Some place the bliss in action, some in ease; Those call it pleasure, and contentment these: Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain; Some swell'd to gods, confess ev'n virtue vain; Or indolent: to each extreme they fall, To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all. Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that Happiness is Happiness? Take nature's path, and mad opinions leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; Obvious her goods in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right and meaning well; And, mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common sense and common ease. Remember, man, "the Universal Cause Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws." And makes what Happiness we justly call, Subsist not in the good of one, but all. There's not a blessing individuals find, But some way leans and hearkens to the kind; No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd hermit rests self-satisfy'd. Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend: Abstract what others feel, what others think, All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink: Each has his share; and who would more obtain, Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, But mutual wants this happiness increase, Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, But future views of better or of worse. Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, SWEETNESS. AN ODE. BY MR. ROBERTSON. Or damask cheeks and radiant eyes, Let other poets tell; Within the bosom of the fair There all the sprightly powers of wit, In blithe assemblage play; Its intellectual ray. But as the sun's refulgent light Heaven's wide expanse refines; This mental beam dilates the heart, It harmonizes every thought, And heightens every grace. I One glimpse can sooth the troubled breast, The heaving sigh restrain; Can make the bed of sickness please, And stop the sense of pain. Its power can charm the savage heart, To smiles convert the wildest rage, And melt the soul to love. When Sweetness beams upon the throne, In majesty benign, The awful splendors of a crown With milder lustre shine. In scenes of poverty and woe, Thus, when the blooming spring returns Through earth and air with genial warmth, Ethereal mildness reigns. Beneath its bright, auspicious beams No boisterous passions rise; Moroseness quits the peaceful scene, And baleful discord flies. A thousand nameless beauties spring A smiling train of joys appear, Unbounded Charity displays And Friendship's pure seraphic flame Almighty Love exerts his power, Nor shall the storms of age, which cloud These blest effects destroy. When that fair form shall sink in years, And all those graces fly; The beauty of thy heavenly mind Shall length of days defy. |