A Scene more fad Sin makes the darken'd Soul; THO' blind of Heart, ftill open is thine Eye; Why fuch Magnificence in All thou seest? Of Matter's Grandeur, know, One End is This To tell the Rational, who gazes on it"Tho' That immenfely Great, ftill Greater He, "Whofe Breaft, capacious, can embrace, and lodge, "Unburthen'd, Nature's Univerfal Scheme; "Can grafp Creation with a fingle Thought; "Creation grafp; and not exclude its SIR". To tell him farther " It behoves him much "To guard th' important, yet-depending, Fate "Of Being, brighter than a Thousand Suns; "One fingle Ray of Thought outfhines them all.' And if Man hears obedient, foon he'll foar Superior Heights, and on his purple Wing, His purple Wing, bedrop'd with Eyes of Gold, Rifing, where Thought is now deny'd to rife, Look down triumphant on these dazling Spheres. WHY then perfift No Mortal ever liv'd, But, dying, he pronounc'd (when Words are true), The Whole that charms thee, abfolutely Vain; Vain, and far worfe!-Think Thou, with dying Men O condescend to think as Angels think! O tolerate a Chance for Happiness! Our Nature fuch, Ill Choice enfures Ill Fate; Earth, turning from the Sun, brings Night to Man The Proud, the Politic, LORENZO's Praise ; FOR think not Thou haft heard all This from me ; My Song but echoes what Great Nature speaks; What has she spoken? Thus the Goddess spoke, Thus fpeaks for ever :- "Place, at Nature's Head, "A Sovereign, which o'er all Things rolls His Eye, Extends His Wing, promulgates His Commands, "But, above all, diffufes endless Good; "To Whom, for fure Redrefs, the Wrong'd may fly; "The Vile, for Mercy; and the Pain'd, for Peace; "By Whom, the various Tenants of these Spheres, "Diverfify'd in Fortunes, Place, and Pow'rs, Rais'd in Enjoyment, as in Worth they rife, "Arrive at length (if worthy fuch Approach) "At that bleft Fountain-Head, from which they stream; "Where Conflict past redoubles present Joy; "And prefent Joy looks forward on Increase; "And That, on more; no Period! every Step "A double Boon! a Promife, and a Bliss.” How easy fits this Scheme on Human Hearts ? It fuits their Make; it fooths their vaft Defires Paffion is pleas'd; and Reafon afks no more; "Tis Rational! "Tis Great!-But what is Thine? It darkens! fhocks! excruciates! and confounds! Leaves us quite naked, both of Help, and Hope, Sinking from Bad to Worfe; few Years, the Sport Of Fortune; then, the Morfel of Defpair. SAY, then, LORENZO! (for Thou know'ft it well) What's Vice?-Mere Want of Compass in our Thought, Religion, what?-The Proof of Common Sense; How art thou hooted, where the Leaft prevails? Is it my Fault, if thefe Truths call thee Fool? And thou fhalt never be mifcall'd by me. Can neither Shame, nor Terror, stand thy Friend? And And art Thou ftill an Infect in the Mire? O THOU moft Awful Being! and most Vain! When Slumber locks the general Lip, and Dreams Thro' fenfelefs Mazes hunt Souls un infpir'd. 66 64 "By Silence, DEATH'S peculiar Attribute; By Darkness, GUILT's inevitable Doom: By Darkness, and by Silence, Sifters dread! "That draw the Curtain round NIGHT's ebon Throne, "And raise Ideas, folemn as the Scene: By NIGHT, and all of Awful, Night presents. To Thought, or Sense (of Awful much, to Both, "The Goddefs brings): By Thefe her trembling Fires "Like VESTA's, ever burning; and, like hers, "Sacred to Thoughts immaculate, and pure: "By these bright Orators, that prove, and praise, "And prefs thee to revere, the DEITY, "Perhaps, too, aid thee, when rever'd a while, "To reach His Throne; as Stages of the Soul, "Thro' which, at different Periods, fhe fhall pafs, Refining gradual, for her final Height; "And purging off fome Drofs at every Sphere : By this dark Pall thrown o'er the filent World: "By the World's Kings, and Kingdoms, moft renown'd, "From fhort Ambition's Zenith fet for ever; "Sad Prefage to vain Roasters, now, in Bloom! By the long Lift of fwift Mortality, "From Adam, downward to this Evening's Knell, "Which Midnight waves in Fancy's ftartled Eye; "And fhocks her with a hundred Centuries "Round Death's 'black Banner throng'd, in human "Thought: "By Thoufands, now, refigning their laft Breath, "And calling Thee -wert Thou fo wife to hear: **By Tombs o'er Tombs arising, human Earth Ejected, Ejected, to make room for-human Earth; "The Monarch's Terror! and the Sexton's Trade! "By pompous Obfequies, that fhun the Day, The Torch funereal, and the nodding Plume, "Which makes poor Man's Humiliation, proud. "Boalt of our Ruin! Triumph of our Duft! ●་ By the damp. Vault that weeps o'er Royal Bones "And the pale Lamp, that fhews the ghaftly Dead, "More ghaftly thro' the thick-incumbent Gloom: By Vifits (if there are) from darker Scenes, "The gliding Spectre ! and the groaning Grove! » By Groans, and Graves, and Miseries that groan { "For the Grave's Shelter: By defponding Men, "Senfelefs to Pains of Death, from Pangs of Guilt I "By Guilt's laft Audit: By yon Moon in Blood, "The rocking. Firmament, the falling Stars, "And Thunder's last Discharge, great Nature's Knell!' By SECOND Chaos; and ETERNAL Night” Be Wife- —nor let Philander blame my Charm; FOR know, I'm but Executor; He left e If deaf to Thefe, Oh! hear And make him curfe the Being which thou gav't? If careless of LORENZO! fpare, Oh! fpare, Florello's Father ruin'd, ruins Him |