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And will no pow'r his finking spirit fave

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From the dark caves of death, and chambers of the

Each evening I behold the fetting fun

With downward fpeed into the ocean run:
Yet the fame light (pafs but fome fleeting hours)
Exerts his vigour, and renews his pow'r;
Starts the bright race again his conftant flame
Rifes and fets, returning ftill the fame.
I mark the various fury of the winds;
These neither feafons guide, nor orders binds :
They now dilate, and now contract their force :
Various their speed, but endless is their course.
From his first fountain and beginning ouze,
Down to the fea each brook and torrent flows;
Though fundry drops or leave, or fwell the stream;
The whole ftill runs, with equal pace, the fame.
Still other waves fupply the rifing urns;
And the eternal flood no want of water mourns.
Why then muft man obey the fad decree,
Which fubjects neither fun, nor wind, nor fea?
A flow'r, that does with opening morn arife,
And flourishing the day, at evening dies;
A winged eastern blast, just skimming o'er
The ocean's brow, and finking on the shore;
A fire, whofe flames thro' crackling ftubble fly;
A meteor fhooting from the fummer sky;
A bowl a down the bending mountain roll'd;
A bubble breaking, and a fable told;

A noon-tide fhadow, and a midnight dream
Are emblems, which with femblance apt proclaim
Our earthly courfe: But, O my foul! so fast
Muft life run off; and death for ever laft?

This dark opinion, fure, is too confin'd;

Elfe whence this hope, and terror of the mind?
Does fomething ftill, and somewhere yet remain,
Reward or punishment, delight or pain?

Say: fhall our relicks fecond birth receive?
Sleep we to wake, and only die to live?

When the fad wife has clos'd her husband's eyes,
And pierc'd the echoing vault with doleful cries;
Lies the pale corpfe not yet entirely dead?
The fpirit only from the body fled,

The groffer part of heat and motion void,
To be by fire, or worm, or time destroy'd;
The foul, immortal substance, to remain,
Confcious of joy, and capable of pain?
And if her acts have been directed well,
While with her friendly clay fhe deign'd to dwell.;
Shall fhe with fafety reach her priftine feat?
Find her reft endless, and her blifs compleat??
And while the bury'd man we idly mourn;
Do angels joy to fee his better half return?
But if he has deform'd this earthly life
With murd'rous rapine, and feditious strifé;
Amaz'd, repuls'd, and by those angels driven
From the aetherial feat, and blissful heav'n,
In everlasting darkness muft fhe lie,
Still more unhappy, that she cannot die?

Amid two feas on one fmall point of land
Weary'd, uncertain, and amaz'd we ftand:
On either fide our thoughts inceffant turn:
Forward we dread; and looking back we mourn.
Lofing the prefent in his dubious hafte;

And loft ourselves betwixt the future, and the paft.

Thefe cruel doubts contending in my breaft, My reafon ftaggering, and my hopes opprefs'd, Once more I faid: once more I will enquire, What is this little, agile, pervious fire,

This flutt'ring motion, which we call the mind?~
How does the act? and where is the confin'd?
Have we the pow'r to guide her, as we please?
Whence then thofe evils, that obftruct our eafe?
We happiness purfue; we fly from pain;
Yet the purfuit, and yet the flight is vain :
And, while poor nature labours to be bleft,
By day with pleasure, and by night with reft:
Some ftronger pow'r eludes our fickly will;
Dashes our rifing hope with certain ill;
And makes us with reflective trouble fee,
That all is deftin'd, which we fancy free.

That Pow'r fuperior then, which rules our mind,.
Is his decree by human pray'r inclin'd?
Will he for facrifice our forrows ease?

And can our tears reverfe his firm decrees?

Then let religion aid, where reason fails :

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Throw loads of incenfe in, to turn the scales:
And let the filent fanctuary fhow,

What from the babling fchools we may not know,
How man may fhun, or bear his deftin'd part of woe.
What fhall amend, or what abfolve our fate?
Anxious we hover in a mediate flate,

Betwixt infinity and nothing: bounds,

Or boundless terms, whose doubtful fenfe confounds.
Unequal thoughts; whilft all we apprehend,

Is, that our hopes mult rife, our forrows end;
As our Creator deigns to be our friend.

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I faid;

and inftant bad the priests prepare
The ritual facrifice, and folemn pray❜r,
Select from vulgar herds, with garlands gay,
A hundred bulls afcend the facred way.
The artful youth proceed to form the choir;
They breathe the flute, or ftrike the vocal wire.
The maids in comely order next advance;
They beat the timbrel, and inftruct the dance.
Follow the chosen tribe from Levi sprung,
Chanting by just return the holy fong.
Along the choir in folemn ftate they past,
The anxious King came laft.

The facred hymn perform'd, my promis'd vow
I paid and bowing at the altar low,

Father of heav'n! I faid, and judge of earth!
Whofe word call'd out this univerfe to birth;
By whofe kind pow'r and influencing care
The various creatures move, and live, and are;
But, ceafing once that care, withdrawn that pow'r
They move (alas !) and live, and are no more:
Omniscient Mafter, omnipresent King,

To thee, to thee, my laft diftrefs I bring.

Thou, that can't still the raging of the feas, Chain up the winds and bid the tempefts cease; Redeem my fhipwreck'd foul from raging gufts Of cruel paffion, and deceitful lufts:

From ftorms of rage, and dang'rous rocks of pride,
Let thy ftrong hand this little veffel guide
(It was thy hand that made it) through the tide
Impetuous of this life: let thy command
Direct my course, and bring me fafe to land

If, while this weary'd flesh draws fleeting breath, Not fatisfy'd with life, afraid of death,

It hap❜ly be thy will, that I fhould know

Glimpse of delight, or paufe from anxious woe,
From now, from inftant now, great Sire, difpel
The clouds that prefs my foul; from now reveal
A gracious beam of light; from now inspire
My tongue to fing, my hand to touch the lyre;
My open'd thought to joyous prospect raise;
And, for thy mercy, let me fing thy praise.
Or, if thy will ordains, I ftill fhall wait
Some new Here-after, and a future ftate;
Permit my strength, my weight of woe to bear;
And raise my mind fuperior to my care.
Let me, howe'er unable to explain

The fecret lab'rinths of thy ways to man,
With humble zeal confefs thy awful pow'r;
Still weeping hope, and wond'ring ftill adore.
So in my conquest be thy might declar'd:
And, for thy justice, be thy name rever❜d.

My pray'r scarce ended, a ftupendous gloom
Darkens the air; loud thunder fhakes the dome
To the beginning miracle fucceed

An awful filence, and religious dread.
Sudden breaks forth a more than common day:
The facred wood, which on the altar lay,

Untouch'd, unlighted glows

Ambrofial odor, fuch as never flows
From Arab's gum, or the Sabaean rose,
Does round the air evolving scenes diffufe:
The holy ground is wet with heav'nly dews:

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