifdom, nurs'd by difcipline, By patience taught, by perfeverence crown'd, She rears her head majeftic; round her throne, Erected in the bofom of the just,
Fach virtue, lifted, forms her manly guard ; For what are virtues? (formidable name!) What, but the fountain, or defence of joy? Great legiflator fcarce fo great as kind! If men are rational, and love delight, Thy gracious law but flatters human choice: In the tranfgreffion lies the penalty; And they the most indulge, who most obey.
$271. The End of Pleafure.
Of pleasure, next, the final cause explore; Its mighty purpose, its important end. Not to turn human brutal, but to build Divine on human, pleasure came from heay'n: In aid to reason was the goddess fent, To call up all its ftrength by fuch a charm. Pleasure first fuccours virtue; in return, Virtue gives pleasure an eternal reign. What, but the pleature of food, friendship, faith, Supports life natural, civil, and divine?" It ferves ourselves, our species, and our God; Glide then for ever, pleafure's facred ftream! Through Eden as Fuphrates ran, it runs, And folters ev'ry growth of happy life; Makes a new Eden where it flows.
§ 272. Virtue aud Piety.
"Is virtue, then, and piety the fame ?" No-piety is more; 'tis virtue's fource; Mother of ev'ry worth, as that of joy, With piety begins all good on earth; Confcience, her first law broken, wounded lies; Enfeebled, lifeless, impotent to good, A feign'd affection bounds her utmoft power. Some we can't love, but for the Almighty's fake; A foe to God was ne'er true friend to man. On piety, humanity is built; And, on humanity much happiness; And yet ftill more on piety ittelf. A Deity believ'd, is joy begun;
A Deity ador'd, is joy advanc'd; A Deity belov'd, is joy matur'd. Each branch of piety delight infpires: Faith builds a bridge from this world to the O'er death's dark gulph, and all its horror] Praife, the fweet exhalation of our joy, That joy exalts, and makes it fweeter ftill; Pray'r ardent opens heaven, lets down a fti Of glory, on the confecrated hour Of man, in audience with the Deity. Who worships the great God, that inftant The first in heav'n, and fets his foot on he
$273. Refources of a Dejected Mind. ART thou dejected is thy mind o'ercaft Thy gloom to chafe, go, fix fome wei truth;
[g Chain down fome paffion; do fome gen' Teach ignorance to lee; or grief to fmile; Correct thy friend; befriend thy greatest f Or, with warm heart, and confidence divin Spring up, and lay ftrong hold on him who r thee
Thy gloom is fcatter'd, fprightly fpirits flow Tho' wither'd is thy vine, and harp unftru
Doit call the bowl, the viol, and the dand Loud mirth,mad laughter? wretched comfort Phyficians! more than half of thy disease, Laughter, tho' never cenfur'd yet as fin, Is half-immoral. Is it much indulg'd? By venting fpleen, or diffipating thought, It fhews a fcorner, or it makes a fool; And fins, as hurting others, or ourselves. The houfe of laughter makes a houfe of wo What caufe for triumph where fuch ills abou What for dejection, where prefides a pow`r, Who call'd us into being to be blefs'd? So grieve, as confcious grief may rife to joy So joy, as confcious joy to grief may fall: Moft true; a wife man never will be fad ; But neither will fonorous, bubbling mirth A fhallow ftream of happiness betray; Too happy to be fportive, he's ferene.
Retire, and read thy bible, to be gay. There truths abound of fov'reign aid to pea Ah! do not prize them lefs, becaufe infpir If not infpir'd, that pregnant page had floo Time's treasure! and the wonder of the w
But thefe, thou think'st are gloomy path
True joy in funfhine ne'er was found at fir They,firft,themselves offend, who greatly ple And travel only gives us found repose. Heaven fells all pleasure; effort is the price And glory the victorious laurels fpreads The joys of conqueft are the joys of man; O'er pleasure's pure, perpetual, placid ftrean
$274. A Man of Pleafure is a Man of Pains THERE is a time, when toil must be prefer Or joy, by miftim'd fondness is undone. A man of pleafure is a man of pains. Thou wilt not take the trouble to be blefs'd.
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