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Its ample sphere, its univerfal frame,

In full dimenfions, fwells to the furvey;

And enters, at one glance, the ravish'd fight,
From fome fuperior point, (where, who can tell;
Suffice it, 'tis a point where gods refide)
How fhall the ftranger, man's illumin'd eye,
In the vaft ocean of unbounded fpace,
Behold an infinite of floating worlds
Divide the crystal waves of æther pure,,
In endlefs voyage, without port? The leaft
Of thefe diffeminated orbs, how great!
Great as they are, what numbers these surpass,
Huge, as Leviathan, to that fmall race,
Thofe twinkling multitudes of little life
He fwallows unperceiv'd! Stupendous thefe !
Yet what are these flupendous to the whole ?
As particles, as atoms ill-perceiv'd;
As circulating globules in our veins ;
So vaft the plan. Fecundity divine!
Exub'rant fource! perhaps I wrong, thee ftill.
If admiration is a fource of joy,

What tranfport hence! Yet this the leaft in heav'n.
What this to that illuftrious robe He wears,
Who tofs'd this mass of wonders from his hand,
A fpecimen, an earneft of his pow'r!
'Tis to that glory, whence all glory flows,
As the mead's meaneft flow'ret to the fun,

Which gave it birth. But what this fun of Heav'n?
This blifs fupreme of the fupremely blefs'd?
Death, only death, the queflion can refolve.
By death, cheap-bought th' ideas of our joy;
The bare ideas Solid happiness

So diftant from its fhadow chas'd below.

And chafe we ftill the phantom thro' the fire,
Oer bog, and brake, and precipice, till death?
And toil we fill for fublunary pay
?
D.fy the dangers of the field, and flood,
Or, fpider-like, fpin out our precious all,
Our more than vitals fpin (if no regard

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To great futurity) in curious webs
Of fubtle thought, and exquifite defign,
(Fine net-work of the brain!) to catch a fly
The momentary buz of vain renown!
A name! a mortal Immortality!

Or (meaner ftill!) inftead of grafping air,
For fordid lucre plunge we in the mire?
Drudge, fweat, thro' ev'ry fhame, for ev'ry gain,
For vile contaminating trash; throw up
Our hope in heav'n, our dignity with man?
And deify the dirt, matur'd to gold?'
Ambition, Avrice; the two demons these,
Which goad thro' ev'ry flough our human herd,
Hard-travell'd from the cradle to the grave.
How low the wretches ftóop! how steep they climb!
Thefe demons burn mankind; but moft poffefs
LORENZO'S bofom, and turn out the skies.

Is it in time to hide eternity?

And why net in an atom on the shore, -
To cover ocean or a mote, the fun ?

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Glory and Wealth! have they this blinding pow'r?"
What if to them I prove LORENZO blind?
Would it furprise thee? Be thou then furpris'd;
Thou neither know'ft; Their nature learn from me.
Mark well, as foreign as thefe fubjects feem,
What clofe connexion ties them to my theme.
Firft, what is true ambition? The purfuit
Of glory, nothing less than man can share.
Where they as vain as gaudy-minded man,
As flatulent with fumes of felf-applaufe,
Their arts and conquefts animals might boaft,
And claim their laurel crowns, as well as we;
But not celeftial. Here we ftand alone ; -
As in our form, diftinct, pre-emineut.

If prone in thought, our ftature is our fhame,
And man fhould blufh his forehead meets the skies.

The visible and prefent are for brutes,

A flender portion! and a narrow bound!

Thefe Reafon, with an energy divine,

O'erleaps; and claims the future and unfeen;
The vast unfeen the future fathomlefs!

When the great foul buoys up to this high point,
Leaving grofs Nature's fediments below,
Then, and then only, Adam's offspring quits
The fage and hero of the fields and woods,
Afferts his rank, and rifes into man.
This is ambition; This is human fire.

Can Parts or Place (two bold pretenders!) make
LORENZO great, and pluck him from the throng?
Genius and Art, ambition's boasted wings,
Our boaft, but ill deferve. A feeble aid!
Dedalian engin'ry! If thefe alone

Affift our flight, Fame's flight is Glory's fall.
Heart-merit wanting, mount we ne'er so high,
Our height is but the gibbet of our name.
A celebrated wretch when I behold,
When I behold a genius bright, and base,
Of tow'ring talents, and terrestrial aims ;
Methinks I fee, as thrown from her high sphere,
The glorious fragment of a foul immortal,
With rubbish mixt, and glitt'ring in the duft,
Struck at the fplendid, melancholy fight,
At once Compaffion foft, and Envy, rife
But wherefore Envy? Talents angel-bright,
If wanting worth, are fhining inftruments
In false Ambition's hand, to finish faults
Illuftrious, and give infamy renown.

Great ill is an achievement of great pow'rs.
Plain Senfe but rarely leads us far aftray.
Reafon the means, Affections choose our end.
Means have no merit, if our end amifs.
If wrong our hearts, our heads are right in vain.

What is a Pelham's head to Pelham's heart?
Hearts are proprietors of all applaufe.

Right ends, and means, make wifdom; Worldly-wife
Is but half-witted, at its highest praise.

Let genius then despair to make thee great

Nor flatter fation; What is ftation high?

'Tis a proud mendicant; it boasts, and begs;
It begs an alms of homage from the throng,
And oft the throng denies its charity.
Monarchs, and minifters, are awful names;
Whoever wear them, challenge our devoir.
Religion, public order, both exact
External homage, and a fupple knee,
To beings pompously fet up, to serve
The meanest flave; All more is merit's due,
Her facred and inviolable right;

Nor ever paid the monarch, but the man.
Our hearts ne'er bow but to fuperior worth ;
Nor ever fail of their allegiance there.
Fools, indeed, drop the man in their account,
And vote the mantle into majefty.

Let the fmall favage boaft his filver fur?
His royal robe unborrow'd, and unbought,
His own, defcending fairly from his fires.
Shall man be proud to wear his livery,
And fouls in ermine fcorn a foul without?
Can place or leffen us, or aggrandize?
Pygmies are Pygmies ftill, tho' perch'd on Alps;
And pyramids are pyramids in vales.

Each man makes his own ftature, builds himself:
Virtue alone out-builds the pyramids ;

Her monuments fhall laft, when Egypt's fall.

Of these fure truths doft thou demand the cause?

The caufe is lodg'd in immortality.

Hear, and affent. Thy bofom burns for pow'r :
What ftation charms thee? I'll inftall thee there:
'Tis thine, and art thou greater than before?
Then thou before waft fomething less than man.
Has thy new poft betray'd thee into pride?
That treach'rous pride betrays thy dignity;
That pride defames humanity, and calls
The being mean, which flaphs or flings can rife.
That pride, like hooded-hawks, in darknefs foars
From blindnefs bold, and tow'ring to the skies.
'Tis born of ignorance, which knows not man ;

An angel's fecond; nor his fecond long.
A Nero quitting his imperial throne,
And courting glory from the tinkling ftring,
But faintly fhadows an immortal foul,
With empire's felf, to pride, or rapture fir'd.
If nobler motives minifter no cure,
Ev'n vanity forbids thee to be vain.

High worth is elevated place: 'Tis more;
It makes the poft ftand candidate for thee;
Makes more than monarchs, makes an honest man.
Tho' no exchequer it commands, 'tis wealth;
And tho' it wears no ribband, 'tis renown;
Renown that would not quit thee tho' difgrac'd,
Nor leave thee pendent on a master's smile.
Other ambition Nature interdicts;
Nature proclaims it most abfurd in man,
By pointing at his origin and end;

Milk and a fwathe, at first, his whole demand;
His whole domain, at laft, a turf or stone;
To whom, between, a world may feem too fmall.
Souls truly great, dart forward on the wing
Of juit ambition, to the grand refult,

The curtain's fall. There, fee the buskin'd chief
Unfhod behind this momentary scene;
Reduc'd to his own ftature, low or high,
As vice, or virtue, finks him or fublimes;
And laugh at this fantastic mummery,
This antic prelude of grotefque events,
Where dwarfs are often ftilted, and betray
A littlenefs of foul, by worlds o'er-run,
And nations laid in blood. Dread facrifice

To Chriflian pride which had with horror fheck'
The darkeit Pagans, offer'd to their gods.

O thou met Chriflian enemy to peace!
Again in arms? again provoking fate?
That prince, and that alone, is truly great,
Who draws the fword reluctant, gladly fheathes
On capire builds what empire far outweighs,
And makes his throne a fcaffold to the skies.

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