THERE is either an uncommon warmth, or tenderness, in his ideas of all the nearer connexions in life. His extremes gratitude, and affection for his father has been mentioned already; and he fhews due proportions of the fame*, in speaking of other relations and friends.

INDEED he is fo far from being + any man's enemy, that he extends his brotherly regards to all mankind. His benevolence is || univerfal; he always fpeaks of that great fource of virtue, as the

* His Ode to a friend bound for Guinea, the Monody, and the Elegy to Conftantia, in particular, abound with proofs of his tenderness and affection for his friends.

+ There feems to be much honesty in his answer to a gentleman, who afked his fentiments of him:

Dear Fabius, me if well you know,
You ne'er will take me for your foe:
If right yourself you comprehend,
You ne'er will take me for your friend.

For this has heaven to virtue's glorious stage
Call'd me; and plac'd the garland in my view,
The wreath of conqueft. Bafely to defert,
The part affign'd me; and with daftard fear
From prefent pain, the cause of future blifs,
To fhrink into the bofom of the grave;
How then is gratitude's vaft debt repaid?
Where all the tender offices of love

Due to fraternal man, in which the heart
Each bleffing it communicates enjoys?

See p. 172, 1. 18, &c.

p. 195.

p. 164, 165.

greatest

greatest fource too of happiness and joy and (what may seem fomewhat particular) he thinks it, fo not only to man, but to all God's creatures ; even to the least infects.

* Beatitude fupreme in giving joy.

Hail, fource of tranfport ever new!
While I thy ftrong impulse pursue

I tafte a joy fincere :

Too vaft for little minds to know,
Who on themselves alone bestow
Their wishes and their care.-

By thee infpir'd the generous breast,
In bleffing others only blest,

With goodness large and free,

Delights the widow's tears to stay;

To teach the blind their smootheft way,

And aid the feeble knee.

p. 150.

Hymn to Benevolence, p. 26 and 27.

Thou fill'ft the waste of ocean, earth, and air,
With multitudes that fwim, or walk, or fly;
From rolling worlds defcends thy generous care
To infect crouds, that 'scape the niceft eye:
For each a sphere was circumfcrib'd by thee:
To blefs, and to be bleft, their noblest end,

To which, with speedy course, they all unerring tend. p. 24. And in his Hymn to Benevolence;

We fee thy energy prevail,

Thro' being's ever rifing fcale;

From nothing, ev'n to God.

p. 26.

He looks upon virtue as the cause of happiness to man, in the whole extent of his being; and on: vice as the cause of his mifery and unhappiness.

His thoughts of death are. fuch, as I fhould imagine every wife and good man muft entertain of it; and if they are not more commonly to be met with, it will only prove, that men of both those characters are not fo common as one would wish. He looks upon death as a thing rather to be defired,

* Fair virtue shines to all display'd; Nor afks the tardy schoolman's aid, To teach us what is right:

than

To fnatch thee timely from impending woe;
From aggregated mifery, whose pangs
Can find no other period but the grave. ›
-Who would not fink

A while in tears and forrow; then emerge
With tenfold luftre, triumph o'er his pain,.
And with unfading glory fhine in Heav'n?

P. 155.

p. 165.

than to be feared; as a relief from all the bustle, and troubles, of this life; and as the initiation, or entrance, into a much nobler state of life, an uninterrupted state of immortality and joy.

His ideas of the Deity are uncommonly great and noble. He fpeaks of GOD, as completing the whole creation* by a fingle thought; and of his +diftreffing, or reviving all things, only by cafting a fingle regard toward them, or looking from them. He confiders the love of Gop as the only satis factory object for happiness in this world: and he fhews how strong this is in his own mind, by the

While life gives pleasure, life fhall still remain ;
Till death, with gentle hand, shall shut the pleafing fcene:
Safe, fable guide, to that celestial fhore

Where pleasure knows no end, and change is fear'd no

more.

* See p. 13.-Ḥail fovereign goodness, &c.

But if one moment thou thy face fhould'ft hide,
Thy glory clouded, or thy fmiles deny'd,
Then widow'd nature veils her mournful eyes;
And vents her grief in univerfal fighs.
But when again thy glory is display'd,
Reviv'd creation lifts her chearful head :
New rifing forms thy potent fmiles obey,

And life rekindles at the genial ray;

United thanks replenish'd nature pays,

- P. 57.

And heav'n and earth refound their Maker's praife.

p. 15, 16.

warmth

warmth which * animates his prayers, and thankf givings, to his Maker. He carries this fo far, that in one place (though he expreffes his inferior abilities as to the form), he feems unwilling to yield

While this immortal fpark of heav'nly flame
Diftends my breaft, and animates my frame,
To thee my ardent praifes fhall be borne
On the first breeze that wakes the blushing morn
The latest star shall hear the pleasing found,
And nature in full choir fhall join around:
When full of thee my foul excurfive flies

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Thro' earth, air, ocean, or thy regal fkies;
From world to world, new wonders ftill I find,
And all the Godhead flashes on my mind.

And in his Hymn to Divine Love:

To thee, munific ever-flaming love!

One endless hymn united nature fings;

To thee, the bright inhabitants above

p. 16, 17.

Tune the glad voice, and fweep the warbling firings:
From pole to pole, on ever-waving wings
Winds waft thy praise, by rolling planets tun'd;
Aid then, O love, my voice to emulate the found.

It comes! it comes! I feel internal day!
Transfufive warmth thro' all my bofom glows:

My foul expanding gives the torrent way;

Thro' all my veins it kindles as it flows.

Thus ravish'd from the fcene of night and woes,

Oh fnatch me, bear me to thy happy reign!

There teach my tongue thy praife, in more exalted ftrain. p.25.