Humble a fecond bow'd, and took the word,
Forefaw my name by future age ador'd:
O live,' faid he, thou wifest of the wife!
As none has equall'd, none fhall ever rise
Excelling thee-
Parent of wicked, bane of honest deeds,
Pernicious Flatt'ry! thy malignant feeds
In an ill hour, and by a fatal hand,
Sadly diffus'd o'er Virtue's gleby land,
With rifing pride amidst the corn appear,
And choak the hopes and harveft of the year.
And now the whole perplex'd ignoble crowd,
Mute to my questions, in my praises loud,
Echo'd the word: whence things arofe, or how
They thus exift, the apteft nothing know;
What yet is not, but is ordain'd to be,
All vail of doubt apart, the dulleft fee.
My Prophets and my Sophifts finish'd here
Their civil efforts of the verbal war :
Not fo my Rabbins and Logicians yield;
Retiring, ftill they combat: from the field.
Of open arms unwilling they depart,
And fculk behind the fubterfuge of art.
To speak one thing, mix'd dialects they join,
Divide the fimple, and the plain define;
Fix fancy'd laws, and form imagin'd rules,
Terms of their art, and jargon of their schools;
Ill-grounded maxims, by false glofs enlarg'd,
And captious Science against Reason charg'd.
Soon their crude notions with each other fought;
The adverse fe&t deny'd what this had taught;
And he at length the ampleft triumph gain'd,
Who contradicted what the last maintain'd.
O wretched impotence of human mind!
We, erring, ftill excufe for error find,
And darkling grope, not knowing we are blind.
Vain man! fince first the blufhing fire effay'd
His folly with connected leaves to fhade,
How does the crime of thy refembling race,
With like attempt, that priftine error trace?
Too plain thy nakedness of foul espy'd,
Why doft thou ftrive the conscious shame to hide,
By masks of eloquence and veils of pride?
With outward fmiles their flatt'ry I receiv'd,
Own'd my fick mind by their discourse reliev'd;
But bent, and inward to myself, again
Perplex'd, these matters I revolv'd in vain.
My fearch ftill tir'd, my labour still renew'd,
At length I Ignorance and Knowledge view'd
Impartial; both in equal balance laid,
Light flew the knowing scale, the doubtful heavy weigh'd.
Forc'd by reflective Reafon, I confefs
That human science is uncertain guefs.
Alas! we grafp at clouds, and beat the air,
Vexing that spirit we intend to clear.
Can thought beyond the bounds of matter climb?
Or who shall tell me what is space or time?
In vain we lift up our prefumptuous eyes
To what our Maker to their ken denies :
The fearcher follows faft, the object fafter flies.
The little which imperfectly we find,
Seduces only the bewilder'd mind
To fruitless fearch of fomething yet behind.
Various difcuffions tear our heated brain:
Opinions often turn; ftill doubts remain;
And who indulges thought increases pain.
How narrow limits were to Wisdom giv'n!
Earth fhe furveys; fhe thence would measure heav'n:
Thro' mifts obfcure, now wings her tedious way,
Now wanders, dazzl'd with too bright a day;
And from the fummit of a pathless coaft,
Sees infinite, and in that fight is loft.
Remember that the curs'd desire to know,
Offspring of Adam, was thy fource of woe;
Why wilt thou, then, renew the vain purfuit,
And rafhly catch at the forbidden fruit?
With empty labour and eluded strife,
Seeking, by knowledge, to attain to life;
For ever from that fatal tree debarr'd,
Which flaming fwords and angry cherubs guard.
Solomon again feeking happiness, inquires if wealth and greatness can produce it: begins with the magnificence of gardens and buildings, the luxury of mufick and feasting; and proceeds to the hopes and defires of love. In two episodes are fhewn the follies and troubles of that paffion. Solomon, ftill disappointed, falls under the temptations of libertinism and idolatry; recevers his thought; reasons aright; and concludes that, as to the pursuit of pleasure and fenfual delight, ALL IS VANITY AND VEXATION OF SPIRIT.
RY then, O man! the moments to deceive
That from the womb attend thee to the grave: For weary'd Nature find fome apter scheme;
• Health be thy hope, and Pleasure be thy theme. From the perplexing and unequal ways
• Where Study brings thee; from the endless maze • Which Doubt perfuades to run, forewarn'd,recede To the gay field and flow'ry path, that lead
To jocund mirth, foft joy, and careless ease: • Forfake what may inftruct for what may please; Effay amusing art and proud expence,
And make thy reafon fubject to thy fenfe!"
I commun'd thus. The pow'r of wealth I try'd, And all the various luxe of coftly pride;
Artists and plans reliev'd my folemn hours;
I founded palaces, and planted bow'rs.
Birds, fishes, beasts, of each exotick kind,
I to the limits of my court confin'd.
To trees transferr'd I gave a second birth,
And bid a foreign fhade grace Judah's earth.
Fish ponds were made where former forefts grew,
And hills were levell'd to extend the view.
Rivers, diverted from their native course,
And bound with chains of artificial force,
From large cafcades in pleafing tumult roll'd,
Or rofe thro' figur'd ftone or breathing gold.
From farthest Africa's tormented womb
The marble brought, erects the spacious dome,
Or forms the pillars long-extended rows,
On which the planted grove and penfile garden grows.
The workmen here obey the master's call,
To gild the turret and to paint the wall;
To mark the pavement there with various stone,
And on the jafper steps to rear the throne:
The spreading cedar, that an age had stood,
Supreme of trees, and miftrefs of the wood,
Cut down and carv'd, my fhining roof adorns,
And Lebanon his ruin'd honour mourns.
A thousand artifts fhew their cunning pow'r,
To raise the wonders of the iv'ry tow'r:
A thousand maidens ply the purple loom,
To weave the bed and deck the regal room;
Till Tyre confeffes her exhaufted ftore,
That on her coaft the murex* is no more ;
Till from the Parian ifle and Lybia's coaft
The mountains grieve their hopes of marble loft ;
And India's woods return their just complaint,
Their brood decay'd, and want of elephant.
*The murcx is a fhell-fish, of the liquor whereof a purple colour is made.
My full defign with vaft expence achiev'd,
I came, beheld, admir'd, reflected, griev'd:
I chid the folly of my thoughtless haste ;
For, the work perfected, the joy was paft.
To my new courts fad Thought did still repair,
And round my gilded roofs hung hov'ring Care.
In vain on filken beds I fought repofe,
And reftlefs oft from purple couches rose ;
Vexatious Thought ftill found my flying mind,
Nor bound by limits, nor to place confin'd;
Haunted my nights, and terrify'd my days,
Stalk'd thro' my gardens, and purfu'd my ways,
Nor shut from artful bow'r, nor loft in winding maze.
Yet take thy bent, my foul! another sense
Indulge; add mufick to magnificence:
Effay if harmony may grief controul,
Or pow'r of found prevail upon the foul.
Often our feers and poets have confefs'd,
That mufick's force can tame the furious beast ;
Can make the wolf or foaming boar restrain
His rage, the lion drop his crefted main,
Attentive to the fong; the lynx forget
His wrath to man, and lick the minstrel's feet.
Are we, alas! lefs favage yet than these?
Elfe mufick, fure, may human cares appease!
I fpake my purpose; and the chearful choir
Parted their shares of harmony: the lyre
Soften'd the timbrel's noife; the trumpet's found
Provok'd the Dorian flute, (both fweeter found
When mix'd ;) the fife the viol's notes refin'd;
And ev'ry ftrength with ev'ry grace was join'd.
Each morn they wak'd me with a fprightly lay;
Of op'ning heav'n they fung, and gladsome day:
Each evening their repeated skill express'd
Scenes of repofe, and images of rest.
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