The purple ftream that through my veffels glides,
Dull and unconfcious flows like common tides:
The pipes through which the circling juices ftray,
Are not that thinking I, no more than they :
This frame compacted with transcendent skill,
Of moving joints obedient to my will,
Nurs'd from the fruitful glebe, like yonder tree,
Waxes and waftes; I call it mine, not me:
New matter ftill the mould'ring mass sustains,
The manfion chang'd, the tenant still remains :
And from the fleeting ftream, repair'd by food,
Diftinct, as is the fwimmer from the flood.
What am I then? fure, of a nobler birth
By parents right: I own as mother, earth;
But claim fuperior lineage by my SIRE,
Who warm'd th' unthinking clod with heavenly fire:
Effence divine, with lifelefs clay allay'd,
By double nature, double instinct sway'd;
With look erect, I dart my longing eye,
Seem wing'd to part, and gain my native sky;
I ftrive to mount, but ftrive, alas! in vain.
Ty'd to this maffy globe with magick chain.
Now with fwift thought I range from pole to pole,
View worlds around their flaming centers roll:
What steady powers their endless motions guide,
Thro' the fame tracklefs paths of boundless void!
I trace the blazing comet's fiery trail,
And weigh the whirling planets in a scale :
Thefe godlike thoughts, while eager I purfue,
Some glitt'ring trifle offer'd to my view,
A gnat, an infect, of the meanest kind,
Erafe the new-born image from my mind;
Some beaftly want, craving, importunate,
Vile as the grinning maftiff at my gate,
Calls off from heav'nly truth this reas'ning me,
And tells me I'm a brute as much as he.
If on fublimer wings of love and praife,
My foul above the ftarry vault I raise,
Lur'd by fome vain conceit, or fhameful luft,
I flag, I drop, and flutter in the duft.
The tow'ring lark thus from her lofty ftrain,
Stoops to an emmet, or a barley grain.
By adverse gufts of jarring instincts toft,
I rove to one, now to the other coast;
To blifs unknown my lofty foul aspires,
My lot unequal to my vaft defires.
As 'mongst the hinds a child of royal birth
Finds his high pedigree by conscious worth
So man, amongst his fellow brutes expos'd,
Sees he's a king, but 'tis a king depos'd:
Pity him, beasts! you by no law confin'd,
Are barr'd from devious paths by being blind;
Whilft man, through op'ning views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge strays;
Too weak to choose, yet choofing still in hafte,
One moment gives the pleasure and distaste;
Bilk'd by paft minutes, while the prefent cloy,
The flatt'ring future ftill must give the joy.
Not happy, but amaz'd upon the road,
And (like you) thoughtless of his laft abode,
Whether next fun his being shall restrain,
To endless nothing, happiness or pain.
Around me, lo, the thinking thoughtless crew,
(Bewilder'd each) their diff'rent paths pursue;
Of them I ask the way; the first replies,
Thou art a god; and fends me to the skies.
Down on this turf (the next) thou two-legg'd beast,
There fix thy lot, thy blifs, and endless reft;
Between these wide extreams the length is fuch,
I find I know too little or too much.
Almighty Pow'r, by whose most wife command,
"Helpless, forlorn, uncertain here I ftand;
"Take this faint glimmering of thyself away,
"Or break into my foul with perfect day !"
This faid, expanded lay the facred text,
The balm, the light, the guide of fouls perplex'd:
Thus the benighted traveller that strays
Through doubtful paths, enjoys the morning rays;
The nightly mist, and thick defcending dew,
Parting, unfold the fields, and vaulted blue.
O Truth divine! enlighten'd by thy ray,
" I
grope
and guess no more, but fee my way;
"Thou clear'dft the fecret of my high defcent,
"And told me what those mystick tokens meant;
Marks of my birth, which I had worn in vain "Too hard for worldly fages to explain, "Zeno's were vain, vain Epicurus' schemes,
Their fyftems false, delufive were their dreams; "Unfkill'd my two-fold nature to divide, "One nurs'd by pleasure, and one nurs'd by pride: "Those jarring truths which human art beguile, Thy facred page thus bids me reconcile."
Offspring of God, no less thy pedigree,
What thou once we'rt, art now, and ftill may be,
Thy God alone can tell, alone decree
Faultlefs thou dropt from his unerring skill,
With the bare power to fin, fince free of will:
Yet charge not with thy guilt, his bounteous love,
For who has power to walk, has power to rove:
Who acts by force impell'd, can nought deferye;
And wifdom fhort of infinite, may fwerve.
Borne on thy new-imp'd wings, thou took'ft thy flight,
Left thy Creator, and the realms of light;
Difdain'd his gentle precept to fulfil;
And thought to grow a god by doing ill :
Though by foul guilt thy heav'nly form defac'd,
In nature chang'd from happy manfions chac'd,
Thou ftill retain'ft fome sparks of heav'nly fire,
Too faint to mount, yet reftlefs to aspire;
Angel enough to feek thy blifs again,
And brute enough to make thy fearch in vain.
The creatures now withdraw their kindly use,
Some fly thee, fome torment, and fome feduce;
Repaft ill fuited to fuch diff'rent guests,
For what thy sense defires, thy foul distastes;
Thy luft, thy curiofity, thy pride,
Curb'd, or deferr'd, or balk'd, or gratify'd,
Rage on, and make thee equally unbless'd,
In what thou want'ft, and what thou haft poffefs'd:
In vain thou hop'ft for blifs on this poor clod,
Return, and feek thy Father, and thy God:
Yet think not to regain thy native sky,
Borne on the wings of vain philosophy;
Mysterious paffage! hid from human eyes;
Soaring you'll fink, and finking you will rife:
Let humble thoughts thy wary footsteps guide,
Repair by meekness what you loft by pride.
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