Their prefent Province, and their future Prize ;
Divinely darting upward ev'ry Wish,
Warm on the wing, in glorious Absence loft.
Doubt you this Truth? Why labours your Belief?
If Earth's whole Orb, by fome due-distanc'd eye
Was feen at once, her tow'ring Alps would fink,
And level'd Atlas leave an even Sphere.
Thus Earth, and all that earthly minds admire,
Is fwallow'd in Eternity's vaft Round.
To that ftupendous view, when fouls awake,
So large of late, so mountainous to man,
Time's Toys fubfide; and equal All below.
Enthufiaftic, This; then all are Weak,
But rank Enthufiafts: To this Godlike height
Some fouls have foar'd; or Martyrs ne'er had bled.
And all may do, what has by man been done..
Who, beaten by these fublunary storms,
Boundless, interminable, joys can weigh,
Unraptur'd, unexalted, uninflam'd?
What Slave, unblest, who from to morrow's dawn
Expects an Empire? He forgets his Chain,
And thron'd in Thought, his abfent fceptre waves.
And what a Sceptre waits us? what a Throne
Her own immenfe Appointments to compute
Or comprehend her high Prerogatives,
In this her dark Minority, how toils,
How vainly pants, the human foul Divine?
Too great the bounty feems for Earthly joy ;-
What heart but trembles at so strange a Bliss ?
In spite of all the Truths, the Mufe has fùng,
Ne'er to be priz'd enough! enough revolv'd!"
Are there, who wrap the World so close about them,
They fee no farther than the Clouds; and dance
On heedlefs Vanity's phantaftick Toe,
'Till ftumbling at a Straw, in their career,
Headlong they plunge, where end both dance & fong>
Are there, Lorenzo! Is it poffible?
Are there on Earth (let me not call them Men)
Who lodge a foul Immortal in their breafts;
Unconscious as the Mountain of its Ore,
Or Rock, of its ineftimable Gem?
When Rocks fhall melt, and Mountains vanish, Thefe
Shall know their Treasure; Treafure, then, no more
Are there (still more amazing !) who refift
The rifing Thought? Who fmother, in its birth,
The glorious Truth? Who struggle to be Brutes
Who thro' this Bofom-barrier burft their way?
And, with reverft Ambition, ftrive to fink?
Who labour downwards thro' th' oppofing Pow'rs
Of Inftinct, Reason, and the World against them,
To dismal Hopes, and shelter in the fnock
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 sure..
A thousand Arguments fwarm 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! 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 paft, e'er 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 relish'd most
By thofe, who love Thee most, 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 rife;
Earth takes th' Example. See, the Summer gay,
With her green chaplet, and ambrofial flow'rs,
Droops into pallid Autumn; Winter grey,
Horrid with frost, and turbulent with ftorm,
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 in a wheel, All finks, to re-ascend.
Emblems of man, who paffes, not expires.
With this minute diftinction, Emblems juft,
Nature revolves, but Man advances; Both
Eternal, that a Circle, this a Line.
That gravitates, this foars. Th' afpiring foul,
Ardent, and tremulous, like Flame, afcends;
Zeal, and Humility, her wings to Heav'n.
The world of Matter, with its various Forms,
All dies into new Life. Life born from Death
Rolls the vaft Mass, and fhall for ever roll.
No fingle Atom, once in being, loft,
With change of counsel charges the most High.
What hence infers, Lorenzo? can it be?
Matter, Immortal? and shall Spirit die ?
Above the nobler, fhall lefs noble rife?
Shall Man alone, for whom all elfe revives,
No Resurrection know? fhall 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 ftill.
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 wait sa call to Life;
Half-life, half-death join There; Here, Life and
There Sense from Reason steals a glimm'ring ray;
Reafon fhines out in man.
The Chain unbroken upward, to the realms
Of incorporeal Life! thofe realms of Blifs,
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, Connection is no more;
Check'd Reafon halts, her next step wants fupport;
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 Heav'n?
O what Indignity to deathlefs fouls ?
What Treason to the Majefty of man? ›
Of man Immortal! hear the lofty style.
"If so decreed, th' Almighty Will be done.
"Let Earth diffolve,, yon pond'rous Orbs defcend,
"And grind us into Duft: The Soul is safe ;
"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 ftorms.
But thefe Chimæras touch not thee, Lorenzo!
The Glories of the World, thy fev'n-fold shield,
Other Ambition than of crowns in Air,
And fuperlunary Felicities,
Thy bofom warm. I'll cool it if I can,
And turn thofe Glories that inchant, against Thee.
What ties thee to this life, proclaims the next.
If wife, the Caufe 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 feeft thou? wond'rous
Terrestrial wonders, that eclipse the skies.
What Lengths of labour'd Lands? What loaded Seas, Loaded by man, for Pleasure, Wealth, or War:
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