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Great Caufe of all, above, below,
Who knows thee muft for ever know,

Immortal and divine!

Thy image on my foul impreft,

Of endless being is the test,

And bids Eternity be mine!

Transporting thought!-but am I fure
That endless life will joy fecure?
Joy's only to the juft decreed!
The guilty wretch expiring, goes
Where vengeance endlefs life beftows,
That endless mis'ry may fucceed.

Great God, how aweful is the scene!
A breath, a tranfient breath between;
And can I jeft, and laugh, and play!
To earth, alas! too firmly bound,
Trees deeply rooted in the ground,
Are shiver'd when they're torn away.

Vain joys, which envy'd greatness gains,
How do ye bind with filken chains,

Which ask Herculean ftrength to break!
How with new terrors have ye arm'd
The pow'r whofe flighteft glance alarm'd?
How many deaths of one ye make!

Yet,

Yet, dumb with wonder, I behold
Man's thoughtless race in error bold,

Forget or fcorn the laws of death;
With thefe no projects coincide,

Nor vows, nor toils, nor hopes, they guide,
Each thinks he draws immortal breath.

Each blind to fate's approaching hour,
Intrigues, or fights, for wealth, or pow'r,
And flumb'ring dangers dare provoke :
And he who tott'ring scarce sustains
A century's age, plans future gains,
And feels an unexpected stroke.

Go on, unbridled desp’rate band,

Scorn rocks, gulphs, winds, fearch fea and land,
And spoil new worlds wherever found.
Seize, hafte to feize the glitt'ring prize,
And fighs, and tears, and pray'rs defpife,
Nor spare the temple's holy ground.

They go, fucceed, but look again,
The defp'rate hand you feek in vain,
Now trod in duft the peafant's fcorn.
But who that saw their treasures fwell,
That heard th' infatiate vow rebel,

Would e'er have thought them mortal born ?

See

See the world's victor mount his car,
Blood marks his progrefs wide and far,
Sure he shall reign while ages fly;
No, vanish'd like a morning cloud,
The hero was but juft allow'd

To fight, to conquer, and to die.

And is it true, I ask with dread,
That nations heap'd on nations bled
Beneath his chariot's fervid wheel,
With trophies to adorn the fpot,
Where his pale corfe was left to rot,

And doom'd the hungry reptile's meal?

Yes, Fortune weary'd with her play,
Her toy, this hero, cafts away,'

And scarce the form of man is feen:
Awe chills my breast, my eyes o'erflow,
Around my brows no roses glow,

The cypress mine, funereal green!

Yet in this hour of grief and fears,
When aweful Truth unveil'd appears,

Some pow'r unknown ufurps my breast;
Back to the world my thoughts are led,
My feet in Folly's lab'rynth tread,

And fancy dreams that life is bleft.

How

How weak an emprefs is the mind,
Whom Pleasure's flow'ry wreaths can bind,
And captive to her altars lead!
Weak Reason yields to Phrenzy's rage,
And all the world is Folly's ftage,
And all that act are fools indeed.

And yet this strange, this fudden flight,
From gloomy cares to gay delight,

This fickleness, fo light and vain,

In life's delufive tranfient dream,

Where men nor things are what they seem,
Is all the real good we gain.

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The Hymns of DIONYSIUS: Tranflated

L

from the Greek.

By the Rev. Mr. MERRICK.

To the MUSE.

END thy voice, celeftial maid :
Through thy vocal grove convey'd,

Let a fudden call from thee

Wake my foul to harmony.

Raise, oh! raise the hallow'd strain,
Mistress of the tuneful train.

And

And thou facred fource of light,
Author of our myftic rite,

Thou whom erft Latona bore
On the fea-girt Delian shore,
Join the fav'ring Mufe, and shed
All thy influence on my head.

II. TO APOLLO.

Be ftill, ye vaulted skies! be ftill
Each hollow vale, each echoing hill,
Let earth and feas, and winds attend;
Ye birds awhile your notes fufpend;
Be hush'd each found; behold him nigh,
Parent of facred harmony;

He comes! his unfhorn hair behind
Loose floating to the wanton wind,

Hail, fire of day, whofe rofy car,
Through the pathless fields of air,
By thy winged courfers borne,
Opes the eyelids of the morn.
Thou, whofe locks their light difplay
O'er the wide ætherial way,
Wreathing their united rays
Into one promifcuous blaze.
Under thy all-feeing eye
Earth's remoteft corners lie;
While, in thy repeated course,
Iffuing from thy fruitful fource,

Floods

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