Lofing the prefent in this dubious hafte;
And loft ourselves betwixt the future, and the past.
Thefe cruel doubts contending in my breast,
My reason staggering, and my hopes opprefs'd,
Once more I faid: once more I will enquire,
What is this little, agile, pervious fire,
This fluttering motion, which we call the mind?
How does the act? and where is the confin'd?
Have we the power to guide her, as we please?
Whence then those evils, that obftruct our ease?
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 power eludes our fickly will;
Dafhes our rifing hope with certain ill;
And makes us with reflective trouble fee,
That all is deftin'd, which we fancy free,
That power fuperior then, which rules our mind,
Is his decree by human prayer inclin'd
Will he for facrifice our forrows ease?
And can our tears reverfe his firm decrees?
Then let religion aid, where reason fails:
Throw loads of incense in, to turn the scales;
And let the filent fanctuary fhow,
What from the babbling schools we may not know,
How man may fhun, or bear his deftin'd part of woe.
What shall amend, or what abfolve our fate?
Anxious we hover in a mediate state,
Betwixt infinity and nothing; bounds,
Or boundless terms, whofe doubtful sense confounds.
Unequal thought! whilst all we apprehend,
Is, that our hopes must rise, our forrows end;
As our Creator deigns to be our friend.
I faid;-and instant bad the priests prepare
The ritual facrifice, and folemn prayer.
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 strike the vocal wire.
The maids in comely order next advance;
They beat the timbrel, and inftruct the dance.
Follows the chofen tribe from Levi sprung,
Chanting by juft return the holy fong.
Along the choir in folemn ftate they paft,
The anxious king came last.
The facred hymn perform'd, my promis'd vow
I paid and bowing at the altar low,
Father of Heaven! I faid, and Judge of earth!
Whose word call'd out this univerfe to birth;
By whofe kind power and influencing care
The various creatures move, and live, and are;
But, ceafing once that care, withdrawn that power,
They move (alas!) and live, and are no more:
Omniscient Mafter, omni-prefent King,
To thee, to thee, my last distress I bring.
Thou, that can'ft ftill the raging of the feas, Chain up the winds, and bid the tempefts ceafe;
Redeem my fhip-wreck'd foul from raging gufts
Of cruel paffion, and deceitful lufts:
From ftorms of rage, and dangerous rocks of pride,
Let thy ftrong hand this little veffel guide
(It was thy hand that made it) thro' the tide
Impetuous of this life: let thy command
Direct my courfe, and bring me fafe to land.
If, while this weary'd flesh draws fleeting breath, Not fatisfy'd with life, afraid of death,
It haply be thy will, that I should know
Glimpfe of delight, or paufe from anxious woe; From Now, from inftant Now, great Sire! dispel 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 prospects 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 me ftrength, my weight of woe to bear; And raise my mind fuperior to my care. Let me, howe'er unable to explain The fecret lab'rynths of thy ways to man, With humble zeal confefs thy awful power; Still weeping hope, and wondering ftill adore. So in my conquest be thy might declar'd: And, for thy justice, be thy name rever❜d. My prayer fcarce 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 odour, fuch as never flows
From Arab's gum, or the Sabæan rose,
Does round the air revolving scents diffuse:
The holy ground is wet with heavenly dews:
Celestial mufic (fuch Jeffides' lyre,
Such Miriam's Timbrel would in vain require)
Strikes to my thought through my admiring ear,
With ecstasy too fine, and pleasure hard to bear:
And lo! what fees my ravish'd eye? what feels
My wondering foul? an opening cloud reveals
An heavenly form embody'd, and array'd
With robes of light. I heard: the angel faid:
Cease, man of woman born, to hope relief,
From daily trouble, and continu'd grief.
Thy hope of joy deliver to the wind:
Supprefs thy paffions; and prepare thy mind.
Free and familiar with Misfortune grow:
Be used to forrow, and inur'd to woe.
By weakening toil, and hoary age o'ercome,
See thy decrease; and haften to thy tomb.
Leave to thy children tumult, ftrife, and war,
Portions of toil, and legacies of care.
Send the fucceffive ills through ages down;
And let each weeping father tell his son,
That, deeper ftruck, and more diftinctly griev'd,
He must augment the forrows he receiv'd.
The child to whofe fuccefs thy hope is bound,
Ere thou art scarce interr'd, or he is crown'd;
To luft of arbitrary fway inclin'd
(That curfed poifon to the prince's mind!)
Shall from thy dictate, and his duty rove,
And lose his great defence, his people's love.
Ill counfell'd, vanquish'd, fugitive, disgrac'd,
Shall mourn the fame of Jacob's ftrength effac'd..
Shall figh the King diminish'd, and the crown
With leffen'd rays defcending to his fon;
Shall fee the wreaths, his grandfire knew to reap
By active toil, and military sweat,
Pining incline their fickly leaves, and fhed
Their falling honours from his giddy head.
By arms, or prayer unable to affwage
Domestic horror, and intestine
Shall from the victor and the vanquish'd fear,
From Ifrael's arrow, and from Judah's spear:
Shall caft his weary'd limbs on Jordan's flood,
By brother's arms difturb'd, and stain'd with kindred
blood.
Hence labouring years fhall weep their destin'd race
Charg'd with ill omens, fully'd with disgrace.
Time, by Neceffity compell'd, fhall go
Through fcenes of war, and epochas of woe.
The empire leffen'd in a parted stream,
Shall lofe it's courfe-
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