صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Fate's hafty prey; implore him, re-import The period paft; re-give the given hour ! Lorenzo-O for yesterday to come!

Such is the language of the man awake; And is his ardour vain? Lorenzo! no: To-day is yesterday return'd; return'd Full power'd to cancel, expiate, raise, adorn, And reinstate us on the rock of peace. Let it not fhare its predeceffor's fate; Nor, like its elder fifters, die a fool. Shall we be poorer for the plenty pour'd? More wretched for the clemencies of heaven?

$195. The Depravity of Man. WHERE fhall I find him? angels, tell me

where!

You know him; he is near you: point him out;
Shall I fee glories beaming from his brow?
Or trace his footsteps by the rifing flow'rs?
Your golden wings, now hov'ring o'er him thed
Protection; now, are waving in applaufe
To that bleft fon of forefight! lord of fate!
That awful independant on To-morrow!
Whose work is done; who triumphs in the paft;
Whofe yesterdays look backwards with a fmile;
Nor, like the Parthian, wound him as they fly.
If not by guilt, they wound us by their flight,
If folly bounds our profpect by the grave:
All feeling of futurity benumb'd!
All relith of realties expir'd:
Renounc'd all correfpondence with the fkies;
Embruted every faculty divine;
Heart-buried in the rubbish of the world:
The world, that gulph of fouls, immortal fouls,
Souls elevate, angelic, wing'd with fire
To reach the diftant fkies, and triumph there
On thrones, which shall not mourn their mafters
chang'd,

Tho' we from earth; ethereal, they that fell.
Such veneration due, O man, to man!

§ 196. Iuftability of Life.

WHO venerate themselves the world defpife. For what, gay friend! is this efcutcheon'd world,

Which hangs out, Death is one eternal night? A night that glooms us in the noontide ray, And wrapts our thoughts, at banquets, in the Life's little ftage is a fmail eminence. [throud. Inch high the grave above; that home of man, Where dwells the multitude: we gaze around, We read their monuments; we figh; and while We figh, we fink; and are what we deplord; Lamenting, or lamented, all our lot!

Is death at diftance! no: he has been on thee And given fure ear neft of his final blow. [now? Thofe hours, which lately fmil'd, where are they Pallid to thought, and ghaltly ! drown'd, all drown'd

In that great deep, which nothing difembogues; And, dying, they bequeath'd thee fimall renown. The reit are on the wing: how feet their flight! Already has the fatal train took fire;

:

[ocr errors]

A moment, and the world's blown up to The fun is darkness, and the stars are duft

$197. Vanity of Human Enjoyments, tax by Experience.

'Tis greatly wife to talk with our paft ho And ask them, what report they bor heaven;

And how they might have borne more wel
Their anfwers form what men experience
If wifdom's friend, her beft: if not, worl
O reconcile them! kind Experience cries,
"There'snothinghere, but whatasnothingwe
The more our joy, the more we know it v
And by fuccefs are tutor'd to defpair."
Nor is it only thus, but must be fo:
Who knows not this, tho' grey, is ftill a
Loofe then from earth the grafp of fond d
Weigh anchor, and fome happier clime ex

$198. Death unavoidable. SINCE by life's paffing breath, blown up earth, Light as the fummer's duft, we take in ai A moment's giddy flight; and fall again; Join the dull mafs, increase the trodden fo And fleep till earth herfelf fhall be no mor Since then (as emmets their fmall world thrown)

We, fore amaz'd, from out earth's ruin c
And rife to fate extreme, of foul or fair,
| As man's own choice, controuler of the t
As man's defpotic will, this hour, decrees
Should not each warning give a strong ala
Warning, far lefs than that of bofom torn
From bofom, bleeding o'er the facred dea
Should not each dial itrike us as we pats,
Portentous, as the written wall, which ftn
O'er midnight bowls, the proud Affyrian
Like that, the dial fpeaks; and points to
"O man, thy kingdom is departing from
And, while it lafts, is emptier than my thi
Know, like the Median, fate is in thy wall
Man's make inclofes the fure feeds of dent
Life feeds the murderer: ingrate: he thri
On her own meal: and then his nurte dev

§ 199. Life compared to the Sun-dial.
THAT folar fhadow, as it meafures life,
It life relembles too: life fpeeds away
From point to point, tho' feeming to stand
The cunning fugitive is fwift by ftealth:
Too fubtle is the movement to be feen,
Yet foon man's hour is up, and we are gon
Warnings point out our danger, gnomons, t
As thefe are uiclefs when the fun is fet;
So thofe, but when more glorious reason th
Reafon (hould judge in all; in reafon's eyes
That fedent y fhadow travels hard:
But all mankind mistake their time of day
Even age itfelt: freth hopes are hourly fon
In furrow'd brows.
So gentle life's defcen
We hut our eyes, and think it is a plain:

We take days in winter, for the fpring:
Tabletfings into bane; fince oft
Kam compute that age he cannot feel:
tette eleves he's older for his years.

fe's latest eve, we keep in ftore cintment fure, to crown the rest; Lappantment of a promis'd hour.

200. Death of the good Man.

rder, O the cordial warmth, g fpirit, of a friend, ammers ripening by my fide; ** of fallehood long thrown down; Cuties rising in his foul;

[ocr errors]

ver; and imiling, as they rife! Pilot! Philander is no more. brighten as they take their flight! Finder took; it were profane a glory lighted at the skies, nows his illuftrious clofe. thetheme moit affecting, most sublime, makemof to man, should fleep unfung: patriumph' man's profoundest fall! ed of the juft! is yet undrawn ; it merits a divine: -paint it, angels ever there; A of honour, and of joy. where the good man meets his yond the common walk [fate quite in the verge of heaven. or ele draw near with awe, les demonftration dwells; ulation drops her mask, pulent are the fame. ***you fee his hold on heaven: tiiaft moment,owns itsfriends , and points them out to of fovereign pow'r, [men; and to virtue, peace! Wet the boastful hero plays, majefty in death; the more the tyrant frowns. everly frown'd on thee,

vent unceremonious fate! An from life's meridian joys! d of pain! a plunge opaque cture! feeble nature's dread! adders at the dark unknown! rafted! a juft opening grave!

His God fuftains him in his final hour!
His final hour brings glory to his God!
Man's glory heaven vouchfafes to call its own.
Amazement ftrikes! devotion burfts to flame!
Chriftians adore! and infidels believe.
At that black hour, which general horror fheds
On the low level of the inglorious throng,
Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble
Divinely beam on his exalted foul; [joy,
Deftruction gild, and crown him for the fkies.
Life, take thy chance; but oh for such an end!

201. NIGHT III. Picture of Narciffa, Defcrip.
tion of her Funeral, and a Reflection upon Man.
SWEET harmonift! and beautiful as fweet!
And young as beautiful! and foft as young!
And gay as foft! and innocent as gay!
And happy (if aught happy here) as good!
For fortune fond had built her neft on high.
Like birds quite exquifite of note and plume,
Transfix'd by fate (who loves a lofty mark)
How from the fummit of the grove the fell,
And left it unharmonious! aй its charms
Extinguifh'd in the wonders of her fong!
Her fong ftill vibrates in my ravish'd ear,
Still melting there, and with voluptuous pain
(0 to forget her!) thrilling thro' my heart!

[group

Song, Beauty, Youth, Love, Virtue, Joy! this
Of bright ideas, flow'rs of paradife,
As yet unforfeit! in one blaze we bind,
Kneel, and prefent it to the fkies; as all
We guefs of heaven, and these were all her own:
And the was mine; and I was-was!-most
Gay title of the deepeft mifery! [bleft-
As bodies grow more pond'rous robb'd of life.
Good loft weighs more in grief than gain'd in joy.
Like bloffom'd trees o'erturn'd by vernal form,
Lovely in death the beauteous ruin lay;
And if in death ftill lovely, lovelier there;
Far lovlier! pity fwells the tide of love.
And will not the fevere excufe a figh?
Scorn the proud man that is afham'd to weep;
Our tears indulg'd indeed deserve our shame.
Ye that e'er loft an angel! pity me.

Soon as the luftre languifh'd in her eye,
Dawning a dimmer day of human fight;
And on her cheek, the refidence of spring,
Pale omen fat, and fcatter'd fears around
On all that faw, (and who could cease to gaze
the laft, last: what? (can words ex-That once had feen?)—with hafte, parental hafte,
[friend!" I flew, I fnatch'd her from the rigid north,
h) the laft, laft-filence of a Her native bed, on which black Boreas blew,
swreck, thro'vanquish'dagonies, And bore her nearer to the fun; the fun
truggling thro' this midnight (As if the fun could envy) check'd his beam,
[peace! Denied his wonted fuccour; nor with more

We of joy! what more than human Regret beheld her drooping, than the bells We mortal? the poor abject worm? Of lilies; faireft lilies, not fo fair!

, the mortal to he found. Queen lilies! and ye painted populace Le comforts; great in ruin, Who dwell in fields, and lead ambrofial lives: ant grandeur, gives, not yields In morn and ev'ning dew your beauties bathe, e; and clofes with his fate. And drink the fun; which gives your cheeks to burnt within us at the fcene! And out-bluth (mine excepted) every fair[glow; brave bound o'er limits fixt to man? You gladlier grew, ambitious of her hand,

K

Which

The dead how facred! Sacred is the duft
Of this heaven-labour'd form, erect, divin
This heaven-afum'd majestic robe of eart
He deign'd to wear, who hung the vast exp
With azure bright, and cloth`d the fun in

Which often cropp'd your odours, incenfe meet
To thought to pure! Ye lovely fugitives!
Coeval race with man! for man you imile;
Why not smile at nim too? You hare indeed
His fudden pais, but not his conftant pain.
So man is made, nought minifters delight,When ev'ry pailion fleeps that can offend;

But what his glowing paffions can engage;
And glowing pathons, bent on aught below,
Muit foon or late with anguish turn the scale;
And anguith, after rapture, how fevere !
Rapture? Bold man! who tempts the wrath di-
By plucking fruit denied to mortal tafte, [vine
While here prefuming on the rights of Heaven.
For tranfport doit thou call on ev'ry hour,
Lorenzo? At thy friend's expence be wife;
Lean not on earth, 'twill pierce thee to the
A broken reed at beit, but oft a spear: [heart;
On its sharp point peace bleeds,and ho, e expires.
Turn, hopeiefs thoughts! turn from her :-
thought repell'd

Refenting rallies, and wakes ev'ry woe.
Snatch'd ere thy prime, and in thy bridal hour'
And when kind fortune, with thy lover, fmil'd!
And when high flavour'd thy freth op'ning joys!
And when blind man pronounc'd thy blifs
complete!

And on a foreign fhore, where strangers wept!
Strangers to thee; and, more furprising fill,
Strangers to kindness wept: their eyes let fall
Inhuman tears; ftrange tears! that trickled down
From marble hearts ! obdurate tenderness!
A tenderness that call'd them more fevere;
In fpite of nature's foft puriuafion, iteel'd;
While nature melted, fiperitition rav'd;
That mourn'd the dead, and this denied a grave.
Their fighs incens'd, fight foreign to the will!
Their will the tiger fuck`d, outrag'd the ftorm.
For, oh! the curs'd ungodline is of zeal!
While inful fleth relented, fpicit nurs'd
In blind infallibility's embrace,
The fainted fpirit petrified the breast:
Denied the charity of duft, to fpread
O'er duit! a charity their dogs enjoy. [fource
What could I do? what fuccour? what re-
With pious facrilege a grave I ftole,
With impious piety that grave I wrong'd;
Short in my duty, coward in my grief!
More like her murderer than friend, I crept
With foft fufpended step, and muffled deep
In midnight darkness whifper'd my laft figh.
I whitper'd what should echo thro' their realms;
Nor writ her name whofe tomb frould pierce

the kies.

Prefumptuous fear! how durft I dread her foes,
While nature's loudeft dictates I obey'd?
Pardon neceffity, bleft fhade! Of grief
And indignation rival burts I pour'd;
Half execration mingled with my pray'r;
Kindled at man, while I his God ador'd;
Sore grudg'd the favage land her facred duft;
Stamp'd the curs'd foil; and with humanity
(Denied Narciffa) with'd them all a grave.
Glows my refentment into guilt? What guil:
Can equal violations of the dead?

When ftrikes us ev'ry motive that can me
When man can wreak his rancour uncontrol
That frongeft curb on infult and ill-will;
Then ipleen to duft? the duft of innocence
An angel's duft? This Lucifer tranfcend
When he contended for the patriarch's bo
'Twas not the ftrife of malice, but of pride
The ftrife of pontiff pride, not pontiff gail.

[ocr errors]

Far less than this is fhocking, in a race
Moft wretched but from ftreams of mu
And uncreated but for love divine;
And, but for love divine, this moment loit,
By fate reforb'd, and funk in endless night.
Man hard of heart to man! of horrid thing
Mott horrid! 'Mid ftupendous, highly fran
Yet oft his courtefies are fmoother wrongs;
Pride brandishes the favours he confers,
And contumelious his humanity:
What then his vengeance? hear it not, ye ftar
And thou, pale moon! turn paler at the foun
Man is to man the foreft, furest ill.
A previous blaft foretels the rifing ftorm;
O'erwhelming turrets threaten ere they fall;
Volcanos bellow ere they difembogue;
Earth trembles ere her yawning jaws devour;
And Imoke betrays the wide confuming fire:
Ruin from man is moft conceal'd when near,
And fends the dreadful tidings in the blow.
Is this the flight of fancy? Would it were!
Heaven's Sovereign faves all beings but himft
That hideons fight, a naked human heart!

§ 202. NIGHT IV. Death not to be dreaded. How deep implanted in the breaft of man The dread of death! I fing its fov'reign cure.

Why start at death? where is he? death arriv
Is paft: not come, or gone, he's never here.
Ere hope, fentation fails; black-boding man
Receives, not fuffers, death's tremendous blo
The knell,the fhroud,the mattock,and the grav
The deep damp vault, the darkness, and th
Thefe are the bugbears of a winter's eve, [wor
The terrors of the living, not the dead.
Man makes a death which nature never made
Imagination's fool, and error's wretch,
Then on the point of his own fancy falls;
And feels a thousand deaths, in fearing one.

[blocks in formation]

A

1

Fali range, on just dislike's unbounded field; tam the vanity, of men, the flaws; Pin the belt; the many, flaw all o'er, wars fputted, or as Æthiops, dark; sil good dying immature; And its death bequeathing endless pain; the bold would ticken at the fight, rend itfelf in fighs, for future fcenes. 3t to life tome perquifites of joy; Amether is, when, like a thrice-told tale, Led life of weet can yield no more, 4 comment on the comedy, gctions on parts well-fuftain'd, demendations where we fail'd, Cs of plaudits from our candid judge, ca their exit, fouls are bid unrobe, ta's mark of leth behind the fcene. me, that time is come; my world is dead: A world riles, and new manners reign : petrace farts up! the strangers gaze, Athen, my neighbour is unknown.

204. Folly of Human Purfuits. BEST at hand divine, which gently laid

[ocr errors][merged small]

fat beneath this humble fhed! satately bark, on dangerous feas, fen, but boarded at our peril; fage plank, thrown fafe afhore, hetult of the diftant throng, as remote, or dying storms; ate on fcenes, more filent ftill;

Grafping at air! for what has earth befide?
Man wants but little; nor that little, long:
How foon muft he refign his very duft,
Which frugal nature lent him for an hour?
Years unexperienc'd rufh on numerous ills;
And foon as man, expert from time, has found
The key of life, it opes the gates of death.

When in this vale of years I backward look,
And mifs fuch numbers, numbers too of fuch,
Firmer in health, and greener in their age,
And stricter on their guard, and fitter far
To play life's fubtle game, I fcarce believe
I ftill furvive; and am I fond of life,
Who fcarce can think it poffible I live?
Alive by miracle! if still alive,
Who long have bury'd what gives life to live,
Firmness of nerve, and energy of thought.
Life's lee is not more thallow, than impure,
And vapid; fenfe and reason fhew the door,
Call for my bier, and point me to the dust.

$206. Address to the Deity.

O THOU great arbiter of life and death!
Nature's immortal, immaterial fun!
Whofe all-prolific beam late call'd me forth
From darkness, teeming darkness, where I lay
The worm's inferior, and, in rank, beneath
The duft I tread on, high to bear my brow,
To drink the fpirit of the golden day,

And triumph in exiftence; and could't know
No motive, but my blifs; with Abraham's joy,

me, and fight the fear of death.Thy call I follow to the land unknown;

afhepherd, gazing from his hut,

ed, or leaning on his staff,

Ea's fiery chace I fee;

[ocr errors]

1

[ocr errors]

ag hunt of noisy men

[ocr errors]

are, leap the mounds of right, Parged, each other's prey; As wapine; as the fox for wiles; Tehty hunter, earths them all. triumphs of an hour? we wat in wealth, or foar in fume? tion ends in "here he lies," tcut" concludes her nobleft fong. v, pterity shall know Batin born, with courtiers bred, tven gold might come a day too

Ε.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Nasubtle death-bed plann'd his fcheme Free vacancies in church, or fate; axan deeming it-to die;

I truft in thee, and know in whom I truft; Or life or death is equal; neither weighs, All weight in this-O let me live to thee!

[blocks in formation]

What healing hand can pour the balm of peace
And turn my fight undaunted on the tomb

With joy, with grief, that healing hand I Ah! too confpicuous! it is fixed on high! [fee; On high? What meansmyphrenzy Iblafpheme, Alas! how low! how far beneath the fkies! The skies it form'd; and now it bleeds for me→ Garder and the loudest laugh of hell. But bleeds the balin I want-yet ftill it bleeds:

[ocr errors]

e canine of dying rich:

622 Filly of the Love of Life in the Aged. Ours! remnant of yourselves! Pooramaruins, tott'ring o'er the grave! 5:a, aged men, like aged trees,

deeper their wil- root, and clofer cling, more enamour'd of this wretched foil [out, our pale, wither'd hands be still stretch'd Ting, at once with eagerness and age? Was wirice, and convulsions grafping hard?

Draw the dire fteel-ah no!--the dreadful blef

fing

What heart or can fuftain? or dares forego?
There hangs all human hope: that nail supports
Our falling univerfe: that gone, we drop:
Horror receives us, and the difmal with
Creation had been fmother'd in her birth.
Darkness his curtain, and his bed the duft,
When stars and fun are duft beneath his throne!
In heaven itself can fuch indulgence dwell?
O what a groan was there? A groan not his,

crois,

He feiz'd our dreadful right, the load fuftain'd, Heav'n's fovere'gn bleffings cluft'ring from
And heav'd the mountain from a guilty world.
A thousand worlds fo bought, were bought too Rufh on her, in a throng, and clofe her rou
Senfations new in angels' bofoms rife! [dear. The pritoner of amaze!-In his bleft life,
Sufpend their feng; and filence is in heaven. I fee the path, and, in his death, the price,
O for their long to reach my lofty theme! And in his great afcent the proof fupreme
Infpire ine, Night, with all thy tuncful sphere. Of immortality.-And did lie rife?
Much rather, Thou! who doit thofe iphere lear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead 1
infpire;
He rofe! he rofe! he burft the bars of death
Lift up your beads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the king of glory to come in !
Who is the king of glory? he who left
His throne of glory, for the pang of death:
Lift up your heads ye everlating gates,
And give the king of glory to come in!
Who is the king of glory? he who flew

Left I blafpheme my fubject with my fong.
Thou not indulgent,mott trenenious,power!
Still more tremendous, for thy wond'rous love!
That arms, withawe more awful, thy commands;
And foul tranfgreffion dips in fevenfold night,
How our hearts tremble at thy love immente!
In love immenfe,inviolably juft! [ftretch'd arms.
O'er guilt, (how mountainous!) with out-The ravenous foe, that gorg`d all human ra
Stern jultice, and foft-fmiling love, embrace,
Supporting, in full majefty, thy throne,
When feem'd its majefy to need support,
Or that, or man inevitably loft.

What, but the fathomlefs of thought divine
Could labour fuch expedient from despair,
And refcue both? Both refcue! both exalt !
O how are both exalted by the deed!
A wonder in omnipotence itfelf!
A myftery, no lefs to gods than men !

Not, thus, our infidels th' Eternal draw,
A God all o'er, confummate, abfolute,
Full orb'd, in his whole round of rays complete:
They fet at odds heaven's jarring attributes;
And with one excellence another wound;
Maim heaven's perfection, break its equal beams,
Bid mercy triumph over God hianielf,
Undeify'd by their opprobrious praife;
A God all mercy, is a God unjut.

Ths king of glory, he, whore glory fill'd
Heaven with amazement at his love to man
And with divine complacency beheld
Powers molt illumin'd wilder'd in the theme
The theme,the joy,how then thall man fuita
Oh the burft gates! crush'd iting! demelif

throne !

[he
Laft gafp ! of vanquifh'd death. Shout earth :
This fum of good to man: whofe nature, the
Tock wing, and mounted with him from t
Then, then, I rofe; then firft humanity [tom
Triumphant pads'd the crystal ports of light,
And feiz'd eternal youth. Mortality
Was then transferr'd to death; and heaven's d
Unalienably feal'd to this frail frame,
This child of duft.-Man, all-immortal! hay
Hail, heaven! all lavish of ftrange gifts to n
Trine all the glory! man's the boundlets

[rati

Where am I rapt by this triumphant thes
|On chriftian joy's exulting wing, above
Th' Aonian mount?-Alas fmall caufe for jo
What if to pain, immortal? if extent
Of being, to preclude a clofe of woe?
Where, then, iny boat of immortality?
I boaft it ftill, tho' cover'd o'er with guilt;
For guilt, not innocence, his life he pour'd.
'Tis guilt alone can juftify his death;
Nor that, unlefs his death can jufify
Relenting guilt in heaven's indulgrent fight.
If fick of folly, I relent; he writes
My name in heaven, with that inverted fre
(A-fpear deep dipt in blood!) which pierc d
And open'd there a font for all mankind [id
Who ftrive, who combat crimes, to drink, an
This, only this, fubdues the fear of death. [liv

Ye brainless wits, ye baptiz'd infidels, The random was paid down; the fund of heaven Amazing, and amaz'd, pour'd forth the price, All price beyond: tho' curious to compute, Archangels fail'd to caft the mighty fum: Its value vaft, ungrafp'd by minds create, For ever hides, and glows in the fupreme. And was the ranfom paid? It was: and paid (What can exalt the bounty more?) for you. The fun beheld it-no, the fhocking scene Drove back his chariot; midnight veil'd his face Not fuch as this; not fuch as nature makes; A midnight, nature fhudder'd to behold; A midnight now! from her Creator's frown ! Sun! did it thou fly thy Maker's pain? or ftart At that enormous load of human guilt, [crofs Which bow'd his bleffed head; o'erwhelm'd his Made groan the centre; burftearth'smarblewomb, With pangs, ftrange pangs! deliver'd of her dead: Hell howl'd; and heav'n, that hour, let fall a tear; AND what is this?-Survey the wond'rou Heav'n wept,that man might smile! heaven bled, That man might never die

208. Greatness of the Redemption.

cure:

vine!

| And, at each ftep, let higher wonder rife ! What heart of tone but glows at thoughts." Pardon for infinite offence! and pardon like the fe? [mount "Thro' means that speak its value infinite! Such contemplations mount us; and thould "A pardon bought with blood! with blood di The mind till higher; ner ever glance on man, Unraptur d,unintiam'd; where roll my thoughts, "With blood divine of him I made my foe; To rel from wonders? How my foul is caught!" Perfitted to provoke! tho' woo'd and aw'd, "Blefs'd, and chattis`d, a flagrant rebel ftill! "A reset

« السابقةمتابعة »