Thy name and native drefs, thy works belov'd
And honour'd: while to my compatriot youth
I point the great example of thy fons,
And tune to Attic themes the British lyre.

THE

PLEASURES

OF THE

IMAGINATION.

BOOK THE SECOND.

MDCCLXV.

INTRODUCTION to this more difficult part of the subject. Of truth and its three claffes, matter of fact, experimental or scientifical truth, (contradistinguished from 'opinion) and univerfal truth: which la is either metaphyfical or geometrical, either jurely intellectual or perfectly abfiracled. On the power of difcerning truth depends that of acting with the view of an end; a circumflance effential to virtue. Of virtue confidered in the divine mind as a per:etual and univerfal berescence. Of human virtue, confulered as a fyftem of particular fentiments and actions, fuitble to the depgns of providence and the condition of man; to whom it constitutes the chief good and the first beauty. Of vice and its origin. Of ridicule: its general nature and final cause. Of the paffions; particularly of those which relate to evil, natural or moral, and which are generally accounted painful, though not always unattended with pleasure.

THUS
HUS far of beauty and the pleasing forms
Which man's untutor'd fancy, from the
fcenes

5

10

Imperfect of this ever-changing world,
Creates; and views, inamour'd. Now my fong
Severer themes demand: myfterious truth:
And virtue, fovran good: the spells, the trains,
The progeny of error: the dreadful fway
Of paffion; and whatever hidden ftores
From her own lofty deeds and from herfelf
The mind acquires. Severer argument:
Not lefs attractive; nor deferving lefs
A conftant ear. For what are all the forms
Educ'd by fancy from corporeal things,
Greatnefs, or pomp, or fymmetry of parts?
Not tending to the heart, foon feeble grows,
As the blunt arrow 'gainst the knotty trunk,
Their impulfe on the fenfe: while the pall'd eye
Expects in vain its tribute; aiks in vain,
Where are the ornaments it once admir'd?
Not fo the moral fpecies, nor the powers
Of paffion and of thought. The ambitious

mind

15

20

From the loud throng the beaten paths of wealth
And power, thou didst apart fend forth to speak
In tuneful Words concerning highest things,
Him ftill do thou, O Father, at thofe hours 35
Of penfive freedom when the human foul
Shuts out the rumour of the world, him ftill
Touch thou with fecret leflons: call thou back
Each erring thought and let the yielding
ftrains

From his full bofom, like a welcome rill
Spontaneous from its healthy fountain, flow!

But from what name, what favorable fgu,
What heavenly aufpice, rather fhall I date
My perilous excurfion, than from truth,
That nearest inmate of the human foul;
Eftrang'd from whom, the countenance divine
Of man disfgur'd and dishonour'd finks
Among inferior things? For to the brutes
Perception and the tranfient boons of sense
Hath fate imparted: but to man alone
Of fublunary beings was it given,
Each fleeting impulfe on the fenfual powers
Atleifure to review; with equal eye
To scan the paffion of the ftricken nerve
Or the vague object friking to conduct
From fenfe, the portal turbulent and loud,
Into the mind's wide palace one by one
The frequent, preffing, fluctuating forms,
And queftion and compare them.
learns

:

49

45

50

55

Thus he

Their birth and fortunes; how allied they haunt 60

The avenues of fenfe: what laws dire&
Their union, and what various difcords rife,
Or fix'd or cafual: which when his clear thought
Retains and when his faithful words exprefs,
That living image of the external fcene,
As in a polifh'd mirror held to view,
Is truth where'er it varies from the fhape
And hue of its exemplar, in that part

65

70

75

Dim error lurks. Moreover, from without
When oft the fame fociety of forms.
In the fame order have approach'd his mind,
He deigns no mere their fteps with curious heed
To trace; no more their features or their garb
He now examines; but of them and their
Condition, as with fome diviner's tongue,
Affirms what heaven in every diflant place,
Through evey future feafon, will decree,
This too is truth: where'er his prudent lips
Wait till experience diligent and flow
Has authoriz'd their fentence, this is truth;
A fecond, higher kind: the parent this
Of fcience; or the lofty power herself,
Science herfelf: on whom the wants and cares
Of focial life depend; the fubftitute
Of God's own wifdom in this toilfeme world; 85
The providence of man. Yet oft in vain,
To earn her aid, with fix'd and anxious eye
He looks on nature's and on fortune's course :
1oo much in vain. His duller vifual ray

So

The bark had languish'd, now a ruiling gale
Lifts o'er the fickle waves her dancing prow,
Let the glad pilot, buriting out in thanks,
Remember this: left blind o'erweening pride
Pollute their offerings: left their fellish heart 215
Say to the heavenly ruler," At our call

Relents thy power: by us thy arm is mov'd." Fools! who of God as of each other deem: Who his invariable acts deduce

From fudden counfels tranfent as their own; 220 Nor farther of his bounty, than the event Which haply meets their loud and cager prayer, Acknowledge; nor, beyond the drop minute Which haply they have tafted, heed the fource That flows for all; the fountain of his love 225 Which, from the fummit where he fits enthron'd, Pours health and joy, unfailing ftreams, through

245

250

Loud-fhouting, or, in many diale&s
Of hope and filial truft, imploring thence
The fortunes of their people: where fo fix'd
Were all the dates of being, fo difpos'd
To every living foul of every kind
The field of motion and the hour of reft,
That each the general happiness might ferve;
And by the difcipline of laws divine
Convinc'd of felly or chaftiz'd from guilt,
Each might at length be happy. What remains
Shall be like what is pafs'd; but fairer till, 255
And frill increauing in the godlike gifts
Of life and truth. The fame paternal hand,
From the mute fhell-tih gaping on the fore,
To men, to angels, to celeftial minds,
Will ever lead the generations on
Through higher fcenes of being; while, fup-
ply'd

From day to day by his enlivening breath
Inferior orders in fucceffion rife

260

270

By the fun's call their onward pace incline,
So all things which have life afpire to God,
Exhauftleis fount of intellectual day,
Centre of fouls. Nor doth the mattering voice
Of nature ceafe within to prompt aright
Their fteps; nor is the care of heaven with-held
From fending to the toil external aid;
That in their ftations all may perfevere

To climb the afcent of being, and approach
For ever nearer to the life divine.

275

But this eternal fabric was not rais'd For man's inspection. Though to fome be given To catch a tranfient vifonary glimpfe 280 Of that majestic fcene which boundless power Prepares for perfect goodnefs, yet in vain Would human lite her faculties expand To imbesom such an object. Nor could e'er; Virtue or praife have touch'd the hearts of men, Had not the fovran guide, through every stage 286 Of this their various journey, pointed out New hopes, new toils, which to their humble fphere

Of fight and ftrength might fuch importance hold
As doth the wide creation to his own.
290
Hence all the little charities of life,

With all their duties: hence that favorite palm
Of human will, when duty is fuflic❜d,
And fill the liberal foul in ampler deeds
Would manifeft herfelf; that facred fign
Of her rever'd affinity to him

295

Whole bounties are his own; to whom nene

faid,

305

"Create the wifeft, fulleft, fairest world,
"And make its offspring happy;" who, intent
Some likeness of himfelt among his works
To view, hath pour'd into the human breaft
A ray of knowledge and of love, which guides
Earth's feeble race to act their Maker's part,
Self-judging, felf-oblig'd: while, from before
That godlike function, the gigantic power
Neceflity, though wont to curb the force
Of Chaos and the favage clements,
Retires abafh'd, as from a fcene too high
For her brute tyranny, and with her bears
Her fcorned followers, terror, and bafe awe 310
Who blinds herself, and that ill-fuited pair,
Obedience link'd with hatred. Then the foul
Arifes in her ftrength; and, looking round
Her bufy fphere, whatever work the views,
Whatever counfel bearing any trace
Of her Creator's likenefs, whether apt
To aid her fellows or preferve herself
In her fuperior functions unimpair'd,
Thither the turus exulting: that the claims
As her peculiar good : on that, through all
The fiel le feafons of the day, the looks
With reverence ftill: to that, as to a fence
Against affliction and the darts of pain,
Her drooping hopes repair: and once oppos'd
To that all other, pleafure, other wealth
Vile, as the drofs upon the molten gold,
Appears, and loathfome as the briny fea
To him who languifhes with thirth, and fighs
For fome known fountain pure. For what can

ftrive

315

320

325

With virtue? which of nature's regions vaft 330

One homebred colour, which not all the lights
Of science e'er fhall change; not all the ftorms 455
Of adverfe fortune wash away, nor yet
The robe of pureft virtue quite conceal.
Thence on they pass, where meeting frequent
fhapes

Of good and evil, cunning phantoms apt
To fire or freeze the breaft, with them they
join

460

465

470

In dangerous parley; liftening oft, and oft
Gazing with recklefs paffion, while its garb
The ipectre heightens, and its pompous tale
Repeats with fome new circumitance to fuit
That early tin&ture of the hearer's foul.
And fhould the guardian, reafon, but for one
Short moment yield to this illufive scene
His ear and eye, the intoxicating charm
Involves him, till no longer he difcerns,
Or only guides to err. Then revel forth
A furious band that spurn him from the throne,
And all is uproar. Hence ambition climbs
With fiding feet and hands impure, to grafp
Thofe folemn toys which glitter in his view
On Fortune's rugged iteep: hence pale Revenge
Unfheaths her murderous dagger: Rapine hence
And envious lur, by ve..al fraud upborne, 477
Surmount the reverend barr er of the laws
Which kept them from their prey: hence all the
crimes

That e'er defil'd the earth, and all the plagues 480
That follow them for vengeance, in the guife
Of honor, fafety, pleafure, eafe, or pomp,
Stole first into the foud beleving mind,

485

Yet not by Fancy's w tchcraft on the brain
Are always the tumultuous paffions driven
To guilty deeds, nor reafon bound in chains
That vice alone may lord it. Oft, adorn'd
With motley pageants, folly mounts his throne,
And plays her idiot antics, like a queen.

A thoufard garbs the wears; a thoufand ways 490
She whirls her giddy empire. 1o, thus far
With bold adventure to the Mantuan lyre
Ing for contemplation link'd with love
A penfve theme. Now haply fhould my fong
Unbend that ferious countenance, and learn 495
Thalia's tripping gait, her fhrill-ton'd voice,
Her wiles familiar: whether fcorn fhe darts
In wanton ambush from her lip and eye,
Or whether with a fad difguife of care,
O'ermantling her gay brow, the acts in sport
The deeds of folly, and from all fides round
Calls forth impetuous laughter's gay rebuke;
Her province. But through every comic scene
To lead my Mufe with her light pencil arm'd;
Through every fwift occation which the hand 505
Of laughter points at, when the mirthful fting
Diftends her labouring fides and chokes her

tongue;

500

Were endless as to found each grating note
With which the rools and chattering daws, and

Some stubborn diffonance of things combin'd, 515 Strikes on her quick perception: whether pomp,

526

Or praile, or beauty be dragg'd in and frown
Where fordid fashions, where ignoble deeds,
Where toul deformity is wont to dwell;
Or whether thefe with fhrewd and wayward spite
Invade refplendent pomp's imperious mien, 521
The charms of beauty, or the boaft of praise.
Aik we for what fair end the Almighty Sire
In mortal bofoms itirs this gay contempt,
Thefe grateful pangs of laughter; from disgust
Educing pleafure? Wherefore, but to aid
The tardy fteps of reafon, and at once
By this prompt impulie urge us to deprefs
Wild Folly's aims? For though the fober light
Of Truth flow dawning on the watchful mind 53
At length unfolds, through many a fubtile tie,
How thefe uncouth diforders end at laft
In public evil; yet benignant Heaven,
Confcious how dim the dawn of truth appears
To thoufands, confcious what a feanty paufe 535
From labour and from care the wider lot
Of humble life affords for ftudious thought
To fean the maze of Nature, therefore flamp'd
Thefe glaring fcenes with characters of fcorn,
As broad, as obvious to the paff ng clown
As to the letter'd fage's curious eye.

540

But other evils o'er the fteps of man Through all his walks impend; against whofe might The flender darts of laughter nought avail : A trivial wariare. Some, like cruel guards, 545 On Nature's ever-moving throne attend; With mischief arm'd for him who'er fhall thwart The path of her inexorable wheels,

While the purfues the work that must be done Through ocean, earth, and air. Hence frequent

forms

555

Of woe; the merchant, with his wealthy bark,
Bury'd by dathing waves; the traveller
Pierc'd by the pointed lightning in his hafte;
And the poor husbandman with folded arms,
Surveying his loft labours, and a heap
Of blatted chafi the product of the field
Whence he expected bread. But worse than these
I deem, far worse, that other race of ills
Which human kind rear up among themselves;
That horrid offspring which ifgovern'd will 500
Bears to fantaftic error; vices, crimes,
Furies that curfe the earth, and make the blows,
The heavieft blows, of nature's innocent hand
Seem fport; which are in deed but as the care
Of a wife parent, who folie ts good
To all her house, though haply at the price
Of tears and froward wailing and reproach
For fome unthinking child, whom not the lefs
Its mother deftipes to be happy ftill.

565

Thefe fources then of pain, inis double lot 570 Of evil in the inheritance of man, Requir'd for his protection no flight force, No careless watch. And therefore was his breast Fenc'd round with paffions quick to be alarm'd,, Or stubborn to oppofe; with fear, more swift 575 Than beacons catching fame from hill to hill, Where armies land; with anger, uncontrol'd As the young lion bounding on his prey; With forrow, that locks up the struggling heart;