Doubt you this truth? Why labours your belief? If earth's whole orb by fome due distanc'd eye 595 Were seen at once, her towering 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, fo 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. 605: And all may do, what has by man been done.. Who, beaten by thefe fublunary storms,
Boundless, interminable joys can weigh,,
Unraptur'd, unexalted, uninflam'd ?.
What flave unbleft, who from to-morrow's dawn 610
Expects an empire? He forgets his chain,
And, thron'd in thought, his abfent fceptre waves.
And what a fceptre 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 fo ftrange a bliss?
In fpite of all the truths the Mufe has fung,
Ne'er to be priz'd enough! enough revolv'd!
Are there who wrap the world fo close about them,
They see no farther than the clouds; and dance
On heedlefs vanity's fantastic toe,
Till stumbling at a straw, in their career,
Headlong they plunge, where end both dance and fong?
Are there, Lorenzo? Is it poflible?
Are there on earth (let me not call them men)
Who lodge a foul immortal in their breasts;
Unconscious as the mountain of its ore;
Or rock, of its ineftimable gem ?
When rocks fhall melt, and mountains vanish, these
Shall know their treasure; treasure, 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 through this bofom-barrier burst their way,
And, with revers'd ambition, strive to sink ?
Who labour downwards through th' oppofing powers
Of inftinct, reason, and the world against them, 640
To difmal hopes, and fhelter in the shock
Of endless 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 atheifts to themselves?
To contradict them, fee all nature rife!
What object, what event, the moon beneath,
But argues, or endears, an after-scene?
To reafon 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 heaven, 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, ere man's or angel's had begun;
Aid! while I rescue 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 moft
By those who love Thee moft, who most adore.
Nature, thy daughter, ever-changing birth
Of Thee the Great Immutable, to man
Speaks wifdom; is his oracle fupreme;
And he who moft confults her, is most wife.
Lorenzo, to this heavenly 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, 680
With her green chaplet, and ambrofial flowers,
Droops into pallid Autumn: Winter grey,
Horrid with froft, and turbulent with ftorm,
Blows Autumn, and his golden fruits, away:
Then melts into the Spring: Soft Spring, with
Favonian, from warm chambers of the south,
Recalls the first. All, to re-flourish, fades;
As in a wheel, all finks, to re-afcend.
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 foul,
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 vaft mafs, and fhall for ever roll.
No fingle atom, once in being, lost,
With change of counsel charges the Moft High. 700
What hence infers Lorenzo ? Can it be !
Matter immortal? And fhall Spirit die?
Above the nobler, fhall less 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 power 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 nature through, '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 fhot,
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, fenfe from reafon fteals a glimmering ray;
Reason fhines out in man. But how preferv'd
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 foul of man
Eternal; or in man the feries 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 fcheme, 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,
Falfe 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 risque of heaven? 740 O what indignity to deathlefs fouls!
|