"Unfashion'd, untormented into man?

"Wretched preferment to this round of pains! "Wretched capacity of frenzy, thought!

"Wretched capacity of dying, life!

"Life, thought, worth, wisdom, all (O foul revolt!) "Once friends to peace, gone over to the foe.

"Death then has chang'd his nature too. O Death! "Come to my bosom thou best gift of heaven! "Best friend of man! since man is man no more. "Why in this thorny wilderness so long, "Since there's no promis'd land's ambrosial bow'r "To pay me with its honey for my stings? "If needful to the selfish schemes of heaven "To sting us sore, why mock'd our misery? "Why this so sumptuous insult o'er our heads? "Why this illustrious canopy display'd? "Why so magnificently lodg'd Despair? "At stated periods, sure-returning, roll "These glorious orbs, that mortals may compute "Their length of labours and of pains, nor lose "Their misery's full measure?-Smiles with flowers "And fruits, promiscuous, ever teeming earth, "That man may languish in luxurious scenes, "And in an Eden mourn his wither'd joys?

"Claim earth and skies man's admiration, due "For such delights! bless'd animals! too wise "To wonder, and too happy to complain!

"Our doom decreed demands a mournful scene: "Why not a dungeon dark for the condemn'd? 66 Why not the dragon's subterranean den "For man to howl in? why not his abode "Of the same dismal colour with his fate? "A Thebes, a Babylon, at vast expence

"Of time, toil, treasure, art, for owls and adders "As congruous as for man this lofty dome,

Which prompts proud thought, and kindles high "desire,

"If, from her humble chamber in the dust,

"While proud thought swells, and high desire in"flames,

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

"Draws the dark curtain close, undrawn no more. "Undrawn no more!-Behind the cloud of death, "Once, I beheld a sun, a sun which gilt

"That sable cloud, and turn'd it all to gold.
"How the grave's alter'd! fathomless as hell!
"A real hell to those who dreamt of heaven,
"Annihilation! how it yawns before me?

Next moment I may drop from thought, from sense,

"The privilege of angels and of worms,
"An outcast from existence! and this spirit,
"This all-pervading, this all-conscious soul,
"This particle of energy divine,

"Which travels nature, flies from star to star,
"And visits gods, and emulates their powers,
"For ever is extinguish'd! Horror! death!
"Death of that death I fearless once survey'd !-
"When horror universal shall descend,
"And heaven's dark concave urn all human race,
"On that enormous unrefunding tomb,

"How just this verse, this monumental sigh!"
'Beneath the lumber of demolish'd worlds,
'Deep in the rubbish of the gen❜ral wreck,
'Swept ignominious to the common mass
'Of matter, never dignified with life,
'Here lie proud rationals; the sons of heaven!
'The lords of earth! the property of worms!
6 Beings of yesterday, and not to-morrow!
'Who liv'd in terror, and in pangs expir'd!
'All gone to rot in chaos, or to make

Their happy transit into blocks or brutes, 'Nor longer sully their Creator's name.'

Lorenzo! hear, pause, ponder, and pronounce, Just is this history? If such is man,

Mankind's historian, though divine, might weep.

And dares Lorenzo smile!-I know thee proud;
For once let pride befriend thee :-Pride looks pale
At such a scene, and sighs for something more.
Amid thy boasts, presumptions, and displays,
And art thou then a shadow? less than shade?
A nothing? less than nothing? To have been,
And not to be, is lower than unborn.

Art thou ambitious? why then make the worm
Thine equal? Runs thy taste of pleasure high?
Why patronize sure death of every joy?
Charm riches? why chuse begg'ry in the grave,
Of ev'ry hope a bankrupt! and for ever?
Ambition, Pleasure, Avarice, persuade thee
To make that world of glory, rapture, wealth,
They lately prov'd,* thy soul's supreme desire.
What art thou made of? rather, how unmade?
Great Nature's master appetite destroy'd,
Is endless life and happiness despis'd:

Or both wish'd here, where neither can be found:
Such man's perverse eternal war with heaven!
Dar'st thou persist? and is there nought on earth
But a long train of transitory forms,

Rising and breaking millions in an hour?
Bubbles of a fantastic deity, blown up
In sport, and then in cruelty destroy'd?

* Night VI.

Oh! for what crime, unmerciful Lorenzo!
Destroys thy scheme the whole of human race?
Kind is fell Lucifer compar'd to thee.

Oh! spare this waste of being half divine,
And vindicate th' economy of heaven.
Heaven is all love, all joy in giving joy;
It never had created but to bless;

And shall it then strike off the list of life
A being bless'd, or worthy so to be?
Heaven starts at an annihilating God.

Is that all nature starts at, thy desire?
Art such a clod to wish thyself all clay?
What is that dreadful wish?-The dying groan
Of Nature, murder'd by the blackest guilt.
What deadly poison has thy nature drank?
To nature, undebauch'd, no shock so great.
Nature's first wish is endless happiness;
Annihilation is an after-thought,

A monstrous wish! unborn till Virtue dies.
And, oh! what depth of horror lies enclos'd!
For non-existence no man ever wish'd,
But first he wish'd the Deity destroy'd.

If so, what words are dark enough to draw Thy picture true? the darkest are too fair. Beneath what baleful planet, in what hour