Are there (still more amazing!) who refift
The rifing Thought? Who fmother, in its Birth,
The glorious Truth? Who ftruggle to be Brutes?
Who thro' this Bofom-barrier burst their Way?
And, with reverst Ambition, strive to sink?
Who labour downwards thro' th' oppofing Pow'rs
Of Inftinct, Reason, and the World against them,
To dismal Hopes, and shelter in the Shock
Of endless Night? Night darker than the Grave's?
Who fight the Proofs of Immortality?

With horrid Zeal, and execrable Arts,
Work all their Engines, level their black Fires,
To blot from Man this Attribute divine,
(Than vital Blood far dearer to the Wife)
Blafphemers, and rank Atheists to Themselves?

To contradict them fee all Nature rife!

What Object, what Event, the Moon beneath,
But
argues, or endears, an After-scene ?
To Reason proves, or weds it to Defire ?

All things proclaim it needful; fome advance

One precious Step beyond, and prove it fure.

A thousand Arguments swarm round

my Pen,

From Heav'n, and Earth, and Man. Indulge a few, By Nature, as her common Habit, worn;

So preffing Providence a Truth to teach,

Which Truth untaught, all other Truths were vain.

Thou!

Thou! whofe all-providential Eye furveys,

Whofe Hand directs, whofe Spirit fills and warms
Creation, and holds Empire far beyond!
Eternity's Inhabitant august!

Of two Eternities amazing Lord!

One past, ere Man's, or Angel's, had begun;
Aid! while I refcue from the Foe's Affault
Thy glorious Immortality in Man:

A Theme for ever, and for all, of Weight,
Of Moment infinite! but relisht most

By thofe, who love Thee moft, who most adore.

Nature, thy Daughter, ever-changing Birth Of Thee the Great Immutable, to Man Speaks Wisdom; is his Oracle fupreme; And he who moft confults her, is moft Wife. LORENZO, to this heav'nly Delphos hafte; And come back All-immortal; All-divine: Look Nature through, 'tis Revolution All; All Change, no Death. Day follows Night; and Night The dying Day; Stars rife, and fet, and rise; Earth takes th' Example. See, the Summer gay, With her green Chaplet, and ambrofial Flowers, Droops into pallid Autumn: Winter grey Horrid with Froft, and turbulent with Storm, Blows Autumn, and his golden Fruits away : Then melts into the Spring: Soft Spring, with Breath Favonian, from warm Chambers of the South,

Recalls the First. All, to reflourish, fades.

As

As in a Wheel, All finks, to reafcend.

Emblems of Man, who paffes, not expires.

With this minute Diftinction, Emblems just,
Nature revolves, but Man advances; both
Eternal, that a Circle, this a Line.

That gravitates, this foars. Th' afpiring Soul
Ardent, and tremulous, like Flame, afcends;
Zeal, and Humility, her Wings to Heaven.

The World of Matter, with its various Forms,
All dies into new Life. Life born from Death
Rolls the vast Mass, and fhall for ever roll.
No fingle Atom, once in Being, lost,

With Change of Counsel charges the most High.

What hence infers LORENZo? Can it be?
Matter immortal? And fhall Spirit die?
Above the nobler, fhall lefs noble rise?
Shall Man alone, for whom all elfe revives,
No Refurrection know? Shall Man alone,
Imperial Man! be fown in barren Ground,
Lefs privileg'd than Grain, on which he feeds?
Is Man, in whom alone is Pow'r to prize
The Blifs of Being, or with previous Pain
Deplore its Period, by the Spleen of Fate,
Severely doom'd Death's fingle Unredeem'd ?

If Nature's Revolution speaks aloud, In her Gradation, hear her louder still.

Look

Look Nature thro', 'tis neat Gradation all.
By what minute Degrees her Scale afcends!
Each middle Nature join'd at each Extreme,
To that above it join'd, to that beneath.
Parts, into Parts reciprocally shot,

Abhor Divorce: What Love of Union reigns!
Here, dormant Matter waits a Call to Life;
Half-life, half-death, join There; Here, Life and Sense;
There, Senfe from Reafon fteals a glimm'ring Ray;
Reason shines out in Man. But how preferv'd
The Chain unbroken upward, to the Realms.
Of incorporeal Life? those Realms of Bliss,
Where Death hath no Dominion? Grant a Make
Half-mortal, half-immortal; earthy, Part;
And Part, ethereal; grant the Soul of Man
Eternal; or in Man the Series ends.

Wide yawns the Gap; Connexion is no more;
Checkt Reafon halts; her next Step wants Support;
Striving to climb, fhe tumbles from her Scheme;
A Scheme, Analogy pronounc'd fo true;
Analogy, Man's fureft Guide below.

Thus far, all Nature calls on thy Belief, And will LORENZO, careless of the Call, False Atteftation on all Nature charge, Rather than violate his League with Death? Renounce his Reason, rather than renounce The Duft belov'd, and run the Rifque of Heaven? O what Indignity to deathlefs Souls!

What

What Treafon to the Majefty of Man!

Of Man immortal! Hear the lofty Style:
"If fo decreed, th' Almighty Will be done.
"Let Earth diffolve, yon pond'rous Orbs defcend,
"And grind us into Duft: The Soul is fafe;

"The Man emerges; mounts above the Wreck,
"As tow'ring Flame from Nature's fun'ral Pyre;
"O'er Devastation, as a Gainer, fmiles;
"His Charter, his inviolable Rights,

Well-pleas'd to learn from Thunder's Impotence, "Death's pointless Darts, and Hell's defeated Storms."

But thefe Chimæras touch not thee, LORENZO ! The Glories of the World, thy fev❜nfold Shield. Other Ambition than of Crowns in Air,

And fuperlunary Felicities,

Thy Bofom warm. I'll cool it, if I can;
And turn those Glories that inchant, against thee,
What ties thee to this Life, proclaims the next.
If wife, the Cause that wounds thee is thy Cure.

Come, my Ambitious! let us mount together (To mount LORENZO never can refuse);

And from the Clouds, where Pride delights to dwell,
Look down on Earth.-What seest thou? Wond'rous
Terrestrial Wonders, that eclipse the Skies. [Things!
What Lengths of labour'd Lands! What loaded Seas,
Loaded by Man, for Pleasure, Wealth, or War:
Seas, Winds, and Planets, into Service brought,