Good heav'n, whose darling attribute we find
Is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind,
Abhors the cruel; and the deeds of night
By wondrous ways reveals in open light :-
Murder may pafs unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy juftice will o'ertake the crime.
And oft a speedier pain the guilty feels;
The hue aud cry of heav'n pursues him at the heels,
Fresh from the fact; as in the prefent cafe;
The criminals are seiz'd upon the place:
Carter and hoft confronted face to face.
Stiff in denial, as the law appoints

On engines they diftend their tortur'd joints:
So was confeffion forc'd; th' offence was known,
And public juftice on th' offenders done.

Here may you fee that vifions are to dread:
And in the page that follows this; I read
Of two young merchants, whom the hope of gain
Induc'd in partnership to cross the main :
Waiting till willing winds their fails fupply'd,
Within a trading town they long abide,
Full fairly fituate on a haven's fide.

One evening it befel that looking out,

The wind they long had wish'd was come about:
Well pleas'd they went to reft; and if the gale
'Till morn continu'd, both resolv'd to fail.

But as together in a bed they lay,

The yonger had a dream at break of day.

A man,
he thought, stood frowning at his fide;
Who warn'd him for his fafety to provide,
Not put to fea, but safe on shore abide.
I come, thy genius, to command thy stay;
Truft not the winds, for fatal is the day,
And death unhop'd attends the watry way.

The vision said: and vanish'd from his sight,
The dreamer waken'd in a mortal fright:
Then pull'd his drowsy neighbour, and declar'd
What in his flumber he had seen, and heard:
His friend fmit'd fcornful, and with proud contempt
Rejects as idle what his fellow dreamt.

Stay, who will stay: for me no fears restrain,
Who follow Mercury the god of gain:

Let each man do as to his fancy feems,

I wait, not I, till you have better dreams.
Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes,
When monarch-reafon fleeps, this mimic wakes:
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,
A mob of coblers, and a court of kings:
Light fumes are merry, groffer fumes are sad;
Both are the reasonable foul run mad:
And many monftrous forms in fleep we see,
That neither were, nor are, nor e'er can be.
Sometimes, forgotten things long caft behind
Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind.
The nurfe's legends are for truths receiv'd,
And the man dreams but what the boy believ'd.

Sometimes we but rehearse a former play,
The night reftores our actions done by day;
As hounds in fleep will open for their prey.
In fhort, the farce of dreams is of a piece,
Chimeras all; and more abfurd, or less:
You, who believe in tales, abide alone,
What e'er I get this voyage is my own.

Thus while he spoke he heard the fhouting crew
That call'd aboard, and took his last adieu.
The veffel went before a merry gale,

And for quick paffage put on ev'ry fail:
But when leaft fear'd, and ev'n in open day,
The mischief overtook her in the way:
Whether the fprung a leak, I cannot find,
Or whether he was overfet with wind;
Or that fome rock below, her bottom rent, >
But down at once with all her crew she went;
Her fellow fhips from far her lofs defcry'd;
But only he was funk, and all were fafe beside.
By this example you are taught again,
That deams and visions are not always vain:
But if, dear Partlet, you are yet in doubt,
Another tale fhall make the former out.

Kenelm the fon of Kenulph, Mercia's king,
Whofe holy life the legends loudly fing,
Warn'd, in a dream, his murder did foretel
From point to point as after it befel:
All circumftances to his nurfe he told,
(A wonder, from a child of fev'n years old:)
The dream with horror heard, the good old wife
From treafon counsell'd him to guard his life:

And musing long, whom next to circumvent,
On chanticleer his wicked fancy bent:
And in his high imagination cast,

By ftratagem to gratify his taste.

The plot contriv'd, before the break of day, Saint Reynard through the hedge had made his way; The pale was next, but proudly with a bound He leapt the fence of the forbidden ground: Yet fearing to be feen, within a bed

Of colworts he conceal'd his wily head;

There fculk'd till afternoon, and watch'd his time, (As murd❜rers ufe) to perpetrate his crime.

O hypocrite, ingenious to destroy,

O traitor. worse than Sinon was to Troy;
O vile fubverter of the Gallic reign,
More falfe that Gano was to Charlemaign !
O chanticleer, in an unhappy hour

Did'st thou forfake the fafety of thy bow'r :
Better for thee thou hadst believ'd thy dream,
And not that day defcended from the beam!
But here the doctors eagerly difpute:

Some hold predeftination abfolute :

Some clerks maintain, that heav'n at first forefees,
And in the virtue of forefight decrees.
If this be fo, then prefcience binds the will,
And mortals are not free to good or ill :
For what he first forefaw, he must ordain,
Or its eternal prescience may be vain :
As bad for us as prefcience had not been:
For first, or laft, he's author of the fin.

And who fays that, let the blafpheming man
Say worse ev'n of the devil, if he can.
For how can that Eternal Pow'r be just
To punish man, who fins because he must?
Or, how can be reward a virtuous deed,
Which is not done by us; but first decreed?
I cannot boult this matter to the bran,
As Bradwardin and holy Auftin can:
If prefcience can determine actions fo
That we must do, because he did foreknow.
Or that foreknowing, yet our choice is free,
Not forc'd to fin by strict neceffity:

This frict neceffity they fimple call,
Another fort there is conditional.

The first fo binds the will, that things foreknown
By fpontaneity, not choice, are done.

Thus galley flaves tug willing, at their oar,

Confent to work, in profpect of the fhore;

But wou'd not work at all, if not constrain'd before. That other does not liberty constrain,

But man may either act, or may refrain.
Heav'n made us agents free to good or ill,
And forc'd it not, tho? he forefaw the will.
Freedom was first beftow'd on human race,
And prefcience only held the fecond place.
If he could make fuch agents wholly free,
I not difpute; the point's too high for me;
For heaven's unfathom'd power what man can found,
Or put to his omnipotence a bound?