When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whofe fons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? 390
That, urg'd by thee, I turn’d the tuneful art,
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light;
Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That REASON, Passion, answer one great aim; 395
That true SELF-LOVE and Social are the same;
That VIRTUE only makes our Bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, ourselves TO KNOW.

VARIATION.
Ver. 397. That Virtue only, &c.] In the MS. thus,

That just to find a God is all we can,
And all the Study of Mankind is Man.

THE

IT may

be proper to observe, that some passages, in the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalism, the author composed this Prayer as the sum of all, to shew that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the first cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the Universe as the Creator of it; and that, by submisfion to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but the resting in a religious acquiescence, and confidence full of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the Lord's Prayer, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to this Paraphrafe.

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

FAT
ATHER of All! in every Age,
In
every

Clime ador'd,
By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,

Jehovah, Jove, or Lord !
Thou Great First Cause, least understood;

Who all my Sense confin'd
To know but this, that Thou art Good,

And that myself am blind;
Yet gave me, in this dark Estate,

To see the Good from Ill; And, binding Nature fast in Fate,

Left free the Human Will. What Conscience dictates to be done, Or warns,

me not to do, This, teach me more than Hell to Thun,

That, more than Heaven pursue.
What Blessings thy free Bounty gives,

Let me not caft away;
For God is paid when Man receives,

T' enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to Earth's contracted Span

Thy Goodness let me bound,
Or think Thee Lord alone of Man,

When thousand Worlds are round:

Let not this weak, unknowing hand

Presume thy bolts to throw, And deal damnation round the land,

On each I judge thy Foe.
If I am right, thy grace impart,

Still in the right to stay:
If I am wrong, oh teach my neart

To find that better way.
Save me alike from foolish Pride,

Or impious Discontent,
At aught thy Wisdom has denydd,

Or aught thy Goodness lent,
Teach me to feel another's Woe,
To hide the Fault I see

j That Mercy I to others show,

That Mercy show to me. Mean though I am, not wholly so,

Since quicken’d by thy Breath; O lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Through this day's Life or Death, This day, be Bread and Peace

my
All else beneath the Sun,
Thou know'st if best bestow'd or not,

And let thy Will be done.
To Thee, whose Temple is all Space,

Whose Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies :
One Chorus let all Being raise !

All Nature's Incense rise !

Lot:

MORAL