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To whom a thousand years are but a day;
Who bad the light her genial beams difplay;
And fet the moon, and taught the fun his way:
Who, waking time, his creature, from the fource
Primæval, order'd his predeftined course:

Himself, as in the hollow of his hand,
Holding, obedient to his high command,
The deep abyfs, the long continu'd store,
Where months, and days, and hours, and minutes

pour

Their floating parts, and thenceforth are no more.
This Alpha and Omega, first and last

Who, like a potter in a mold has caft
The world's great fame, commanding it to be
Such as the eyes of fenfe and reafon fee:
Yet if he wills, may change or spoil the whole;
May take yon' beauteous, myftic, starry roll,
And burn it, like an useless parchment scroll:
May from its Bafis in one moment pour
This melted earth

Like liquid metal, and like burning ore :
Who fole in power, at the beginning said;

Let Sea and Air, and Earth and Heaven be made:
And it was fo- -and when he shall ordain

In other fort, has but to speak again,

And they shall be no more: of this great theme,
This glorious hallow'd, everlasting name,
This God I would difcourfe.-

The learned Elders fat appall'd, amaz'd;
And each with mutual look on other gaz'd,

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Nor fpeech they meditate, nor anfwer frame:

(Too plain, alas! their filence spake their shame:)
'Till one, in whom an outward mien appear'd,
And turn fuperior to the vulgar herd,
Began; that human learning's furtheft reach
Was but to note the doctrines I could teach;
That mine to fpeak, and theirs was to obey:
For I in knowledge more, than power did fway:
And the astonish'd world in me beheld
Mofes ecclips'd, and Jeffe's fon excell'd.
Humble a fecond bow'd, and took the word;
Forefaw my name by future age ador'd;
Olive, faid he, thou wifeft of the wife!
As none has equall'd, none shall ever rife
Excelling thee.

Parent of wicked, bane of honeft deeds,
Pernicious flattery! 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 harvest 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 veil of doubt apart, the dulleft fee.
My prophets, and my sophists 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

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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 falfe glofs enlarg'd,
And captious fcience against reafon charg'd.
Soon their crude notions with each other fought:
The adverfe fect deny'd, what this had taught;
And he at length the ampleft triumph gain'd,
Who contradicted what the laft maintain'd.

O wretched impotence of human mind!
We erring ftill excuse 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 shade;
How does the crime of thy refembling race
With like attempt that pristine error trace!
Too plain thy nakedness of foul efpy'd,

Why doft thou ftrive the conscious fhame to hide

By marks of eloquence, and veils of pride?

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With outward fmiles their flattery 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;

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Light flew the knowing scale; the doubtful heavy

weigh'd.

Forc'd

Forc'd by reflective reason, I confess,
That human science is uncertain guefs.

Alas! we grafp at clouds, and beat the air,
Vexing that fpirit 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 given!
Earth fhe furveys; fhe thence would meafure Heaven:
Through mifts obfcure, now wings her tedious way;
Now wanders dazled with too bright a day;
And from the fummit of a pathlefs coast
Sees Infinite, and in that fight is loft.

Remember, that the curs'd defire to know,
Offspring of ADAM! was thy fource of woe.
Why wilt thou then renew the vain pursuit,
And rafhly catch at the forbidden fruit?
With empty labour and eluded ftrife
Seeking, by knowledge, to attain to life;
For ever from that fatal tree debarr'd,
Which flaming fwords and angry cherubs guard.

TEXTS

TE

X T S

CHIEFLY ALLUDED TO IN

BOOK II.

I faid in my own heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure. Ecclefiaftes, chap. II. verf. 1.

I made me great works, I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards. Verf. 4.

I made me gardens and orchards; and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruit. Verf. 5.

I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees. Verf. 6. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: And behold all was vanity, and vexation of fpirit; and there was no profit under the fun. Verf. 11.

I gat me men-fingers and women-fingers, and the delights of the fons of men, as mufical inftruments, and that of all forts. Verf. 8.

I fought in mine heart to give myself unto wine (yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom) and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the fons of men, which they should do under Heaven, all the day of their life. Verf. 3.

Then faid I in my heart, As it happeneth unto the

fool, fo it happeneth even unto me; and why was

I then

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