The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;

Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;

Wide and more wide, the o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind;
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest,
And heaven beholds its image in his breast.

Come, then, my friend! my genius! come along ;
Oh master of the poet, and the song!

And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends,
To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise ;26
Form'd by thy converse happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Correct, with spirit; eloquent, with ease;
Intent to reason, or polite to please.

Oh! while along the stream of time thy name

Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;

Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,

385

Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?

When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,

Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,

Shall then this verse to future age pretend

Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?

390

That, urged by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart

25 In the MS. thus :

"And now transported o'er so vast a plain,

While the wing'd courser flies with all her rein,
While heavenward now her mounting wing she feels,
Now scattered fools fly trembling from her heels,
Wilt thou, my St. John! keep her course in sight,
Confine her fury, and assist her flight?"

26 ["Did he rise with temper when he drove furiously out of the kingdom the Duke of Marlborough? Or did he fall with dignity when he fled from justice himself, and joined the Pretender ?"-Letter to Mr. Pope, 1735.]

;

For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light;
Show'd erring Pride, Whatever is, is right;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim
That true self-love and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below! 27
And all our knowledge is, Ourselves to know.

395

27 In the MS. thus:

"That just to find a God in all we can,

And all the study of mankind is man."

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

FATHER of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou great First Cause, least understood,
Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that Thou art good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And, binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.1

What conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than hell to shun,
That, more than heaven pursue.

What blessings thy free bounty gives,
Let me not cast away;

For God is paid when man receives;
To enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness let me bound,
Or think Thee Lord alone of man,
When thousand worlds are round:

1 [Originally," Left conscience free, and will."]