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O Britain infamous for fuicide;
An island in thy manners! far disjoin'd
From the whole world of rationals befide,
In ambient waves plunge thy polluted head,
Wash the dire ftain, nor fhock the continent.
But thou be fhock'd, while I detect the caufe
Of felf-affault, expofe the monster's birth,
And bid abhorrence hifs it round the world.
Blame not thy clime, nor chide the diftant fun;
Immoral clines kind nature never made.
The caufe I fing in Eden might prevail,
And proves it is thy folly, not thy fate.

The foul of man (let man in homage bow
Who names his foul) a native of the skies!
High-born, and free,her freedomthould maintain,
Unfold, unmortgag'd for earth's little bribes.
Th' illuftrious ftranger, in this foreign land
Like itrangers, jealous of her dignity,
Studious of home, and ardent to return,
Of earth fufpicious, earth's enchanted cup
With cool refervelight-touching, fhould indulge
On immortality her godlike tafte;
There take large draughts; make her chief
quet there.

Indelible, death's image on his heart;
Bleeding for others, trembling for hinfe
We bleed, we tremble; we forget, we im
The mind turns fool, before the cheek is
Our quick returning folly cancels all:
As the tide rufhing rafes what is writ
In yielding lands, and smooths the letter'd

§ 230. Tears.
LORENZO haft thou ever weigh'd a figh
Or ftudied the philofophy of tears?
Haft thou defcended deen into the breast,
And feen their fource? If not, descend wit
And trace thefe briny riv'lets to their fpri

Our funeral tears from different caufes Of various kinds they flow. From tenderl By soft contagiɔn call`d, some burst at on And itream obfequious to the leading ey Some afk more time, by curious art ditin Some hearts, in fecret hard, unapt to me. Struck by the public eye, gufh out amal ban-Some weep to fhare the fame of the decea

But fome reject this fuftenance divine;
To beggarly vile appetites defcend;
Afkalms of earth for gifts that came from heaven;
Sink into flaves; and fell, for prefent hire,
Their rich reverfion, and (what flares its fate)
Their native freedom, to the prince who fways
This nether world. And when his payments tail,
When his full basket gorges them no more;
Or their pail'd palates loath the basket full,
Are, initantly, with wild demoniac rage,
For breaking all the chains of Providence,
And buriting their confinement; tho' fat barr'd
By laws divine and human; guarded strong
With horrors doubled to defend the pafs,
The blackcil nature, or dire guilt can raise;
And moated round with fathoralefs deftruction,
Sure to receive, and whelm them in their fall.
Such, Britons! is the caufe, to you unknown,
Or worse, o'erlook'd; o`erlook`d by magiftrates,
Thus, criminals themfelves. I grant the deed
Is madnefs; but the madness of the heart.
And what is that? our utmoft bound of guilt.
A fenfual, unreflecting life is big

With monftrous births, and fuicide, to crown
The black infernal brood. The bold to break
Heaven's law fupreme, and defperately rufh
Thro' facred nature's murder, on their own,
Because they never think of death, they die.
When by the bed of languithment we fit,
Or, o'er our dying friends, in anguish hang,
Wipe the cold dew, or ftay the finking head,
Number their moments, and in ev'ry clock,
Start at the voice of an eternity;
See the dim lamp of life juft fecbly lift
An agonizing beam, at us to gaze,
Then fink again, and quiver into death.
(That most pathetic herald of our own;)
How read we fuch fad fcenes? as fent to man
In perfect vengeance? no; in pity fent,
To inclt him down, ike wax, and then imprefs

So high in merit, and to them so dear: [ They dwell on praites, which they think Some mourn in proof that fomething they c love.

They weep not to relieve their grief, but the Some weep in perfect juftice to the dead, As conícious all their love is in arrear. Some mitchievoutly weep, not unappriz'd, Tears, fometimes, aid the conquest of an e As feen through cryftal, how their roles g While liquid pearl runs trickling down!

cheek.

By kind construction fome are deem'd to we Because a decent veil conceals their joy.

Some weep in earneft; and yet weep in v As deep in indifcretion, as in woe. Paffion, blind paffion! impotently pours Tears,thatdeferve more tears; while reaton & Or gazes, like an idiot, unconcern'd; Nor comprehends the meaning of the ftom They weep impetuous, as the fummer torn And full as fhort! the cruel grief foon tam They make a paftime of the tinglefs tale! Far as the deep-refounding kneil, they pre The dreadful news, and hardly feel it more. No grain of wifdom pays them for their wor When the fick foul, her wonted stay withdra Reclines on earth, and forrows in the duft, Inftead of learning there her true fupport, She crawls to the next fhrub, or bramble vi The ftranger weds, and bioffoms as before, In all the fruitless fopperies of life.

§ 231. Inattention to the Voice of Death. WHAT thus infatuates? what enchantm plants

The phantom of an age, 'twixt us and death Already at the door? He knocks, we hear hi And yet we will not hear. What mail defend Our untouch'd hearts ? what rairacle turns

of Death.

The end thought, which from a thousand § 233. The Caprice and univerfal Power
Led, and is daily fhunn'd? [quivers
Win a battle, throngs on throngs

shaking, wounded oft ourselves; ng with our wounds, immortal still! et's furrows on another's brow, theatrench'd, preparing his affault; khemiclves, in that juft mirror, fee!

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ard Longevity! More, more, it cries: More wealth, more trath of every kind! Alastore mad for more, when relish fails? Your hard to mend the bow,

is relaxing ev'ry string? for joy, grow rich and hoard within. yathe foul, when this life's rattles cease, ag of more manly to fucceed? ven the taste immortal; learn even now ha alone fubfifts hereafter: none, henceforth your joys for ever. egory is to wish to die.

praife and promife, it applauds and promites our future blifs. Makrels fee not children in their fires? vatterical abfurdities!

authority to faults of youth,
Bang! it makes folly thrice a fool;
Childhood might our last despife.
9. can be ranker? like our fhadows,
engthen, as our fun declines.
loiter, then, this fide the grave.
ould leave the world, before the
carcales to mend the foil. [knell
ve in tempeft; die in port.
By concourfe, cover in retreat
gent, and the will fubdue;
W on the filent, folemn fhore
can it must fail fo foon;

rks on board; and wait the wind
takas us into worlds unknown;
, too, a dreadful fcene!

LIKE other tyrants, Death delights to finite,
What fiitten molt proclaims the pride of power,
And arbitrary nod. His joy fupreme,
To bid the wretch furvive the fortunate;
The feeble wrap th' athletic in his throud;
And weeping fathers build their children's tomb;
Me thine, Narciffa!-what tho' fhort thy date?
Virtue, not rolling funs, the mind matures.
That life is long, which anfwers life's great end.
The time that bears no fruit, deferves no name:
The man of wifdom is the man of years.
In hoary youth Methufalems may die,
O how mifdated on their flattering tombs

232 Le Learning required, to be Good.
learn'd; in volumes deep you fit,
Low: pompous ignorance!
know how much need notbeknown;
that knowledge, which impairs your

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knowledge, like our needful food,
les open in life's common field;
welcome to the vital feaft.
what lies before you in the page
ad experience, moral truth;
cience for diftinguish'd names,
virtue, as you rife in fame.
g, like the lunar beam, affords
heat; it leaves you undevout.
4 learn death's character, attend.
conduct, all degrees of health,
tune, and all dates of age,
k in his impartial urn,

All more than common menaces an end:
A blaze betokens brevity of life.
To plant the foul on her eternal guard,
In awful expectation of our end,
[but fo
Thus runs Death's dread commiffion; "Strike,
"As moft alarms the living by the dead."
Hence itratagem delights him, and furprise,
And cruel fport with man's fecurities.
Not fimple conqueft, triumph is his aim, [moft.
And where leaft fear'd, there conqueft triumphs
What are his arts to lay our fears afleep!
Tiberian arts his purposes wrap up
In deep diffimulation's darkelt night.
Like princes unconfeft in foreign courts,
Who travel under cover, Death affumes
The name and look of life, and dwells among us.
Behind the roly bloom he loves to lurk,
Or ambush in a fmile; or wanton dive
In dimples deep; love's eddies, which dtaw in
Unwary hearts, and fink them in despair.

Moit happy they whom leaft his arts deceive.
One eye on Death, and one full fix'd on heaven,
Becomes a mortal, and immortal man.

Where is not Death? fure as night follows day,
Death treads in Pleature's footiteps round the
world,
[thuns,
When Pleasure treads the paths which keaton
When, against reafon riot thuts the door,
And gaiety fupplies the place of fenfe.
Then foremoft at the banquet and the ball,
Death leads the dance, or ftamps the deadly die;
Nor ever fails the midnight bowl to crown.
Gaily caroufing to his gay compeers,
Inly he laughs, to fee them laugh at him,

As abfent far: and when the revel burns,
When fear is banish'd, and triumphant thought
Calling for all the joys beneath the moon,
Againit him turns the key; and bids him fup
With their progenitors-He drops his mask
Frowns out at full; they ftart, despair, expire!
Scarce with more fudden terror and furprise,
From his black mask of nitre, touch'd by fire
He burits, expands, roars, blazes, and devours.
And is not this triumphant treachery,
And more than fimple conqueft in the fiend?
And now, gay trifler, doit thou wrap thy foul

at random. Or if choice is made, In foft fecurity, becaufe unknown

esquite farcastic, and iniults

jetture, and fond hopes of man.

Which moment is commiffion'd to destroy ?
In death's uncertainty thy danger lies.

Is

Is death uncertain? therefore thou be fix'd;
Fix'd as a fentinel, all eye, all ear,
All expectation of the coming foe.
Rouse, stand in arms, nor lean against thy fpear,
Left lumber fteal one moment o'er thy foul,
And fate furprife thee nodding. Watch,beftrong;
Thus give each day the merit, and renown,
Of dying well; tho' doom'd but once to die;
Nor let life's period hidden (as from moft),
Hide too from thee, the precious ufe of life.
Does wealth with youth and gaiety confpire
To weave a triple wreath of happinefs?
That thining mark invites the tyrant's spear.
As if to dump our elevated aims,
And strongly preach humility to man,
O how portentous is profperity!
How, comet-like, it threatens while it fhines!
Few years but yield us proof of Death's ambition
To call his victims from the faireft fold,
And theath his fhafts in all the pride of life.
When flooded with abundance, purpled o'er
With recent honcurs, bloom'd with ev'ry blifs;
Set up in oftentation, made the gaze,
The gaudy centre of the public eye;
When fortune, thus, has tofs'd her child in air,
Snatch'd from the covert of an humble ftate,
How often have I feen him dropp'd at once,
Our morning's envy, and our ev'ning's figh!
As if her bounties were the fignal giv'n,
The flow'ry wreath, to mark the facrifice,
And call Death's arrows on the deftin'd prey.

§ 234.
NIGHT VI. The Death of Narciffa.
SHE (for I know not yet her name in heaven)
Not early, like Narciffa, left the scene;
Nor fudden, like Philander. What avail?
This feeming mitigation but inflames;
This fancy'd medicine heightens the difcafe.
The longer known, the clofer ftill the grew;
And gradual parting is a gradual death.

O the long dark approach thro' years of pain,
Death's gallery with fable terror hung;
Sick hope's pale lamp its only glimmering ray!
There fate my melancholy walk ordain'd.
How oft I gaz'd, prophetically fad!
How oft I faw her dead while yet in fmiles!
In miles the funk her grief to leffen mine:
She fpoke me comfort, and increas'd my pain.
Like powerful armies trenching at a town,
By flow and filent, but refiftlefs fap,
In his pale progrefs gently gaining ground,
Death urg'd his deadly fiege: in fpite of art,
Of all the balmy bleffings nature lends
To fuccour frail humanity. Ye ftars!
And thou, O moon! bear witness; many a night
He tore the pillow from beneath my head,
Tied down my fore attention to the shock,
By ceaselets depredations on a life,
Dearer than that he left me. Dreadful post
Of obfervation! darker every hour!
Lefs dread the day that drove me to the brink,
And pointed at eternity below.
When my foul fhudder'd at futurity,

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When, on a moment's point, th' importa
Of life and death, fpun doubtful, ere it
And turn'd up life; my title to more wo

But why more woe? more comfort let
Nothing is dead, but that which with'd t
Nothing is dead, but wretchednefs and p
Nothing is dead, but what encumber'd,
Block'd up the pass, and barr'd from re
Where dwells that with moft ardent of the
Too dark the fun to fee it; highest stars
Too low to reach it; death, great death a
O'er stars and fun triumphant, lands us t

Nor dreadful our tranfition; tho' the
An artist at creating self-alarms,
Rich in expedients for inquietude,
Is prone to paint it dreadful, Who can
Death's portrait true? the tyrant never i
Our sketch, all random strokes, conjecture
Clofe fhuts the grave, nor tells one fing
Death, and his image rifing in the brain,
Bear faint refemblance; never are alike;
Fear thakes the pencil, Fancy loves exce
Dark Ignorance is lavish of her shades;
And these the formidable picture draw.

But grant the worft; 'tis paft; new pr
And drop a veil eternal o'er her tomb.
Far other views our contemplation claim,
Views that o'erpay the rigours of our lit
Views that fufpend our agonies in deata.
Wrapt in the thought of immortality,
Long life might lapfe, age un perceiv'd com
And find the foul unfated with her theme.
Its nature, proof, importance, fire my fong

§ 235. Reflections on Man and Immorta's
THY nature, immortality, who knows?
And yet who knows it not? It is but life
In ftronger thread of brighter colour fpun,
And fpun for ever; black and brittle here
How fhort our correfpondence with the im
And while it lafts, inglorious! our beit de
How wanting in their weight! our higheit,
Small cordials to fupport us in our pain,
And give us ftrength to fuffer. But how
To mingle intereits, converfe, amities,
With all the fons of Reafon, fcatter'd wid
Through habitable space, wherever born,
Howe'er endow'd! to live free citizens
Of univerfal Nature! to lay hold

By more than feeble faith on the Supreme
To call heaven's rich unfathomable mines
Our own! to rife in feience as in blifs,
Initiate in the fecrets of the kies!
To read creation; read its mighty plan
In the bare bofom of the Deity!
The plan and execution to collate!
To fee, before each glance of piercing thot
All cloud, all fhadow blown remote; and l
No myftery-but that of love divine,
Which lifts us on the feraph's flaming win
From earth's Aceldama, this field of Blood,
Of inward anguish, and of outward ill,
From darknets, and from duft, to fuch a fen

Istat true joy's illuftrious home!

A

contralt (now deplor'd)more fair. Tax thoughts that aggrandife the

The bare ideas! folid happiness

So diftant from its fhadow chas'd below!

And chafe we ftill the phantom thro' the fire, O'er bog, and brake, and precipice, 'till death? while yet we tread the kindred clod, And toil we ftill for fublunary pay? ry murrent fear to fink beneath Defy the dangers of the field, and flood, detread; foon trodden by our fons)-Or, fpider-like, fpin out our precious all,

in the wild whirl of time's purfuits, dpaule, involv'd in high prefage: long viito of a thousand years, templating our diftant felves, ying mirror feen, bed, elevate, divine! Try our own futurities!

arbaghton what all thoughttranfcends! &ta fellow-candidates, of joys bend conception, as defert, atatonish'd talkers and the tale! at we? when these fhackles caft? was quit

- the creation? this small neft,

acorner of the universe,

feecy cloud, and fine-fpun-air? fenie, but grofs and feculent Cal; fouls ordain'd to breathe es, and drink a purer sky; ant on time's farther thore. ay what scenes shall strike! we wonder shall unravel there!

pour on all the paths of heaven, Almighty's footiteps in the deep! fed day of our discharge 4, the labyrinth's of fate, inextricable maze!

ble thirit in man

h, how full our banquet here!
al world alone unfolds;

* rallately seen in thades,

Our more than vitals fpin in curious webs
Of fubtle thought, and exquifite defign;
(Fine net-work of the brain!) to catch a fly?
The momentary buz of vain renown!
A name, a mortal immortality.

§ 236. Genius connected with Ignominy.
GENIUS and art, ambition's boasted wings,
Our boaft but ill deferve. A feeble aid!
Heart-merit wanting, mount we ne'er fo high,
When I behold a genius bright and bafe,
Our height is but the gibbet of our name.
Of towering talents, and terreftrial aims;
Methinks, I fee, as thrown from her high fphere,
The glorious fragments of a foul immortal,
With rubbish mixt, and glittering in the dust.
Hearts are proprietors of all applaufe,
Right ends, and means, make wifdom: wordly-
Is but half-witted, at its highest praise. [wife

$237. Exalted Station.

-WHAT is ftation high?

"Tis a proud mendicant; it boafts, and begs;
It begs an alms of homage from the throng,
And oft the throng denies its charity.
Monarchs, and minifters, are awful names;
Whoever wear them, challenge our devoir.
Religion, public order, both exact
External homage, and a fupple knee,
To beings pompously fet up, to ferve
The meanest flave; all more is merit's due;
Her facred and inviolable right,
Nor ever paid the monarch, but the man.
Our hearts ne'er bow but to fuperior worth;
Nor ever fail of their allegiance there.
Fools indeed drop the man in their account,
And vote the mantle into majefty.
Let the fmall favage boaft his filver fur;
His royal robe unborrow'd, and unbought,
His own, defcending fairly from his fires.
Shall man be proud to wear his livery,
And fouls in ermine fcorn a foul without?
Can place or leffen us, or aggrandize?
Pigmies are pigmies ftill, tho' percht on alps,
[heaven. And pyramids are pyramids in vales.

ts, by fragments only seen, ments by the labouring eye, *D, Alustrious, and entire, pere, its univerfal frame, mins, iwells to the furvey; one glance, the ravish'd fight. ranger man's illumin'd eye, uzan of unbounded space, site of floating worlds Tecntal waves of ether pure, ge, without port! the leaft minated orbs how great! le to the ftupendous whole? as atoms ill-perceiv'd. is a fource of joy, thence! Yet this the leaft in What illustrious robe He wears, zmats of wonders from his hand, an earnett of his power! ry, whence all glory flows, meaneft flow'ret to the fun, birth. But what, this Sun of

preme of the fupremely bleft! death, the question can refolve. cheap-bought th' ideas of our joy;

Each man makes his own ftature, builds himself:
Virtue alone out-builds the pyramids;
Her monuments fhall laft, when Egypt's fall.

Ofthefe fure truths doft thou demand the caufe?
The caufe is lodg'd in immortality.

Hear, and affent. Thy bolom burns for pow'r;
'Tis thine. And art thou greater than before?
Then thou before was fomething less than man.
Has thy new poft betray'd thee into pride?
That pride defames humanity, and calls [raife.
The being mean, which flad's or strings can

§ 238.

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THAT prince, and that alone, is truly great, Who draws the fword reluctant, gladly fheathis;

On empire builds what empire far outweighs,
And makes his throne a fcaffold to the fkies.
Why this fo rare? becaufe forgot of all
The day of death; that venerable day, [nounce
Which fits as judge: that day which shall pro-
On all our days, abfolve them, or condemn.
Lorenzo! never fhut thy thought againft it;
Be levees ne'er fo full, afford it room,
And give it audience in the cabinet.
That friend confulted, flatteries apart,
Will tell thee fair, if thou art great, or mean.
To doat on aught may leave us, or be left,
Is that ambition? then let flames defcend,
Point to the centre their inverted fpires:
When blind ambition quite mistakes her road,
And downward pores, for that which thines
Subftantial happiness, and true renown; [above,
Then, like an idiot gazing on the brook,
We leap at ftars, and faften in the mud;
At glory grafp, and fink in infamy.

$239. The Torment of Ambition. AMBITION! powerful fource of good and ill! Thy ftrength in man, like length of wing in

birds,

When difengaged from earth, with greater eafe
And fwifter flight, tranfports us to the skies.
By toys entangled, or in guilt berair'd,

It turns a curfe; it is our chain, and scourge,
In this dark dungeon, where confin'd we lie,
Clofe grated by the fordid bars of fense;
All prospect of eternity fhut out;
And but for execution ne'er fet free.

$240. True Riches.

WITH error in ambition, juitly chara'd,
Find we Lorenzo wifer in his wealth?
Where thy true treafure; Gold fays, "not in
me,"

And, "not in me," the diamond. Gold is poor;
India's infolvent: feek it in thyfelf;
Seek in thy naked feif, and find it there:
In being fo defcended, form'd, endow'd ;
Sky-born, fky-guided, iky-returning race!
Erect, immortal, rational, divine!

In fenfes, which inherit earth and heavens;
Enjoy the various riches nature yields:
Far nobler! give the riches they enjoy;
Give talte to fruits; and harmony to groves;
Their radiant beams to gold, and gold's bright
Take in at once the landfcape of the world, [fire;
At a fmall inlet, which a grain might close,
And half create the wondrous world they fee.
Our fenfes, as our reafon, are divine.
But for the magic orman's powerful charm,
Earth were a rude, uncolour'd chaos ftill.
Que is the cloth, the pencil, and the paint,
W beautifies creation's ample dome.

Superior wonders in himself forgot,
His admiration waste on objects round,
When heaven makes him the foul of all b
Abfurd! not rare! fo great, fo mean, is

What wealth in fentes fuch as thefe
In fancy, fi'd to form a fairer scene
Than fente furveys! in memory's firm r
Which, thould it perifh, could this world
From the dark fhadows of o'erwhelming
In colours fresh, originally bright
Preferve its portrait, and report its fate!
What wealth in intellect, that fovereign
Which fenfe, and fancy, fummons to the
Interrogates, approves, or reprehends:
And from the mafs thofe underlings impo
From their materials fifted, and refin'd,
Forms art, and science, government, and
What wealth in fouls that foar, dive,

around.

Difdaining limit, or from place, or time, And bear at once, in thought extensive, Th' almighty fiat, and the trumpet's fom Bold, on creation's outfide walk, and vie What was, and is, and more than e'er fha Commanding, with omnipotence of thon Creations new, in fancy's field to rife! Souls,that can grafp whate'er th Almighty And wander wild through things impo What wealth, in faculties of endlefs grow In liberty to choose, in power to reach, And in duration (how thy riches rife!) Duration to perpetuate-houndless blits!

$241. The Vanity of Wealth. HIGH-BUILT abundance, heap on heap

what?

To breed new wants, and beggar us the
Then make a richer fcramble for the thre
Soon as this feeble pulfe, which leaps fo
Almoft by miracles is tir'd with play,
Like rubbish, from difploding engines thr
Our magazines of hoarded trifles fly;
Fly diverfe; fly to foreigners, to foes;
New mafters court, and call the former fo
(How justly?) for dependance on their ft.
Wide featter firft, our play-things, then our

Much learning fhews how little mortals k
Much wealth, how little worldlings can en
At beft if babies us with endless toys;
And keeps us children till we drop to du
As monkies at a mirror ftand amaz'd,
They fail to find what they fo plainly fee;
Thus men in fhining riches fee the face
Of happinefs, nor know it is a fhade;
But gaze, and touch, and peep, and perpas
And with, and wonder it is abfent fill.

How few can refcue opulence from want Who lives to nature, rarely can be poor; Who lives to fancy, never can be rich. Poor is the man in debt; the man of gold, In debt to fortune, trembles at her pow'r. The man of reafon fimiles at her, and death O what a patrimony, this! a being

Say then, all man, his thugoht's all fent abroad,Of fuch inherent ftrength and majesty,

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