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But wherefore fuch redundancy? fuch waste
Of argument? One fets my foul at rest!
One obvious, and at hand, and, oh!-at heart.
So just the skies, PHILANDER's life fo pain'd,
His heart fo pure; that, or fucceeding fcenes
Have palms to give, or ne'er had he been born.

"What an old tale is this!" LORENZO cries.-
I grant this argument is old; but truth
No years impair; and had not this been true,
Thou never hadft defpis'd it for its age.
Truth is immortal as thy foul; and fable
As fleeting as thy joys: Be wife, nor make
Heav'n's highest bleffing, vengeance; O be wife !
Nor make a curfe of immortality.

Say, know'st thou what it is, or what thou art?
Know'st thou th' importance of a foul immortal?
Behold this midnight glory: Worlds on worlds!
Amazing pomp! redouble this amaze;

Ten thousand add; add twice ten thousand more;
Then weigh the whole; one foul outweighs them all;
And calls th' aftonishing magnificence

Of unintelligent creation poor.

For this, believe not me; no man believe;

Truft not in words, but deeds; and deeds no lefs
Than those of the SUPREME; nor His, a few ;
Confult them all; confulted, all proclaim
Thy foul's importance: Tremble at thyself;
For whom Omnipotence has wak'd so long:
Has wak'd, and work'd, for ages; from the birth
Of nature to this unbelieving hour.

In

In this small province of His vaft domain
(All nature bow, while I pronounce His Name!)
What has God done, and not for this fole end,
To rescue fouls from death? The foul's high price
Is writ in all the conduct of the skies.
The foul's high price is the Creation's Key,
Ulocks its myfteries, and naked lays
The genuine cause of ev'ry deed divine :
That, is the chain of ages, which maintains
Their obvious correfpondence, and unites
Moft diftant periods in one bleft defign:
That, is the mighty binge, on which have turn'a
All revolutions, whether we regard

The natʼral, civil, or religious, world;

The former two but fervants to the third:
To that their duty done, they both expire,
Their mafs new-caft, forgot their deeds renown'd;
And angels afk, "Where once they fhone fo fair?"
To lift us from this abject, to fablime;
This flux, to permanent; this dark, to day;
This foul, to pure; this turbid, to ferene;
This mean, to mighty!-for this glorious end
Th' ALMIGHTY, rifing, his long fabbath broke!
The world was made; was ruin'd; was reftor'd ;
Laws from the skies were publish'd; were repeal'd;
On earth kings, kingdoms, rose; kings, kingdoms, fell
Fam'd fages lighted up the pagan world;
Prophets from Sion darted a keen glance
Thro' diftant age; faints travell'd; martyrs bled;
By wonders facred nature ftood controul'd;

The

The living were tranflated; dead were rais'd ;
Angels, and more than angels, came from heaven;
And, oh! for this, defcended lower ftill;
Guilt was hell's gloom; astonish'd at his guest,
For one fhort moment LUCIFER ador'd:
LORENZO! and wilt thou do lefs ?-For this,
That hallow'd page, fools scoff at, was inspir'd,
Of all these truths thrice-venerable code!
Deifis! perform your quarentine; and then
Fall proftrate, ere you touch it, left you die.
Nor lefs intenfely bent infernal powers
To mar, than those of light, this end to gain.
O what a scene is here!-LORENZO! wake!
Rife to the thought; exert, expand thy foul
To take the vast idea: It denies

All else the name of great. Two warring worlds!
Not Europe against Afric; warring worlds,
Of more than mortal! mounted on the wing!
On ardent wings of energy, and zeal,
High-hov'ring o'er this little brand of strife.!
This fublunary ball-But ftrife, for what?
In their own caufe conflicting ? No; in thine,
In man's. His fingle int'reft blows the flame ;
His the fole ftake; his fate the trumpet founds,
Which kindles war immortal. How it burns!
Tumultuous fwarms of deities in arms !
Force, force oppofing, till the waves run high,
And tempeft nature's universal sphere.

Such oppofites eternal, fedfast, stern,

Such

Such foes implacable, are good, and ill;

Yet man, vain man, would mediate peace between them.
Think not this fiction. "There was war in heav'n.”
From heav'n's high crystal mountain, where it hung,
Th' ALMIGHTY's out-ftretcht arm took down his bow:
And shot his indignation at the deep :>

Re-thunder'd hell, and darted all her fires.-
And feems the stake of little moment still?
And flumbers man, who fingly caus'd the storm?
He fleeps. And art thou fhockt at myfteries?
The greateft, Thou. How dreadful to reflect,
What ardor, care, and counfel, mortals caufe
In breafts divine! How little in their own!"
Where e'er I turn, how new proofs pour upon me!
How happily this wond'rous view fupports
My former argument! How ftrongly frikes
Immortal life's full demonftration, bere!
Why this exertion? Why this ftrange regard
From heav'n's Omnipotent indulg'd to man?-
Because, in man, the glorious, dreadful power,
Extremely to be pain'd, or bleft, for ever.
Duration gives importance; fwells the price.
An angel, if a creature of a day,

What would he be? A trifle of no weight;
Or ftand, or fall; no matter which; he's gone.
Becaufe IMMORTAL, therefore is indulg'd

This ftrange regard of deities to duft.

Hence, heav'n looks down on earth with all her eyes: Hence, the foul's mighty moment in her fight:

Hence, ev'ry foul has partifans above,

And

And ev'ry thought a critic in the fkies:

Hence, clay, vile clay! has angels for its guard,
And ev'ry guard a passion for his charge:
Hence, from all age, the cabinet divine
Has held high counsel o'er the fate of man.

Nor have the clouds thofe gracious counfels hid,
Angels undrew the curtain of the throne,

And PROVIDENCE came forth to meet mankind :
In various modes of emphasis and awe,

He spoke his will, and trembling nature heard;
He spoke it loud, in thunder, and in ftorm.
Witnefs, thou Sinai! whofe cloud-cover'd height,
And fhaken bafis, own'd the prefent GoD:
Witnefs, ye billows! whofe returning tide,
Breaking the chain that faften'd it in air,
Swept Egypt, and her menaces, to hell:
Witnefs, ye flames ! th' Affyrian tyrant blew
To fev'nfold rage, as impotent, as ftrong:
And thou, earth! witness, whose expanding jaws

*

Clos'd o'er prefumption's facrilegious fons :

Has not each element, in turn, fubfcrib'd
The foul's high price, and sworn it to the wife?
Has not flame, ocean, æther, earthquake, ftrove
To ftrike this truth, thro' adamantine man?
If not all-adamant, LORENZo! hear;
All is delufion; nature is wrapt up,

In tenfold night, from reafon's keenest eye;
There's no confiftence, meaning, plan, or end,
In all beneath the fun, in all above,

• Korab, &c.

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