Made in His image, thou must nobly dare
The thorny crown of sovereignty to share;
With eye uplifted it is thine to view
From thine own centre, Heaven's o'erarching blue ;
So round thy heart a beaming circle lies
No fiend can blot, no hypocrite disguise,
From all its orbs one cheering voice is heard,
Full to thine ear it bears the Father's word,
Now, as in Eden where His first-born trod :
"Seek thine own welfare, true to man and God! "
Think not too meanly of thy low estate;
Thou hast a choice; to choose is to create !
Remember whose the sacred lips that tell,
Angels approve thee when thy choice is well;
Remember, One, a judge of righteous men,
Swore to spare Sodom if she held but ten!
Use well the freedom which the Master gave,
(Think'st thou that Heaven can tolerate a slave?)
And He who made thee to be just and true
Will bless thee, love thee, - ay, respect thee too!
VIRTUE THE SOLE HAPPINESS HERE AND
KNOW then this truth (enough for man to know!)—
VIRTUE ALONE IS HAPPINESS BELOW.
The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,
And if it lose, attended with no pain :
Without satiety, though e'er so blest,
And but more relished as the more distressed :
The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears,
Less pleasing far than Virtue's very tears;
Good, from each object, from each place acquired,
Forever exercised, yet never tired;
Never elated, while one man's oppressed;
Never dejected, while another's blest;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain.
See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow!
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know:
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must miss; the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through Nature, up to Nature's God,—
Pursues that chain, which links th' immense design,
Joins Heaven and Earth, and mortal and divine, —
Sees that no being any bliss can know,
But touches some above and some below,
Learns from this union of the rising whole
The first, last purpose of the human soul,
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
All end, in love of God and love of man!
For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal
And opens still, and opens on his soul :
Till lengthened on to Faith, and unconfined,
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.
He sees why Nature plants in man alone
Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown:
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind
Are given in vain, but what they seek they find ;)
Wise is her present; she connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;
At once his own bright prospect to be blest,
And strongest motive to assist the rest.
Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine. Is this too little for the boundless heart?
let thy enemies have part.
Grasp the whole world of reason, life, and sense,
In one close system of benevolence:
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of bliss but height of charity.
God loves from whole to parts; but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind;
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest,
And Heaven beholds its image in his breast.
FATHER of all! in every age,
In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!
Thou great First Cause! least understood; Who all my sense confined,
To know but this, that Thou art good, And that myself am blind ;
Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And, binding nature fast in fate,
Let free the human will;-
What conscience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,
This teach me, more than hell, to shun,
That, more than heaven, pursue.
What blessings Thy free bounty gives
Let me not cast away;
For God is paid when man receives;
T' enjoy is to obey.
Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness let me bound;
Or think Thee Lord alone of man,
When thousand worlds are round.
Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume Thy bolts to throw ;
And deal damnation round the land
On each I judge Thy foe.
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