תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

P O W

E R:

THE THIRD BOOK.

THE

ARGUMENT.

Solomon confiders man through the several stages and conditions of life; and concludes in general, that we are all miferable. He reflects more particularly upon the trouble and uncertainty of Greatness and Power; gives fome inftances thereof from Adam down to himself; and still concludes that all is Vanity. He reasons again upon life, death, and a future being; finds human wisdom too imperfect to refolve his doubts; has recourfe to Religion; is informed by an angel, what shall happen to himself, his family, and his kingdom, till the redemption of Ifrael; and, upon the whole, refolves to fubmit his enquiries and anxieties to the will of his Creator.

OME then, my Soul: I call thee by that name,

CO

Thou bufy thing, from whence I know I am :

For, knowing what I am, I know thou art;
Since that must needs exift, which can impart.
But how cam'ft thou to be, or whence thy spring?
For various of thee priests and poets fing.
M 3

5

Hear'ft

Hear'ft thou fubmiffive, but a lowly birth,
Some feparate particles of finer earth,

A plain effect which nature must beget,
As motion orders, and as atoms meet;
Companion of the body's good or ill,
From force of inftinct, more than choice of will
Confcious of fear or valour, joy or pain,

[ocr errors]

As the wild courfes of the blood ordain;
Who, as degrees of heat and cold prevail,
In youth doft flourish, and with age fhalt fail;
Till, mingled with thy partner's latest breath,
Thou fly'ft diffolv'd in air, and loft in death?
Or, if thy great exiftence would aspire
To caufes more fublime, of heavenly fire
Wert thou a fpark ftruck off, a feparate ray,
Ordain'd to mingle with terreftrial clay ?
With it condemn'd for certain years to dwell,
To grieve its frailties, and its pains to feel
To teach it good and ill, difgrace or fame;
Pale it with rage, or redden it with shame ;
To guide its actions with informing care,
In peace to judge, to conquer in the war;
Render it agile, witty, valiant, fage,
As fits the various course of human age;
Till, as the earthly part decays and falls,
The captive breaks her prifon's mouldering walls;

Hovers a while upon the fad remains,
Which now the pile or fepulchre contains ;
And thence with liberty unbounded flies,

Impatient to regain her native skies?

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

What

Whate'er thou art, where-e'er ordain'd to go,
(Points which we rather may dispute than know!)
Come on, thou little inmate of this breast,
Which for thy fake from paffions I divest,

For these, thou say'st, raise all the stormy strife,
Which hinder thy repofe, and trouble life.
Be the fair level of thy actions laid,

As temperance wills, and prudence may perfuade :
Be thy affections undisturb'd and clear,
Guided to what may great or good appear;

And try if life be worth the liver's care.
Amass'd in man, there juftly is beheld

What through the whole creation has excell'd:

45

40

The life and growth of plants, of beafts the fenfe, 50
The angel's forecast and intelligence:

Say from thefe glorious feeds what harvest flows;
Recount our bleffings, and compare our woes.
In its true light let clearest reason see

The man dṛagg'd out to act, and forc'd to be ;
Helplefs and naked on a woman's knees,
To be expos'd or rear'd as the may please;
Feel her neglect, and pine from her disease ;
His tender eye by too direct a ray
Wounded, and flying from unpractis'd day;
His heart affaulted by invading air,
And beating fervent to the vital war;

To his young fenfe how various forms appear,
That ftrike his wonder, and excite his fear.
By his diftortions he reveals his pains;
He by his tears and by his fighs complains;

M. 4

55

}

60

65

Till

Till time and use affift the infant wretch,
By broken words and rudiments of speech,
His wants in plainer characters to show,
And paint more perfect figures of his woe ;
Condemn'd to facrifice his childish years
To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears;
To pass the riper period of his age,
Acting his part upon a crowded stage;
To lafting toils expos'd, and endless cares,
To open dangers, and to fecret fnares;
To malice which the vengeful foe intends,
And the more dangerous love of feeming friends.
His deeds examin'd by the people's will,
Prone to forget the good, and blame the ill;
Or fadly cenfur'd in their curs'd debate,
Who, in the fcorner's or the judge's feat,
Dare to condemn the virtue which they hate.
Or, would he rather leave this frantic scene;
And trees and beafts prefer to courts and men ;
In the remoteft wood and lonely grot
Certain to meet that worft of evils, Thought;
Different ideas to his memory brought,
Some intricate as are the pathless woods,
Impetuous fome as the defcending floods ;
With anxious doubts, with raging paffions torn,
No fweet companion near, with whom to mourn;
He hears the echoing rock return his fighs;
And from himself the frighted Hermit flies.

Thus, through what path foe'er of life we rove,
Rage companies our hate, and grief our love.

70%

80

85

90

95

Vex'd with the prefent moment's heavy gloom,
Why feek we brightness from the years to come?
Disturb'd and broken like a fick man's fleep,
Our troubled thoughts to distant profpects leap,
Defirous ftill what flies us to o'ertake;
For hope is but the dream of those that wake:
But, looking back, we fee the dreadful train
Of woes a-new, which were we to sustain,
We should refufe to tread the path again;
Still adding grief, ftill counting from the first;
Judging the latest evils still the worst;
And, fadly finding each progreffive hour,
Heighten their number, and augment their power,
Till, by one countless fum of woes oppreft,
Hoary with cares, and ignorant of reft,

We find the vital springs relax'd and worn,
Compell'd our common impotence to mourn,

100

105

Thus through the round of age to childhood we return;
Reflecting find, that naked from the womb

[ocr errors]

115

We yesterday came forth; that in the tomb
Naked again we must to-morrow lie,

Born to lament, to labour, and to die.

Pafs we the ills which each man feels or dreads,
The weight or fallen or hanging o'er our heads;
The bear, the lion, terrors of the plain,
The sheepfold fcatter'd, and the fhepherd flain;
The frequent errors of the pathlefs wood,
The giddy precipice, and the dangerous flood;
The noisome peftilence, that in open war
Terrible marches through the mid-day air,

120

125

And

« הקודםהמשך »