תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Starts the bright race again: his constant flame
Rifes and fets, returning ftill the fame.

I mark the various fury of the winds;

These neither feafons guide, nor order binds;
They now dilate, and now contract their force;
Various their speed, but endless is their course.
From his first fountain and beginning ouze,
Down to the fea each brook and torrent flows:
Though sundry drops or leave or fwell the ftream;
The whole ftill runs, with equal pace, the fame;
Still other waves fupply the rifing urns;
And the eternal flood no want of water mourns.
Why then muft Man obey the fad decree,
Which fubjects neither fun, nor wind, nor fea?
A flower, that does with opening morn arife,
And, flourishing the day, at evening dies;
A winged Eastern blaft, just skimming o'er
The ocean's brow, and finking on the shore;

565

570

575

A fire, whofe flames through crackling ftubble fly;

A meteor fhooting from the summer sky;

580

A bowl adown the bending mountain roll'd;

A bubble breaking, and a fable told;

A noon-tide fhadow, and a midnight dream;

Are emblems, which with femblance apt proclaim

Our earthly course: but, O my foul! so fast

5$5

Must Life run off, and Death for ever laft?

This dark opinion, fure, is too confin'd:

Elfe whence this hope, and terror of the mind?
Does fomething ftill, and fomewhere yet remain,
Reward or punishment, delight or pain?

590 Say:

eyes,

Say fhall our relicks fecond birth receive?
Sleep we to wake, and only die to live?
When the fad wife has clos'd her husband's
And pierc'd the echoing vault with doleful cries;
Lies the pale corpfe not yet entirely dead,

The fpirit only from the body fled;

The groffer part of heat and motion void,
To be by fire, or worm, or time, destroy'd;
The foul, immortal fubftance, to remain,
Confcious of joy, and capable of pain?
And, if her acts have been directed well,
While with her friendly clay fhe deign'd to dwell,
Shall fhe with fafety reach her priftine feat?
Find her reft endlefs, and her blifs compleat?
And, while the bury'd Man we idly mourn,
Do Angels joy to fee his better half return?
But, if she has deform'd this earthly life
With murderous rapine, and feditious ftrife;
Amaz'd, repuls'd, and by thofe Angels driven
From the æthereal feat and blissful Heaven,
In everlasting darkness must she lie,
Still more unhappy, that fhe cannot die ?

595

600

Amid two feas, on one fmall point of land,
Weary'd, uncertain, and amaz'd, we stand;
On either fide our thoughts inceffant turn;
Forward we dread; and looking back we mourn ; ·
Lofing the prefent in this dubious hafte,
And loft ourselves betwixt the future and the past.
Thefe crucl doubts contending in my breaft,
My reafon ftaggering, and my hopes, opprefs'd,,

605

610

615

62@

Once

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 thofe 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 stronger power eludes our fickly will,
Dafhing our rifing hope with certain ill;
And makes us with reflective trouble fee,
That all is destin'd, which we fancy free.

625

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 Reafon fails;
Throw loads of incenfe in, to turn the fcales ;
And let the filent fanctuary fhow,

What from the babbling fchools we may not know,
How Man may fhun or bear his deftin'd part of woe.

What fhall amend, or what abfolve, our fate?

Anxious we hover in a mediate ftate,

Betwixt infinity and nothing; bounds,

630

649

645

Or boundless terms, whofe doubtful fenfe confounds..
Unequal thought! whilft all we apprehend

Is, that our hopes muft rife, our forrrows end;
As our Creator deigns to be our friend.

650

I faid;

I said ;—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 ftrike the vocal wire.
The maids in comely order next advance;
They beat the timbrel, and instruct the dance.
Follows the chofen tribe from Levi fprung,
Chaunting, by juft return, the holy fong.
Along the choir in folemn state they past :
-The anxious King came laft.

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 universe 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 Master, omni-prefent King,
To thee, to thee, my laft diftrefs I bring.

Thou, that canft ftill the raging of the feas,
Chain up the winds, and bid the tempefts ceafe!
Redeem my fhipwreck'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) through the tide

655

660

670

675

}

Impetuous

Impetuous of this life: let thy command

Direct my course, and bring me safe 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 fhould know

680

Glimpfe of delight, or paufe from anxious woe; 685
From Now, from inftant Now, great Sire! difpel
The clouds that press my foul; from Now reveal
A gracious beam of light; from Now infpire
My tongue to fing, my hand to touch the lyre;
My open 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 Hereafter, and a future ftate;

690

Permit me ftrength, my weight of woe to bear;

And raise my mind fuperior to my care.

695

Let me, howe'er unable to explain

The fecret labyrinths of thy ways to man,
With humble zeal confefs thy awful power;
Still weeping hope, and wondering ftill adore.
So in my conqueft be thy might declar'd :

700

And for thy juftice be thy name rever❜d.

My prayer fcarce ended, a ftupendous gloom

Darkens the air; loud thunder thakes the dome.

To the beginning miracle fucceed

An awful filence and religious dread.

705

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

« הקודםהמשך »