I

POST SCRIPT.

MUST help my preface by a poftfcript, to tell the reader that there is ten years diftance between my writing one and the other; and that (whatever I thought then, and have fomewhere faid, that I would publish no more poetry) he will find several copies of verfes fcattered through this edition, which were not printed in the first Thofe relating to the publick ftand in the order they did before, according to the feveral years in which they were written; however the difpofition of our national affairs, the actions or the fortunes of fome men, and the opinions of others, may have changed. Profe and other human things may take what turn they can; but poetry, which pretends to have fomething of divinity in it, is to be more permanent. Odes once printed cannot well be altered, when the author has already faid that he expects his works fhould live for ever and it had been very foolish in my friend Horace, if, fome years after his "Exegi Monumentum," he should have defired to fee his building taken down again.

The Dedication likewife is re-printed, to the earl of Dorfet, in the foregoing leaves, without any alteration; though I had the faireft opportunity, and the strongest inclination, to have added a great deal to it. The blooming hopes, which I faid the world expected from my then very young patron, have been confirmed by

VOL. I.

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II.

Let wit her fails, her oars let wisdom lend;
The helm let politic experience guide:

Yet ceafe to hope thy fhort-liv'd bark shall ride
Down spreading fate's unnavigable tide.
What though ftill it farther tend,

Still 'tis farther from its end;

And, in the bofom of that boundless fea,
Still finds its error lengthen with its way.

III.

With daring pride and infolent delight,

Your doubts refolv'd you boast, your labours crown'd; And, “EY PH KA! your God, forfooth, is found.

Incomprehenfible and infinite.

But is he therefore found? Vain fearcher! no:

Let your imperfect definition fhow,

That nothing you, the weak definer, know.

IV.

Say, why fhould the collected main

Itfelf within itself contain?

Why to its caverns should it fometimes creep,

And with delighted filence fleep

On the lov'd bofom of its parent deep?
Why fhould its numerous waters stay

In comely difcipline, and fair array,

Till winds and tides exert their high command!
Then, prompt and ready to obey,

Why do the rifing surges spread

Their opening ranks o'er earth's fubmiffive head, Marching through different paths to different lands?

ས.

Why does the constant fun

With measur'd steps his radiant journies run?
Why does he order the diurnal hours,
To leave earth's other part, and rife in ours?
Why does he wake the correspondent moon,
And fill her willing lamp with liquid light,
Commanding her with delegated powers
To beautify the world, and bless the night?
Why does each animated star

Love the juft limits of its proper sphere ?
Why does each confenting fign

With prudent harmony combine
In turns to move, and subsequent appear,
To gird the globe, and regulate the year?

VI.

Man does with dangerous curiofity

These unfathom'd wonders try: With fancied rules and arbitrary laws

Matter and motion he reftrains;

And ftudied lines and fictious circles draws:
Then with imagin'd fovereignty

Lord of his new hypothefis he reigns.

He reigns: how long? till fome ufurper rife
And he too, mighty thoughtful, mighty wife,
Studies new lines, and other circles feigns.
From this laft toil again what knowledge flows?
Juft as much, perhaps, as shows

That all his predeceffor's rules

Were empty cant, all jargon of the schools;

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That

That he on t'other's ruin rears his throne;

And fhows his friend's mistake, and thence confirms his

own.

VII.

On earth, in air, amidst the feas and fkies,
Mountainous heaps of wonders rife ;

Whofe towering ftrength will ne'er fubmit
To reafon's batteries, or the mines of wit:
Yet ftill enquiring, still mistaken man,
Each hour repuls'd, each hour dares onward press;
And, leveling at God his wandering guefs

(That feeble engine of his reasoning war,

Which guides his doubts, and combats his despair), Laws to his Maker the learn'd wretch can give : Can bound that nature, and prefcribe that will, Whofe pregnant word did either ocean fill:

Can tell us whence all beings are, and how they move and live.

Through either ocean, foolish man!

That pregnant word fent forth again,

Might to a world extend each atom there;

For every drop call forth a fea, a heaven for every star. VIII.

Let cunning earth her fruitful wonders hide ;

And only lift thy ftaggering reafon up

To trembling Calvary's astonish'd top;

Then mock thy knowledge, and confound thy pride,
Explaining how Perfection fuffer'd pain,
Almighty languifh'd, and Eternal dyed :
How by her patient victor death was slain ;
And earth prophan'd, yet bless'd, with Deicide.

Then

Then down with all thy boasted volumes, down

Only referve the Sacred One:

Low, reverently low,

Make thy ftubborn knowledge bow;

Weep out thy Reason's and thy body's eyes;
Deject thyfelf, that thou mayst rise;

To look to Heaven, be blind to all below.

IX.

Then Faith, for Reafon's glimmering light, fhall give. Her immortal perspective;

And Grace's prefence Nature's lofs retrieve :

Then thy enliven'd foul fhall fee,

That all the volumes of Philofophy,

With all their comments, never could invent,

So politic an inftrument,

To reach the Heaven of Heavens, the High Abode, 、

Where Mofes places his myfterious God,

As was the ladder which old Jacob rear'd,

When light divine had human darkness clear'd;
And his enlarg'd ideas found the road,
Which Faith had dictated, and Angels trod.

Confiderations on Part of the 88th PS AL M.
A COLLEGE EXERCISE. 1690.

I.

HEAVY, O Lord, on me thy judgements lie,
Accurft I am, while God rejects my cry.
O'erwhelm'd in darkness and despair I groan ;
And every place is hell; for God is gone.