Starts the bright race again: his conftant flame Rifes and fets, returning ftill the fame..
I mark the various fury of the winds;
These neither seasons guide, nor order binds;
They now dilate, and now contract their force; 565 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 fundry drops or leave or fwell the ftream,. The whole ftill runs, with equal pace, the fame; 570 Still other waves fupply the rifing urns,
And the eternal flood no want of water mourns. Why then muit man obey the sad decree, Which fubjects neither fun, nor wind, nor fea? A flower, that does with opening morn arife, 575 And, flourishing the day, at evening dies; A winged eaftern blaft, juft fkimming o'er The ocean's brow, and finking on the shore ;
A fire, whofe flames through crackling ftubble fly;
A meteor fhooting from the fummer sky;
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! fo faft
Muft 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 still, and fomewhere yet remain, Reward or punishment, delight or pain?.
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 eyes,
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 pristine feat? Find her reft endless, and her bliss complete? 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 those angels driven From the æthereal feat, and blissful heaven, In everlasting darkness must she lie, Still more unhappy, that fhe cannot die?
Amid two feas, on one small point of land, Weary'd, uncertain, and amaz'd, we ftand: 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 cruel doubts contending in my breaft, My reafon ftaggering, and my hopes opprefs'd, 620
Once more, I faid, once more I will inquire, What is this little, agile, pervious fire,
This fluttering motion, which we call the Mind? How does the act? and where is fhe 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 ftronger power eludes our fickly will, Dafhing 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 incenfe in, to turn the scales; And let the filent fanctuary fhew,
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 fenfe confounds. Unequal thought! whilft all we apprehend
Is, that our hopes muft rife, our forrows end, As our Creator deigns to be our friend.
I faid;-and inftant 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 inftruct 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! Whofe 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 : Omnifcient Mafter, omniprefent 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 cease! Redeem my fhipwreck'd foul from raging gufts 675 Of cruel paffion and deceitful lufts :
From forms 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
Impetuous of this life: let thy command
Direct my course, 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 fhould know
Glimpfe of delight, or pause from anxious woe; 685. From Now, from inftant Now, great Sire! difpel 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 thought to joyous prospects raise, And for thy mercy let me fing thy praise. Or, if thy will ordains I still shall wait
Some new Hereafter, and a future ftate,
Permit me ftrength, my weight of woe to bear,
And raife my mind fuperior to my care.
Let me, howe'er unable to explain
The fecret labyrinths of thy ways to man, With humble zeal confefs thy awful Still weeping hope, and wondering still adore. So in my conqueft be thy might declar'd,
And for thy juftice be thy name rever❜d.
My prayer scarce ended, a stupendous gloom Darkens the air; loud thunder shakes 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-
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